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Underground Railroad
A secret network of people who would hide fugitive slaves. "Conductores" hid fugitives and provided them food and clothing. -
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CivilWar Timeline
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Compromise of 1850
California was admitted to the Union as a free state. It aslo allowed popular sovereignty, the right to vote for or against slavery. -
Harriet Beecher Stowe and Uncle Tom's Cabin
Harriet Beecher Stowe published her novel that stressed slavery was just mot a political contest,but also a moral struggle. -
The Dred Scott decision
The supreme court ruled that being in free territory did not make a slave free. By the fifth Amendment, slaves are property and property is protected. -
Harper's Ferry, John Brown's Raid
John Brown studied the slave uprising that had occurred in ancient Rome. He led a band of 21 men to seize the federal aresenal to start a general slave uprising. Public reaction to his execution was intense in both section of the country. -
Abraham Lincoln’s Election
Due to southern hostility against him, he didn’t appear in most ballots from south. He won with less than half the popular vote and no electoral votes from south. -
Secession of the South(formation of the Confederacy)
Lincoln’s victory convinced Southerners that they had lost their political voice in national government. South Carolina first secede from the union and soon Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas followed. -
Fort Sumter
By the time of the Lincoln’s inauguration, only 4 southern forts remained in Union hands which Fort Sumter was one of them. Lincoln decided to neither abandon the fort nor reinforce it. It was the first battle of the Civil War. -
Income Tax
The war had a positive effect on north’s economy but on the other side, in south, inflation rate rose 7000 percent. Congress decided to help pay for the war by collecting the nation’s first income tax, a tax that takes a specified percentage of an individual’s income. It was part of the Revenue act of 1861. -
Emancipation Proclamation
Lincoln’s powers as commander in chief allowed him to order his troops to seize enemy resources, so he could authorize the army to emancipate slaves. It gave the war a moral purpose by turning the struggle into a fight to free the slaves. -
Conscription
The war led to social and political unrest. So, both north and south imposed a draft that forced men to serve in the army. -
The Gettysburg Address
A ceremony held to dedicate a cemetery in Gettysburg for the lives lost in the Civil War. Lincoln’s speech helped the country to realize that it was not just a collection of individual states; it was one unified nation. -
Surrender At Appomattox
After the conquering Confederate capital by Union troops, in a Virginia town called Appomattox Court House, Lee and Grant met at a private home to arrange a Confederate surrender. The terms were generous which made the remaining Confederate resistance collapse in months and the war was over after 4 long years. -
Lincoln’ Assassination
It was the first time that a president of the United States had been assassinated. John Wilkes Booth assassinated president Lincoln in Ford Theatre in Washington.
