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Missouri Compromise of 1820-1821
In 1818, settlers in Missouri wanted to be apart of the Union. Congress had passed a series of agreements know as the Missouri Compromise which stated that Maine would a free state in return to make Missouri a slave state to keep things balanced. The rest of the Louisiana Territory was split into two parts at 36*30' north latitude. South of the line make slavery legal. The president at that time was James Madison. -
Santa Fe Trail
Stretched 780 miles from Independence, Missouri to Santa Fe, New Mexico. From 1821 through the 1860s, American traders loaded their cover wagons with goods to set off to Santa Fe. For the first 150 miles, traders traveled individually. However, after that they would get into organized groups of up to 100 wagons because they feared the Native Indians. -
San Felipe de Austin
Stephen F. Austin's father had gained land from Spain in order to establish a colony. When he had later died before carrying out any plans, his son Stephen had obtained permission. Named the colony San Felipe de Austin. Between the Brazos and Colorado river. He wanted the colony to have "no drunkard, no gambler, no profane swearer" would be found. Each family received 4,428 acres for stock grazing as well as a 10-year exemption from paying taxes. By 1830, more than 20,000 americans in Texas. -
Mexico Abolishes Slavery
Cultural differences had intensified between the Anglo settlers and the Mexican government. Many of the settlers were from the South, so they had brought slaves with them to Texas. Since Mexico had abolished slavery in 1829, they insisted for them to release them. -
Nat Turner's Rebellion
Turner and more than 50 followers attacked four plantations and had killed about 60 whites. The whites had eventually captured and executed many members of the group including Turner. -
The Liberator
William Lloyd Garrison was a young editor.Since Massachusetts was active in religious reform movements, he had became an editor of an antislavery paper in 1828. Three years later he had established his own paper, The Liberator, to deliver an uncompromising demand: immediate emancipation for slaves. -
Stephen F. Austin goes to jail
Austin had traveled to Mexico City to present petitions to Mexican president Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna for greater self-government for Texas. However, when he was on his way home, Santa Anna had imprisoned Austin for inciting a revolution. -
Oregon Trail
Stretched from Indepence, Missouri to Oregon City, oregon. It was first blazed in 1836 by two Methodist missionaries named Marcus and Narcissa Whitman. They had proved that wagons could travel onto the Oregon Trail. Many settlers had followed their lead -
Texas Revolution
Rebellion in which Texas gained its independence from Mexico. -
Manifest Destiny
the belief that the US was ordained to expand to the Pacific Ocean and into Mexican and Native Americans territory by God. They also believed that this destiny was inevitable. -
Texas Enters the US
Most Texans had hoped that the US would annex their republic. However, the US had different opinions. Southerners wanted Texas in order to extend slavery while the Northerners has feared that annexation of more slav territory would tip an uneasy balance in the Senate. The US president James K. Polk who had just won the election had favored the annexation. -
Mexican-American War
When Texas gained its independence from Mexico n 1836, the US declined to incorporate it into union. The Mexican govern. was also encouraging border raids and warning that an annexation would lead to war. And Mexican cavalry attacked a group of US soldiers in the disputed zone under General Zachary Taylor, killing a dozen. -
The North Star
Many readers who had read The Liberator was Frederick Douglass who had escaped in order to become an eloquent and outspoken critic of slavery. Frederick had began writing his own antislavery newspaper The North Star because many runaway slaves had looked at this star in hopes for freedom. -
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Mexico agreed to the Rio Grande as the border between Texas and Mexico.The US had gave Mexico $15 million for the Mexican cession which included present day California, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, most of Arizona and parts of Colorado and Wyoming. Five years later, in 1853, President Franklin Pierce authorized James Gadsden to pay Mexico an additional $10 for another piece of territory south of the Gila River in order to secure a southern railroad to the Pacific Ocean. Along with the Oregon border -
Compromise of 1850
When Congress had opened, they were concerned about the border dispute in Texas which is where they had claimed the eastern half of the New Mexico Territory is where slavery had not yet been settled. Henry Clay wanted to had a series of resolutions. Clay's compromise had contained provisions to appease Northerners and Southerners. Inside, the Compromise had made California a free state, a new and effective Fugitive Slave Law and allowed Popular Sovereignty. -
Underground Railroad
Free African Americans and white abolitionists had developed a secret network of people who were willing to hide fugitive slaves. "Conductors" on the routes hid fugitives in secret tunnels and false cupboards provided with food and clothing. They also escorted them or directed them to the next "station". Once they had reached the North, many of them stayed there or went off to Canada to stay out of reach from their "owners". -
Harriet Tubman
She was one of the most famous conductors who was born a slave in Maryland 1820 or 1821. In 1849, after her owner had died she had heard rumors that she was gonna be sold again. Tubman had decided to flee in order to have freedom and eventually reached Philadelphia. Shortly after the Fugitive Slave Act was passed, she had joined the Underground Railroad and became a conductor. Harriet had made 19 trips and had saved over 300 slaves, including her parents. -
Fugitive Slave Act
Under this law, alleged fugitive slaves were not entitled to a trial for a jury. Also, anyone who helps a fugitive will be fined for $1,000 and imprisonment for six months. Some Northerners were furious over this, so they resisted it by organizing "vigilance committees" to help African Americans by sending them to Canada safely. Others however, resorted to violence in order to rescue them. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Harriet Beecher Stowe had published a novel called Uncle Tom's Cabin which talked about how slavery is not just a political contest but a great moral struggle. And her hatred towards it. When she was a young girl, she had saw a bunch of people being filled up on boats that were being sent off to slave markets. The book had Northern abolitionists to increase their protest against the Fugitive Slave Act. However, Southerners saw this as an attack towards them and criticized the book. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Senator Stephen Douglas saw popular sovereignty as a way to decide if slavery should be allowed in the Nebraska Territory. What was difficult was that New Mexico, Utah, the Kansas and Nebraska territory lay north of the Missouri Compromise. It was legal for slavery. Douglas had introduced a law to Congress which divided the area into two areas. Nebraska in the North and Kansas in the South. If this law was passed then it would repeal the Missouri Compromise and establish popular sovereignty. -
