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Cotton Gin
Modern historians dispute the beginning of slavery as an issue in America. However, as slavery was beginning to die out, the cotton industry was suddenly reinvigorated, leading to issues between the northern and southern states. Therefore, slavery in America began to be an issue with the invention of the cotton gin. -
Congress bans the importation of slaves from Africa
The U.S. Congress passes an act to “prohibit the importation of slaves into any port or place within the jurisdiction of the United States…from any foreign kingdom, place, or country.” -
Fight or Flight
The American Colonization Society is founded to help free blacks resettle in Africa. -
Balancing act
The Missouri Compromise forbids slavery in the Louisiana territory north of Missouri's Southern border. Under its terms, Maine is admitted to the Union as a free state and Missouri as a slave state. -
Rise of the Abolition Movement
1830s to the 1860s, a movement to abolish slavery in America gained strength in the northern United States, led by free blacks such as Frederick Douglass and white supporters such as William Lloyd Garrison -
The debate intensifies
Nat Turner, an enslaved Baptist preacher believing himself divinely inspired, leads a violent rebellion in Southampton, Virginia. At least 57 whites are killed. -
Gains and loses
New York City hosts the first National Anti-Slavery Society Convention. -
Personal properties vs. Personal liberties
In the case of Prigg v. Pennsylvania, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that the 1793 Fugitive Slave law is constitutional, while state personal liberty laws make unconstitutional demands on slave owners. Enforcement of the Fugitive Slave law is declared the federal government's responsibility, not the states' -
Forms of opposition
Anti-slavery groups organize the Free Soil Party, a group opposed to the westward expansion of slavery from which the Republican Party will later be born. -
pro slavery advances
The Compromise of 1850 admits California to the Union as a free state, allows the slave states of New Mexico and Utah to be decided by popular sovereignty, and bans slave trade in D.C. -
'Uncle Tom's Cabin' is Published
The book was very widely read, and helped to shape public opinions on slavery. -
Dred Scott v. Sandford
The Supreme Court made the Dred Scott Decision, ruling that slaves were sub-human, and therefore had no rights to citizenship. -
First American Ironclad enters battle
The first American Ironclad enters the fray fighting for the South. The newly minted ship demolishes the wooden boats of the North and lead the South to several victories. -
Start of the Civil War
The South and North finally meet on the battlefield. The North has better equipement, but less trained soldiers while the North is its opposites in both respects. -
Emancipation Proclamation
third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free. -
13th Amendment Passed
The practice of slavery in the United States was outlawed.
