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McCullough vs Maryland
It was a major landmark Supreme court decision that defined the scope of the U.S. Congress's legislative power and how it related to the powers of American state legislatures. Due to the dispute in this case, it ended up involving the legality of the national bank and a tax that the state of Maryland imposed on it. -
Missouri Compromise
It was a United States federal legislation that balanced the desires of the Northern states and to prevent expansion of slavery in the country with those of the southern states to expand it. -
Tariff of Abominations
It was a protective Tariff that was passed by the Congress of the United States in 1828. This Tariff was designed to protect industry in the Northern United States. It was created during the presidency of John Quincy Adams and was enacted during presidency of Andrew Jackson. The Tariff was labeled the "Tariff of Abominations" according to the southern states who didn't like it. -
Nat Turner Rebellion
The rebellion was known as the Southampton insurrection and it was a rebellion formed of enslaved Virginians. This event took place on in August, 1831.The rebels apart of the rebellion killed 65 people, most of whom were white. -
Texas Revolution
It was a rebellion of colonists from the United States and Tejanos (Hispanic Texans) in putting up armed resistance against the centralist government of Mexico. -
Wilmot Proviso
This event was an unsuccessful 1846 proposal that went to the United States Congress to potentially ban slavery in the territory acquired from Mexico in the Mexican-American War. -
Popular Sovereignty
1846 - 1854. It is the principle that a state and its government are created and sustained by the consents of its people who are the real source of all the political power. The idea of Popular Sovereignty was continuing to evolve at the time when the founding fathers wrote the US Constitution during the Constitutional convention of 1787. This period of Popular Sovereignty led to the American Civil War, where over 620,000 men lost their lives due to the issue of slavery. -
Free-Soil Party
I was a short-lived coalition political party in the US that was active from 1848 to 1854. This political party later became the well known Republican Party that is still active today. The party was focused on the issue of opposing the expansion of slavery into the Western territories. -
Seneca Falls Convention
This convention was formally known as the Women's Rights Convention and they fought for social, civil, and religious rights of women. The meeting was held from July 19th to the 20th, 1848, at the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls, New York. Over 300 people showed up for the convention, mostly consisting of the women living in the area. -
Compromise of 1850
This compromise was a package of five separate bills passed by the United States Congress in September 1850. It diffused a political confrontation between free and slave states on the status of the territories acquired in the Mexican-American War. This package also set Texas' Northern and Western borders and even included provisions that addressed fugitive slaves and the slave trade. One of the main packages to this compromise was California being admitted as a free state. -
California Statehood
The Compromise of 1850 led to Congress discussing about whether or not to admit California as a free state. They ended up deciding in favor of the bill and passed the California Statehood Act on September 9th, 1850. Later after California became a free state, the Pacific Mail Steamship SS Oregon brought word to San Francisco on October 18th, 1850 which was the 38 days later, that California was now officially the 31st state of the USA. -
Fugitive Slave Act
The act/law was passed by the US Congress on September 18th, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850 between the Southern interests in slavery and Northern Free-Soilers. -
Uncle Toms Cabin
It was/is a novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe, and was published in serialized form in the United States from 1851-1852 and in complete book form in 1852. It was an abolitionist novel, and it achieved very wide popularity, specifically among white readers in the North. The novel tells the story of an enslaved person who was depicted as saintly and dignified, noble and steadfast in his beliefs. Tom who is the enslaved character sin the novel saved a women's life and was whipped to death by his owner -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
It was a territorial organic act that was responsible for creating the territories of Kansas and Nebraska. It was drafted to Congress by the Democratic senator Stephen A. Douglas and was later passed by the 33rd US Congress. It was eventually signed into law by President Franklin Pierce. Douglas introduced this bill because he was intending to open up new lands to develop the construction of a transcontinental railroad. -
Bleeding Kansas
This occurred from 1854 to 1859. It was also known as the border war. It was a series of violent civil confrontations in the Kansas territory and it also occurred in western Missouri but to a lesser extent. This even emerged due to political and ideological debates over whether slavery should be legal or not in the new territory of Kansas. The importance of this was if slavery would continue on in the US. -
Dred Scott Decision
It was the Supreme Court's ruling on March 6th, 1857. It was about Dred Scott and that him having lived in a free state and territory did not entitle him to his freedom. The decision of this case argued that a slave or someone's property, Scott was not considered a citizen and wouldn't be able to sue in a federal court. -
Raid on Harper's Ferry