Dred Scott vs Sandford
Dred Scott was a slave whose owner had brought him from slave state Missouri to Illinois and Wisconsin which are free states. He had went to the Supreme Court in order to appeal that him living in Illinois and Wisconsin had made him a free man so therefore he has freedom. However, the Supreme Court had stated that Scott lacked any legal standing since he wasn't a citizen. They also stated that being in free territory did not guarantee he was free. -
Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas
Stephen Douglas was a Democrat. Abraham Lincoln was a Republican. Both were racing to become the US Senate. The public saw this as an uneven match. Douglas was a well-known two-term senator with an outstanding record and a large campaign. Lincoln was a self educated man who had been elected for 1 term in Congress 1848. Neither wanted slavery in the territories. Douglas believed deeply in popular sovereignty. While Lincoln believed slavery was immoral. Douglas had won the position. -
John Brown's Raid/Harpers Ferry
Abolitionist John Brown was studying the slave uprising. He believed that time was right in the US. He secretly obtained financial backing from several prominent Northern abolitionists. Brown and his 21 men went to Harpers Ferry to seize the federal arsenal and start a general slave uprising. However, troops were there. Authorities tried Brown and put him to death. The North had saluted Brown. The South however, were furious and extreme, where mobs assaulted whites who had anti slavery views. -
Abraham Lincoln becomes President
Lincoln had won the election with less than half of the popular vote and no electoral vote from the South. He pledged to halt further spread of slavery and reassure the South that a republican will not interfere with their slaves. However, many Southerners viewed him as an enemy. -
Formation of the Confederacy
Delegates from secessionist states met up in Montgomery, Alabama in order to form the Confederate States of America. They also made up a constitution that closely resembled the US but with some differences. The most important difference was that it "protected and recognized" slavery in new territories. The Confederates had elected former senator Jefferson Davis of Mississippi as their president. The states had joined the Confederacy was Mississippi, Texas, Florida, South Carolina, Alabama, etc. -
Battle of Bull Run
Three months after Fort Sumter fell, the battle had occurred. It was a seesaw affair. In the morning, the Union army gained the upper hand, however the confederates were coming up strong by the General Thomas J. Jefferson. By the afternoon, confederate reinforcements helped win their first victory. Since Confederates were too exhausted to follow up their victory with an attack on Washington, many of the soldiers were confident that the war was over so they left. -
Income Tax
When the North economy had grew, Congress decided to help pay for the war by collecting income tax which takes a specified percentage of an individual's income. -
Attack on Fort Sumter
When the Confederacy was formed, Confederate soldiers in each secessionist state began seizing forts and installations. When Lincoln's inauguration had occurred only four Southern forts remained to the Union, especially Fort Sumter. Lincoln had decided to neither abandon Fort Sumter nor reinforce. He sent in "food for hungry men.' -
Battle of Antietam
McClellan had ordered his men to pursue Lee. The two sides had clashed near a creek called Antietam which became the most bloodiest. The very next day, instead of McClellan pursuing the Confederate army into Virginia to end the battle, he did nothing. He was later removed from commander by Lincoln. -
Emancipation Proclamation
The proclamation didn't free any slaves immediately because it applied only to areas behind Confederate lines, which were outside Confederate control. The proclamation had gave the war a moral purpose by turning struggle into a fight to free slaves. It also ensured that compromise was no longer possible. -
Conscription
When fighting intensified each side had impose a draft that forced men to serve in the army. In the North however, it led to draft riots which turned violent. -
Battle at Gettysburg
Confederate soldiers were led by A.P. Hill. He encountered several brigades of Union cavalry under the command of John Buford. Buford had ordered his men to take defensive positions on the hills and ridges surrounding the town. When Hill's troops marched toward the town, Buford's men were waiting. The shooting attracted more troops and both called for reinforcements.The Union troops had taken the field under General George Meade against General Lee. -
Gettysburg Address
A ceremony was held in honor of the lives that were lost. President Lincoln speech had helped the country realize that it was not just a collection of individual states, it was a unified nation. -
Battle at Vicksburg
Union General Ulysses S. Grant fought to take Vicksburg which was one of the two remaining Confederate strongholds on the Mississippi River. Vicksburg was important because it rested on bluffs above the water from which guns could control all water traffic. Grant had tried several schemes to reach it. He began weakening the Confederate defenses by sacking Jackson, which was their capital. Grant settled in for a siege but after food supplies ran low, the city had surrendered. -
Sherman's March
William Tecumseh Sherman led the march southeast through Georgia to the sea, creating a wide path of destruction. His army burned almost every house and destroyed livestock along with railroads. He had thought that if the Union could destroy the Southern population's will to fight, the Confederacy would collapse. -
Appomattox Court House
In a Virginia town, Lee and Grant met at a private home to arrange a Confederate surrender. Grant paroled Lee's soldiers and sent them home with their possessions and three days' worth of rations. Within a month, all of the Confederate resistance collapsed. After four years, the civil war was over. -
Thirteen Amendment
It had 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.” -
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
John Wilkes Booth had killed Lincoln at Ford's Theater in Washington because he was a Southern sympathizer. -
Abolition
The movement to abolish slavery, became the most important of a series of reform movements in America.
