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Missouri Compromise
Under leadership of James Monroe, Maine was made a free state and Missouri a slave state while the rest were split into two by the 36'30 parallel -
Santa Fe Trail
780 miles from Independence, Missouri to Santa Fe, New Mexico whereas American traders used this to load their covered wagons with goods and set off to Santa Fe. -
San Felipe de Austin
Main settlement between the Brazos and Colorado rivers made by Stephen F. Austin because his father had received a land grant from Spain to establish a colony. -
The Liberator
William Lloyd Garrison publishes a newspaper that delivered an uncompromising demand: immediate emancipation. -
Mexico abolishes slavery
Southerners bring their slaves to Texas and Mexico insists that Texans free their slaves -
Nat Turner's Rebellion
Some slaves rebelled against their condition of bondage. Turner and more than 50 followers attacked four plantations and killed about 60 whites. Whites eventually captured and executed many members of the group. -
Stephen F. Austin goes to jail
Santa Anna imprisons Austin for inciting revolution by traveling to Mexico City in 1833 and presenting petitions for greater self-government for Texas. -
Texas Revolution
Determined to force Texas to obey Mexican law, Santa Anna marched his army toward San Antonio. At the same time, Austin and his fol- lowers issued a call for Texans to arm themselves. -
Oregon Trail
Stretched from Independence, Missouri to Oregon City, Oregon and was first traveled along by Marcus and Narcissa Whitman. Their travel proved that wagons could travel on the Oregon Trail. -
Manifest Destiny
expressed the belief that the U.S. was ordained to expand to the Pacific Ocean and into Mexican and Native American territory -
Texas enters the United States
Most Texans hoped that the United States would annex their republic, but U.S. opinion divided along sectional lines. -
Mexican-American War
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. A border skirmish along the Rio Grande started off the fighting and was followed by a series of U.S. victories. -
The North Star
Douglass began his own antislavery newspaper. He named it after the star that guided runaway slaves to freedom -
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. -
Compromise of 1850
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. -
Harriet Tubman
After Tubman’s owner died, she heard rumors that she was about to be sold. Fearing this possibility, Tubman decided to make a break for freedom and succeeded in reaching Philadelphia. -
Fugitive Slave Act
Alleged fugitive slaves were not entitled to a trial by jury. In addition, anyone con- victed 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, which stressed that slavery was not just a political contest, but also a great moral struggle. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Douglas introduced a bill in Congress that would divide the area into two territories: Nebraska in the north and Kansas in the south. -
Dred 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. Scott lacked any legal standing to sue in federal court because he was not, and never could be, a citizen. -
Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglass Debates
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
He believed that the time was ripe for similar uprisings in the United States. His aim was to seize the federal arsenal there and start a general slave uprising. -
Abraham Lincoln becomes president
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.” Nonetheless, many Southerners viewed him as an enemy. -
Formation of the Confederacy
Delegates from the secessionist states met in Montgomery, Alabama, where they formed the Confederate States of America, or Confederacy. -
Attack on Fort Sumter
As soon as the Confederacy was formed, Confederate soldiers in each secessionist state began seizing federal installations—especially forts. By the time of Lincoln’s inauguration, only four Southern forts remained in Union hands. News of Fort Sumter’s fall united the North. -
Battle of Bull Run
The Union army gained the upper hand, but the Confederates held firm, inspired by General Thomas J. Jackson. The Confederates were too exhausted to follow up their victory with an attack on Washington. -
Battle of Antietam
McClellan ordered his men to pursue Lee, and the two sides fought near a creek called the Antietam. The clash proved to be the bloodi- est single-day battle in American history, with casualties totaling more than 26,000. -
Emancipation Proclamation
Lincoln decided that, just as he could order the Union army to take Confederate supplies, he could also authorize the army to emancipate slaves. Emancipation was not just a moral issue; it became a weapon of war. The proclamation gave the war a moral purpose by turning the struggle into a fight to free the slaves. -
Battle at Gettysburg
The most decisive battle of the war was fought. Buford ordered his men to take defensive positions on the hills and ridges surrounding the town. When Hill’s troops marched toward the town from the west, Buford’s men were waiting. The shooting attracted more troops and both sides called for reinforcements. -
Gettysburg Address
A ceremony was held to dedicate a cemetery in Gettysburg. There, President Lincoln spoke for a little more than two minutes. -
Battle at Vicksburg
Union general Ulysses S. Grant fought to take Vicksburg, one of the two remaining Confederate strongholds on the Mississippi River. Vicksburg itself was particularly important because it rested on bluffs above the river from which guns could control all water traffic. The Union had achieved another of its major military objectives, and the Confederacy was cut in two. -
Sherman's March
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. After reaching the ocean, Sherman’s forces—followed by 25,000 former slaves—turned north to help Grant “wipe out Lee.” -
Aboltion
The movement to abolish slavery, became the most important of a series of reform movements in America. -
Underground Railroad
Started by Harriet Tubman because her owner was dying. Free African Americans and white abolitionists developed a secret network of people and escape routes that would, at great risk to themselves, hide fugitive slaves. -
Thirteenth Amendment
“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.” -
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox and five days after, Lincoln and his wife went to Ford’s Theatre in Washington to see a British comedy, Our American Cousin. John Wilkes Booth was the first to assassinate a president of the United States. The Civil War had ended. Slavery and secession were no more. -
Surrender at Appomattox Courthouse
Lee and Grant met at a private home to arrange a Confederate surrender. 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. -
Conscription
A draft that forced men to serve in the army -
Income Tax
A tax that takes a specified percentage of an individual’s income.
