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American Industrial Revolution
The change in the way goods are produced, shifting away from making things by hand in the home towards making them in factories using machines. Cotton Textile (clothing) manufacturing was the first to industrialize in America. Factories were created mostly in the north and attracted immigrants and other free wage laborers, and thus the north developed into a more populated and developed part of the country compared to the south. The south remained rural and supplied raw materials for factories. -
Creation of Cotton Gin
Built by Eli Whitney, the cotton gin machine helps clean the seeds and dirt out of raw cotton much faster then it could be cleaned by hand. It dramatically reduced the overall time it took to make raw cotton into thread, and made cotton a profitable cash crop. The cotton gin put an increased demand on farmers to grow more cotton, which in turn increased the demand for slave labor to plant+work the fields. Cotton grew only in the southern states, this reinforced the southern reliance on slavery. -
Louisiana Purchase
President Jefferson purchased a large amount of land known as the Louisiana Territory from France. This purchase doubled the size of the US and inspired westward expansion. The expansion of slavery into Louisiana territory was controversial and forced Congress to make a series of compromises that failed to make everyone happy, and just further divided the north and south on the issue of slavery. -
Missouri Compromise
Missouri wanted to become a slave state and they wanted to keep the balance of free and salve states so they made Maine become a free state. They also created the Mason-Dixon line that controlled the places where slavery is allowed. Missouri was another state added into the union. Creating more slave states wasn't the goal so they added Maine to balance it out -
Nat Turner's Rebellion
The motivation for the rebellion was that he knew how bad slavery was and he wanted to eliminate it. They killed men, women, and children in their attempts to end slavery and it failed. Turner could see how awful slavery was and tried stopping it. With his failed attempts, it opened up some people's eyes. -
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Mexican American War
President Polk started the war by annexing Texas immediately after he was in the office. The war ended with the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo which states that the Rio Grande was the border between the two areas and that the US pays Mexico $15 million to get control of most of the states in the west. The reason why Texas wasn't annexed before was because slavery wasn't allowed and people were bringing their slaves there. The slaves stayed out of the state so they didn't have to do any work. -
California Gold Rush
James Marshall was working on Sutter's mill in California and discovered gold. Word got out quickly and started one of the greatest mass migrations in American History; over 40,000 people went to California. By the end of 1849, the state population is over 100,000 people. Even though most of California is under the Mason-Dixin line, California outlawed slavery. Many people think it is an attack on the south and the southerners debate if they should remain in the union. -
Compromise of 1850
The compromise of 1850 stated that California will be added as a free state for the north and that the south would get stricter fugitive slave laws in return. California did get put into the union as a free state which means that the slave laws got worse. -
Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin is the most famous anti-slavery novel ever written. The novel shows the truth about slavery and how horrible it is and that it can't keep continuing. When Abraham Lincoln met the author, he called her 'the little lady who started the big war'. He called her this because her words conveyed the dark truths about slavery and people wanted to put a stop to it. -
"Bleeding Kansas"
Abolitionists and pro-slavery people crossed into Kansas long enough to vote. Technically, this is illegal because they don't live in the state. Violence come up in both groups, for example, over 200 people were killed and a hotel was exploded. This continued for about 10 years. The people were fighting about ending or keeping slavery going in Kansas. They killed to get their own way so slavery could continue. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Stephen Douglas introduced the Kansas-Nebraska bill that said all remaining territories determine the issue of slavery based upon popular sovereignty. This results in breaking the balance of free and slave states. If everyone chose slave states, the balance would be severely damaged and broken. That would cause even more slaves to be working. -
Attack on Charles Sumner
Preston Brooks of South Carolina savagely beat Sumner with a cane. This was bad because people started to bring weapons (knives and guns) into the chamber. All of the attacks continued and gone down to the chamber. People started killing and hurting people to get what they wanted: slavery to continue. -
Dred Scott vs Stanford
Scott lived in Missouri (slave state) and Illinois (free state). He claimed that he should be free because he lived in Illinois. In court, they said African-Americans couldn't be citizens and that because he wasn't a citizen, he couldn't bring it to court. The supreme court claimed only white people could be citizens and that slavery could be legal in ALL states. The white people in the south supported it but the north and abolitionists hated it. This brought us closer to the Civil War. -
Raid on Harper's Ferry
Brown wanted to destroy slavery so he gave slaves weapons at the ferry. Brown got injured in the attacks and got turned over to the state of Virginia for treason. There was a lot of violence going on during this attack. They killed many people, injured people, took hostages and committed treason. This event was all about ending slavery. -
Election of 1860
In the election, Lincoln was the only republican. Overall, he won the election with just 40% of the votes. He had won over most of the states. Lincoln won the election. People in the north voted for him to be president because his promises about slavery. A lot of the south didn't vote for him because they were scared their property would be taken away (the slaves). -
Southern Sucession
Lincoln pledged to hold slaveries spread for his election. 10 southern states didn't even put him on the ballet for voting. The southerners seceded because of what he said about the slaves. Southerner's seceded because Lincoln said he would stop the spread of slavery. They did not want to get rid of the slaves so the south tried leaving the union. That means slavery would continue. -
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Shots Fired at Ft. Sumter
This was the official start of fighting in the American Civil War. Union troops (northern troops) stationed at Ft. Sumter in South Carolina were attacked by the South Carolina militia. Union troops lost and surrendered the fort to the Confederate militia. Unlike previous acts of violence, this was the first time violence broke out between organized military troops. Fighting in the Civil War would continue for 4 more years after this event.
