timeline for the period of the 1850's

By jessie257

  • fugitive slave law enacted

    resourseCongress passes the first fugitive slave law, requiring all states, including those that forbid slavery, to forcibly return slaves who have escaped from other states to their original owners.

  • virginia & kentucky resolutions written

    resoursepolitcal statesments drafted in 1798 and 1799. the kentucky amd virginia legilatives took the position that the federal alien and sediton acts were unconstionalional

  • hartford convention meets during war of 1812

    recourseA meeting was held in Hartford, Connecticut to consider the problems of New England in the War of 1812

  • south carolina tries to nullify

    resourseCongress passed a high protective tariff that infuriated the southern states because they felt it only benefited the industrialized north

  • tariff of abominations passed

    resourse The tariff sought to protect New England manufacturing interests and western agricultural products from competition with foreign imports

  • abolition of slavery act

    resourseAfter the passing of Abolition of the Slave Trade Act in 1807, British captains who were caught continuing the trade were fined £100 for every slave found on board

  • texas declares independence from mexico

    resourseThe Texas Declaration of Independence was produced, literally, overnight. Its urgency was paramount, because while it was being prepared, the Alamo in San Antonio was under seige by Santa Anna's army of Mexico

  • james polk elected

    resoursejames accepted the demorcratic parties nomination for the presidently. was not very well known. he won the election on november, 5, 1844.

  • mexican war

    resoursewas an armed conflict between the United States of America and Mexico from 1846 to 1848 in the wake of the 1845 U.S. annexation of Texas, which Mexico considered part of its territory despite the 1836 Texas Revolution.

  • wilmot proviso

    recourseamendment to a bill put before the U.S. House of Representatives during the Mexican War; it provided an appropriation of million to enable President Polk to negotiate a territorial settlement with Mexico Read more: Wilmot Proviso — Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/history/wilmot-proviso.html#ixzz2B5JTJTL2

  • california enters the union

    resourseMexico and the United States signed a treaty which ended the Mexican War and yielded a vast portion of the Southwest, including present day California, to the United States

  • formation of republican party

    resourseThe founding event of the Republican Party is a matter of some dispute. Some point to a mass meeting in Ripon, Wisconsin in March 1854; others cite a later gathering in Jackson, Michigan.

  • publication of uncle toms cabin

    resourseUncle Tom’s Cabin was officially published. By the time the book came out an eager public was waiting to buy it, and over 10,000 copies of the two-volume work were sold in the first week

  • missouri compromise

    resoursein 1820 a law was passed admitting missouri as a slave state and in maine as a free state.

  • kansas-nebraska act passed

    reosurseIt allowed people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders

  • "border ruffians" attack lawerence

    The Border Ruffians were pro-slavery activists from the slave state of Missouri, who in 1854 to 1860 crossed the state border into Kansas Territory, to force the acceptance of slavery there.

  • charles sumner attacked

    resourse...in 1856, Preston Brooks, a congressman from South Carolina, viciously attacked Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner on the floor of the United States Senate

  • pottawatomie creek

    resourse Brown entered the pro-slavery town of Pottawatomie Creek. Armed with rifles, knives, and broadswords, Brown and his band stormed the houses of his enemies

  • dred scott decision announced

    resourseIn March of 1857, the United States Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, declared that all blacks -- slaves as well as free -- were not and could never become citizens of the United States.

  • lecomptom constitution passed

    When the Kansas territory was ready to seek admission to the Union in 1857, the key issue was whether it would be a free state or a slave state. The pro-slavery forces won control of the constitutional convention, which met in the town of Lecompton in September of that year. The complicated fight over the pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution manifested the sectional tension that would erupt in the Civil War three years later

  • lincoln-douglas debates

    resourseThe Lincoln–Douglas Debates of 1858 were series of seven debates between Abraham Lincoln, the Republican candidate for the Senate in Illinois, and the incumbent Senator Stephen Douglas, the Democratic Party candidate...

  • raid at harpers ferry

    resourseJohn Brown's plan seemed fairly straightforward: he and his men would establish a base in the Blue Ridge Mountains from which they would assist runaway slaves and launch attacks on slaveholders.

  • formation of constitiutional union party

    resourseThe Constitutional Union Party (also known as the "Bell-Everett Party" in California) was a political party in the United States created in 1860. It was made up of conservative former Whigs who wanted to avoid disunion over the slavery issue

  • election of 1860

    resourseThe Democrats met in Charleston, South Carolina, in April 1860 to select their candidate for President in the upcoming election.

  • democrats split in 1860

    resourseBy the election of 1860 profound divisions existed among Americans over the future course of their country, and especially over the South's "peculiar institution," slavery

  • democrats split in 1860