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First issue of the Liberator
The Liberator was a weekly newspaper published by William Lloyd Garrison in Boston, Massachusetts. William Lloyd Garrison was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts in December, 1805. At thirteen years of age he began his newspaper career with the Newburyport Herald, where he acquired great skills in both accuracy and speed in the art of setting type. -
Compromise of 1850 passed
It was a law admitting California a free state, creating Utah and New Mexico territories with the question of slavery. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin published
Harriet Beecher Stowe's Anti-slavery novel. The novel sold 300,000 copies within three months and was so widely read that when President Abraham Lincoln met Stowe in 1862, he reportedly said, “So this is the little lady who made this big war.” -
Kansas-Nebraska Act passed
It allowed people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders. -
James Buchanan sworn into office as the 15th President
James Buchanan, 15th President of the United States, was born in Cove Gap, Pennsylvania, in 1791. Serving as president during the run-up to the Civil War. -
Dred Scott decision
This was issued to take slaves into the western territory. -
John Brown's Raid at Harpers Ferry
A group who tried to start a rebellion on slaves. -
Abe Lincoln elected President of the United States
Though Abe had a national reputation, the Republican nomination for president in the Election of 1860 seemed elusive. Powerful Republicans William Seward from New York, Salmon P. Chase from Ohio and Edward Bates from Missouri seemed to be the frontrunners. -
South Carolina seceded from the Union
On this day, a secession convention meeting in Charleston, South Carolina, unanimously adopted an ordinance dissolving the connection between South Carolina and the United States of America. -
Battle at Fort Sumter begins
The first battle of the civil war. -
The first battle of Bull Run
The senates one this war. It was one of the starts of the Civil war. -
Emancipation Proclamation goes into effect
Up until September 1862, the main focus of the war had been to preserve the Union. With the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation freedom for slaves now became a legitimate war aim. -
Battle of Gettysburg begins
Before the battle, major cities in the North such as Philadelphia, Baltimore and even Washington were under threat of attack from General Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia which had crossed the Potomac River and marched into Pennsylvania. -
Sherman's March to the Sea begins
After driving the Confederates out of Atlanta, Sherman entered the city in early September and remained until Nov. 15. Sparing only the churches, courthouse and the city’s private residences, Sherman’s troops cut the telegraph wires and burned everything else of consequence: warehouses, train depots, factories. -
The Surrender at Appomattox Courthouse
After a long night and day of marching, Lee and the exhausted Army of Northern Virginia made camp just east of Appomattox Courthouse on April 8. Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant had sent him a letter on the night of April 7, following confrontations between their troops at Cumberland Church and Farmville, suggesting Lee surrender. -
Lincoln's Assassination
John Wilkes Booth entered the presidential box at Ford's Theatre in Washington D.C., and fatally shot President Abraham Lincoln.
