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Harriet Tubman escapes to Philadelphia
Harriet had already resolved to free herself and after making sure her brothers were safe, she parted north. Later she would come for the rest of her family and bring them to freedom. -
The Fugitive Slave Act
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was part of the Compromise of 1850. The act required that slaves be returned to their owners, even if they were in a free state.: -
Uncle Tom's Cabin published
He wrote a book -
Kansas-Nebraska Act Stephen Douglas
The Kansas-Nebraska Act allowed each territory to decide the issue of slavery on the basis of popular sovereignty. -
Dred Scott Decision
The Dred Scott decision was the Supreme Court's ruling on March 6, 1857, that having lived in a free state and territory did not entitle a slave, Dred Scott, to his freedom -
Abraham Lincoln debates
When Lincoln and Douglas debates the slavery extension issue in 1858, therefore, they were addressing the problem that had divided the nation into two hostile camps and that threatened the continued existence of the Union -
John Brown attacks Harper's Ferry
Abolitionist John Brown leads a small group on a raid against a federal armory in Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia), -
South Carolina Secedes
When the ordinance was adopted on December 20, 1860, South Carolina became the first slave state in the south to declare that it had seceded from the United States. -
Abraham Lincoln Elected
In a four-way contest, the Republican Party ticket of Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin emerged triumphant -
The Confederacy is formed
the states farthest south, where slavery and plantations agriculture were dominant, formed the Confederate States of America with Jefferson Davis as President. They established their capital at Montgomery, Alabama and took over federal forts on their territory.
