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Cotton Gin is invented
This caused a resurgence in the need for slaves because the cotton plantations needed cheapa ndproductive labour. -
Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise was an agreement passed in 1820 between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery groups in the United States Congress, involving primarily the regulation of slavery in the western territories. 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
Daniel Webster, John Calhoun and Henry Clay met and created a conpromise which stated that California would be admitted as a free state, in new former Mexican territories the locals would decide whether they wanted slavery or not, and in Washington DC the slave trade was banned, however slavery was still legal. -
Passage of the Fugitive Slave Act
The fugitive slave act was also in the Compromise of 1850, and it stated that the Federal government was required to apprehend and return fugitive slaves to their masters. In addition, anybody found to be helping or providing aid to fugitive slaves could be penalized.
In many large cities, the people enrages by this act openly harassed anybody pursuing escaped slaves, and crowds freed imprisoned slaves. Abolitionist efforts were re-doubled to get the slaves to Canada, where they weren't hunted. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin is published
This book was written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, and was written from the unheard of sympathetic perspective of a Black Slave who was seperated from his family. It created a lot of unrest in the North, where it was a bestseller, and it was banned on the South. Men could be put in prison for having the bok in their possession -
Bleeding Kansas
Kansas and Nebraska were forming, and it was decreed that the locals would determine whether or not there would be slavery in the new states. Pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers rushed in with support from the east and looted and burned the homes of each other. This was a nini-version of the war to come. -
Dred Scott decision
The slave Dred Scott had moved with his owner to one of the free states, and upon moving back to one of the slave states, he sued for his freedom. The court told him he was not a citizen, and therefore could not bring his case before the court. The judge also stated that the federal government had no right to take away a man's property unjustly, and slaves were property. -
Republican party is formed with Lincon at the head
After Lincoln debates with Douglas, Lincoln is appointed head of the Republican Party. -
John Brown's raid of Harper's Ferry
John Brown was a radical abolitionist, and believed that violence was the only way to eradicate slavery. He first murdered several pro-slavery settlers in Kansas, and then raised funds and volunteers and raided the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry. A brief battle ensued against Robert E. Lee, and Brown was executed after being tried. -
South Carolina secedes
The South thought that the ecection proved a threat to the very survival of their society, and decided to secede. Six other states seceded as well over the next few weeks. -
Jefferson Davis is elected President of the CSA
Jefferson said that the secession was in keeping with the Declaration of independance, in that the governed must give consent to be governed. The South did not give consent, and so should be allowed to secede. -
Abraham Lincoln is elected president
Between John Breckinridge (Southern Democrat), Abraham Lincoln (Republican), Stephen Douglas (Northern Democrat) and John Bell (Constitutional Union) it was a very torn election, In the end, Lincoln was voted President of the United Stated, which was instrumental into the cause of the Secession. -
Fort Sumter is taken by the South
This was the first hostile movement in the Civil War after disputed of what was to become of government land and forts, as well as naval bases. Lincoln used the raid of this fort to rally the people against the South in order to garner support for the war. -
Battle of Bull Run
Lincoln urged his generals to be more decisive, and so the Union army marched on the confederated capitol, but was sorely beat by the Confederate army. -
invasion of Virginia
Commander McClellan launches invasion, but is beat again by the Confederate Army. -
Union stops Confederates on their way to Washington
After finding general Lee's plan wrapped around a bundle of cigars, the Union was able to stop the advance before it reached Washington. -
Emancipation Proclamation
This was designed to rally more support for the war from the North, as well as pleasing the abolitionists. It also enabled black men to fight in the Union Army, and almost 200,000 did. It declared that all slaves would be freed in the states which were rebelling against the Union, namely part of the Confederacy. The slaves in the states not rebelling were not to be freed however. -
Battle of Gettysburg
In a final effort to draw Britian into the war, the Confederates marched into Union territory and fought for three days against the Union army. The Union army prevailed, winning the Mississippi River with the battle, now having a direct route into the confederacy. -
Robert E. Lee surrenders
Lee abandoned Davis in the beginning of April when the Union army was closing in on Richmond. Jefferson Davis was captured a month later. -
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
Lincoln was shot at Ford's theatre by a Confederate sympathizer named John Wilkes Booth. The whole plan was to kill the vice president as well, but the other assassin's efforts failed. Lincoln would be followed be his Vice President Andrew Johnson.