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The Fugitive Slave Act Passes
The Fugitive Slave Act was passed as part of the Compromise of 1850. This act forced any federal official who did not arrest a freedom seeker to pay a fine -
Bleeding Kansas' Riots Shock Northerners
In 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed, allowing the Kansas and Nebraska territories to decide for themselves using popular sovereignty whether they wanted to be free or practice enslavement. -
John Brown Raids Harper's Ferry
John Brown was a dedicated activist who had been involved in anti-enslavement violence in Kansas. On Oct. 16, 1859, he led a group of 17, including five Black members, to raid the arsenal located in Harper's Ferry, Virginia -
The election of Abraham Lincoln
A member of the antislavery Republican Party as president in 1860 precipitated the secession of 11 Southern states leading to a civil war -
Abraham Lincoln Is Elected President
The election of Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln on Nov. 6, 1860, South Carolina followed by six other states seceded from the Union. -
Freedmen's Bureau
The Bureau was responsible for the supervision and management of all matters relating to the refugees and freedmen and lands abandoned or seized during the Civil War, duties previously shared by military commanders and US Treasury Department officials. -
Reconstruction Act of 1867
The Reconstruction Act of 1867 outlined the terms for readmission to representation of rebel states. The bill divided the former Confederate states, except for Tennessee, into five military districts. -
Impeachment of Andrew Johnson
The impeachment and trial of Andrew Johnson had important political implications for the balance of federal legislative-executive power. -
Panic of 1873
The Panic of 1873 was a financial crisis that triggered an economic depression in Europe and North America that lasted from 1873 to 1877. -
Compromise of 1877
The Compromise of 1877 was an informal agreement between southern Democrats and allies of the Republican Rutherford Hayes to settle the result of the 1876 presidential election and marked the end of the Reconstruction era.