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The Missouri Compromise
Congress passed a bill granting Missouri statehood as a slave state under the condition that slavery was to be forever prohibited in the rest of the Louisiana Purchase north of the 36th parallel, which runs approximately along the southern border of Missouri. -
Mexican War
The Mexican-American War (1846-1848) marked the first U.S. armed conflict chiefly fought on foreign soil. -
Compromise of 1850
It was a package of five separate bills passed in the United States in September 1850. -
Fugitive Slave Act of 1850
This was one of the most controversial elements of the 1850 compromise and heightened Northern fears of a "slave power conspiracy". -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Was a 1854 bill that mandated “popular sovereignty”–allowing settlers of a territory to decide whether slavery would be allowed within a new state’s borders. -
Bleeding Kansas
Bleeding Kansas is the term used to described the period of violence during the settling of the Kansas territory. -
‘Bleeding Sumner’ Brooks-Sumner fight
On May 22, 1856, the "world's greatest deliberative body" became a combat zone. -
Dred Scott Decision
Dred Scott first went to trial to sue for his freedom in 1847. -
John Brown’s Raid on Harper’s Ferry, Virginia
On the evening of October 16, 1859 John Brown, a staunch abolitionist, and a group of his supporters left their farmhouse hide-out en route to Harpers Ferry. -
Election of 1860
By the election of 1860 profound divisions existed among Americans over the future course of their country, and especially over the South's "peculiar institution," slavery. -
South Carolina secedes from Union
South Carolina became the first Southern state to declare its secession and later formed the Confederacy. -
Battle of Fort Sumter, 1861
The Battle of Fort Sumter was the bombardment and surrender of Fort Sumter, near Charleston, South Carolina, that started the American Civil War. -
The Union’s ‘Anaconda Plan’
The first military strategy offered to President Abraham Lincoln for crushing the rebellion of Southern states was devised by Union General-in-Chief Winfield Scott. -
Battle of Antietam
The Battle of Antietam, also known as the Battle of Sharpsburg, particularly in the South. -
Emancipation Proclamation
Was a presidential proclamation and executive order issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863. -
Battle of Gettysburg
In and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, by Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War. -
Sherman’s March to the Sea
Sherman's March to the Sea is the name commonly given to the military Savannah Campaign in the American Civil War, conducted through Georgia -
Confederate Surrender at Appomattox Court House
On April 9, 1865 after four years of Civil War, approximately 630,000 deaths and over 1 million casualties, General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia to Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant, at the home of Wilmer and Virginia McLean in the rural town of Appomattox Court House, Virginia.
