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Cotton Gin
1794 U.S.- born inventor Eli Whitney patented the cotten gin, a machine that revolutionized the production of cotton by greatly speeding up the process of removing seeds from cotten fiber. The cotton gin provided slave owners with more money since cotton could be produced at a higher speed. -
the Embargo Act
A general Embargo that made any and all exports from the Unites States illegal. It was sponsored by President Thomas Jefferson and enacted by Congress. The goal was to force Britain and France to respect American rights during the Napoleonic Wars. -
Missouri Compromise
An effort by Congress to defuse the sectional and political rivalries triggered the request of Missouri late in 1819 for admission as a state in which slavery would be permitted. -
the Tariff of Abominations
Sought to protect northern and western agricultural products from competition with foreign imports. -
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 sovereighty. -
South Carolina secedes from Union
The People of the State of South Carolina, in Convention assembled, on the 26th day of April, A.D. 1852, declared that the frequent violations of the Constitution of the United States, by the Federal Government, and its encroachments upon the reserved rights of the States, fully justified this State in then withdrawing from the Federal Union -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
An anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. -
the Kansas-Nebraska Act
Allowing settlers of a territory to decide whether slavery would be allowed within a new stae's borders, proposed by Stephen A. Douglas. -
Bleeding Kansas
In 1854 the Kansas-Nebraksa Act overturned the Missouri Compromise’s use of latitude as the boundary between slave and free territory and instead, using the principle of popular sovereignty, decreed that the residents would determine whether the area became a free state or a slave state. Violence soon erupted as both factions fought for control. -
Dred Scott vs Sanford
The Supreme Court ruled that Americans of African descent, whether free or slaves, were not, American citizen and could not sue in federal court. -
John Brown's Raid
John Brown led a small army of 18 men into the small town of Harper's Ferry, Virginia. His plan was to instigate a major slave rebellion in the South. -
the Election of 1860
The Democrats met in Charleston, South Carolina, to select their candidate for President in the upcoming election. It was turmoil. Northern democrats felt that Stephen Douglas had the best chance to defeat the "BLACK REPUBLICANS."
