Early American Discrimination

  • Massacre at Mystic

    Massacre at Mystic
    The Mystic Massacre of 1637 (also known as the Pequot Massacre) was the pivotal event of the Pequot War (1636-1638) in New England fought between the English (along with their Native American allies the Mohegan and Narragansett tribes) and the Pequot tribe of modern-day Connecticut.
  • The Scalp Act

    The Scalp Act
    In April of 1756, Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor Robert Morris enacted the Scalp Act. Anyone who brought in a male scalp above the age of 12 would be given 150 pieces of eight or the equivalent of $150. For females above the age of 12 or males under the age of 12, they would be paid $130. The scalp of an Indian woman earned a payment of $50. The military effectiveness of a scalp bounty wasn’t tabulated based on the number of actual scalps.
  • The 3/5ths Compromise

    The 3/5ths Compromise
    It determined that three out of every five slaves were counted when determining a state's total population for legislative representation and taxation. Before the Civil War, the Three-Fifths Compromise gave a disproportionate representation of slave states in the House of Representatives.
  • Slave Trade Ends in the United States

    Slave Trade Ends in the United States
    An act of Congress passed in 1800 made it illegal for Americans to engage in the slave trade between nations, and gave U.S. authorities the right to seize slave ships which were caught transporting slaves and confiscate their cargo. Then the "Act Prohibiting the Importation of Slaves" took effect in 1808
  • Battle of Tippecanoe

    Battle of Tippecanoe
    The Battle of Tippecanoe was fought between American soldiers and Native American warriors along the banks of the Keth-tip-pe-can-nunk, a river in the heart of central Indiana. Following the Treaty of Fort Wayne, an 1809 agreement requiring Indiana tribes to sell three million acres of land to the United States government, a Shawnee chief named Tecumseh, organized a confederation of Native American tribes to combat the horde of pioneers flooding into native lands.
  • The Missouri Compromise

    The Missouri Compromise
    This so-called Missouri Compromise drew a line from east to west along the 36th parallel, dividing the nation into competing halves—half free, half slave. The House passed the compromise bill on March 2, 1820.
  • Indian Removal Act

    Indian Removal Act
    The Indian Removal Act marked the completion of ethnically cleansing Indigenous peoples from east of the Mississippi River. In the years that followed, subsequent federal policies would continue to uproot Indigenous peoples, clear the way for additional U.S. expansion, and remove Native peoples from their communities.
  • Trail of Tears

    Trail of Tears
    In 1830 it was endorsed when Congress passed the Indian Removal Act to force those remaining to move west of the Mississippi. Between 1830 and 1850, about 100,000 American Indians living between Michigan, Louisiana, and Florida moved west after the U.S. government coerced treaties or used the U.S. Army against those resisting. Many were treated brutally. An estimated 3,500 Creeks died in Alabama and on their westward journey. Some were transported in chains. This went on from 1831 to 1850
  • Nat Turner Rebellion

    Nat Turner Rebellion
    an enslaved preacher and self-styled prophet named Nat Turner launched the most deadly slave revolt in the history of the United States. Over the course of a day in Southampton County, Turner and his allies killed fifty-five white men, women, and children as the rebels made their way toward Jerusalem (now Courtland).
  • The Fugitive Slave Act

    The Fugitive Slave Act
    The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was part of the Compromise of 1850. The act required that slaves be returned to their owners, even if they were in a free state. The act also made the federal government responsible for finding, returning, and trying escaped slaves.
  • Dred Scott Decision

    Dred Scott Decision
    In this ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court stated that enslaved people were not citizens of the United States and, therefore, could not expect any protection from the federal government or the courts. The opinion also stated that Congress had no authority to ban slavery from a Federal territory.
  • Emancipation Proclamation

    Emancipation Proclamation
    President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free."
  • !3th Amendment

    !3th Amendment
    The 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution states, "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime of which the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."
  • 14th Amendment

    14th Amendment
    No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
  • 15th Amendment

    15th Amendment
    the 15th Amendment, enacted in 1870, appeared to signify the fulfillment of all promises to African Americans. Set free by the 13th Amendment, with citizenship guaranteed by the 14th Amendment, Black males were given the right to vote by the 15th Amendment.
  • Battle of Little Bighorn

    Battle of Little Bighorn
    The battle was a momentary victory for the Lakota and Cheyenne. The death of Custer and his troops became a rallying point for the United States to increase their efforts to force native peoples onto reservation lands. It took place on June 25–26, 1876.
  • Battle of Wounded Knee

    Battle of Wounded Knee
    A violent conflict occurred when Native Americans of the northern Plains took place on December 29, 1890. Government officials banned a growing religion known as the Ghost Dance on a South Dakota reservation that month. As part of the crackdown against the Ghost Dance, soldiers from the Seventh U.S. Cavalry Regiment arrested a band of Lakota who were traveling toward the Pine Ridge Reservation and confined them to a camp near Wounded Knee Creek.
  • Plessy vs. Ferguson

    Plessy vs. Ferguson
    A case in which the Court held that state-mandated segregation laws did not violate the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
    Went from Apr 13, 1896 – May 18, 1896