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Henry Highland Garnet's "Address to the Slaves of the United States of America"
Garnet was an African-American abolitionist, minister, educator and orator. He became an advocate of militant abolitionist. He was a minister and based his drive for abolitionism in religion. -
William Lloyd Garrison Published The Liberator
The Liberator supported anti-slavery and helped give power to abolitionists. William Lloyd Garrison was attacked and dragged through the streets because of his viewpoints on slavery and his connection to The Liberator. -
Nat Turner Slave Revolt
Was the only effective, sustained slave rebellion in U.S. history. Spreading terror throughout the white South, Turner action set off a new wave of oppressive legislation prohibiting the education, movement, and assembly of slaves and stiffened proslavery, antiabolitionist convictions that persisted in that region until the American Civil War -
American Anti-Slavery Society Begins
The American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS; 1833–1870) was an abolitionist society founded by William Lloyd Garrison and Arthur Tappan. -
Sarah Grimke's Letters on the Equality of the Sexes and Conditions of Women published
Sarah Grimké began as an advocate for the immediate abolition of slavery. Soon she found herself defending women's rights as well in order to advance her primary cause. ... First was the notion that women were subordinate to men by God's decree. -
Women's Rights Movement at Seneca Falls
Woman's Rights Convention, the Seneca Falls Convention fought for the social, civil and religious rights of women. It was the first convention like this and was held in New York -
Harriet Tubman Escapes from Slavery
After Harriet Tubman escaped from slavery, she returned to slave-holding states many times to help other slaves escape. She led them safely to the northern free states and to Canada. It was very dangerous to be a runaway slave. -
Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 consists of five laws passed in September of 1850 that dealt with the issue of slavery -
Fugitive Slave Act
The Fugitive Slaves Acts were a pair of federal laws that allowed for the capture and return of runaway slaves within the territory of the United States. -
Sojourner Truth Delivered her “Ain’t I a Woman” Speech
"Ain't I a Woman?" is the name given to a speech, delivered extemporaneously, by Sojourner Truth, (1797–1883), born into slavery in New York State. Some time after gaining her freedom in 1827, she became a well known anti-slavery speaker. -
Harriet Beecher Stowe Published Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin specifically in order to illustrate the evil and inhumanity of slavery to her mid-19th century American readers, for whom slavery was a current and heated political issue. -
Bleeding Kansas
Small civil war in the United States, fought between proslavery and antislavery advocates for control of the new territory of Kansas under the doctrine of popular sovereignty -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
It allowed people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders. -
Republican Party Founded
Founded in 1854 as a coalition opposing the extension of slavery into Western territories, the Republican Party fought to protect the rights of African Americans after the Civil War. -
Creation of the Radical Republicans
The Radical Republicans believed blacks were entitled to the same political rights and opportunities as whites. They also believed that the Confederate leaders should be punished for their roles in the Civil War. -
Dred Scott Decision
Dred Scott case, affirming the right of slave owners to take their slaves into the Western territories, therebynegating the doctrine of popular sovereignty and severely undermining the platform of the newly created Republican Party. -
Lecompton Constitution
The Lecompton Constitution, the second constitution drafted for Kansas Territory, was written by proslavery supporters. The document permitted slavery (Article VII), excluded free blacks from living in Kansas, and allowed only male citizens of the United States to vote. -
Panic of 1857
The Panic of 1857 was a nation economic depression caused, principally, by Europe's declining purchase of U.S. agricultural products -
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
Lincoln-Douglas debates, series of seven debates between the Democratic senator Stephen A. Douglas and Republican challenger Abraham Lincoln during the 1858 Illinois senatorial campaign, largely concerning the issue of slavery extension into the territories. -
John Brown’s Raid on Harper’s Ferry
Abolitionist John Brown leads a small group on a raid against a federal armory in Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia), in an attempt to start an armed slave revolt and destroy the institution of slavery. -
Democratic Party Splits into Northern and Southern Halves
In the Election of 1860, the Democratic Party split into two parties, the Northern Democratic Party and the Southern Democratic Party. By the late 1850s, the Democratic Party was split over the issue of slavery. -
South Carolina Secedes from the Union
South Carolina was the first of 11 states to secede at the beginning of the Civil War. Shortly after President Abraham Lincoln was elected from the Republican Party in late 1860, South Carolina voted to secede. -
Abraham Lincoln Elected President
Abraham Lincoln is elected the 16th president of the United States over a deeply divided Democratic Party, becoming the first Republican to win the presidency. -
Confederate States of America Founded
Representatives from South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana met in Montgomery, Alabama, with representatives from Texas arriving later, to form the Confederate States of America. -
Firing on Fort Sumter
The Battle of Fort Sumter was the bombardment of Fort Sumter near Charleston, South Carolina by the Confederate States Army, and the return gunfire and subsequent surrender by the United States Army, that started the American Civil War. -
Battle of Antietam
