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Period: Dec 31, 1559 to
Slavery History Timeline 6th Hour
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1560
The Start of The Middle Passage
The middle passage was the route taken between Africa and The United States. Sailors would sail to Africa to pick up Africans and bring them to America to be slaves. The slaves would be tightly packed into boats with no room to move around. They had to lay down side by side and they weren't allowed to move even to use the bathroom. Many didn't survive the trip. They did this so they could have as much "cargo" as they could. -
Start of The Underground Railroad
The underground railroad wasn't actually a train system. Instead, it was a network of abolitionists and other people who were against slavery that would help slaves escape to the free northern states and Canada. Escaped slaves would go from house to house at night being helped by "conductors". One of the most famous of these conductors was Harriet Tubman. She escaped slavery on the railroad and went back to the south 19 different times to help other slaves escape. -
The Fugitive Slave Clause
The Fugitive Slave Clause was a law that was passed to stop run away slaves. It stated that run away slaves or indentured servants were to be returned to their masters and were not free of charge after passing the state line. It made it much harder for slaves to run away and made the Underground Railroad much more important. -
Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise was the compromise that balanced the power between free states and slave states in congress. It declared Maine as a free state and Missouri as a slave state. -
Nat Turner's Rebellion
Turner's rebellion was a rebellion of Virginian slaves led by Nat Turner. They killed about 60 white slave owners and their families. The rebels did this to send a message to other slaves owners to watch out. -
The End of The Middle Passage
The middle passage lost important when slavery became illegal in The United States and Britain which removed the demand for slaves. -
The Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was a handful of laws past that dealt with slavery and border disputes. One year before California wanted to join the union as a free state, which would unbalance the free state to slave state ratio. It balanced it out. In addition, it also settled arguments about boarders between Texas the New Mexico. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin was a novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. It was published in 1852 and told of the horrors of slavery. It was written to inform people in the north about what was going on in the south with slavery. It was the second best selling book in the 19th century. -
The Kansas-Nebraska Act/Bleeding Kansas
The Kansas-Nebraska Act was a law passed in 1854 that got rid of the Missouri Compromise. It made two new separate territories and allowed popular sovereignty which allowed the people to choose whether they were a free state or a slave state. This led to Bleeding Kansas a violent uprising where slavery supporters and abolitionist rushed to convince people to vote for their believes. -
The Dred Scott Case
The Dred Scott Case was a lawsuit between a slave Dred Scott and his owner. He and his wife filled lawsuits for their freedom on the account that their owner didn't have the right to enslave them because they had been taken to two different free states meaning that they had been legally freed. How ever the lawsuit lasted 11 years and they lost. The Dred Scott case was one of the many things that encouraged many abolitionists. -
John Brown's Raid
On October 16, 1859 John Brown attempted to start a major slave rebellion in the south. He lead a small army into the Harper's Ferry, Virginia. He succeed for a little while but the slaves he relied on to help him didn't. He was soon arrested and tried for treason and was hung. The choice that John Brown made unfortunately gave a bad impression of what abolitionist believe in. -
The End of The Underground Railroad
After the civil war and President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation the Underground Railroad was no longer needed. -
The Emancipation Proclamation
After the civil war over slavery between the north and the south the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in Washington D.C. by Abraham Lincoln making it so all slaves were free abolishing slavery.
