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The First Issue of the Liberator
An antislavery newspaper started by William Lloyd Garrison that had great influence on the abolitionists movement. It called for an immediate end to slavery. The Liberator started in 1831 and ended in 1865. -
Compromise of 1850 is passed
Proposed by Henry Clay. It said that California would be a free state, new territories would have no limit on slavery and slave trade would be illegal in Washington, D.C. It also introduced the Fugitive Slave Act, which says anyone who helps a fugitive could be fined or imprisoned. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin is Published
Uncle Tom's Cabin was written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, that showed slavery was a cruel and unjust thing. Uncle Tom's Cabin was about a slave, and in the end of the book the slave was beaten to death. -
Kansas Nebraska ACT Passed
Proposed by Steven Douglass in 1854. Popular Sovereignty would decide if slavery was allowed in the Kansas and Nebraska territories. It also repealed the Missouri Compromise. -
James Buchanan is sworn into office as 15th president
James Buchanan was a Democratic candidate in the presidential election of 1856. He received 174 electoral votes while the other candidates received 114 votes and 8 votes. -
Dred Scott Decision
Dred Scott, an enslaved person who lived many years in free states, says that he should be free. His case went up to the Supreme Court. The court had a chance to question slavery. The Supreme Court's Justice was in favor of slavery, so he said that the constitution supports slavery. He also said that being on free soil doesn't change that you are property. He wrote that the Missouri compromise was unconstitutional. The anti-slavery people were outraged, while the pro-slavery people were happy. -
John Brown's Raid at Harper's Ferry
John Brown led a raid that targeted the federal arsenal. He hoped African Americans would be armed and revolt against slave owners. Brown was tried and convicted of treason and was hanged. -
Abe Lincoln is elected President
Abraham Lincoln is from Illinois, and was the Republican candidate in the election of 1860. The Republican party wanted leave slavery where it was and ban it in the territories. The Democratic Party was split in two over the debate of slavery. In the north Lincoln won every electoral vote, and in the south his name didn't even appear. Lincoln won the election. -
South Carolina secedes from the Union
South Carolina became the first slave state in the south to declare that it had seceded from the United States. More states secede from the Union later to create the Confederate States of America. The states that have seceded are shown in this picture. -
Battle at Fort Sumter
Major Anderson gave a message to Lincoln that stated they were low on supplies and that the confederates demanded for the forts surrender. Lincoln responded by sending an unarmed group with supplies to the fort. President Davis sent orders to attack the fort before the supplies arrived. Fort Sumter surrendered, and Lincoln called for troops. -
First Battle of Bull Run
The first major battle in the Cival War. The Battle of Bull Run took place in Virginia. Irvrin McDowell's inexperienced large army of the Union vs. The General P.G.T. Beauregard's smaller forces and their reinforcements. Union was on offensive and Confederates stood their ground. After the Union attacked, and the Confederates counterattacked and Union troops retreated to Washington. McDowell was blamed for Union loss and replaced by General George McCellan. -
Emacipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation freed all enslaved people on January 1, 1863. The Emancipation Proclamation did not change the lives of all slaves overnight. Some enslaved people living in the Border States remained in slavery. Other slaves remained under control of their owners in the South wait for a Union victory before becoming free. The Emancipation Proclamation declared slavery to be wrong, and Union victory would end slavery in the United States. -
Battle of Gettysburg
By Gettysburg, Pennsylvania a fight broke out when Confederate troops ran into the Union cavalry. Lee rushed 25000 soldiers to Gettysburg. The Union army was pushed back 80000 soldiers arrived that night. Two days afterword, Lee ordered the South cannons to fire to pave way for 15000 men. Union stopped firing to trick the South to walk in their fire then they used the cannons. The North won, and their victory was costly more than 25000 casualties for South and North was about 23000 casualties. -
Sherman's March into the Sea
General Sherman and his troops marched to the port of Savannah on the way Sherman's troops destroyed many things on their way. Sherman's army met 10,000 Confederate soldiers at the port, General William J. Hardee abandoned city. Sherman marched through the Carolinas to meet General Grant's troops, the troops also destroyed any important property along their path, a very controversial method. -
Surrender at Appomattox Court House
Grant had asked Lee to surrender. Lee was thinking not to surrender at first then he realized that his army was starving and the Union trapped them. Grant met with Lee in Appomattox Court House, Virginia. Then Grant offered his terms: Lee's officers could keep their small firearms, and any soldier with a horse could keep it. No one would harm the soldiers as they went home. Grant also gave 25,000 rations of food to feed Lee's troops. The Cival War ended in a happy way -
Lincoln's Assination
On April 14, 1865 Abraham Lincoln was shot. As Lincoln enjoyed a play at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C., an actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln in the head. Hours later, Lincoln died.
