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Wilmot Proviso
The Wilmot Proviso proposed an American law to ban slavery in territory acquired from Mexico in the Mexican War. The conflict over the Wilmot proviso was one of the major events leading to the American Civil War. -
Compromise of 1850
Senator Henry Clay introduced a series of resolutions on January 29, 1850, in an attempt to seek a compromise and avert a crisis between North and South. As part of the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act was amended and the slave trade in Washington, D.C., was abolished. -
"Uncle Tom's Cabin" is first published
Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly, is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War", according to Will Kaufman. -
Kansas - Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed by the U.S. Congress on May 30, 1854. It allowed people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders. The Act served to repeal the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which prohibited slavery north of latitude 36°30´. -
John Brown's Massacre at Pottawatomie Creek
An antislavery settler that led seven men to a pro-slavery settlement and murdered 5 pro-slavery men and boys -
Dred Scott Decision
Dred Scott was an enslaved African American man in the United States who unsuccessfully sued for his freedom and that of his wife and their two daughters in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case of 1857, popularly known as the "Dred Scott Decision". -
Lincoln - Douglas Debate "A House Divided Against itself cannot stand."
The House Divided Speech was an address given by Abraham Lincoln, later President of the United States, on June 16, 1858 at what was then the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield, after he had accepted the Illinois Republican Party's nomination as that state's US senator. -
John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry, Virginia
John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry (also known as John Brown's raid or The raid on Harper's Ferry) was an effort by armed abolitionist John Brown to initiate an armed slave revolt in 1859 by taking over a United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. -
Abraham Lincoln is elected as a Republican President
On November 6, 1860, Lincoln was elected the 16th president of the United States, beating Douglas, Breckinridge, and Bell. He was the first president from the Republican Party. -
South Carolina Secedes from the Union
When the ordinance was adopted on December 20, 1860, South Carolina became the first slave state in the south to declare that it had seceded from the United States. ... — Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina, (December 24, 1860). -
Confederate States of America are formed
South Carolina was the first to secede, on December 20, 1860, followed by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas. On February 8, 1861, representatives of those states announced the formation of the Confederate States of America, with its capital at Montgomery, Alabama. -
Confederate Troops Fire at Fort Sumter, South Carolina
The American Civil War begins when Confederates fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor in South Carolina. ... After South Carolina seceded on December 20, 1860, the state demanded the fort be turned over but Union officials refused.
