-
Harriet Tubman escapes to Philadelphia
In 1849, fearing she and other family members would be sold (the fate of several sisters), Harriet Tubman and two of her brothers escaped slavery in Maryland's Eastern Shore. -
The Fugitive Slave Act
Fugitive Slave Acts, in U.S. history, statutes passed by Congress in 1793 and 1850 (and repealed in 1864) that provided for the seizure and return of runaway slaves who escaped from one state into another or into a federal territory. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin published
Anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. The novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in the U.S. -
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. -
Dred Scott Decision
The supreme court announced a decision about slavery and the territories that shook the nation. -
Abraham Lincoln debates Stephen Douglas
Lincoln denied that he was a radical. He said that he supported the Fugitive Slave Law and opposed any interference with slavery in the states where it already existed. -
John Brown attacks Harper's Ferry
John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry was an 1859 effort by abolitionist John Brown to initiate an armed slave revolt in Southern states by taking over a United States arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia. -
Abraham Lincoln Election
Lincoln ran on a political platform opposed to the expansion of slavery in the territories. His election served as the immediate impetus for the outbreak of the American Civil War. -
South Carolina Secedes
South Carolina became the first slave state in the south to declare that it had seceded from the United States. James Buchanan, the United States president, declared the ordinance illegal but did not act to stop it. -
The Confederacy is formed
the states farthest south, where slavery and plantations agriculture were dominant, formed the Confederate States of America with Jefferson Davis as President.
