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Misssouri Compromise 1820-1821
Under these agreements,
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 was legal. North of the line—except in
Missouri—slavery was banned -
Harriet Tubman
born a slave in Maryland in 1820 or 1821. 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. -
Santa Fe Trail
One of the busiest routes was the Santa Fe Trail,
which stretched 780 miles from Independence, Missouri, to
Santa Fe in the Mexican province of New Mexico. -
Mexico abolishes slavery
many of the settlers 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. -
San Felipe de Austin
The main settlement of the colony was named San Felipe de Austin, in
Stephen’s honor. By 1825, Austin had issued 297 land grants to the group that later
became known as Texas’s Old Three Hundred. Each family received either 177 very
inexpensive acres of farmland, or 4,428 acres for stock grazing, as well as a 10-year
exemption from paying taxes. “I am convinced,” Austin said, “that I could take on
fifteen hundred families as easily as three hundred if permitted to do so.” -
The Liberator
William Lloyd Garrison. Active in religious reform movements
in Massachusetts, Garrison became the editor of an antislavery paper in 1828.
Three years later he established his own paper, The Liberator, to deliver an uncompromising
demand: immediate emancipation. -
Nat Turner's Rebellion
Some slaves rebelled against their condition of
bondage. 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 -
Stephen F. Austin goes to jail
Austin had
traveled to Mexico City late in 1833 to present petitions to Mexican president
Antonio López de Santa Anna for greater self-government for Texas. While
Austin was on his way home, Santa Anna had Austin imprisoned for inciting
revolution. -
Texas Revolution
The Texas Revolution began when colonists in the Mexican province of Texas rebelled against the increasingly centralist Mexican government. -
Oregon Trail
The 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 -
Manifest Destiny
expressed the belief that the United States was ordained to expand to the Pacific
Ocean and into Mexican and Native American territory. Many Americans also
believed that this destiny was manifest, or obvious and inevitable. -
Texas enters the US
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. -
Mexican- American War
A war between the U.S. and Mexico spanned the period from spring 1846 to fall 1847. The war was initiated by Mexico and resulted in Mexico's defeat and the loss of approximately half of its national territory in the north. -
Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas Debates
Lincoln challenged the man
known as the “Little Giant” to a series of debates on the issue
of slavery in the territories. Douglas accepted the challenge,
and the stage was set for some of the most celebrated debates
in U.S. history. -
The North Star
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
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. -
Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five separate bills passed by the United States Congress in September 1850, which defused a four-year political confrontation between slave and free states regarding the status of territories acquired during the Mexican–American War -
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 system of escape routes they used became known as the
Underground Railroad. One of the most famous conductors was Harriet Tubman -
Abolition
the movement to abolish
slavery, became the most important of a series of reform movements in America. -
Fugitive Slave Act
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 -
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
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. Congressional debate
was bitter. Some Northern congressmen
saw the bill as part of a plot to turn the territories into slave states.
Southerners strongly defended the proposed legislation. -
Dread Scott v. Sandford
Dred Scott’s slave master had brought him from the slave state
of Missouri to live for a time in free territory and in the free state of Illinois. Eventually
they returned to Missouri. Scott believed that because he had lived in free territory, he
should be free. In 1854 he sued in federal court for his freedom. The court ruled against
him, and he appealed to the Supreme Court -
John Brown's raid/ Harper's ferry
abolitionist John Brown was studying the slave uprisings that had occurred in ancient Rome and, more recently, on the French island of Haiti. He believed that the time was ripe for similar uprisings in the United States. Brown secretly obtained financial backing from several prominent Northern abolitionists.he led a band of 21 men, black and white, into Harpers Ferry, Virginia -
Abe Lincoln becomes president
Lincoln emerged as the winner with less than half the popular vote and with no electoral votes from the South. He did not even appear on the ballot in most of the slave states because of Southern hostility toward him. The outlook for the Union was grim. -
Formation of the Confederacy
Mississippi soon followed South Carolina’s lead, as did Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. In February 1861, delegates from the secessionist states met in Montgomery, Alabama, where they 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 impor- tant difference was that it “protected and recognized” slav- ery in new territories. -
Attack on Fort Sumter
Lincoln decided to neither abandon Fort Sumter nor reinforce it. He would merely send in “food for hungry men.” At 4:30 A.M. on April 12, Confederate bat- teries began thundering away to the cheers of Charleston’s citizens. The deadly struggle between North and South was under way. -
Battle of Bull Run
just 25 miles from Washington, D.C. The battle was a seesaw affair. In the morning the Union army gained the upper hand, but the Confederates held firm, inspired by General Thomas J. Jackson. In the afternoon Confederate reinforcements helped win the first Southern victory. Fortunately for the Union, the Confederates were too exhausted to follow up their victory with an attack on Washington. -
Battle at Antietam
The clash proved to be the bloodi- est single-day battle in American history, with casualties totaling more than 26,000. The next day, instead of pursu- ing the battered Confederate army into Virginia and possi- bly ending the war, McClellan did nothing. As a result, Lincoln removed him from command. -
Emancipation Proclamation
he decided that, just as he could order the Union army to take Confederate supplies, he could also authorize the army to emancipate slaves. Emancipation was not just a moral issue; it became a weapon of war.On January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation. The following portion captured national attention. -
Battle at Vicksburg
Union general Ulysses S. Grant fought to take Vicksburg, one of the two remaining Confederate strongholds on the Mississippi River. Vicksburg itself was particularly important because it rested on bluffs above the river from which guns could control all water traffic. In the winter of 1862–1863, Grant tried several schemes to reach Vicksburg and take it from the Confederates. Nothing seemed to work—until the spring of 1863. -
Conscription
eavy casualties and widespread desertions led each side to impose conscription, a draft that forced men to serve in the army. -
Battle at Gettysberg
The Battle of Gettysburg began on July 1 when Confederate soldiers led by A. P. Hill encoun- tered several brigades of Union cavalry under the command of John Buford, an experienced officer from Illinois. -
Gettysburg Address
In November 1863, a ceremony was held to ded- icate a cemetery in Gettysburg. There, President Lincoln spoke for a little more than two minutes. According to some contemporary historians, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address “remade America.” the speech helped the country to realize that it was not just a col- lection of individual states; it was one unified nation. -
Income Tax
As the Northern economy grew, Congress decided to help pay for the war by collecting the nation’s first incometax, a tax that takes a specified percentage of an individual’s income. -
Sherman's March
through Georgia to the sea, creating a wide path of destruction. His army burned almost every house in its path and destroyed live- stock 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. -
Thirteenth Ammendment
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 con- victed, shall exist within the United States.” -
Assasination of Lincoln
Lincoln and his wife went to Ford’s Theatre in Washington to see a British comedy, Our American Cousin. During its third act, a man crept up behind Lincoln and shot the presi- dent in the back of his head. John Wilkes Booth -
Surrender at Appomattox Court House
On April 3, 1865, Union troops con- quered Richmond, the Confederate capital. Southerners had abandoned the city the day before, setting it afire to keep the Northerners from taking it. On April 9, 1865, in a Virginia town called Appomattox Court House, Lee and Grant met at a private home to arrange a Confederate surrender.
