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Nat Turner Slave Revolt
Was a slave rebellion that took place in Southampton County, Virginia, -
William Lloyd Garrison Published The Liberator
Helped form the New England Antislavery Society. When the Civil War broke out, he continued to blast the Constitution as a pro-slavery document. -
American Anti-Slavery Society Begins
The cause of immediate abolition of slavery in the United States. As the main activist arm of the Abolition Movement the society was founded under the leadership of William Lloyd Garrison. -
Sarah Grimke's Letters on the Equality of the Sexes and the condition of Women published
Responded to Catharine Beecher's defense of the subordinate role of women. She was particularly concerned to attack two of Beecher's arguments. -
Henry Highland Garnet's "Address to the Slaves of the United States of America"
Shocked his listeners at the 1843 national convention of free people of color when he called upon slaves to murder their masters. The convention refused to endorse Garnet’s radicalism. -
Women’s Rights Convention at Seneca Falls
The first women's rights convention in the United States. The meeting launched the women's suffrage movement, which more than seven decades later ensured women the right to vote. -
Fugitive Slave Act
Provided southern slaveholders with legal weapons to capture slaves who had escaped to the free states. The law was highly unpopular in the North and helped to convert many previously indifferent northerners to antislavery. -
Compromise of 1850
The south gained by the strengthening of the fugitive slave law, the north gained a new free state, California. Slave trade was prohibited in Washington DC, but slavery was not. -
Sojourner Truth Delivered her "Ain't I a Woman" Speech
One of the most famous abolitionist and women's rights speeches in American history, She continued to speak out for the rights of African Americans and women during and after the Civil War. -
Harriet Beecher Stowe Published Uncle Tom's Cabin
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". -
Bleeding Kansas
Helped to cause more hatred between the North and the South. This, of course, helped to bring about the Civil War. -
Republican Party Founded
It declared their new party opposed to the expansion of slavery into new territories and selected a statewide slate of candidates. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Allowed each territory to decide the issue of slavery on the basis of popular sovereignty. Kansas with slavery would violate the Missouri Compromise, which had kept the Union from falling apart for the last thirty-four years. -
Panic of 1857
A financial panic in the United States caused by the declining international economy and over-expansion of the domestic economy. The financial crisis that began in late 1857 was the first worldwide economic crisis. -
Lecompton Constitution
Created a government supportive of slavery. They drew up a pro-slavery document called the Lecompton Constitution, which would make Kansas a slave state. -
Dred Scott Decision
Affirming the right of slave owners to take their slaves into the Western territories, there by negating the doctrine of popular sovereignty and severely undermining the platform of the newly created Republican Party. -
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
Put Lincoln on the national "map" as a major political figure. The debates were staged as part of a race between the two men for a seat in the US Senate. Douglas won the election. -
John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry
An attempt to start an armed slave revolt and destroy the institution of slavery. Becoming an anti-slavery icon before death. -
Democratic Party Splits into Northern and Southern Halves
Because the Democratic vote was spread so thin, Republican Abraham Lincoln defeated Douglas, Breckenridge, and Bell in the 1860 presidential election. The Democrats' split had defeated their own party. -
Abraham Lincoln Elected President
Successfully prosecuted the Civil War to preserve the nation. He played in key role in passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, which ended slavery in America. -
South Carolina Secedes from the Union
Declared as a result of the refusal of free states to enforce the Fugitive Slave Acts. -
Firing on Fort Sumter
It is where the Civil War essentially started. When the Union tried to resupply the fort and the South fired on the fort, the war was inevitable. -
Confederate States of America Founded
Rejected the claims of secession and considered the Confederacy illegally founded. -
Battle of Antietam
Over 23,000 men fell as casualties making it the bloodiest day in American history. Resulted in President Abraham Lincoln issuing his Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation -
Battle of Gettysburg
A Union victory that stopped Confederate General Robert E. Lee's second invasion of the North. More than 50,000 men fell as casualties during the 3-day battle, making it the bloodiest battle of the American Civil War. -
Emancipation Proclamation
Led the way to total abolition of slavery in the United States. With the Emancipation Proclamation, the aim of the war changed to include the freeing of slaves in addition to preserving the Union. -
Gettysburg Address
A speech given by Abraham Lincoln dedication of Soldier's National Cemetery, a cemetery for Union soldiers killed at the Battle Of Gettysburg during the American Civil War. -
Abraham Lincoln Reelected
Abraham Lincoln defeated Democrat George B. McClellan. As the election occurred during the American Civil War, it was contested only by the states that had not seceded from the Union. -
Congress Passed the 13th Amendment
Abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. -
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, tasking the future president with the job of leading all Union troops against the Confederate Army. -
Sherman's March to the Sea
Sherman and his army captured Atlanta, Georgia, an important transportation center in the Confederacy. -
Lincoln Assassination
Part of a larger conspiracy intended by Booth to revive the Confederate cause by eliminating the three most important officials of the United States government. -
Arrival of Scalawags and Carpetbaggers in the South
Played a very significant, though not always positive, role in the Reconstruction of the South after the Civil War. The collective group made their most impact politically. -
Ku Klux Klan formed
Extended into almost every southern state. Emerges to suppress and victimize newly freed slaves. -
Lee Surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House
The loss of Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia was a fatal blow to the Confederacy. -
Andrew Johnson Became President
assumed office after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Johnson was the first American president to be impeached. -
Johnson Announced Plans for Presidential Reconstruction
Gave the white South a free hand in regulating the transition from slavery to freedom and offered no role to blacks in the politics of the South. -
First Congressional Reconstruction Act Passed
Outlined the conditions under which the Southern states would be readmitted to the Union following the American Civil War, Largely written by the Radical Republicans in the U.S. Congress. -
14th Amendment Ratified
Grants citizenship to "all persons born or naturalized in the United States" which included former slaves who had just been freed after the Civil War.
