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The Great Divide
The Rise of Sectionalism and how the country was divided over time -
The Cotton Gin
In 1794 and inventor name Eli Whitney patented the cotton gin, a machine that revolutionize the production of cotton by greatly speeding up the process removing the seeds from the cotton fibers. -
The Embargo act of 1807
The Embargo Act of 1807 was a general embargo that made illegal any and all exports from the United States. It was sponsored by President Thomas Jefferson and enacted by Congress -
Missouri Compromise
Congress reached a serious of agreements which became know as the Missouri Compromise. Missouri was admitted as a slave state and Maine a free State to preserve Congressional balance. -
Tariff of Abominations
Tariff of 1828" was a protective tariff passed by the Congress of the United States on May 19, 1828, designed to protect industry in the northern United States. It was labeled the Tariff of Abominations by its southern detractors because of the effects it had on the antebellum Southern economy. -
Nate Turners Rebellion
In August of 1831, a slave named Nat Turner incited an uprising that spread through several plantations in southern Virginia. Turner and approximately seventy cohorts killed around sixty white people. The deployment of militia infantry and artillery suppressed the rebellion after two days of terror. -
The Wilmot Proviso
The Wilmot Proviso was a piece of legislation proposed by David Wilmot (D-FS-R PA) at the close of the Mexican-American War. If passed, the Proviso would have outlawed slavery in territory acquired by the United States as a result of the war, which included most of the Southwest and extended all the way to California. -
The Mexican War Ended
The ending of the Mexican war, america ceded western territory, this posed a problem -
The Compromise of 1850
With national relations soured by the debate over the Wilmot Proviso, senators Henry Clay and Stephen Douglas managed to broker a shaky accord with the Compromise of 1850. The compromise prevented further territorial expansion of slavery while strengthening the Fugitive Slave Act, a law which compelled Northerners to seize and return escaped slaves to the South. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom’s Cabin was the second-best-selling book in America in the 19th century, second only to the Bible. Its popularity brought the issue of slavery to life for those few who remained unmoved after decades of legislative conflict and widened the division between North and South. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 (10 Stat. 277) created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, opening new lands for settlement, and had the effect of repealing the Missouri Compromise of 1820 by allowing white male settlers in those territories to determine through popular sovereignty whether they would allow slavery within each territory. -
Bleeding Kansas
The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, narrowly passed while Congressmen brandished weapons and uttered death threats in the House chambers, overturned parts of the Missouri Compromise by allowing the settlers in the two territories to determine whether or not to permit slavery by a popular vote. -
The Dredd Scott Case
Dred Scott was a Virginia slave who tried to sue for his freedom in court. The case eventually rose to the level of the Supreme Court, where the justices found that, as a slave, Dred Scott was a piece of property that had none of the legal rights or recognitions afforded to a human being. -
John Brown's Raid
John Brown cut his teeth as a killer as an anti-slavery “Jayhawker” during Bleeding Kansas. In mid-October of 1859, the crusading abolitionist organized a small band of white allies and free blacks and raided a government arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Virginia. He hoped to seize weapons and distribute them to Southern slaves in order to spark a wracking series of slave uprisings. -
Election of 1860
The Election of 1860 demonstrated the divisions within the United States just before the Civil War. The
election was unusual because four strong candidates competed for the presidency. Political parties of the
day were in flux. The dominant party, the Democratic Party, had split into two sectional factions, with
each promoting its own candidate. The Republican Party was relatively new; 1860 was only the second
time the party had a candidate in the presidential race. The Constitutional Union -
South Carolina Secedes from the Union
The force of events moved very quickly upon the election of Lincoln. South Carolina acted first, calling for a convention to SECEDE from the Union. State by state, conventions were held, and the CONFEDERACY was formed. -
Abraham Lincoln's Election
Abraham Lincoln was elected by a considerable margin. despite not being included in many southern ballot. As a Republican, his part anti-slavery outlook struck fear in many southerners. -
The Battle of Fort Sumter
Confederate warships open a 36 hou bombardment on fort sumterand the garrison surrender on April 14. the civil war was underway Pres. Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteer to join the northern army. Virgina, North Carolina, Arkansas and Tennessee dissolve their ties to the federal government.
