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Underground Railroad
Underground Railroad
The underground railroad was a vast network of people who helped fugitive slaves escape to the North and to Canada, was not run by any single organization or person. The system grew, and around 1831 it was dubbed "The Underground Railroad," after the then emerging steam railroads. The system even used terms used in railroading: the homes and businesses where fugitives would rest and eat were called "stations -
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Leading to the Civil War
Leading to the Civil War -
Invention of cotton gin
invention of cotton gin
Eli Whitney created the cotton gin. The cotton gin is the production of cotton by greatly speeding up the process of removing seeds from cotton fiber. At first it was the sucessful then slavery expanded which was a bad thing. -
Missouri Compromise
Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise was to keep the peace. Congress orchestrated a two-part compromise, granting Missouri’s request but also admitting Maine as a free state. -
Tariff of 1828 and Nullification Crisis
The Tariff of 1828 and Nullification Crisis was a confrontation between South Carolina and the federal government. The crisis ensued after South Carolina declared that the federal Tariffs of 1828 and 1832 were unconstitutional and therefore null and void within the sovereign boundaries of the state. -
Nat Turner's Rebellion
Turner decided to march toward Jerusalem and that's how it all started. After spending the night near some slave cabins, Turner and his men attempted to attack another house. Several of the rebels were captured. In the end, the rebels had stabbed, shot and clubbed at least 55 white people to death. -
Wilmot Proviso
Wilmot Proviso
The Wilmot Proviso was designed to eliminate slavery within the land acquired as a result of the Mexican War. After the war began, President James K. Polk sought the appropriation of $2 million as part of a bill to negotiate the terms of a treaty. Pennsylvania Congressman David Wilmot proposed his amendment to the bill. -
Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five separate bills passed by the United States Congress. They dealt with the issue of slavery. In 1849 California requested permission to enter the Union as a free state, potentially upsetting the balance between the free and slave states in the U.S. Senate. 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. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The act was designed by Democratic Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois. The Kansas–Nebraska Act was to open up many thousands of new farms and make feasible a Midwestern Transcontinental Railroad. However, until the area was organized as a territory, settlers would not move there because they could not legally hold a claim on the land. The act let the people who live in Kansas and Nebraska to vote on the issue of slavery. -
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
Lincoln-Douglas Debate
In each debate either Douglas or Lincoln would open with an hour address. The other would then speak for an hour and a half. The first then had 30 minutes of rebuttal. In the seven debates, Douglas, as the incumbent, was allowed to go first four times. -
Election of 1860
Election of 1860
By the election of 1860 profound divisions existed among Americans over the future course of their country, and especially over the South's "peculiar institution," slavery. The Democratic Party was in disarray in 1860 when they convened in Charleston, South Carolina to choose their presidential candidate. -
Bleeding Kansas
"Bleeding Kansas"
The period of violence during the settling of the Kansas territory. Proslavery and free-state settlers flooded into Kansas to try to influence the decision. Violence soon erupted as both factions fought for control. -
Dred Scott Decision
Dred Scott was the name of an African-American slave. It was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court held that African Americans, whether enslaved or free, could not be American citizens.
