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invention of cotton gin
Eli whitney invented the cotton gin which increased the need for slavery in the south -
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Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was the term used to describe a network of meeting places, secret routes, passageways and safe houses used by slaves in the U.S. to escape slave holding states to northern states and Canada. Established in the early 1800s and aided by people involved in the Abolitionist Movement, the underground railroad helped thousands of slaves escape bondage. By one estimate, 100,000 slaves escaped from bondage in the South between 1810 and 1850. -
The Westward Expansion
As the United States continued to expand westward, each new state added to the country shifted the power between the North and the South. Southern states began to fear they would lose so much power that they would lose all their rights. Each new state became a battleground between the two sides for power. -
Missouri Compromise
The House voted 134 to 42 to prohibit slavery in the Louisiana Territory north of the 36° 30´ latitude line. - The House voted 90 to 87 to allow slavery in Missouri. maine was added to the northern states and was free. -
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The Liberator is published
On January 1, 1831 the first issue of The Liberator appeared with the motto: “Our country is the world—our countrymen are mankind.”
fter the end of the Civil War in December, 1865, Garrison published his last issue of The Liberator, announcing “my vocation as an abolitionist is ended.” After thirty-five years and 1,820 issues -
Wilmot Proviso
Wilmot introduced legislation in the House that boldly declared, "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist" in lands won in the Mexican-American War.
http://www.ushistory.org/us/30a.asp -
Fugitive slave act
The Fugitive Slave Acts were a pair of federal laws that allowed for the capture and return of runaway slaves within the territory of the United States. Enacted by Congress in 1793, the first Fugitive Slave Act authorized local governments to seize and return escaped slaves to their owners and imposed penalties on anyone who aided in their flight. click here! -
Uncles Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom’s Cabin is a novel which showed the stark reality of slavery and is generally regarded as one of the major causes of the Civil War. The novel was written in 1852 by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe, a teacher at the Hartford Female Academy and a dedicated abolitionist, who was once greeted by Abraham Lincoln as the ‘little lady who started a war.’ -
Bleeding Kansas
The first fighting over the slavery issue took place in Kansas. In 1854, the government passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act allowing the residents of Kansas to vote on whether they would be a slave state or a free state. The region was flooded with supporters from both sides. They fought over the issue for years. Several people were killed in small skirmishes giving the confrontation the name Bleeding Kansas. Eventually Kansas entered the Union as a free state in 1861. -
The Dred Scott decision
Dred Scott was a slave who sought his freedom through the American legal system. The 1857 decision by the United States Supreme Court in the Dred Scott case denied his plea, determining that no Negro, the term then used to describe anyone with African blood, was or could ever be a citizen. The decision also invalidated the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which had placed restrictions on slavery in certain U.S. territories. Northers outraged. learn more -
John brown's raid on Harper's ferry
Abolitionist John Brown leads a small group on a raid against a federal armory in Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia), in an attempt to start an armed slave revolt and destroy the institution of slavery. Brown and his followers. Ten of his men were killed, including two of his sons. learn more -
Election of 1860
Lincoln's debates with Douglas had made him a national figure and the publication of those debates in early 1860 made him even better known. After the third ballot, he had the nomination for President. Lincoln received only 40% of the popular vote and 180 electoral votes and won presidency after that South Carolina seceded from the union. Learn more -
Fort Sumter is fired upon
After South Carolina seceded on December 20, 1860, the state demanded the fort be turned over but Union officials refused. A supply ship, the “Star of the West,” tried to reach Fort Sumter on January 9,
