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Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise was passed in 1820 admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state in an effort to preserve the balance of power in Congress between slave and free states, -
Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was five separate bills passed by Congress in 1850.The Compromise also allowed the United States to expand its territory by accepting California as a state. California was a territory rich in gold, agricultural products and other natural resources that would create wealth and enrich the country as a whole. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin was an anti-slavery novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. It was published in 1852 and the novel had a great effect on attitudes towards African Americans and slavery in the U.S. and is said to have "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War" -
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´. -
Dred Scott v. Sanford
Dred Scott v. Sandford, was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court held that the Constitution of the United States was not meant to include American citizenship, -
Lincoln’s Election
Lincoln ran on a political platform opposed to the expansion of slavery in the territories. His election served for the outbreak of the American Civil War. -
Fort Sumter
Early in the morning of April 12, 1861, Confederate guns around the harbor opened fire on Fort Sumter. At 2:30 pm on April 13th, Major Robert Anderson,surrendered the fort. -
Battle of Antietam
The Battle of Antietam was one of the most important events of the American Civil War.The battle ended the Confederate invasion of Maryland in 1862 and resulted in a Union victory. It also led to President Abraham Lincoln issuing the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862. -
Emancipation Proclamation
President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of the bloody civil war. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free." -
Battle of Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg,is considered the most important engagement of the American Civil War. After a great victory over Union forces at Chancellorsville, General Robert E. Lee marched his Army of Northern Virginia into Pennsylvania 1863. -
Sherman’s March to the Sea
The purpose of Sherman's March to the Sea was to frighten Georgia's civilian population into abandoning the Confederate cause. Sherman's soldiers did not destroy any of the towns in their path, but they stole food and livestock and burned the houses and barns of people who tried to fight back. -
Surrender at Appomattox, VA
The Battle of Appomattox Court House, fought in Appomattox County, Virginia, on the morning of April 9, 1865, was one of the last battles of the American Civil War. -
Lincoln's Assassination
Lincoln never lived to enact this policy. He died the following morning on April 15, 1865. As a result, new state governments formed across the South and enacted “black codes.” -
Reconstruction Amendments
Between 1865 and 1870, the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution were ratified to establish political equality for all Americans. Together, they are known as the Reconstruction Amendments. -
Reconstruction Ends
Republicans had quietly given up their fight for racial equality and blacks' rights in the south. In 1877, Hayes withdrew the last federal troops from the south, and the bayonet-backed Republican governments collapsed, thereby ending Reconstruction.
