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Compromise of 1850
Henry Clay created this in an act to compromise between the North and South. The Fugitive Slave Act was passed and slave trade in Washington D.D. was abolished. -
Kansas Nebraska Act
This allowed people in Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders. -
Dred Scott Case
The court found that no black, free or slave, could claim U.S. citizenship, and therefore blacks were unable to petition the court for their freedom. The Dred Scott decision incensed abolitionists and heightened North-South tensions, which would erupt in war just three years later. -
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
The series of debates between Stephen A. Douglas and Abraham Lincoln were considered some of the "most significant statements in American political history." The issues they discussed were of critical importance to the sectional conflict over slavery and states’ rights as well as introducing deeper questions that would continue to influence political discourse. -
Confederate States of America Formed
Confederate States of America was a republic of 11 Southern states that seceded from the Union in order to preserve slavery, states’ rights, and political liberty for whites. -
Civil War Begins
Confederate troops fired on Fort Sumter in South Carolina's Charleston Harbor, and less than 34 hours later, Union forces surrendered. -
Bull Run
After fighting on the defensive near Bull Run for most of the day, the rebels were able to break the Union right flank, sending the Federals into a retreat towards Washington. The Confederate victory gave the South confidence and shocked the North, who realized the war would not be won as easily as they had hoped. -
Battle of Antietam
Generals Robert E. Lee and George McClellan faced off near Antietam creek in Sharpsburg, Maryland, in the the 1st battle of the American Civil War to be fought on northern soil. -
Emancipation Proclamation
Lincoln declared that as of January 1, 1863, all slaves in the rebellious states “shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.” While the Emancipation Proclamation did not free a single slave, it was an important turning point in the war. -
Freedman's Bureau
Established to help former black slaves and poor whites in aftermath of civil war. -
Lee Surrenders at Appomattox
On April 9, 1865, near the town of Appomattox Court House, Virginia, 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. -
13th Amendment
The 13th Amendment declared that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." -
KKK
The KKK was established with goals to destroy the Republican Party, throw out Reconstruction Governments, aid planter class, and prevent African Americans from exercising political rights. -
14th Amendment
This determined that all persons born in the U.S. were citizens and that they were not to be deprived of life, liberty, or property without process of law. -
15th Amendment
This amendment 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."
