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Nat Turner's Rebellion 1831-1832
Was a slave rebellion that took place in Southampton County, Virginia, in August 1831. Turner and his followers started at his master's house and killed the entire family. They marched throughout Southampton County in Virginia, killing at least 55 people until white authorities crushed the revolt. Turner avoided capture for nearly two months before he was caught. -
Texas Revolution 1835-1836
Texas Revolution, war fought from October 1835 to April 1836 between Mexico and Texas colonists that resulted in Texas's independence from Mexico and the founding of the Republic of Texas. This revolution was a rebellion of colonists from the United States and Tejanos (Hispanic Texans) against the centralist government of Mexico in the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas. -
The Mexican-American War
The war was fought because of a disputed boundary line between Texas and the United States. President Polk antagonized Mexico to start the war when he ordered soilders into the Nueces strip. The U.S won and got the territory that would become California, Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, plus parts of Colorado and Wyoming. This new territory caused conflict over whether slavery should expand and continue in the west which continued into and during the Civil War. -
Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was a series of measures proposed by U.S. Senator Henry Clay and passed by the U.S. Congress to settle several issues connected to slavery and avert the threat of dissolution of the Union. This was a political tension over whether new territories would allow slavery. -
Bleeding Kansas 1854-1859
Bleeding Kansas describes the period of repeated outbreaks of violent guerrilla warfare between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces following the creation of the new territory of Kansas in 1854. In all, some 55 people were killed between 1855 and 1859. -
Caning of Charles Sumner 1856
The caning of Charles Sumner, or the Brooks–Sumner Affair, in the United States Senate chamber, when Representative Preston Brooks, a pro-slavery Democrat from South Carolina, used a walking cane to attack Senator Charles Sumner, an abolitionist Republican from Massachusetts. -
Dred Scott Decision
1846-1857. In its 1857 decision that stunned the nation, the United States Supreme Court upheld slavery in United States territories, denied the legality of black citizenship in America, and declared the Missouri Compromise to be unconstitutional. -
John Brown's Raid on Harpers Ferry 1859
On October 16, 1859 John Brown, a staunch abolitionist, and a group of his supporters left their farmhouse hide-out en route to Harpers Ferry. Descending upon the town in the early hours of October 17th, Brown and his men captured prominent citizens and seized the federal armory and arsenal. -
Election of Abraham Lincoln 1860
Lincoln won a popular majority in the North, and a nationwide plurality of the popular vote, but his national share of 39.7 percent of the popular vote is to date the lowest for any winner except for 1824 (which was decided by a contingent election, a special vote held in the U.S. House of Representatives). -
American Civil War 1861-1865
The American Civil War was a four-year conflict between the Union and the Confederacy that began in 1861 and ended in 1865. The war was fought over states' rights, economics, and the issue of slavery.