-
Nat Turner Slave Revolt
Rebel slaves killed from 55 to 65 people, at least 51 being white. The rebellion was put down within a few days, but Turner survived in hiding for more than two months afterwards. -
William Lloyd Garrison Published the Liberator
It was the most influential antislavery periodical in the pre-Civil War period of U.S. history -
American Anti-Slavery Society begins
Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave, was a key leader of this society who often spoke at its meetings. -
Sarah Grimmke's Letters on the Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Women Published
Sarah Grimké responded to Catharine Beecher's defense of the subordinate role of women -
Henry Highland Garnet's "Address to the Slaves of the United States of America"
The document elicited more discussion than any other paper that was ever brought before that, or any other deliberative body of colored persons -
Women’s Rights Convention at Seneca Falls
It advertised itself as "a convention to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of woman" -
Harriett Tubman Escapes from Slavery
Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad -
Compromise of 1850
Senator Henry Clay introduced a series of resolutions on January 29, 1850, in an attempt to seek a compromise and avert a crisis between North and South -
Fugitive Slave Act
The Fugitive Slave Act or Fugitive Slave Law was passed by the United States Congress on September 18, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850 between Southern slave-holding interests and Northern Free-Soilers -
Harriett Beecher Stowe Published Uncle Tom's Cabin
Published in 1852, the novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in the U.S. and is said to have "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War" -
Republican Party Founded
By February 1854, anti-slavery Whigs had begun meeting in the upper midwestern states to discuss the formation of a new party -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
It allowed people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders -
Bleeding Kansas
Bleeding Kansas, Bloody Kansas or the Border War was a series of violent civil confrontations in the United States between 1854 and 1861 which emerged from a political and ideological debate over the legality of slavery in the proposed state of Kansas -
Dred Scott Decision
Dred Scott was an enslaved African American man in the United States who unsuccessfully sued for his freedom and that of his wife and their two daughters in the Dred Scott v. Sandford -
Lecompton Constitution
It 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 -
Panic of 1857
Was a financial panic in the United States caused by the declining international economy and over-expansion of the domestic economy -
Lincoln-Douglass Debates
The Lincoln–Douglas debates were a series of seven debates between Abraham Lincoln, the Republican candidate for the United States Senate from Illinois, and incumbent Senator Stephen Douglas -
John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry
Assault by an armed band of abolitionists led by John Brown on the federal armory located at Harpers Ferry -
Abraham Lincoln Elected President
Lincoln was elected the 16th president of the United States, beating Douglas, Breckinridge, and Bell -
Democratic Party Splits into Northern and Southern Halves
This split the Democratic ticket in half, giving the Republicans, who nominated Abraham Lincoln, a huge advantage -
South Carolina Secedes from the Union
The convention then adjourned to Charleston to draft an ordinance of secession -
Firing on Fort Sumter
The Battle of Fort Sumter was the bombardment of Fort Sumter near Charleston, South Carolina by the Confederate States Army, and the return gunfire and subsequent surrender by the United States Army, that started the American Civil War -
Battle of Antietam
The Battle of Antietam, also known as the Battle of Sharpsburg, particularly in the Southern United States, was a battle of the American Civil War -
Empancipation Proclamation
President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war -
Gettysburg Address
Gettysburg Address, world-famous speech delivered by Pres. Abraham Lincoln at the dedication of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania -
Battle of Gettysburg
Is considered the most important engagement of the American Civil War. After a great victory over Union forces at Chancellorsville -
Sherman's March to the Sea
Sherman's March to the Sea was a military campaign of the American Civil War conducted through Georgia -
Abraham Lincoln Reelected
The 1864 election was the first time since 1812 that a presidential election took place during a war -
General U.S. Grant Assumed Command of Union Troops
President Abraham Lincoln signs a brief document officially promoting then-Major General Ulysses S. Grant to the rank of lieutenant general of the U.S. Army -
Arrival of Scalawags and Carpetbaggers in the south
The term “carpetbaggers” refers to Northerners who moved to the South after the Civil War, during Reconstruction -
Ku Klux Klan formed
Six Confederate veterans from Pulaski, Tennessee created the original Ku Klux Klan on December 24, 1865, during the Reconstruction of the South after the Civil War -
Lincoln Assassination
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, murderous attack on Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C -
Congress Passed the 13th Amendment
The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime -
Andrew Johnson Became President
Johnson assumed the presidency as he was vice president of the United States at the time of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln -
Johnson announced Plans for Presidential Reconstruction
President Andrew Johnson implemented a plan of Reconstruction that gave the white South a free hand in regulating the transition from slavery to freedom -
Lee Surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House
Was one of the last battles of the American Civil War.At Appomattox, Virginia, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrenders his 28,000 troops to Union General Ulysses S. Grant, effectively ending the American Civil War -
Confederate States of America founded
Confederate States of America, also called Confederacy, in the American Civil War, the government of 11 Southern states that seceded from the Union -
Period of "Remdemption" after the Civil War
White Democratic Southerners saw themselves as redeeming the South by regaining power -
Freedman's Bureau Established
Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, usually referred to as simply the Freedmen's Bureau, was an agency of the United States Department of War to "direct such issues of provisions -
Civil Rights act Passed over Johnson's Veto
Congress overrides veto to enact civil rights bill, April 9, 1866. A Republican-dominated Congress enacted a landmark Civil Rights Act -
15th Amendment Ratified
A Republican-dominated Congress enacted a landmark Civil Rights Act on this day in 1866, overriding a veto by President Andrew Johnson -
First Congress Reconstruction Act passed
Outlined the conditions under which the Southern states would be readmitted to the Union following the American Civil War -
U.S Grant elected as president
The United States presidential election of 1868 was the 21st quadrennial presidential election -
14th Amendment Ratified
14th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified. The amendment grants citizenship to "all persons born or naturalized in the United States" which included former slaves -
Andrew Jackson Impeached
U.S. Senate continues to hear impeachment charges against President Andrew Johnson. The trial, convened by the Senate on March 5, focused on issues surrounding Johnson's post-Civil War Reconstruction policy -
Creation of the Radical Republicans
Grant was elected as a Republican in 1868 and after the election he generally sided with the Radicals on Reconstruction policies and signed the Civil Rights Act of 1871 into law -
Slaughterhouse Cases (Supreme Court)
First United States Supreme Court interpretation of the U.S. Constitution's Fourteenth Amendment which had recently been enacted -
U.S. v Cruikshank
United States Supreme Court decision in United States constitutional law, one of the earliest to deal with the application of the Bill of Rights -
Compromise of 1877
It resulted in the United States federal government pulling the last troops out of the South, and formally ended the Reconstruction Era -
Sojourner Truth Delivered her "Ain't I a Woman" speech
African American evangelist and reformer who applied her religious fervour to the abolitionist and women’s rights movements
