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Underground Railroad
Free African Americans and white abolitionists developed a secret network of people who would, at great risk to themselves, hide fugitive slaves. The system of escape routes they used became known as the Underground Railroad. “Conductors” on the routes hid fugitives in secret tunnels and false cupboards, and escorted or directed them to the next “station.” Once fugitives reached the North, many chose to remain there. Others journeyed to Canada to be completely out of reach of their “owners.” -
Missouri Compromise
In 1818 settlers in Missouri requested admission to the Union. Northerners and Southerners disagreed. Behind the leadership of Henry Clay, Congress passed the agreements in 1820–1821 known as the Missouri Compromise, signed by President James Monroe. Maine was admitted as a free state and Missouri as a slave state. Rest of the Louisiana Territory was split into 2 parts. The dividing line was set at 36°30´ north latitude. South, slavery was legal. North, except in Missouri slavery was banned. -
Santa Fe Trail
The settlers and traders who made the trek west used a series of old Native American trails as well as new routes. One of the busiest routes was the Santa Fe Trail, which stretched 780 miles from Independence, Missouri, to Santa Fe in the Mexican province of New Mexico. Each spring from 1821 through the 1860s, American traders loaded their covered wagons with goods and set off toward Santa Fe. -
San Felipe de Austin
After Mexico had won its independence. In 1821 Stephen F. Austin established a colony. The main settlement of the colony was named San Felipe de Austin. By 1825, Austin had issued 297 land grants to the group that later became known as Texas’s Old Three Hundred. Each family received either 177 inexpensive acres of farmland, or 4428 acres for stock grazing, as well as a 10-year exemption from paying taxes. By 1830, there were more than 20000 Americans in Texas. -
Mexico abolishes slavery
Mexico, which had abolished slavery in 1829, insisted in vain that the Texans free their slaves. Meanwhile, Mexican politics had become increasingly unstable. Austin had traveled to Mexico City late in 1833 to present petitions to Mexican president Antonio López de Santa Anna for greater self-government for Texas. Santa Anna had Austin imprisoned for inciting revolution. After Santa Anna suspended local powers in Texas and other Mexican states, rebellions broke out, including Texas Revolution. -
Abolition
By the 1830s James Forten had become a leader of Philadelphia’s free black community. When some people argued that free blacks should return to Africa, Forten disagreed. He’s unwavering belief that he was an American not only led him to oppose colonization—the effort to resettle free blacks in Africa—but also pushed him fervently to oppose slavery. Abolition, the movement to abolish slavery, became the most important of a series of reform movements in America. -
The Liberator
The most radical white abolitionist was a young editor named William Lloyd Garrison. He became the editor of an antislavery paper in 1828. Three years later he established his own paper, The Liberator, to deliver an uncompromising demand: immediate emancipation. In the 1830s, that position gained support. -
Nat Turner's Rebellion
Some slaves rebelled against their condition of bondage. One of the most prominent rebellions was led by Virginia slave Nat Turner. In August 1831, Turner and more than 50 followers attacked four plantations and killed about 60 whites. Whites eventually captured and executed many members of the group, including Turner. -
Stephens F. Austin goes to jail
in 1829, Mexican politics had become increasingly unstable. Austin had traveled to Mexico City late in 1833 to present petitions to Mexican president Antonio López de Santa Anna for greater self-government for Texas. While Austin was on his way home, Santa Anna had Austin imprisoned for inciting revolution. -
Texas Revolution
The 1836 rebellion in which Texas gained its 10independence from Mexico. -
Oregon Trail
The Oregon Trail stretched from Independence, Missouri, to Oregon City, Oregon. It was blazed in 1836 by two Methodist missionaries named Marcus and Narcissa Whitman. By driving their wagon as far as Fort Boise (near present-day Boise, Idaho), they proved that wagons could travel on the Oregon Trail. -
Manifest Destiny
The phrase “manifest destiny” expressed the belief that the U.S. was ordained to expand to the Pacific Ocean and into Mexican and Native American territory. Many Americans also believed that this destiny was obvious and inevitable.
