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abolition
the movement to abolish slavery, became the most important of a series of reform movements in America. -
missouri compromise 1820-1821
Maine was admitted as a free state and Missouri as a slave state. The rest of the Louisiana Territory was split into two parts. The dividing line was set at 36°30´ north latitude. South of the line, slavery existed and north of the line, slavery was banned. James Monroe was president. -
santa fe trail
The trail stretched 780 miles from Independence, Missouri, to
Santa Fe in the Mexican province of New Mexico. Spring of 1821 through the 1860, American traders loaded their wagons with goods
and set off toward Santa Fe. For about the first 150 miles, traders traveled individually. -
san felipe de austin
Moses Austin had received a land grant from Spain to establish a colony between the Brazos and Colorado rivers but died before he was able to carry out his plans. Stephen obtained permission, first from Spain and then from Mexico after it had won its independence, to carry out his father’s project. In 1821 he established a colony where “no drunkard, no gambler, no profane swearer, and no idler” would be allowed. The colony was named San Felipe de Austin, in Stephen’s honor. -
mexico abolishes slavery
Many of the settlers who settled down in mexico were Southerners, who had brought slaves with them to Texas. Mexico, which had abolished slavery in 1829, insisted in vain that the Texans free their slaves. -
Nat Turner's rebellion
Some slaves rebelled against their condition of bondage. One of the most prominent rebellions was led by Virginia slave Nat Turner. In August 1831, Turner and more than 50 followers attacked four plantations and killed about 60 whites. Whites eventually captured and executed many members of the group, including Turner. -
The Liberator
The Liberator was a newspaper to deliver an uncompromising demand: immediate emancipation. William Lloyd Garrison established his own paper, the Liberator. -
stephen f. austin goes to jail
Mexico president Santa Anna had Austin imprisoned for inciting revolution in late 1833. -
texas revolution
Texas rev began when colonists (primarily from the United States) in the Mexican province of Texas rebelled against the increasingly centralist Mexican government. -
oregon trail
Stretched from Independence, Missouri, to Oregon City, Oregon. It was blazed in 1836 by two Methodist missionaries named Marcus and Narcissa Whitman. By driving their wagon as far as Fort Boise (near present-day Boise, Idaho), they proved that wagons could travel on the Oregon Trail.Many pioneers migrated west on the Oregon Trail. -
mexican american war
The primary causes of the Mexican-American War were manifest destiny, westward expansion, economics, and slavery. -
manifest destiny
the belief that the United States was ordained to expand to the Pacific Ocean and into Mexican and Native American territory. Many Americans believed that this destiny was manifest, or obvious and inevitable. -
texas enters the united states
Most Texans hoped that the United States would annex their republic, but U.S. opinion divided along sectional lines. The 1844 U.S. presidential campaign focused on westward expansion. The winner, James K. Polk, a slaveholder, firmly favored the annexation of Texas. -
The North Star
In 1847, Frederick Douglass began his own antislavery newspaper. He named it The North Star, after the star that guided runaway slaves to freedom. -
treaty of guadalupe hidalgo
Mexico conceded defeat. On February 2, 1848, the United States and Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Mexico agreed to the Rio Grande as the border between Texas and Mexico and ceded the New Mexico and California territories to the United States. The United States agreed to pay $15 million for the Mexican cession. -
underground railroad
Free African Americans and white abolitionists developed a secret network of people who would, at great risk to themselves, hide fugitive slaves. The underground railroad is a system of escape routes. -
Harriet Tubman
In 1849, after Tubman’s owner died, she heard rumors that she was about to be sold. Fearing this possibility, Tubman decided to make a break for freedom and succeeded in reaching Philadelphia. Shortly after passage of the Fugitive Slave Act, Tubman resolved to become a conductor on the Underground Railroad. In all, she made 19 trips back to the South and is said to have helped 300 slaves—including her own parents—flee to freedom. -
fugitive slave act
Under the law, alleged fugitive slaves were not entitled to a trial by jury. In addition, anyone convicted of helping a fugitive was liable for a fine of $1,000 and imprisonment for up to six months. Infuriated by the Fugitive Slave Act, some Northerners resisted it by organizing “vigilance committees” to send endangered African Americans to safety in Canada. Others resorted to violence to rescue fugitive slaves. Still others worked to help slaves escape from slavery. -
compromise of 1850
Clay’s compromise contained provisions to appease Northerners as well as Southerners. To please the North, the compromise provided that California be admitted to the Union as a free state. To please the South, the compromise proposed a new and more effective\ fugitive slave law. To placate both sides, a provision allowed popular sovereignty, the right to vote for or against slavery, for residents of the New Mexico and Utah territories. -
uncle tom's cabin
Harriet Beecher Stowe published her novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which stressed that slavery was not just a political contest, but also a great moral struggle. -
Kansas Nebraska Act
Senator Stephen Douglas introduced a bill in Congress that would divide the area into two territories: Nebraska in the north and Kansas in the south. If passed, the bill would repeal the Missouri Compromise and establish popular sovereignty for both territories. -
Dread Scott v Sandford
Dred Scott, a slave whose owner took him from the slave state of Missouri to free territory in Illinois and Wisconsin and back to Missouri. Scott appealed to the Supreme Court for his freedom by living on free ground made him a free man. The case was in court for years. The Supreme Court ruled against Dred Scott. According to the ruling, Scott lacked any legal standing to sue in federal court because he was not, and never could be, a citizen. -
Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas Debates
Neither wanted slavery in the territories, but they disagreed on how to keep it out. Douglas believed deeply in popular sovereignty. Lincoln, on the other hand, believed that slavery was immoral. However, he did not expect individuals to give up slavery unless Congress abolished slavery with an amendment. Douglas won the senate seat. -
John Brown's raid/ Harpers Ferry
John Brown led a band of 21 men, black and white, into Harpers Ferry, Virginia. His aim was to seize the federal arsenal there and start a general slave uprising. -
Abraham Lincoln becomes president
Lincoln appeared to be moderate in his views. Although he pledged to halt the further spread of slavery, he also tried to reassure Southerners that a Republican administration would not “interfere with their slaves, or with them, about their slaves.” -
formation of the confederacy
Mississippi, South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. formed the Confederate States of America, or Confederacy. They also drew up a constitution that closely resembled that of the United States, but with a few notable differences. The most important difference was that it “protected and recognized” slavery in new territories. The Confederates elected former senator Jefferson Davis of Mississippi as president. -
attack on fort sumter
Lincoln decided to neither abandon Fort Sumter nor reinforce it. He would merely send in “food for hungry men.” Confederate batteries began thundering away to the cheers of Charleston’s citizens. The western counties of Virginia opposed slavery, so they seceded from Virginia and were admitted into the Union as West Virginia in 1863. The four remaining slave states Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, and Missouri remained in the Union. -
battle of bull run
The first bloodshed on the battlefield occurred near the little creek of Bull Run, just 25 miles from Washington, D.C. In the morning the Union army gained the upper hand, but the Confederates held firm. In the afternoon Confederate reinforcements helped win the first Southern victory. Many Confederate soldiers, confident that the war was over, left the army and went home. Lincoln responded to the defeat at Bull Run by stepping up enlistments. He appointed General McClellan to lead Union forces. -
battle at antietam
McClellan ordered his men to pursue Lee, and the two sides fought near a creek called the Antietam. The clash proved to be the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, with casualties totaling more than 26,000. The next day, instead of pursuing the battered Confederate army into Virginia and possibly ending the war, McClellan did nothing. As a result, Lincoln removed him from command. -
emancipation proclamation
The proclamation did not free any slaves immediately because it applied only to areas behind Confederate lines, outside Union control. Nevertheless, for many, the proclamation gave the war a moral purpose by turning the struggle into a fight to free the slaves. It also ensured that compromise was no longer possible. -
Battle at Vicksburg
Union general Ulysses S. Grant fought to take Vicksburg, one of the two remaining Confederate strongholds on the Mississippi River. Grant was able to land his troops south of Vicksburg on April 30 and immediately sent his men in search of Confederate troops in Mississippi. In 18 days, Union forces had sacked Jackson, the capital of the state. The Confederate command of Vicksburg asked Grant for terms of surrender. The Union had won and the Confederacy was cut in two. -
battle at gettysburg
The most decisive battle of the war was fought. Buford ordered his men to take defensive positions on the hills and ridges surrounding the town. When Hill’s troops marched toward the town from the west, Buford’s men were waiting. The shooting attracted more troops and both sides called for reinforcements. By the end of the first day of fighting, 90,000 Union troops under the command of General George Meade had taken the field against 75,000 Confederates, led by General Lee. -
conscription
As the fighting intensified, heavy casualties and widespread desertions led each side to impose conscription, a draft that forced men to serve in the army. In the North, conscription led to draft riots, the most violent of which took place in New York City. -
income tax
As the Northern economy grew, Congress decided to help pay for the war by collecting the nation’s first income tax, a tax that takes a specified percentage of an individual’s income. -
Gettysburg address
It was a speech dedicated for the Soldier's National Cemetery, a cemetery for Union soldiers killed at the Battle Of Gettysburg during the American Civil War. The speech helped the country to realize that it was not just a collection of individual states; it was one unified nation. -
Sherman's march
Sherman began his march southeast through Georgia to the sea, creating a wide path of destruction. His army burned almost every house in its path and destroyed livestock and railroads. Sherman was determined to make Southerners so sick of war that generations would pass away before they would again appeal to it.” By mid-November he had burned most of Atlanta. After reaching the ocean, Sherman’s forces—followed by 25,000 former slaves turned north to help Grant “wipe out Lee.” -
surrender at Appomattox court house
In a Virginia town called Appomattox Court House, Lee and Grant met at a private home to arrange a Confederate surrender. At Lincoln’s request, the terms were generous. Grant paroled Lee’s soldiers and sent them home with their possessions and three days’ worth of rations. Officers were permitted to keep their side arms. Within a month all remaining Confederate resistance collapsed. After four long years, the Civil War was over. -
Assassination of Abraham lincoln
Lincoln and his wife went to Ford’s Theatre in Washington to see a British comedy. Then, John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln. He was a Southern sympathizer. Twelve days later, Union cavalry trapped him in a Virginia tobacco shed and shot him dead. -
thirteenth amendment
The Thirteenth Amendment was ratified at the end of 1865. The U.S. Constitution now stated, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States.”
