Unit 5 (1844-1877) : Chapters 18-22

By Leanne Foss

  • William Lloyd Carrison launches "The Liberator"

    In 1831, Garrison published the first edition of The Liberator. His words, "I am in earnest — I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD," clarified the position of the new abolitionists.

  • Nat Turner Leads A Slave Revolt In Virginia

    Rebel slaves killed anywhere from 55 to 65 people, the highest number of fatalities caused by any slave uprising in the Southern United States.

  • American Anti-Slavery founded in Boston

    Campaigned that slavery is illegal under natural law, and sees the Constitution "a covenant with hell."

  • Sarah Grimke's Letter on the Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Women

    In her Letter on the Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Women, Sarah Grimke argues Catharine Beecher’s defense of the subordinate role of women.

  • Frederick Douglass Publish the "North Star"

    The most influential black antislavery paper published during the antebellum era, used to not only denounce slavery, but to fight for the emancipation of women and other oppressed groups.

  • Women's Rights Convention at Seneca Falls, New York

    Advertised itself as "a convention to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of woman."

  • Harriet Tubman Escapes From Slavery

    Harriet and her brothers, Ben and Henry, escaped from the Poplar Neck Plantation. Ben and Henry had second thoughts and returned to the plantation. The newspaper The Cambridge Democrat published a $300 reward for the return of Harriet and her two brothers. Harriet travelled 90 miles to Pennsylvania, a free state, using the Underground Railroad.

  • Fugitive Slave Act Passed

    A pair of federal laws that allowed for the capture and return of runaway slaves within the territory of the United States.

  • Sojorner Truth's "Ain't I a Woman?"

    Sojorner Truth's short, simple speech was a powerful rebuke to many antifeminist arguments of the day and became, and continues to serve, as a classic expression of womens rights.

  • Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin"

    Changed forever how Americans viewed slavery, the system that treated people as property.

  • Republican Party Founded

    Members of the Whig Party (party created to oppose "tyranny" against Andrew Jackson) meet to establish a new party to oppose the spread of slavery into the western territories.

  • Kansas-Nebraska Act Passed

    Mandated “popular sovereignty”–allowing settlers of a territory to decide whether slavery would be allowed within a new state’s borders.

  • Civil War in Kansas known as "Bleeding Kansas"

    In early 1855, Kansas’ first election proved a violent affair, as more than 5,000 so-called Border Ruffians invaded the territory from western Missouri and forced the election of a pro-slavery legislature.

  • Charles Sumner Beating

    Representative Preston Brooks slammed his metal-topped cane onto the unsuspecting Sumner's head because of his "Crime Against Kansas" speech.

  • Supreme Court's Dred Scott Decision

    Affirmed the right of slave owners to take their slaves into the Western territories, thereby negating the doctrine of popular sovereignty and severely undermining the platform of the newly created Republican Party.

  • Lecompton Constitution Rejected by Congress

    Contained clauses protecting slaveholding and a bill of rights excluding free blacks, and it added to the frictions leading up to the U.S. Civil War.

  • Lincoln-Douglass Debates

    The debates previewed the issues that Lincoln would face in the aftermath of his victory in the 1860 presidential election, one being the role of slavery in the United States.

  • John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry

    Brown had hopes that the local slave population would join the raid and through the raid’s success weapons would be supplied to slaves and freedom fighters throughout the country; this was not the case.

  • Election of 1860

    The Democratic Party split into three groups along regional lines, each vying for control of the party and each holding different ideas about how to deal with slavery in the West.

  • Henry Highland Garnet's "Address to the Slaves of the United States of America"

    The speech failed by one vote of being endorsed by the convention.