They had reasons for moving west. For settlers, the abundance
of land was the great attraction. As the western settlers increase, merchants followed, seeking new markets for goods. Americans also trekked west because of personal economic problems in the East. -
Texas enters the United States
Most Texans hoped that the United States would annex their republic. U.S. opinion divided. Southerners wanted Texas in order to extend slavery, which already had been established there. Northerners feared that the annexation of more slave territory would tip the uneasy balance in the Senate in favor of slave states—and prompt war with Mexico. The 1844 U.S. presidential campaign focused on westward expansion. The winner, James K. Polk, a slaveholder, firmly favored the annexation of Texas. -
Mexican-American War
After the 1844 election of Polk, who campaigned that Texas should be “re-annexed” and that the Oregon Territory should be “re-occupied.” Polk also had his eyes on California, New Mexico and the rest of what is today the U.S. Southwest. When his offer to purchase those lands was rejected, he instigated a fight by moving troops into a disputed zone between the Rio Grande and Nueces River that both countries had previously recognized as part of the Mexican state of Coahuila. -
The North Star
Frederick Douglass who escaped from bondage to become an eloquent and outspoken critic of slavery. Garrison sponsored Douglass to speak for various anti-slavery organizations. Hoping that abolition could be achieved without violence, Douglass broke with Garrison, who believed hat abolition justified whatever means were necessary to achieve it. In 1847, Douglass began his own antislavery newspaper. He named it The North Star, after the star that guided runaway slaves to freedom. -
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
American troops in Mexico, led by U.S. generals Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott, scored one military victory after another. After about a year of fighting, Mexico conceded defeat. On February 2, 1848, the United States and Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Mexico agreed to the Rio Grande as the border between Texas and Mexico and ceded the New Mexico and California territories to the United States. The United States agreed to pay $15 million for the Mexican cession. -
Harriet Tubman
One of the most famous conductors, born a slave in Maryland in 1820 or 1821. In 1849, after owner died, she heard rumors that she was about to be sold. Fearing this possibility, she decided to make a break for freedom and succeeded in reaching Philadelphia. Shortly after passage of the Fugitive Slave Act, Tubman resolved to become a conductor on the Underground Railroad. In all, she made 19 trips back to the South and is said to have helped 300 slaves including her own parents flee to freedom. -
Compromise of 1850
As the 31st Congress op ened in December 1849, the concern was the border dispute in which the slave state of Texas claimed the eastern half of the New Mexico Territory, where the issue of slavery had not yet been settled. Henry Clay worked to shape a compromise that both the North and the South could accept. After obtaining support of the powerful
Massachusetts senator Daniel Webster, Clay presented to the Senate a series of resolutions later called the Compromise of 1850. -
Fugitive Slave Act
The harsh terms of the Fugitive Slave Act surprised many people. Under the law, alleged fugitive slaves were not entitled to a trial by jury. In addition, anyone convicted of helping a fugitive was liable for a fine of $1,000 and imprisonment for up to six months. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Harriet Beecher Stowe published her novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which stressed that slavery was not just a political contest, but also a great moral struggle. Uncle Tom’s Cabin expressed her lifetime hatred of slavery. The book stirred Northern abolitionists to increase their protests against the Fugitive Slave Act, while Southerners criticized the book is an attack on the South. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas and Nebraska territory lay north of the Missouri Compromise line of 36°30’ and therefore was legally closed to slavery. Douglas introduced a bill in Congress on January 23, 1854, that would divide the area into two territories: Nebraska in the north and Kansas in the south. If passed, the bill would repeal the Missouri Compromise and establish popular sovereignty for both territories. After months of struggle, the Kansas-Nebraska Act became law in 1854. -
Dread Scott v. Sandford
A major Supreme Court decision was brought about by Dred Scott, a slave whose owner took him from the slave state of Missouri to free territory in Illinois and Wisconsin and back to Missouri. Scott appealed to the Supreme Court for his freedom on the grounds that living in a free state—Illinois—and a free territory—Wisconsin—had made him a free man. -
Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas Debates
The two men neither wanted slavery in the territories,
but they disagreed on how to keep it out. Douglas believed deeply in popular sovereignty. Lincoln, on the other hand, believed that slavery
was immoral. Douglas won the Senate seat, but his response had
widened the split in the Democratic Party. As for Lincoln, his attacks on the “vast moral evil” of slavery drew national attention, and some Republicans began thinking of him as an excellent candidate for the presidency in 1860. -
John Brown's raid/ Harpers Ferry
The abolitionist John Brown was studying the slave uprisings. He believed that the time was ripe for similar uprisings in the U.S. On the night of October 16, 1859, he led a band of 21 men, black and white, into Harpers Ferry, Virginia. His aim was to seize the federal arsenal there and start a general slave uprising. Later, authorities tried Brown and put him to death. In the North,fiery speakers denounce the South. In the South, mobs assaulted whites who suspected of holding antislavery views. -
Abraham Lincoln becomes president
As the 1860,.the Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln. Although he pledged to halt the further spread of slavery, he also tried to reassure Southerners that a Republican administration would not “interfere with their slaves, or with them, about their slaves.” Many Southerners viewed him as an enemy. Lincoln emerged as the winner with less than half the popular vote and with no electoral votes from the South. He did not even appear on the ballot in most of the slave states. -
Formation of the Confederacy
