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Three-Fifths Compomise
an agreement to count three-fifths of a state's slaves in apportioning Representatives, Presidential electors, and direct taxes -
Missouri Compromise
Missouri requests admission to the Union as a slave state. To do this would upset the balance between slave states and free states. To keep the peace, Missouri's request was approved, but Maine was admitted as a free state. -
Nat Turner Rebellion
Slave rebellion that took place in Southampton County, Virginia, during August 1831.[1] Led by Nat Turner, rebel slaves killed anywhere from 55 to 65 white people, the highest number of fatalities caused by any slave uprising in the American South. The rebellion was put down within a few days, but Turner survived in hiding for more than two months afterwards. The rebellion was suppressed at Belmont Plantation on the morning of August 23, 1831 -
Fugitive Slave Act
Enacted by Congress in 1793, the first Fugitive Slave Act authorized local governments to seize and return escaped slaves to their owners and imposed penalties on anyone who aided in their flight. -
Dred Scott v. Sandford
Dred Scott was a slave in Missouri. From 1833 to 1843, he resided in Illinois (a free state) and in an area of the Louisiana Territory, where slavery was forbidden by the Missouri Compromise of 1820. After returning to Missouri, Scott sued unsuccessfully in the Missouri courts for his freedom, claiming that his residence in free territory made him a free man. Scott then brought a new suit in federal court. Scott's master maintained that no pure-blooded Negro of African descent and the descendant -
John Brown Rebellion
John Brown was a radical abolitionist who believed in the violent overthrow of slavery. During the Bleeding Kansas conflicts, Brown and his sons led attacks on pro-slavery residents. He became a hero to Northern extremists. -
Emancipation Proclamation
An order isssued by Abraham Lincoln which approved the freedom of slaves. -
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
The assassination of United States President Abraham Lincoln took place on Good Friday, as the American Civil War was drawing to a close. The assassination occurred five days after the commander of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, General Robert E. Lee, surrendered to Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant and the Union Army of the Potomac. Lincoln was the first US president to be assassinated. The assassination of Lincoln was planned and carried out by stage actor John Wilkes Booth. -
The 13th Amendment
Abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. It was passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864, by the House on January 31, 1865, and adopted on December 6, 1865. On December 18, 1865, Secretary of State William H. Seward proclaimed it to have been adopted. It was the first of the three Reconstruction Amendments adopted following the American Civil War. -
The 14th Amendment
Adopted on July 9, 1868 as one of the Reconstruction Amendments. The amendment addresses citizenship rights and equal protection of the laws, and was proposed in response to issues related to former slaves following the American Civil War. -
The 15th Amendment
Prohibits the federal and state governments from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude". It was ratified on February 3, 1870, as the third and last of the Reconstruction Amendments. -
Plessy v. Ferguson
The state of Louisiana enacted a law that required separate railway cars for blacks and whites. In 1892, Homer Adolph Plessy--who was seven-eighths Caucasian--took a seat in a "whites only" car of a Louisiana train. He refused to move to the car reserved for blacks and was arrested.
