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Missouri Compromise 1820-1821
Behind the leadership of Henry Clay congress passed a series of agreements in 1820-1821 known as the Missouri compromise. It said that Maine would be a free state and that Missouri is a slave state. South of the 36*30' line slavery was legal and north of it- except Missouri, slavery was banned(Louisiana Territory). -
San Felipe de Austin
Stephen F. Austin set up colonies in Texas which were given to him by his father from Spain. The main settlement of the colony was named San Felipe de Austin, in his honor. -
The Liberator
Was an anti-slavery paper by William Lloyd Garrison. It delivered an uncompromising demand: immediate emancipation. -
Mexico Abolishes Slavery
The overwhelmingly protestant Anglo settles spoke English instead of Spanish. Furthermore, 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. -
Nat Turner's Rebellion
A Virginia slave who rebelled against the condition of bondage. Turner and more than 50 followers attacked four plantations and killed about 60 whites. They got captured and executed including Turner. -
Stephen F. Austin goes to jail
Stephen F Austin was arrested and imprisoned by Mexicans in 1833 for treason. They thought it was treason because he wrote a letter to the settlers of Texas. The letter recommended that all the Texas municipalities should unite as a single state. -
Texas Revolution
With differences over cultural issues intensified between Anglos (other group not involved: Tejanos) and the Mexican gov. Many southern settlers coming from the US brought their salves while it was abolished in Mexico. Meanwhile, Mexican politics had become increasingly unstable. The Texas Revolution was a rebellion in which Texas gained its independence. -
Texas enters the U.S.
Most Texans hoped to join the U.S. South wanted to extend slavery, and the north feared that the annexation of more slave territory would tip the uneasy balance in the Senate in favor of slave states- and prompt war on Mexico. The 1844 U.S. presidential campaign focused on west ward expansion. The winner, James K. Polk, a slaveholder, firmly favored the annexation of Texas. -
Mexican-American War
It was an armed conflict between the United States of America and the United Mexican States from 1846 to 1848.The Mexican government was also encouraging border raids and warning that any attempt at annexation would lead to war. The U.S. claimed little land at a time which caused Mexico to get angry and start war. -
The North Star
Fredrick Douglass, who escaped from bondage to become an eloquent and outspoken critic of slavery. In 1847, 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
In it Mexico agreed that Rio Grande was the border between Texas and Mexico. It also ceded the New Mexico and California territories to the US. The states agreed to pay $15 million for the Mexican cession, which included California, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and most of Arizona, and parts of Wyoming and Colorado. -
Compromise of 1850
Henry clay worked to shape a compromise that both the North and south could accept. After obtaining support of the powerful Massachusetts senator Daniel Webster, Clay presented to the Senate a series of resolutions later called the Compromise of 1850. To please the North, it provided that California be admitted to the Union as a free state. To please the South it proposed a new and more effective fugitive slave law. -
Fugitive Slave Act
Under the law, alleged fugitive slaves were not entitled to a trial by jury. Anyone who was convicted of helping a fugitive was liable for a fine of $1,000 and imprisonment for up to 6 months. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Harriet Beecher Stowe published Uncle Tom's Cabin which stressed that slavery wasn't a political contest, but also a moral struggle. The book expressed her lifetime hatred of slavery. The book also made Northern abolitionist increase their protests against the Fugitive slave Act, while the South saw it as an attack. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Stephen A. Douglass proposed the idea.It would divide the area into two territories: Nebraska in the north and Kansas in the south. If passed it would repeal the Missouri Compromise and establish popular sovereignty for both territories. After months of struggle the Kansas-Nebraska Act became a law in 1854. -
Dread Scott vs. Stanford
Dread Scott was a slave whose owner took him from the slave state, Missouri to a free territory in Illinois and Wisconsin and back to Missouri. Dread Scott appealed to the Supreme court but according to the ruling, Scott lacked any legal standing to sue in federal court because he wasn't and will never be a citizen. The court also ruled that being in a free territory didn't make a slave free. -
Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas Debates
In the 1858 race for U.S. senate Stephen Douglass and Abraham Lincoln where against each other. Neither wanted slavery in the territories, but they disagreed how to keep it out. Douglass believed in Popular Sovereignty. Lincoln believed slavery was immoral. He didn't expect individuals to give up slavery unless congress abolished it with an Amendment. Douglass won the Senate. -
John Brown's raid/Harpers Farry
On the night of October 16, 1859 John Brown led a band of 21 men, black, and white into Harpers Ferry Virginia (now West Virginia). His goal was to seize the federal arsenal there and start a slave uprising. Later authorities tried Brown and put him to death. The North, bells tolled, guns fired salutes. In the south mobs assaulted whites who were suspected of holding antislavery views. -
Abraham Lincoln becomes president
Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln. He pledged to halt the further spread of slavery. He told southerners that the Republican administration wouldn't interfere with their slaves or with them. Nonetheless, southerners viewed him as an enemy. -
Formation of the Confederacy
Delegates from the secessionist states met in Montgomery, Alabama where they formed the Confederacy. The states that formed it were Mississippi, South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. The Confederates then unanimously elected former senator Jefferson Davis of Mississippi as president. -
Attack on Fort Sumpter
As soon as the Confederacy was formed, Confederate soldiers in each state began seizing federal installations- especially forts. One of the most important southern forts was Fort Sumter, on an island in Charleston harbor. Lincoln decided to neither abandon it nor reinforce it. In the end it got attacked. -
Battle of Bull Run
The first bloodshed on the battle field occurred about 3 months after the attack on Fort Sumter, near the creak of Bull Run just 25 miles from Washington D.C. The Confederate soldiers felt the war was over so they left leaving the Union Army to win. -
Battle of Antietam
The clash proved to be the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, with casualties more than 26,000. Instead of continuing the battle general George McClellan did nothing. Lincoln later removed him from command. -
Conscription
Conscription was a draft that forced men to serve in the army. In the North it led to draft riots. -
Emancipation Proclamation
The proclamation didn't free any slaves immediately because it only applied to areas behind the Confederate lines, outside Union control. For many this turned the war into a moral struggle to free slaves. It ensured that compromise was no longer possible. -
Battle of Vicksburg
Vicksburg was one of the most important because it rested above the river which would allow to control river traffic. Union general Ulysses S. Grant wanted to take it. He began by weakening the Confederate soldiers and with each victory their confidence grew. The city fell on July 4. -
Battle of Gettysburg
In Southern Pennsylvania, the most decisive battle of the war was fought. It began on July 1st when Confederate soldiers led by A.P. Hill encountered several bridges of Union under the command of John Buford. Buford were at the town when Hills men came and the shooting attracted more troops on both sides, this called for reinforcements. By the end of the day 90,000 Union Troops under General George Meade had taken the failed against 75,000 Confederates, lead by General Lee. -
Income Tax
As the Northern economy grew, and women began to replace men, congress decided to help pay for the war by collecting the nations first income tax. It was a tax that takes a specified percentage of an individuals income. -
Gettysburg Address
The speech from President Lincoln at the Gettysburg cemetery. the speech helped the country realize that it wasn't just a collection of individual states; it was a Unified Nation . -
Shermans March
William Tecumseh Sherman began his march southeast through Georgia to the sea, creating a wide path of destruction. His army burned everything in their way. He was determined to make southerners " so sick of war that generations would pass way 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
Union troops conquered Richmond, the Confederate captain. Southerners had abandoned the city the day before, setting it afire to keep Northerners from taking it. In Virginia town called Appomattox Court House, Lee and Grant met at a private house to arrange a Confederate surrender. -
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
Five days after Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox, Lincoln and his wife went to Ford's Theater in Washington to see a British Comedy, Our American Cousin. During the third Act, a man crept up behind Lincoln and shot the president in the back of his head. John Wilkes Booth- a 26 actor and a southern sympathizer. Twelve days later, Union cavalry trapped him in a Virginia tobacco shed and shot him dead. -
Thirteenth Amendment
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." In other worlds it abolished slavery in the U.S. -
Manifest Destiny
The phrase "Manifest Destiny" expressed that the belief that the U.S. was meant to move westward to the Pacific Ocean. and into Mexican, and Native American territory. Many Americans thought it was Manifest, or obvious. -
Santa Fe Trail
The Santa Fe Trail stretched 780 miles from Independence Missouri, to Santa Fe New Mexico. Each Spring from 1821 through the 1860's American traders loaded their wagons and set off onto the trail to trade with other towns towards Santa Fe. -
Oregon Trail
This trail stretched from Independence Missouri to Oregon City Oregon. It was made by two Methodist Missionaries named Marcus and Narcissa Whitman by driving their wagon. It proved that wagons could travel on the Oregon Trail. -
Abolition
Abolition was a movement to abolish slavery, became the most important of a series of reform movements in America. Many movements had a spiritual awakening that swept the nation after 1790. -
Underground Railroad
The system of escape routes that were used by fugitives from the help of white abolitionists. One of the most famous conductors was Harriet Tubman. In all she 19 trips back to the South and is said to have helped 300 slaves to freedom. Once fugitives got to the north some decided to stay others went to Canada to be totally out of reach from their owners. -
Harriet Tubman
One of the famous conductors in the Underground railroad. She was born a slave in 1820 or 1821. In 1849 when her owner died she heard that she was going to be sold. She decided to escape. Shortly after the Fugitive Act was passed she decided to become a conductor.