This occurred from October 16th - 18th, 1859. It was an assault led by an armed band of abolitionists started by John Brown on the federal Armory at Harpers Ferry Virginia which is now located in West Virginia. It was an important precipitating incident to the American Civil War. -
Presidential Election of 1860
It was an American presidential election which was held on November 6th, 1860. This is when Republican Abraham Lincoln defeated Democrat John C. Breckinridge, Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, and even Constitutional Union candidate John Bell. The big electoral split between the Northern and Southern Democrats was pretty representative of the sectional split over slavery. After the election and before Lincolns Inauguration, Seven southern states led by South Carolina, seceded. -
Secession of South Carolina
This occurred on December 20th, 1860. Charleston which delegates at the South Carolina state convention voted unanimously to secede from the Union. One of the most or the most decisive moment in the states history. That day, many representatives of South Carolina decided that they would try and lead other slave states out of the federal union. -
Shots fired at Fort Sumter
At Fort Sumter located in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, confederate leaders ordered an attack on it. Just hours from sunrise on April 12th, 1861, a shell ended up exploding above Fort Sumter. That was known as the first shots ever to be fired in the American Civil War. Major Robert Anderson led the small force of U.S. soldiers at the fort. -
Battle of Bull Run
It was the first major battle of the American Civil War. This battle was fought on July 21st, 1861, in Prince County, Virginia located north right above the city of Manassas. Both the North and South had about 18,000 poorly trained and misled troops. This battle led to a confederate victory, which was followed by a disorganized retreat of the Union forces. -
Monitor vs. Merrimack
It was a naval battle fought during the American Civil War. It occurred over 2 days, March 8-9, 1862, in Hampton Roads, which was a roadstead in Virginia. It happened right where the Elizabeth and Nansemond rivers meet at the James river, right before it enters the Chesapeake Bay near the city of Norfolk. the battle was fought partly because it was an effort by the Confederacy to break the Union blockade, which cut off Virginia's largest cities major industrial centers. -
Battle of Shiloh
This battle began on Sunday, April 6th and ended on Monday, April 7th 1862. It took place in southwestern Tennessee which was part of the wars western theater. The battlefield is located between a church named Shiloh and Pittsburg landing which is on the Tennessee river. Two Union armies combined to defeat the Confederate army of Mississippi. Major General Ulysses S. Grant, was the Union commander, while General Albert Sidney Johnston was the Confederate commander. -
Battle of Antietam
It was mainly located in the Southern United States. It was a battle of the American Civil War fought on September 17th, 1862, between the Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's army of Northern Virginia and Union General George B. McClellan's army of the Potomac near Sharpsburg. It was the first field army-level engagement in the eastern theater of the American Civil War to take place on Union soil. It is known and remains as the bloodiest day in American history, with a total of 22,717 dead. -
Lincoln issues Emancipation Proclamation
Officially known as Proclamation 95, was a presidential proclamation and executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on January 1st, 1863, during the Civil War. This proclamation changed the legal status of more than 3.5 million enslaved African Americans in the secessionist Confederate states from enslaved to free. As soon as the enslaved African Americans escaped their enslavers from fleeing to Union lines, they were all permanently free. -
Battle of Gettysburg and Vicksburg
Both battles occurred at the same time. They both ended in Union victories, but Gettysburg is seen as the turning point of the war even though both are considered turning points of the war in their own ways. Gettysburg was a major important battle that took place over a period of days. Gettysburg was also one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War. -
Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address
On November 19th, 1863, President Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address which was 272 words long. Lincoln did this on the battlefield near Gettysburg Pennsylvania. The main idea of the speech was to honor those who died and made sacrifices made on the battlefield by treating everyone. -
General Lee surrenders at Appomattox Courthouse
On April 9th, 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered to the Union General Ulysses S. Grant in Appomattox Virginia, at the Appomattox courthouse. This event signaled the star to the end of the American Civil War. Before General Lee surrendered in early 1865, the Union army began marching through Virginia, while pushing back the Confederate forces. -
Fort Pillow Massacre
The Battle of Fort Pillow which is also known as the Fort Pillow Massacre occurred on April 12th, 1864. This battle was located at Fort Pillow on the Mississippi River in Henning, Tennessee and was fought during the American Civil War. This battle ended with a massacre of Union soldiers, most of whom were African Americans, that were trying to surrender. This event was marked as one of the bleakest, and saddest events of the American military history. -
Sherman's March to the Sea
This event was a military campaign in the American Civil War that was conducted through Georgia from November 15th, all the way up until December 21st, 1864, by William Tecumseh Sherman who was a Major General of the Union army. This campaign began with General Sherman's troops leaving the captured city of Atlanta on November 15th and ended with the capture of the port of Savannah on December 21st.