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The Compromise of 1850
The Fugitive Slave Act was amended and the slave trade in Washington, D.C. was abolished. Also, California entered the Union as a free state and a territorial government was created in Utah. -
The Kansas Nebraska Act
It allowed people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders. -
Bleeding Kansas
This was a series of violent political confrontations in the United States involving anti-slavery "Free-Staters" and pro-slavery "Border Ruffian" in Kansas. -
The Dred Scott Decision
The U.S. Supreme court ruled that a slave who had resided in a free state and territory (where slavery was prohibited) was not thereby entitled to his freedom. -
Lincoln Douglas Debates
A series of seven debates between Abraham Lincoln, the Republican candidate for Senate in Illinois, and the Senator Stephen Douglas. Lincoln was made out to look like an abolitionist, when he was truly a free soiler -
Harpers Ferry Raid
John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry was an effort by white abolitionist John Brown to initiate an armed slave revolt in 1859 by taking over a United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry. -
Lincolns Election
Lincoln won the party's presidential nomination against Douglas. -
Battle of Fort Sumter
The Battle of Fort Sumter was the bombardment of U.S. Fort Sumter, near Charleston, South Carolina, by the Confederates, and the return gunfire/ surrender by the U.S. Army that started the American Civil War. -
Battle of Bull Run
This battle was fought on July 21, 1861 in Prince William County, Virginia, near the city of Manassas, not far from Washington, D.C. It was the first major battle of the American Civil War. -
Battle of Antietam
This battle was fought on September 17, 1862, near Sharpsburg, Maryland and Antietam Creek as part of the Maryland Campaign. -
Emancipation Proclamation
Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. -
The Battle Of Gettysburg
This battle was fought in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, by Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War. -
Gettysburg Address
The Gettysburg Address is a speech by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, one of the best-known in American history. -
Andersonville Prison Camp
Camp Sumter, a Confederate prisoner-of-war camp during the final twelve months of the American Civil War. -
Surrender at Appomattox Court House
The Battle of Appomattox Court House was one of the last battles fought in the American Civil War. -
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
John Wilkes Booth, a famous actor and Confederate, shot and killed President Abraham Lincoln at a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. -
Reconstruction
The period following the Civil War of rebuilding the United States. It was a time of great pain and endless questions.
