Causes of the Civil War Timeline

By tdavis25

  • The Cotton Gin

    The Cotton Gin
    • Invented by Eli Whitney, the cotton gin was a machine that cleaned cotton of it's seeds. Slavery in the U.S. would have likely died down own it's own but the invention of the Cotton Gin made the cotton economy skyrocket.

  • Missouri Compromise

    Missouri Compromise
    • In an effort to preserve the balance of power between slave and free states, the Missouri Compromise was passed making Missouri a slave state and Maine a free state. With the exception of Missouri, this prohibited slavery in the Louisiana Territory north of the 36° 30´ latitude line.

  • Wilmot Proviso

    Wilmot Proviso
    • (8/8) In behalf of anti-slavery forces throughout the country, a Democratic congressman named David Wilmot offered an amendment to the bill forbidding slavery in the new territory. Despite repeated attempts, the Wilmot Proviso was never passed by both houses of Congress. Out of the attempt by both Democrats and Whigs to subordinate or compromise the slavery issue grew the Republican Party which specifically supported the Wilmot principle

  • Compromise of 1850

    Compromise of 1850
    • The Compromise of 1850 was made up of five bills that attempted to resolve disputes over slavery in new U.S. territories after Mexican-American War. It made California a free state, let Utah and New Mexico to decide, made a new Texas-New Mexico boundary, and made it easier for slave owners to recover runways. The Compromise of 1850 was the mastermind of Whig senator Henry Clay and Democratic senator Stephan Douglas.

  • Fugitive Slave Acts

    Fugitive Slave Acts
    Enacted by Congress in 1793, the first Fugitive Slave Act authorized local governments to seize and return escapees to their owners and punish anyone who aided in escaping. Resistance to the law led to the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which added more provisions regarding runaways and created even harsher punishments for interfering in their capture. The Fugitive Slave Acts were among the most controversial laws of the early 19th century.

  • Uncle Tom's Cabin

    Uncle Tom's Cabin
    • First published as a series in 1851, it first appeared as a book the following year. The heart-wrenching tale portrays slave families forced to cope with separation by masters through sale. Uncle Tom mourns for the family he was forced to leave. readers became acutely aware of the horrors of slavery on a far more personal level than ever before. In the south the book was met with outrage and branded an irresponsible book of distortions and overstatements.

  • Kansas-Nebraska Act

    Kansas-Nebraska Act
    • Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois proposed a bill to organize the Territory of Nebraska, an area of land that would become Kansas, Nebraska, Montana and the Dakotas. Known as the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the controversial bill raised the possibility that slavery could be extended into territories where it had once been banned. Its passage intensified the debate over slavery in the United States.

  • Scott vs. Sanford

    Scott vs. Sanford
    • Dred Scott was a slave in Missouri. From 1833 to 1843, he resided in Illinois, a free state, and in the Louisiana Territory, where slavery was forbidden. After returning to Missouri, Scott filed suit in Missouri court for his freedom, claiming that his residence in free territory made him a free man. After losing, Scott brought a new suit in federal court. Scott's master maintained that no “negro” or descendant of slaves could be a citizen in the sense of Article III of the Constitution.

  • John Brown's Raid

    John Brown's Raid
    • (7/3) Brown arrived in Harpers Ferry with his sons, he raised money from abolitionists and ordered weapons for the war against slavery
    • (9/3) Brown sent his daughter and son's wife home to New York
    • (10/16) Brown and his men head to Harpers Ferry. They take over U.S. bases, takin Lewis Washington and John Allstadt hostage and freeing the slaves there
    • (10/17) The townspeople take fire on the raiders, many are killed, some including Brown are captured
    • (12/2) Brown was hung and buried

  • Election of 1860

    Election of 1860
    • Abraham Lincoln received the Republican nomination. John Bell was nominated as the presidential candidate for the Constitutional Union Party. Northern Democrats nominated Stephen Douglas. Southern Democrats nominated John C. Breckinridge. The Republican Party and Abraham Lincoln were morally opposed to slavery, they pledged to keep slavery out of the territories but leave it where it already was. No candidate won a majority of the vote, but Lincoln won a solid majority of the Electoral College