-
Massacre at Mystic
A pre-dawn attack on Mystic Fort that left 500 adults and children of the Pequot tribe dead, the Pequot Massacre (or the “Mystic Massacre”) was the first defeat of the Pequot people by the English in the Pequot War, a three-year war instigated by the Puritans to seize the tribe's traditional land. -
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 3/5ths Compromise
The Three-Fifths Compromise was reached among state delegates during the 1787 Constitutional Convention. It determined that three out of every five slaves was counted when determining a state's total population for legislative representation and taxation. -
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 that 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, (November 7, 1811), a victory of a seasoned U.S. expeditionary force under Major General William Henry Harrison over Shawnee Indians led by Tecumseh's brother Laulewasikau (Tenskwatawa), known as the Prophet. -
The Missouri Compromise
An Act to authorize the people of the Missouri territory to form a constitution and state government, and for the admission of such state into the Union on an equal footing with the original states, and to prohibit slavery in certain territories. -
Indian removal act
The Indian Removal Act was signed into law by President Andrew Jackson on May 28, 1830, authorizing the president to grant unsettled lands west of the Mississippi in exchange for Indian lands within existing state borders. A few tribes went peacefully, but many resisted the relocation policy. -
Trail of Tears
In the 1830s the United States government forcibly removed the southeastern Native Americans from their homelands and relocated them to lands in Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma). This tragic event is referred to as the Trail of Tears. -
Nat Turner Rebellion
Nat Turner was tried in the Southampton County Court and sentenced to execution. He was hanged, and then skinned, on November 11. In total, the state executed 55 people, banished many more, and acquitted a few. The state reimbursed the slaveholders for their slaves. -
The Fugitive Slave Act
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
Missouri's Dred Scott Case, 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. -
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." -
13th 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, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. -
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
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude— Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. -
Battle of little bighorn
The engagement was one in a series of battles and negotiations between Plains Indians and U.S. forces over control of Western territory, collectively known as the Sioux Wars. In less than an hour, the Sioux and Cheyenne had won the Battle of the Little Bighorn, killing Custer and every one of his men. -
Battle of Wounded Knee
A gun was discharged and soldiers opened fire. When the shooting stopped, hundreds of Lakota men, women, and children were dead. The massacre site became a place of remembrance for Native Americans, and decades later Wounded Knee would be a rallying cry in struggles for Native American rights. -
Plessy vs. Ferguson
a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision ruling that racial segregation laws did not violate the U.S. Constitution as long as the facilities for each race were equal in quality, a doctrine that came to be known as "separate but equal".