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US declares independence
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Louisiana Purchase
Doubles the size of the United States -
Missouri Compromise
Between North and South: The compromise limits slavery to the South -
Underground railroad
Slaves by the thousands escape to the north -
Trail of Tears
Andrew Jackson ignores the Supreme Court and forces Indians to give up their lands and march 2,000 miles west. The Cherokee lands were given to American farmers to grow cotton, which required more slave labor -
War with Mexico
The Us takes all western states from Mexico. The fight begins over slavery in the new states gained from Mexico -
Harriet Tubman escapes
Tubman becomes a conductor helping other escape and a voice for the enslaved -
Fugitive slave law
The South forces a law which allows slaves to be pursued anywhere they escape to -
Dred Scott loses case
Supreme Court rules that slavery is permanent, cannot be banned, and African descent have no inherent rights. -
Lincoln vs Douglas debates
Lincoln becomes a senator after the debates with pro-slavery opponent. -
Eleven Southern states secede
All Southern states declare they have left the United States and are now a separate country called the Confederacy -
Lincoln elected President
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South Carolina secedes
The state is the first to leave the United States over slavery after Lincoln elected -
The Picnic Battle of Bull Run
Lincoln declares a 90-day war to keep the country together, but the North loses the first battle while politicians watch and picnic -
Emancipation Proclamation
Lincoln states that all enslaved people are now free -
Last slaves freed in Texas
US army arrives in Texas and tells slaves they are free: Texas kept slaver even after it was illegal. Juneteenth celebrates the day the last people were freed -
Robert E Lee surrenders
to Ulysses S. Grant and the Civil War ends -
Sherman's march to the sea
General Sherman invents "total war" as he destroys everything in his path