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Abolition
The movement to abolish slavery in the 19th century America. -
Missouri Compromise 1820-1821
Under president Henry Clay, Congress declared Maine as a free state and Missouri as a slave state. -
Sante Fe Trail
Settlers and traders traveled the Sante Fe Route which traveled Missouri to New Mexico with wagons. -
San Felipe de Austin
San Felipe de Austin was a land grant from Spain to establish a colony between the Brazos and Colorado rivers. In 1821, Stephen obtained permission, first from Spain and then from Mexico after it had won its independence, to carry the project. -
The Liberator
William Lloyd Garrison wrote the Liberator to deliver an uncompromising demand which was immediate emancipation. -
Nat Turner's Rebellion
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. -
Mexico Abolishes Slavery
The Protestant Anglo settlers spoke English instead of Spanish and many of the settlers were Southerners, who had brought slaves with them to Texas. Mexico, which had abolished slavery in 1829, protested that the Texans free their slaves. -
Stephen F. Austin Goes to Jail
Mexico City late 1833, Santa Anna had Austin imprisoned for encouraging revolution. -
Texas Revolution
The Texas Revolution (October 2, 1835 – April 21, 1836) began when American 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 created in 1836 by
two Methodist missionaries named Marcus and Narcissa
Whitman. The trail proved that wagons could indeed
travel on the Oregon Trail. -
Texas Enters the United States
Most Texans hoped that the United States would annex their republic, but U.S. opinion was divided. Southerners wanted Texas in order to extend slavery, which already had been established there. Northerners feared that the annexation of more slave territory would tip the uneasy balance in the Senate in favor of slave states—and prompt war with Mexico. -
Manifest Destiny
The belief that the United States was ordained to expand to the Pacific Ocean and into Mexican and Native American territory predestined by God. -
Mexican-American War
The Mexican American War, also known as the Invasion of Mexico, lasted just under 2 years from April 25, 1846 – February 2, 1848. The Mexican American War grew out of unresolved border disputes between the Republic of Texas and Mexico after the Texas Annexation by the United States. -
The North Star
Frederick wrote the North Star: an antislavery newspaper about abolition without violence. -
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, which included present day California, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, most of Arizona, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming. -
Compromise of 1850
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. -
Fugitive Slave Act
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. -
Underground Railroad
Free African Americans and white abolitionists developed a secret network of people who would, at great risk to themselves, hide fugitive slaves. -
Harriet Tubman
Tubman became a conductor on the Underground
Railroad after escaping from slavery. 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. -
Uncle Tom's Cabinet
Uncle Tom’s Cabin expressed Harriet Tubman's lifetime hatred of slavery. The book stirred Northern abolitionists to increase their protests against the Fugitive Slave Act. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Douglas introduced a bill in Congress on January 23, 1854, 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 was a slave whose owner took him from the slave state of Missouri to free territory in Illinois and Wisconsin and back to Missouri. Scott was a slave, he was not a citizen and
had no right to sue in a United States court. Court ruled against him and he appealed to the Supreme Court. -
John Brown's Raid/ Harpes Ferry
On the night of October 16, 1859, John Brown led a group 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 and Stephen Douglas Debates
The 1858 race for the U.S. Senate between Democratic incumbent Stephen Douglas and Republican challenger Congressman Abraham Lincoln. Douglas believed deeply in popular sovereignty. Lincoln, on the other hand, believed that slavery was immoral. Douglas won the debate at the end, but Abraham drew more national attention to slavery in America. -
Abraham Lincoln Becomes President
As the 1860 presidential election approached, the Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln. He pledged to halt the further spread of slavery and promised Southerners he wouldn't mess with their slaves. Lincoln later was accepted as the winner with less than half the popular vote and with no electoral votes from the South. -
Formation of the Confederacy
South Carolina and later Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas joined in Montgomery, Alabama, where they formed the Confederate States of America. Jefferson Davis, senator of Mississippi, becomes president.December 20, 1860. -
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. -
Conscription
Heavy casualties and widespread desertions led each side to impose 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. Sweeping changes occurred in the wartime economies of both sides as well as in the roles played by African Americans and women. -
Attack on Fort Sumter
One of the last Union forts, Fort Sumter, in Charleston harbor was destroyed by the Confederate. The fall of the fort mainly has to do with the fact that Lincoln decided to neither abandon Fort Sumter nor reinforce it. April 12 1861, Confederate batteries began destroying the North's fort to the cheers of Charleston's citizens. -
Battle of Bull Run
The first battle on the battlefield occurred about three months after Fort Sumter fell, near Bull Run. 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. Confederates win the first ever victory against the North. July 21st, 1861. -
Battle of Antietam
The two sides fought on September 17 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
Just as Abraham 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. -
Battle of Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg began on July 1. 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 three-day battle produced staggering losses: 23,000 Union men and 28,000 Confederates were killed or hurt. Total casualties were more than 30 percent. Despite the devastation, Northerners were enthusiastic with their win. -
Gettysburg Address
In November 1863, a ceremony was held to dedicate
a cemetery in Gettysburg. There, President Lincoln spoke for a little more than two minutes. The speech helped the country to realize that it was not just a collection of individual states; it was one unified nation. -
Battle of Vicksburg
Grant tried several schemes to reach Vicksburg and take it
from the Confederates. Nothing seemed to work—until the spring of 1863. Grant began by weakening the Confederate defenses that protected Vicksburg. Five days later Port Hudson, Louisiana, the last Confederate holdout on the Mississippi, also fell. The Union had achieved another of its major military objectives, and the Confederacy was cut in two. -
Sherman's March
In the spring of 1864, 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. Against the Southerners. -
Thirteenth Amendment
"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." - Thirteenth Amendment -
Assassination of Abraham LIncoln
Lincoln and his wife went to Ford’s Theatre in Washington to see a British comedy, Our American Cousin. John Wilkes Booth was the assassin, he was a 26 year old actor and a supporter of the South. -
Surrender at 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.
