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Nat Turners Rebellion
A slave named Nat Turner incited an uprising that spread through several plantations in southern Virginia. Turner and approximately seventy cohorts killed around sixty white people. The development of militia infantry and artillery suppressed the rebellion after two days of terror. -
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Events leading up to the Civil War
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The Wilmot Proviso
The Wilmot Proviso was a piece of legislation proposed by David Wilmot at the close of the Mexican-American War. The Proviso would have outlawed slavery in territory acquired by the United States as a result of the war. Wilmot spent two years fighting for his plan. All attempts failed. Nevertheless, the intensity of the debate surrounding the Proviso prompted the first serious discussion of secession. -
The Compromise of 1850
The compromise admitted California as a free state and did not regulate slavery in the remainder of the Mexican cession all while strengthening the Fugitive Slave Act. While the agreement succeeded in postponing outright hostilities between the North and the South, it did little to address, and in some ways even reinforced, the structural disparity that divided the United States -
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Uncle Toms’s Cabin was the second-best selling book in America during the 19th Century. The popularity of the book brought the real issues of slavery to life for those who were unmoved by the conflict. -
Bleeding Kansas
The Kansas Nebraska act of 1854 established Kansas and Nebraska as territories and set the stage for “Bleeding Kansas” by its adoption of popular sovereignty. In the fall of 1855, abolitionist John Brown cane to Kansas to fight the forces of slavery. Brown and his supporters killed five pro-slavery settlers in the Pottawatomine Creek Massacre in Kansas May, 1856. Violence existed in territories before, but the 1856 massacre started a guerilla war between pro-slavery and anti-slavery. -
Dred Scott v. Stanford
Dred Scott was a Virginia soave who tired to sue for his freedom in court. The Dred Scott Desicion threatened to entirely recast the political landscape that had managed to prevent the civil war. The classification of slaves as property made the federal governments authority to regulate the organization much more ambiguous. -
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
Senator Stephan Douglas faced “prairie lawyer” Abraham Lincoln in debating about slavery through out Illinois. Douglas won the senate race, but propelled Lincoln into the nation spotlight and entering him into the presidential nomination of 1860. The debates angered Douglas who is from the south. The arguments Douglas made destroyed his chance as president in 1860. -
John Brown’s Raid
Abolitionist John Brown supported violent actions against the south the end slavery and played a major role in starting the civil war. In October 1859, he and 19 supporters, armed with “Beecher’s Bibles,” l d a raid in the federal armory and arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia in attempt to take the weapons and give them to local slaves. A small force of U.S. Martinez stopped the raid. There were 7 people killed and more than 10 people injured. -
Abraham Lincoln’s Election
Abraham Lincoln was elected in 1860 for the presidential nomination. Despite not being included in many Southerns ballots. As a Republican, his party’s anti-slavery outlook struck fear into many Southerners. On December, 20, 1860, a little over a month after the polls closed, South Carolina seceded from the Union. Six more states followed by spring of 1861. -
The Battle Of Fort Sumter
On April 12, 1861 confederate warships turned back the supply convoy to Fort Sumter and opened a 34 hour bombardment on the stronghold. THE CIVIL WAR HAD NO STARTED! On April 15, Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to join the Northern army.