South Carolina led the way, seceding from the Union on December 20, 1860. Mississippi soon followed South Carolina’s lead, as did
Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. In February 1861, delegates from the secessionist states met in Montgomery, Alabama, where they formed the Confederate States of America, or Confederacy. Abraham Lincoln was the president. -
Attack on Fort Sumter
As soon as the Confederacy was formed, the soldiers in each secessionist state began seizing federal installations—especially forts. By the time of Lincoln’s inauguration on March 4, 1861, only four Southern forts remained in Union hands. The most important was Fort Sumter. Lincoln decided to neither abandon Fort Sumter nor reinforce it. At 4:30 A.M. on April 12, Confederate batteries began thundering away to the cheers of Charleston’s citizens.The struggle between North and South was under way. -
Battle of Bull Run
Occurred about three months after Fort Sumter fell. Near the little creek of Bull Run, just 25 miles from W.D.C. In the morning the Union army gained the upper hand, but the Confederates held firm. In the afternoon Confederate reinforcements helped win the first Southern victory. But the Confederates were too exhausted to follow up their victory with an attack on Washington. Still, Confederate morale soared and confident that the war was over, left the army and went home. -
Income Tax
The war expanded the North’s economy and shattered the South’s.The economic boom had a dark side, however. Wages did not keep up with prices, and many people’s standard of living declined. When white male workers went out on strike, employees hired free blacks, immigrants, and women to replace them for lower wages. As the Northern economy grew, Congress decided to help pay for the war by collecting the nation’s first income tax, a tax that takes a specified percentage of an individual’s income. -
Battle at Antietam
McClellan ordered his men to pursue Lee, and the two sides fought on September 17 near a creek called the Antietam. The clash proved to be the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, with casualties totaling more than 26,000. The next day, instead of pursuing the battered Confederate army into Virginia and possibly ending the war, McClellan did nothing. As a result, Lincoln removed him from command. -
Emancipation Proclamation
On January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation. The proclamation did not free any slaves immediately because it applied only to areas behind Confederate lines, outside Union control. Nevertheless, for many, the proclamation gave the war a moral purpose by turning the struggle into a fight to free the slaves. It also ensured that compromise was no longer possible. -
Conscription
The Civil War led to social upheaval and political unrest in both the North and the South. As the fighting intensified, heavy casualties and widespread desertions led each side to impose conscription, a draft that forced men to serve in the army. In the North, conscription led to draft riots, the most violent of which took place in New York City. Sweeping changes occurred in the wartime economies of both sides as well as in the roles played by African Americans and women. -
Battle at Vicksburg
Grant sent Benjamin Grierson to lead his cavalry brigade through the Mississippi. Grierson succeeded in destroying rail lines. Grant
was able to land his troops south of Vicksburg on April 30. In 18 days, Union forces had sacked Jackson. In May 1863, Grant settled in for a siege. After food supplies ran so low, the Confederate command of Vicksburg asked Grant for terms of surrender. The city fell on July 4. Five days later Port Hudson, Louisiana, also fell. -
Battle at Gettysburg
Near the Gettysburg in southern Pennsylvania, the Battle of Gettysburg began on July 1. when Confederate soldiers led by A. P. Hill encountered several brigades of Union cavalry under the command of John Buford.The three-day battle produced staggering losses: 23,000 Union men and 28,000 Confederates were killed or wounded. Total casualties were more than 30 percent. Despite the devastation, Northerners were enthusiastic about breaking “the charm of Robert Lee’s invincibility.” -
Gettysburg address
In November 1863, a ceremony was held to dedicate a cemetery in Gettysburg. There, President Lincoln spoke for a little more than two minutes. According to some contemporary historians, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address “remade America.” Before Lincoln’s speech, people said, “The United States are . . .” Afterward, they said, “The United States is . . .” In other words, the speech helped the country to realize that it was not just a collection of individual states; it was one unified nation. -
Sherman's March
In 1864, Sherman began his march southeast through Georgia to the sea, creating a wide path of destruction. His army burned almost every house in its path and destroyed livestock and railroads. Sherman was determined to make Southerners “so sick of war that generations would pass away before they would again appeal to it.” By mid-November he had burned most of Atlanta. After reaching the ocean, Sherman’s forces—followed by 25,000 former slaves—turned north to help Grant "wipe out Lee." -
Surrender at Appomattox
On April 9, 1865, in a Virginia town called Appomattox Court House, Lee and Grant met at a private home to arrange a Confederate surrender. At Lincoln’s request, the terms were generous. Grant paroled Lee’s soldiers and sent them home with their possessions and three days’ worth of rations. Officers were permitted to keep their side arms. Within a month all remaining Confederate resistance collapsed. After four long years, the Civil War was over. -
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
On April 14, 1865, Lincoln and his wife went to Ford’s Theatre in Washington to see a British comedy, a man crept up behind Lincoln and shot the president in the back of his head. Lincoln died on April 15. It was the first time a president of the United States had been assassinated. The assassin, John Wilkes Booth—a 26-year-old actor and Southern sympathizer—then leaped down from the presidential box to the stage and escaped. Twelve days later, Union cavalry trapped and shot him dead. -
Thirteenth Amendment
The Emancipation Proclamation freed only those slaves who lived in states that were behind Confederate lines, and not yet under Union control. The government had to decide what to do about the border states, where slavery still existed. Thirteenth Amendment was ratified at the end of 1865. The U.S. Constitution now 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.”