Beginning early on the morning of this day in 1862, Confederate and Union troops in the Civil War clash near Maryland's Antietam Creek in the bloodiest single day in American military history. The Battle of Antietam marked the culmination of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's first invasion of the Northern states. -
Battle of Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg, which became the largest battle ever fought in the U.S., started out as a chance encounter between the Union and Confederate Forces. After his victory at Chancellorsville in Virginia, Confederate commander Lee decided to focus on invading the North in what he called the Gettysburg Campaign. -
Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation granted freedom to the slaves in the Confederate States if the States did not return to the Union -
Gettysburg Address
A speech delivered by Abraham Lincoln. It was a dedication of Soldier's National Cemetery, a cemetery for Union soldiers killed at the Battle Of Gettysburg during the American Civil War. -
General U.S. Grant Assumed Command of Union Troops
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Sherman’s March to the Sea
Union General William T. Sherman led some 60,000 soldiers on a 285-mile march from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia. The purpose of Sherman's March to the Sea was to frighten Georgia's civilian population into abandoning the Confederate cause -
Abraham Lincoln Reelected
Lincoln reelected during Civil War: Lincoln ran under the umbrella of the National Union Party, composed of Republicans and “War Democrats.” He was the first president to be reelected since Democrat Andrew Jackson in 1832. -
Lincoln Assassination
A murderous attack on Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States was at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C by John Wilkes Booth -
Congress Passed the 13th Amendment
The U.S. House of Representatives passes the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery in America.The amendmentread, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude…shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” -
Lee Surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House
Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to Union General Ulysses S. Grant. ... But the resulting Battle of Appomattox Court House, which lasted only a few hours, effectively brought the four-year Civil War to an end. -
Andrew Johnson Became President
With the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson became the 17th President of the United States (1865-1869), an old-fashioned southern Jacksonian Democrat of pronounced states' rights views. -
Johnson Announced Plans for Presidential Reconstruction
This program offered general amnesty to all who would take an oath of future loyalty. The plan, however, called for high-ranking Confederate officials or any wealthy white Southerner to petition the president personally for individual pardons. -
Arrival of Scalawags and Carpetbaggers in the South
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Ku Klux Klan formed
The Ku Klux Klan was one of a number of secret, oath-bound organizations using violence, which included the Southern Cross in New Orleans (1865) and the Knights of the White Camelia (1867) in Louisiana. -
Freedman’s Bureau Established
It was an agency of the United States Department of War to "direct such issues of provisions, clothing, and fuel, as he may deem needful for the immediate and temporary shelter and supply of destitute and suffering refugees and freedmen and their wives and children. -
Civil Rights Act Passed over Johnson’s Veto
The Civil Rights Act (1866) was passed by Congress on 9th April 1866 over the veto of President Andrew Johnson. The act declared that all persons born in the United States were now citizens, without regard to race, color, or previous condition. -
First Congressional Reconstruction Act passed
The Reconstruction Act was the name given to a series of four laws or statutes passed by Congress in 1867 and 1868 that overrode the presidential veto of Andrew Johnson -
14th Amendment Ratified
The 14th amendment is a very important amendment that defines what it means to be a US citizen and protects certain rights of the people. -
Andrew Johnson Impeached
The impeachment of President Andrew Johnson was the result of political conflict and the rupture of ideologies in the aftermath of the American Civil War. It arose from uncompromised beliefs and a contest for power in a nation struggling with reunification. -
15th Amendment Ratified
The 15th Amendment to the Constitution granted African American men the right to vote by declaring that the "right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." -
U.S. Grant Elected President
The United States presidential election of 1868 was the 21st quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 3, 1868. In the first election of the Reconstruction Era, Republican nominee Ulysses S. Grant defeated Democrat Horatio Seymour. -
Slaughterhouse Cases (Supreme Court)
It was the first United States Supreme Court interpretation of the U.S. Constitution's Fourteenth Amendment which had recently been enacted. In effect, the amendment was interpreted to convey limited protection pertinent to a small minority of rights. -
U.S. v. Cruikshank
An important United States Supreme Court decision in United States constitutional law. It was one of the earliest to deal with the application of the Bill of Rights to state governments following the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment. -
Period of “Redemption” after the Civil War
A period of U.S. history, from 1865 to 1877, during which the nation tried to resolve the status of the ex-Confederate states, the ex-Confederate leaders, and freedmen (ex-slaves) after the American Civil War. -
Compromise of 1877
The Compromise of 1877 was an informal, unwritten deal, that settled the intensely disputed 1876 U.S. presidential election. It resulted in the United States federal government pulling the last troops out of the South, and formally ended the Reconstruction Era.
