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Abolition
The movement to abolish slavery, became the most important of a series of reform movements in America. After the American Revolution, beginning with Pennsylvania in 1780 passed legislation. The movement grew in northern states. -
Missouri Compromise 1820-1821
Under the leadership of Henry Clay, Congress passed a series of agreements called the Missouri Compromise. It stated Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state. Louisiana Territory was divided by the line 36°30´ north latitude. On March 6, 1820 President James Monroe signed the Missouri Compromise. -
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 and one of the busiest routes was the Santa Fe Trail. It 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
Stephen F. Austin's father received land grant from Spain. In 1821 Stephen established a colony where “no drunkard, no gambler, no profane swearer, and no idler” would be allowed. The main settlement of the colony was named San Felipe de Austin, in
Stephen’s honor. By 1825, Austin had issued 297 land grants to the group that later became known as Texas’s Old Three Hundred. By 1830,there were more than 20,000 Americans in Texas. -
The Liberator
An editor named William Lloyd Garrison who was an active in religious reform movements in Massachusetts 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. -
Mexico abolishes slavery
Mexico abolished slavery in 1829. President Guerrero abolished slavery in Mexico on February 14th, 1829. Many of the settlers were Southerners,who had brought slaves with them to Texas. In 1829 but Mexico insisted in vain that the Texans free their slaves and this caused conflicts. -
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. -
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. -
Stephen F. Austin goes to jail
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
After Santa Anna suspended local powers in Texas and other Mexican states, several rebellions broke out, including one that would be known as the Texas Revolution (October 2, 1835 – April 21, 1836). When Austin returned to Texas in 1835, he was convinced that war was its “only resource.” Determined to force Texas to obey Mexican law, Santa Anna marched his army toward San Antonio. At the same time, Austin and his followers issued a call for Texans to arm themselves. -
Oregon Trail
It 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 (nearpresent-day Boise, Idaho), they proved that wagons could
travel on the Oregon Trail. -
Texas enters the United States
After the defeat at the Alamo, the rebels’ commander in chief, Sam Houston, and 900 soldiers surprised a group of Mexicans near the San Jacinto River. With shouts of “Remember the Alamo!” the Texans killed 630 of Santa Anna’s soldiers in 18 minutes and captured Santa Anna himself. The Texans set Santa Anna free only after he signed the Treaty of Velasco, which granted independence to Texas. In September 1836, Sam Houston was elected president of the new Republic of Texas. -
Manifest Destiny
The phrase “manifest destiny”expressed the belief that the United States was ordained to expand to the Pacific
Ocean and into Mexican and Native American territory. -
Mexican-American War
The Mexican-American War (1846-1848) marked the first U.S. armed conflict chiefly fought on foreign soil. It pitted a politically divided and militarily unprepared Mexico against the expansionist-minded administration of U.S. President James K. Polk, who believed the United States had a “manifest destiny” to spread across the continent to the Pacific Ocean. Mexico had lost about one-third of its territory, including nearly all of present-day California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico. -
The North Star
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
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 Compromise of 1850
Clay presented to the Senate a series of resolutions to threats of Southern secession. To please the North, the compromise provided that California be admitted to the Union as a free state. To please the South, the compromise proposed a new and more effective fugitive slave law. To placate both sides, a provision allowed popular sovereignty, the right to vote for or against slavery, for residents of the New Mexico and Utah territories. The Senate rejected it in July but in September became law. -
Fugitive Slave Act
First enacted by Congress in 1793. Second was passed in 1850. 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. -
Harriet Tubman
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. -
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
including her own parents—flee to freedom. 1850 20. Uncle Tom’s Cabin: In 1852, 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. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Stephen 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
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. On March 6, 1857, the Supreme Court ruled that African Americans were not and could never be citizens. Thus, Dred Scott had no right even to file a lawsuit and remained enslaved. -
Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas Debates
In 1858 Democratic incumbent Stephen Douglas and Republican challenger Congressman Abraham Lincoln raced for the U.S. Senate. The two men’s positions were simple and consistent. 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. However, he did not expect individuals to give up slavery unless Congress abolished slavery with an amendment. -
John Brown’s raid/ Harpers Ferry
John Brown secretly obtained financial backing from several prominent Northern abolitionists. On the night of October 16, 1859, he led a band of 21 men, black and white, into Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia). His aim was to seize the federal arsenal there and start a general slave uprising. -
Formation of the Confederacy
Mississippi soon followed South Carolina’s lead in secession, 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. The Confederates then unanimously elected former senator Jefferson Davis of Mississippi as president. -
. Abraham Lincoln becomes president
In the 1860 presidential election, Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln appeared to be moderate in his views. 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. The Democratic Party finally split over slavery. Lincoln emerged as the winner with less than half the popular vote and with no electoral votes from the South. -
Attack on Fort Sumter
On April 12, Confederate batteries began thundering away to the cheers of Charleston’s citizens. The deadly struggle between North and South was under way. News of Fort Sumter’s fall united the North. In April and May, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee seceded. The western counties of Virginia opposed slavery, so they seceded from Virginia and were admitted into the Union as West Virginia. Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, and Missouri, slave states, remained in the Union. -
Battle of Bull Run
The battle occurred about three months after Fort Sumter fell, near the little creek of Bull Run, just 25 miles from Washington, D.C. The battle was a seesaw affair. In the morning the Union army gained the upper hand, but the Confederates held firm, inspired by General Thomas J. Jackson. “There stands Jackson like a stone wall!” another general shouted, coining the nickname Stonewall Jackson. In the afternoon Confederate reinforcements helped win the first Southern victory. -
Income Tax
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
A Union corporal found a copy of Lee’s orders wrapped around some cigars! It revealed that Lee’s and Jackson’s armies were separated. McClellan ordered to pursue Lee. The battle was on September 17 near a creek called the Antietam. It was the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, with casualties of more than 26,000. The next day, instead of pursuing the battered Confederate army into Virginia and possibly ending the war, McClellan did nothing . Lincoln removed him from command. -
Emancipation Proclamation
The Confederacy used the labor of slaves to build fortifications and grow food. Lincoln orders to seize the resources and emancipate slaves. 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. The proclamation gave the war a moral purpose by turning the struggle into a fight to free the slaves. -
Conscription
Conscription is a draft that forced men to serve in the army. The 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. -
Battle at Vicksburg
In May 1863, Grant set up a steady barrage of artillery several hours a day. After food supplies ran low the Confederate command of Vicksburg asked Grant for terms of surrender. -
Battle of Gettysburg
It began on July 1. South was led by A. P. Hill and Union by John Buford. By the second day, the Confederates had driven the Union troops from Gettysburg. But, the North still held positions on Cemetery Ridge. On July 3, for two hours, the two armies fired at one another. Then the Confederates charged the lines. Suddenly, Northern artillery renewed its barrage. Lee gave up and led his army back to Virginia. Total of 23,000 Union men and 28,000 Confederates were killed or wounded. -
Gettysburg Address
In dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania President Lincoln gave a speech called the ‘Gettysburg Address. The speech helped the country to realize that it was not just a collection of individual states; it was one unified nation. -
Shermans' March
In the spring of 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—followed by 25,000 former slaves—turned north to help Grant “wipe out Lee.” -
Surrender at Appomattox Court House
On April 3, 1865, Union troops conquered Richmond, the Confederate capital. 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 Confederate resistance collapsed.The Civil War was over. -
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
On April 14, 1865, Lincoln and his wife went to Ford’s Theater in Washington to see a British comedy, Our American Cousin. During its third act, a man crept up behind Lincoln and shot the president in the back of his head. Lincoln, who never regained consciousness, died on April 15. After the shooting, 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. He was shot by a Union cavalry at a tobacco shed. -
Thirteenth Amendment
The president believed constitutional amendment was the only solution to abolish slavery. 1865. On February 1, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln approved the Joint Resolution of Congress submitting the proposed amendment to the state legislatures. It was ratified in December 6 1865. It 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.”
