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Invention of the Cotton Gin
The rate at which cotton was picked free of seeds was very slow and yielded little profit.Inventor Eli Whitney came up with an idea to quickly filter out the seeds at a much faster rate than by hand. Resulting, after only 10 days of thought, in the cotton gin. -
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The Underground Railroad
The underground railroad was a system of passages leading from the slave south to the free North. Consisting of safehouses and conductors, the underground railroad helped to free thousands of slaves -
Missouri Compromise
This was an effort by congress to keep an evenly distributed nation by enlisting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state. -
Nat Turner's Rebellion
Rebellion led by Nat Turner involving an uprising of slaves resulting in the deaths of 55-65 people. Deadliest slave rebellion in U.S history. -
Wilmot Proviso
2 months after the mexican war, David Wilmot proposed that 2 million dollars be part of a treaty and abolish slavery in the newly gained territory of Texas. -
Compromise of 1850
In a desperate attempt to stop crisis between the North and south this compromise was made in which the fugituve slave act was amended and the slave trade was abolished. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin is published
Perhaps one of the biggest influences of the civil war was Harriet Beeche Stowes publishing of this book. Based on anti slavery, northerners who read this book were generally enraged at the prospect of slavery and became abolitionists. While southerners banned the book, seeing it as infringing on their way of life -
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Bleeding Kansas
During the settling of Kansas, many violent and bloody battles happened between those who opposed slavery and those who viewed it as needed for their way of life. Murder and mayhem ensued as people flooded the new territory in hopes of swaying the territory to become either a slave or free state. Really cool website -
Dred Scott Decision
Dred Scott was a slave who was attempting to sue for his freedom in the "free" north but was unsuccessful and ruled by the courts as an unfree slave who had no rights. Major win for the South. -
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Lincoln Douglas debates
A series of seven debates between republican Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas. These led to the presidential election in which Lincoln won. -
Election of 1860
Presidential election in which republican Abraham won and became the 16th president of the United States. He won over a deeply divided nation brimming on civil war. -
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Seceding of the Southern States
Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Florida Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, and West North and South Carolina Virginia all seceded to form the confederacy as they were scared that president Abraham Lincoln would outlaw slavery in the U.S. click here for cool site
