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Slave Trade
Slaves were introduced to Jamestown. This is the first occurence of slavery in America. -
Three Fifths Compromise
The South wanted to include slaves to be included to benefit in taxes and voting. If slaves were counted as one person the North would be hugely outnumbered in Congress so they created the compromise in which a slave would be counted as only three fifths of a person. -
Missouri Compromise
Each state and territory were to decide if they would allow slavery or not. It prohibited slavery in the former Louisiana Territory north of the parallel 36°30' north except within the boundaries of the proposed state of Missouri -
Compromise of 1850
Series of Acts that helped decide if the new territory received from the Mexican war was to be a free or slave state. The Compromise ended the slave trade in America, but slavery continued. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Kansas and Nebraska both wanted to become states but the issue was if it would be a slave or free state. It was decided to use popular sovereignty to determine the fate of the two areas. Antislavery and proslavery parties rushed over and a series of battles took place. Eventually Congress made them both free states. -
Dred Scott Decsion
Dred Scott, a slave, trialed against his owner when he was taken to a free state claiming that he should be free since they were in a free state. The case was taken up to the Supreme Court, but Scott lost the case and did not win his freedom by the reasoning that slaves were property and not citizens. The decision caused growing tension between the North and South. -
Emancipation Proclamation
Issued by President Lincoln the proclamation stated that all slaves under the confederacy were to be made free. It did not include the border state slaves. In reality it didn't free any slaves at all. -
Thirteenth Amendment
All slaves were freed and slavery was made illegal in the United States. Blacks still did not have the same civil rights as whites and discrimination continued. -
Fourteenth Amendment
Congress passed the Fourteenth Amendment which gave everyone who was born in the United States citizenship which included blacks and the same rights as other americans. -
Fifteenth Amendment
The Fifteenth Amendment protected blacks rights to vote. States couldn't deny the blacks rights to be able to vote no matter what race they were. -
Plessy Vs. Ferguson
Homer Plessy was arrested for sitting in a car only for white people. Plessy was seven eighths white and only one eighth black, but was still considered black. Plessy claimed they were breaking the 13th and 14th amendment but it was ruled by the Supreme Court that they could be treated seperate but equally.
