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Invention of the cotton gin
Eli Whitney moved from Massachusetts to Georgia, initially to assume the position of a private tutor on a plantation. While on the plantation, he noticed that planters needed a new efficient way to separate the seeds from the cotton. With this idea on mind, the cotton gin was created, and later patent in 1794. -
Missouri Compromise
In 1820 there was an effort by the U.S Senate and House of Representatives to maintain a balance of power between free states and slave states. The slave staves were fearful of the possibility that if they became outnumbered in representatives in Congress that would lack the power to protect property and trade. Link -
Tariff of 1828 & Nullification Crisis
Confrontation between the state of South Carolina and the federal government in 1832–33 over the former’s attempt to declare null and void within the state the federal Tariffs of 1828 and 1832. The resolution of the nullification crisis in favor of the federal government helped to undermine the nullification doctrine, the constitutional theory that upheld the right of states to nullify federal acts within their boundaries. -
The Liberator is Published
The Liberator was a weekly newspaper, written by an abolitionist crusader, William Lloyd Garrison. The Liberator was the most influential antislavery periodical in the pre-Civil War period. The Liberator represented the opinion of the Northerners mostly. Click -
Nat Turner's Rebellion
Nat Turner was a black American slave who led the only effective slave rebellion. Nat and six other slaves killed the Travis family then managed to secure arms and horses. 75 other slaves were also enlisted in a disorganized insurrection which resulted in the murder of 51 white people. -
Wilmot Proviso
The Wilmot Proviso was designed to eliminate slavery within the land acquired as a result of the Mexican War.Soon 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. -
Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 consisted of laws admitting California as a free state. It also created Utah and New Mexico territories with the question of slaves in each to be determined by popular sovereignty. The compromise settled a Texas-New Mexico boundary dispute. Click -
Uncle Tom's Cabin Is Published
Uncle Tom's Cabin is a novel which showed the horrible truth of slavery and how it is generally one major cause of the Civil War. Written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. -
Kansas- Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act was an 1854 bill that mandated “popular sovereignty”. This allowed settlers of a territory to decide whether slavery would be allowed within a new state’s borders. The bill was proposed by Stephen A. Douglas. -
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'Bleeding Kansas'
'Bleeding Kansas' was a small civil war in the United Stated fought between pro-slavery and antislavery. Free-soil forces from the North formed armed emigrant associations to populate Kansas, while pro-slavery advocates poured over the border from Missouri. -
Brooks-Sumner Event
The Brooks- Sumner Even is know as the "world's greatest deliberative body" became a combat zone. In one of the most dramatic and deeply ominous moments in the Senate's entire history, a member of the House of Representatives entered the Senate chamber and savagely beat a senator into unconsciousness. Here -
Dred Scott Decision
Dred Scott's decision was affirming the right of slave owners to take their slaves into the Western territories, there-by-negating the doctrine of popular sovereignty and severely undermining the platform of newly created Republican Party. -
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Lincoln- Douglas Debates
The seven debates Stephan A. Douglas and Abraham Lincoln during the Illinois state election campaign are the most significant statements in American political history. The issues they discussed were both critical importance but also touched deeper questions -
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John Brown's Raid on Harper Ferry
In an attempt to destroy the institution of slavery, John Brown led a small group on a raid against an armory in Harper Ferry, Virginia. On October 16, 1859, Brown and his followers overran the arsenal, rounding up hostages. On October 17, 1859, Colonel Robert E. Lee and Lieutenant J. E. B. Stuart led marines to surround them. Soldiers overran Brown and his followers , killing ten of the men including two of his son, on the morning of October 19,1859 Click -
Election of 1860
Republican Abraham Lincoln defeated Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge, Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, and Constitutional Union candidate John Bell. The electoral split between Northern and Southern Democrats was emblematic of the severe sectional split. -
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Secession of Southern States
The series of events from December 20, 1860 through June 8 of the next year when eleven states in the Lower and Upper South severed their ties with the Union.The first seven seceding states of the Lower South set up a provisional government at Montgomery, Alabama. After hostilities began at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor on April 12, 1861, the border states of Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina joined the new government, which then moved its capital to Richmond, Virginia. -
Fort Sumter is fired upon
An island, located in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, is known as the first shots of the Civil War. At 4:30 a.m. on April 12, the Confederate guns fired in the direction of the fort, for thirty-three hours. Here
