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Nat Turner Slave Revolt
Took place in Virginia, where rebel slaves killed 55-65 people, at least 51 of those people being white. After the rebellion was supressed, Turner survived through hiding until he was found and hanged. -
William Lloyd Garrison published The Liberator
William Lloyd Garrison first published The Liberator in 1831. It appealed to the religious and moral sense of its readers to demand the freeing of slaves. -
American Anti-Slavery Society begins
William Lloyd Garrison and Arthur Tappan founded this abolitionist society which then became one of the most prominent -
Sarah Grimke's Letter on the Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Women published
Sarah Grimke published her letter titled Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Women which attacked Catharine Beecher's defense that women were subordinate. -
Henry Highland Garnet's "Address to the Salves of the United States of America"
Garnet garnered the attention of his delegates but failed by one vote which he called for their open rebellion. -
Women's Rights Convention at Seneca Falls
At the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls, NY, 200 women convened. It was organized by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. -
Harriet Tubman Escapes from Slavery
After suffering from a bout of sickness, Tubman decided to escape slavery to Philadelphia. -
Compromise of 1850
Henry Clay proposed the compromise that stated the North and South would admit equal free and slave states. -
Fugitive Slave Act
As apart of the Compromise of 1850, the act stated that runaway slaves who ran away from one state to another must be captured and returned to their owners. Later repealed in 1864. -
Sojourner Truth Delivered her "Ain't I A Woman" Speech
Delievered at the Women's Rights Conference in Akron, OH, the speech touched on womens and african american rights. -
Harriet Beecher Stowe Publishes Uncle Tom's Cabin
It encouraged slaves should be free by showcasing what happens when families are separated. Strengthened the abolition movement, and contributed to the outbreak of the Civil War. -
Republican Party Founded
Founded a few years after Whig party disinigrated. The first presidential candidate won 11 of the 16 Northern states. -
Kansas Nebraska Act
Allowed KS and NE to decide themselves weather they were to be free or slave states; will be found to be a violation of the Missouri Compromise. -
Dred Scott Decision
SCOTUS declared the right of slave owners to take their slaves into the Western territories, which undermined the Republican Party's beliefs -
Lecompton Constitution
Allowed Kansas to be admitted into union as a slave state. Majority voted for slavery and the Lecompton Constitution and minority against slavery and the Lecompton Constitution. -
Panic of 1857
Financial panic in US caused by declining international economy and over-expansion of the domestic economy. The first international economic crisis -
Lincoln-Douglas Debate
The Lincoln Douglas debates were a series of debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas, the two presidential candidates, in each of Illinois' seven districts. -
John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry
Abolitionist John Brown tried to inititiate a slave revolt at Harper's Ferry by taking over a US arsenal -
Democratic Party Splits into Northern and Southern halves
The Democratic Party became so divided after instances like the Dred Scott case and the Freeport Doctrine, that in the 1860 election, they ran two nominees for the presidential election: Stephen Douglas and John Breckinridge -
South Carolina Secedes from the Union
South Carolina became the first southern state to declare its secession. James Buchanan declared this illegal, but did nothing to stop it. -
Abraham Lincoln Elected President
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States and first Republican to become POTUS. Lincoln received only 40 percent of the popular vote -
Bleeding Kansas
1854-1861, the US engaged in bloody and violent civil conflicts over the legality of slavery in Kansas. -
Confederate States of America Founded
Collection of 11 states that seceded from the Union in 1861 following the election of President Lincoln. Led by Jefferson Davis and struggled for legitimacy and was never recognized as a sovereign nation. President = Jefferson Davis -
Firing of Fort Sumter
The first event/start of Civil War, which was fought North v South on slavery debate and to unite the nation -
Battle of Antietam
This was one of the bloodiest days in American military history. The Battle of Antietam marked the climax of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's first invasion of the Northern states. -
Emancipation Proclamation
A proclamation by Lincoln that changed the meaning of the war. The war was no longer just about unifying the states, it was now about slavery. -
Battle of Gettysburg
"The most important battle of the American Civil War". Following a Confederate victory at Chancellorville, General Robert E. Lee marched his Army into Gettysburg in June 1863. The Union won. -
Gettysburg Address
Remembered as one of the most important speeches in American history. Lincoln enforced the principles of human equality which is in the Declaration of Independence and connected the sacrifices of Civil War with the desire for “a new birth of freedom.” Also, he invoked the all-important preservation of the Union created in 1776 and its ideal of self-government. -
General U S Grant Assumed Control of Union Troops
President Lincoln promoted Ulysses S. Grant, a major general in U.S. Army, to the rank of lieutenant general. This placed Grant in charge of all Union troops who were against Confederate forces during the Civil War. -
Sherman's March to the Sea
Union General William T. Sherman led 60,000 soldiers on a 285-mile march from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia. The purpose of this “March to the Sea” was to scare Georgia’s civilian population into abandoning the Confederate cause. -
Lincoln Reelected
The first time that a presidential election took place during a war since 1812. McClellan was a heavy favorite to win the election. -
Congress Passed the 13th Amendment
This amendment abolished slavery. -
Lee Surrendered to Grant at Appomatox Court House
In Appomattox, Virginia, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrenders his 28,000 troops to the Union General Ulysses S. Grant, ending the American Civil War. -
Andrew Johnson Becomes President
Johnson was Lincoln's vice president. After Lincoln's assassination, Johnson became the president of the U.S. -
POTUS Johnson announced plans for reconstruction
In 1865, POTUS Johnson implemented a plan of Reconstruction that gave the white South a free hand in controlling the transition from slavery to freedom and offered no role to blacks in Southern politics. -
Ku Klux Klan Formed
Ku Klux Klan, hate organization that has employed terror to pursuit white supremacist agenda. First KKK was founded immediately after Civil War and lasted until 1870s. The second began in 1915 and is still present. Ku Kux Klan set back Black advancement after outlawing slavery. -
Freedmen's Bureau Established
The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, was an agency of the United States Department of War to "direct such issues of provisions, clothing, and fuel, as he may deem needful for the immediate and temporary shelter and supply of destitute and suffering refugees and freedmen and their wives and children." -
Lincoln Assassinated
On April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth shot President Abraham Lincoln at a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. -
Arrival of Scalawags and Carpetbeggers in the South
Carpetbaggers: Northerners who moved to the South after Civil War, during Reconstruction. Many moved South for financial and political gains.
Scalawags: white Southerners who politically cooperated with black freedmen and Northern newcomers. -
Civil Rights Act Passed Over Johnson's Veto
Congress that was dominated by Republicans who enacted a Civil Rights Act in 1866, overriding a veto by POTUS Andrew Johnson. The law's purpose was to offer protection to slaves freed in the aftermath of the Civil War. -
First Congressional Reconstruction Act Passed
U.S. legislation enacted in 1867 stating 68 conditions where Southern states would be readmitted to Union after American Civil War. Radical Republicans in the U.S. Congress wrote these bills. -
14th Amendment Ratified
Granted citzenship to all persons born or naturalized in U.S., African Americans and former slaves recently freed. -
Andrew Johnson Impeached
This trial was convened by Senate and focused on issues surrounding Johnson's post-Civil War Reconstruction policy and his firing of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. -
Grant Elected President
In the first election of the Reconstruction Era, Republicans nominated Ulysses S. Grant and he defeated Democrat Horatio Seymour. -
15th Amendment Ratified
Granted African American men the right to vote. -
Creation of the Radical Republicans
Radical Republicans existed during and after Civil War. More variation was added in political arguments during this time. -
Slaughterhouse Cases
Slaughterhouse Cases was a legal dispute that resulted in a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that limited the protection of the privileges and immunities clause of the 14th Amendment to U.S. Constitution. -
U.S. v. Cruikshank
United States v. Cruikshank, was a Supreme Court case that led to an allowance of violence and deprivation of rights against the newly freed slaves. Their citizenship rights, equal protections of the law, and several other Fourteenth Amendment provisions were being deprived and was one of the first to deal with application of Bill of Rights to state governments after adopting the 14th Amendment. -
Period of "Redemption" After the Civil War
"Redemption" truly began in Georgia in December 1870 when state elections were held. By then, the state Republican Party suffered from internal divisions and charges of wastefulness and corruption, which were exaggerated by Democratic politicians and newspapers, but did have some truth. -
Proclamation of 1877
A deal that settled the disputed 1876 U.S. presidential election, pulled federal troops out of state politics in the South, and ended the Reconstruction era.
