Civil War Timeline

By Mai.K
  • Cotton Gin

    Cotton Gin
    -Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin.
    -This was one of the key inventions of the Industrial Revolution and shaped the economy of the Antebellum South.
    -It greatly speed up the process of removing seeds from cotton fiber.
    -This invention increased slavey because more cottons being planted and requires slaves to work in the cotton field.
  • Embargo Act of 1807

    Embargo Act of 1807
    -An attempt by President Thomas Jefferson and the U.S. Congress to punish Britain and France for interfering with Ameircan trade whie the two major European powers were at war with each other.
    -It did prevent open warfare for a time, but in some ways it was also a precursor to the war of 1812
    -American exports declined by 75%, imports declined by 50%, and American merchants were dealt a severe setback
  • The Missouri Compromise

    The Missouri Compromise
    -Tensions began to rise between pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions within the U.S. Congress and across the country.
    -Missouri became a slave state and Maine beame a free state.
    - It passed an amendment that drew an imaginary line across the former Louisiana Territory, establishing a boundary between free and slave states (36°30' latitude line).
  • Tariff of Abominations

    Tariff of Abominations
    -It was designed to protect American industry from cheap British commodities
    -The purpose was to provide more protection to the Industrialists and manufacturers in the North by increasing duties on imported foreign (British) goods.
    -It benefited the North, supporting the products maufactured.
    - It forced Southerners to pay a higher price for the mannufactured goods.
  • Compromise of 1850

    Compromise of 1850
    -The Compromise of 1850 aimed at resolving the territorial and slavery arising from the Mexican-American War.
    -There were five laws which balanced the slave states of the South and the free states to the North.
    -The Fugitive Slave Act was amended and the slave trade in Washington, D.C., was abolished.
    -Senator Henry Clay proposed the Compromise of 1850.
    -The Compromise of 1850 also allowed the United States to expand its territory by accepting California as a state.
  • Uncle Tom's Cabin

    Uncle Tom's Cabin
    -Harriet Beecher Stowe’s wrote the anti-slavery novel.
    -The book had a major influence on the way the American public viewed slavery.
    -Its portrayal of slavery immediately increased the tensions between Southern slaveholders and non-slaveholding Northerners and brought the nation to civil war.
  • Kansas-Nebraska Act

    Kansas-Nebraska Act
    -The act was proposed by Stephen A. Douglas.
    -The Act served to repeal the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which prohibited slavery north of latitude 36°30´.
    - It allowed people (ppopular sovereignty) in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders.
    -Kansas was admitted as a free state and Nebraska was admitted to the Union.
  • Bleeding Kansas

    Bleeding Kansas
    -The period of violence during the settling of the Kansas Territory.
    -Proslavery and free-state settlers fought for control.
    -Abolitionist John Brown led anti-slavery fighters in Kansas before his famed raid on Harpers Ferry.
    - In 1854 the Kansas-Nebraksa Act overturned the Missouri Compromise’s use of latitude as the boundary between slave and free territory.
  • Dred Scott Case

    Dred Scott Case
    -Dred Scott was a slave in Missouri. He resided in Illinois (a free state) where slavery was forbidden. After returning to Missouri, Scott sued Missouri courts for his freedom, claiming that his residence in free territory made him a free man.
    -The Court declared that slaves were not citizens of the United States and could not sue in Federal courts.
    -This case declared the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional. Congress had no power to ban slavery in the territories.
  • John Brown's Raid

    John Brown's Raid
    -Abolitionist John Brown leads a small group on a raid against a federal armory in Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia) to start an armed slave revolt and destroy the institution of slavery.
    -Brown traveled to Kansas with five of his sons to fight against the proslavery forces in the contest over that territory.
    -Brown's raid was defeated by a detachment of U.S. Marines led by Col. Robert E. Lee.
  • Election of 1860

    Election of 1860
    -The election was held in November 1860, and served as the outbreak of the American Civil War.
    - Lincoln faced Douglas, who represented the Northern faction of a heavily divided Democratic Party, as well as Breckinridge and Bell.
    - Lincoln and his party wanted to abolish slavery. His opponents didn't, because their plantation-based economy in the south relied on slavery.
    -Lincoln won the election and slavery became illegal throughout the entire country.
  • South Carolina Secedes From The Union

    South Carolina Secedes From The Union
    -South Carolina was the first slave-holding state to secede from the Union December 20, 1860.

    -The events moved upon the election of Lincoln.
    -They knew that the election meant the formation of a new nation.
    -Threatened by the election of President Abraham Lincoln, the seven states of the Deep South (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas) seceded from the Union.