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1st African Slaves Brought to North America
The 1st African Slaves arrived to work on tobacco plantations in Virginia. -
Period: to
Slavery Towards Reconstruction and Expansion
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Slave Population of US estimated 700,000
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Invention of Cottin Gin
A cotton gin is a machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, allowing for much greater productivity than manual cotton separation. -
Importation of Slaves Banned
The Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves of 1807 is a United States federal law that stated that no new slaves were permitted to be imported into the United States. It took effect in 1808, the earliest date permitted by the United States Constitution. This act, a part of the general trend toward abolishing the slave trade, ended the legality of the U.S.-based transatlantic slave trade. However, it was not always well enforced, and sla -
The Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise was passed in 1820 between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions in the United States Congress, involving primarily the regulation of slavery in the western territories. The 1820 passage of Missouri Compromise took place during the presidency of James Monroe. -
The Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five separate bills passed in the United States in September 1850, which defused a four-year confrontation between the slave states of the South and the free states of the North regarding the status of territories acquired during the Mexican-American War (1846–1848). The compromise, drafted by Whig Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky and brokered by Clay and Democrat Stephen Douglas, avoided secession or civil war and reduced sectional conflict for four years. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1851, the novel "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War." -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, opening new lands for settlement, and had the effect of repealing the Missouri Compromise of 1820 by allowing white male settlers in those territories to determine through popular sovereignty whether they would allow slavery within each territory. -
Dred Scott
A slave from Missouri who had moved with his master to the free state of Illinois and then to the free Wisconsin Territory.When they returned, Scott Dred sued for freedom. -
John Brown seizes federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia
Was an attempt by the white abolitionist John Brown to start an armed slave revolt in 1859 by seizing a United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. -
Slave population exceeds 4 million
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Secession
The election of the Republican Abraham Lincoln to the presidency prompted South Carolina and 10 other southern states to secede. -
Confederate States of America
Delegates from the seceded states assembled in Montgomery, Alabama to create the CSA, which would eventually incorporate 11 states. -
Fort Sumter
Was the bombardment and surrender of Fort Sumter, near Charleston, South Carolina, that started the American Civil War. -
Battle of Bull Run
Was the first major battle of the American Civil War. The Union forces were slow in positioning themselves, allowing Confederate reinforcements time to arrive by rail. Each side had poorly trained and poorly led troops in their first battle. It was a Confederate victory followed by a disorganized retreat of the Union forces. -
Trent Incidedent
The USS San Jacinto, commanded by Union Captain Charles Wilkes, intercepted the British mail packet RMS Trent and removed two Confederate diplomats.The envoys were bound for Great Britain to press the Confederacy’s case financial support for the Confederacy. -
The Homestead Act
The Homestead Acts were United States federal laws that gave an applicant ownership of land, typically called a "homestead", at little or no cost. In the United States, this originally consisted of grants totaling 160 acres of unappropriated federal land within the boundaries of the public land states. -
Bttle of Antietam, Maryland
Was the first major battle in the American Civil War to take place on Union soil. It is the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, with a combined tally of dead, wounded, and missing at 22,717. -
Emancipation Proclamation
It proclaimed the freedom of slaves in the ten states that were still in rebellion, thus applying to 3 million slaves in the U.S. at the time. The Proclamation was based on the president's constitutional authority as commander in chief of the armed forces; it was not a law passed by Congress. -
Battle of Gettysburg
The battle involved the largest number of casualties of the entire war and is often described as the war's turning point. Union Maj. Gen. George Meade's Army of the Potomac defeated attacks by Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, ending Lee's attempt to invade the North. -
Surrender of General Lee
The Battle of Appomattox Court House, was the final engagement of Confederate States Army General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia before it surrendered to the Union Army under Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. -
13th Amendment
The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. -
Lincoln's 2nd Inaugural Address
Lincoln set out a powerful vision for rebuilding the fractured nation when he took an oath for office for a 2nd time. he argued that suffering was caused by th sin of slavery. -
Lincoln's Assassination
United States President Abraham Lincoln was shot on Good Friday, April 14, 1865, while attending the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre as the American Civil War was drawing to a close. he was the 1st president to be assassinated. -
Reconstruction Act
After the end of the American Civil War, as part of the on-going process of Reconstruction, the United States Congress passed four statutes known as Reconstruction Acts. The actual title of the initial legislation was "An act to provide for the more efficient government of the Rebel States" and it was passed on March 2, 1867. -
Purhcase of Alaska
Russia wanted to sell its Alaskan territory, fearing that it might be seized if war broke out with Britain. Russia's primary activity in the territory had been fur trade and missionary work among the Native Alaskans. With the purchase of Alaska, the United States added 586,412 square miles of new territory. -
Treaty of Fort Laramie
Created the Great Sioux Reservation, which was an enormous tract of land that included the Black Hills of South Dakota. -
The 14th Amendment
The amendment addresses citizenship rights and equal protection of the laws, and was proposed in response to issues related to former slaves following the American Civil War. The amendment was bitterly contested, particularly by Southern states, which were forced to ratify it in order for them to regain representation in the Congress. -
Transcontinetnal Railroad Completed
The First Transcontinental Railroad (known originally as the "Pacific Railroad" and later as the "Overland Route") was a (3,069 km) contiguous railroad line constructed between 1863 and 1869 across the western United States to connect the Pacific coast at San Francisco Bay with the existing Eastern U.S. rail network at Council Bluffs, Iowa, on the Missouri River. -
Standard Oil Founded
Was an American oil producing, transporting, refining, and marketing company. -
15th Amendment
The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the federal and state governments from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude". It was ratified on February 3, 1870, as the third and last of the Reconstruction Amendments. -
Great Fire of Chicago
The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned from Sunday, October 8, to early Tuesday, October 10, 1871. The fire killed up to 300 people, destroyed roughly 3.3 square miles of Chicago, Illinois, and left more than 100,000 residents homeless. -
Depression of 1873
The Long Depression was a worldwide economic recession, beginning in 1873 and running through the spring of 1879. It was the most severe in the United States, which had been experiencing strong economic growth fueled by the Second Industrial Revolution in the decade following the American Civil War. The episode was labeled the "Great Depression" at the time, and it held that designation until the Great Depression of the 1930s. -
Native American Resistance
Discovery of gold in the Sioux area prompted American authorities to attempt to seive the land and motivated the Natives to resist. -
Celebrating the Centennial
The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, the first official World's Fair in the United States, was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia. -
The Great Railroad Strike of 1877
The Great Railroad Strike of 1877, sometimes referred to as the Great Upheaval, began on July 14 in Martinsburg, West Virginia, United States and ended some 45 days later, after it was put down by local and state militias, and federal troops. Labor unions were not involved; these were spontaneous outbreaks in numerous cities of violence against railroads.
