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Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was neither underground nor a railroad. The Underground Railroad was the term used to describe a network of persons who helped escaped slaves on their way to freedom in the northern states or Canada. Click here! -
Invention of Cotton Gin
Eli Whitney patented the Cotton Gin, a machine that revolutionized the production of cotton by greatly speeding up the process of removing seeds from cotton fiber. Click here! -
Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise was an effort by Congress to defuse the sectional and political rivalries. -
Wilmot Proviso
The Wilmot Proviso proposed an American law to ban slavery in territory acquired from Mexico in the Mexican War. Click here! -
Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 consisted of laws admitting California as a free state, creating Utah and New Mexico territories with the question of slavery in each to be determined by popular sovereignty. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act was an 1854 bill that mandated “popular sovereignty," allowing settlers of a territory to decide whether slavery would be allowed within a new state’s borders. -
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'Bleeding Kansas'
'Bleeding Kansas' is the term used to described the period of violence during the settling of the Kansas territory. -
Dred Scott Decision - Primary Source
The United States Supreme Court issues a decision in the Dred Scott case, affirming the right of slave owners to take their slaves into the Western territories. -
John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry - Primary Source
In the month of October, 1859, the U.S. military arsenal at Harper's Ferry was the target of an assault by an armed band of abolitionists led by John Brown. -
Election of 1860
Republican Abraham Lincoln defeated Southern Democrat John Breckinridge, Democrat Stephen Douglas, and Constitutional Union candidate John Bell. -
Fort Sumter is fired upon
Fort Sumter is an island fortification located in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. Fort Sumter is most famous for being the site of the first shots of the Civil War. Click here! -
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Secession of Southern States
The Confederate States of America consisted of the governments of eleven Southern states that seceded from the Union in 1860-1861, carrying on all the affairs of a separate government and conducting a major war until defeated in the spring of 1865.
