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Compomise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 consisted of 5 laws passed that dealt with issues of slavery. 1. the Fugitive Slave Act was amended, 2. the slave trade in Washington D. C. was abolished, 3. California entered the Union as a free state, 4. a territorial government was created in Utah, 5. an act was passes settling a boundary dispute between Texas and New Mexico that resulted in establishing a territorial government in New Mexico. -
The Kansas Nebraska Act
The Kansas Nebraska Act
repealed the Missouri Compromise and allowed slavery in the territory north of the 36° 30' latitude. The act introduced a concept known as popular sovereignty in which the residents of each territory would decide on the issue of slavery. Following the passing of the bill a prelude to the Civil War broke out in Kansas between pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers. -
Bleeding Kansas
Bleeding Kansas, also known as the Border War, between 1854 and 1861, was a series of violent political confrontations beteween the anti-slavery and pro-slavery in the Kansas territory. The main reason for this conflict was the dilemna of whether Kansas should enter the Union as a free or slave state. The conflicts that were known as Bleeding Kansas were set into motion by the Kansas-Nebraska Act and can be seen as a sort of miniature Civil War. -
The Dred Scott Decision
The Dred Scott Decision was a decision made by the U.S. Supreme Court that declared that African Americans could not be American citizens and had no standing to sue in federal court and that the federal government had no power to regulate slavery in the territories gained after the creation of the United States. This decision spurred more conflict between the North and South because the South took the decision as support fromt the government towards slavery. -
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
The Lincoln Douglas Debates were a series of debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas in competition for the U.S. Senate seat from Illinois. The impact that the debates had was mostly getting the views of Lincoln and Douglas out for the public to hear. Douglas was viewed as a Democrat who was a proponent of Popular Sovereignty and Lincoln was viewed as very opposed to slavery and had the belief that the US could not survive as half-slave and half-free states. -
Harper's Ferry
The Raid on Harpers Ferry was by John Brown and a group of supporters. They captured prominent citizens and took hold of the federal armory and arsenal. They had planned for the local slave population to join the raid making the raid successful. However, the local militia held the raiders at bay until late morning of the 17th causing Brown to hide out in the arsenal's engine house. Following that act, the US Marines arrived in late afternoon, killing may of the raiders and capturing Brown. -
Lincoln's Election
On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States. This caused an uproar with the south because of Lincoln's views on slavery. Lincoln's election was also the most prominent triggering event that led up to the Civil War -
Fort Sumter
The Battle of Fort Sumter was the surrender of Fort Sumter that started the Civil War. Following the battle at Fort Sumter, both the North and South were supporting further military action. Lincoln's call to suppress the rebellion had negative results of four additional southern slave states joining the Confederacy and seceding from the Union. -
Bull Run
The First Battle of Bull Run, also known as First Manassas, was the first major land battle of the Civil War. The battle went back and forth with advantages for the Union and the Confederates, but in the end of the battle the Union retreated. However, both sides took this battle as a realization that the war was going to be much more drawn out and filled with causualties than expected. -
Antietam
The Battle of Antietam began when the Army of the Potomac mounted a series of morning attacks on Robert E. Lee's forces near Sharpsburg, Maryland. The initial morning assault and Confederate counterattacks continued on until the single bloodiest day in American military history ended in a draw with the Confederate retreating. This "victory" pushed Abrahm Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation -
Emancipation Proclamation
Just a few days after the victory in the Battle of Antietam, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which stated that slaves in the rebellious areas would be declared free. This bold move was made in hopes that the blacks, Confederate slaves in particular, would support the Union. Though it did not end slavery, it did encourage black men to join the Union Army and Navy which transformed the war -
Gettysburg and Gettysburg Address
The Battle of Gettysburg was the turning point of the war between the Confederacy and the Union. The battle resulted in the largest number of casualties of the entire war and Confederate retreat. More than 5 months later, on November 19, 1863, Lincoln used the dedication ceremony for the Gettysburg National Cemetary to honor the fallen Union soldiers. -
Andersonville Prison
Andersonville Prison, officially known as Camp Sumter, was built in 1864 when Confederate officials decided to move prisoners around to a place of "greater secuity and more abundant food." However out of the 45,000 Union soldiers moved to Camp Sumter almost 13,000 of them died from disease, poor sanitation, malnutrition, overcrowding, or exposure to the elements. When the war ended, the prison's commandant, Captain Henry Wirz was the only person executed for war crimes during the Civil War. -
Surrender at Appomattox Court House
4 years after the start of the Civil War, 630,000 deaths, and over 1 million casualties, General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Confederate Army to Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant, marking the end of the Civil War. The meeting, at the home of Wilmer and Virginia McLean, lasted abour an hour and a half with only 16 peope known to have attended. -
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
Only 5 days after General Lee surrendered his army at Appomattox Court House, John Wilkes Booth fatally shot President Lincoln at a play at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. The President died early the next morning from the wound. Booth, a well known actor and Confederate sympathizer had shot the president in hopes of reviving the Confederate cause. -
Reconstruction
The Reconstruction Period refers to 1865-1877; in the decade after the civil war a new set of significant challenges including the completely different pressure coming from the North and South. Positive changes began to occur such as Radical Reconstruction which caused newly enfranchised blacks to gain a voice in government, however reactionary forces, such as the Ku Klux Klan, would reverse the changes and bring about a violent backlash that restored white supremacy in the south
