-
Compromise of 1850
Proposed by Henry Clay. Contained provisions to appease Northerners and Southerners. To please the North, the compromise provided that California be admitted to the a Union as a free state. To please the South, the compromise proposed a new fugitive slave law. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Novel published by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Stressed that slavery was not just a political contest, but also a moral struggle. This book stirred Northerner abolitionists to increase their protests against the Fugitive Slave Act, while the Southerners criticized the book as an attack on the South. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Stephen Douglas introduced a bill in Congress that would divide Nebraska and Kansas into two territories in order for people in the territories to decide themselves whether or not to allow slavery. This caused bitter debates in the Congress. Some Northerner Congressmen saw the bill as part of a plot to turn the territories into slave states. Southerners strongly defended the proposed legislation. -
The Dred Scott Decision
A major Supreme Court decision was brought about by Dred Scott, a slave whose owner took him from a slave state to a free territory and then back to the slave state. Scott appealed for his freedom on the grounds that living in a free state made him a free man. Supreme Court ruled against Scott because Scott lacked any legal standing to sue in federal court because he was not a citizen. -
Election of Abraham Lincoln
Lincoln won the election of 1860 with less than half the popular vote and with no electoral votes from the South. He did not even appear on the ballot in most of the slave states. This election with lead to the Southern Succession from the Union. -
Southern Secession
Lincoln;s victory convinced Southerners that they had lost their political voice in the national government. Some Southern states decided to act. South Carolina was the first state to seced from the Union. -
Fort Sumter
The first shots of the civil war were shot at Fort Sumter. Lincoln had decided to send in "food" for the hungry men and Confederates saw it as Lincoln reinforcing the fort and opened fire. This fall united the North and Lincoln called for volunteers after this. -
Confederate States of America
After South Carolina seceded, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas followed. The delegates from the secessionist states met and formed the Confederate States of America and unanimously elected Jefferson Davis of Mississippi as president. -
Bull Run
First bloodshed on the battlefield. Occurred three months after Fort Sumter. The battle was a seesaw affair, but unfortunately the Confederate reinforcements helped win the victory for Southerners. -
Antietam
General McClellan found a copy of Lee's orders wrapped around some cigars and ordered his men to purse lee. The two sides fought near a creek called the Antietam. The clash proved to be the bloodiest single-day battle in American history. The next day McClellan did not pursue the battered Confederate army into Virginia and as a result Lincoln removed him from command. -
Battle of Gettysburg
The most decisive battle of the war was fought in southern Pennsylvania. This battle was between Confederate soldiers led by A. P. Hill and the Union cavalry led by John Buford. By the end of the first day of fighting, 90,000 Union troops led by General George Meade had taken the field against 75,000 Confederates led by General Lee.By the third day of war Lee gave up any hopes of invading the North and led his army back to Virginia. This was considered a turning point because lee made a mistake. -
The Emancipation Proclamation
Lincoln considered the battle of Shiloh as an Union victory in order to release the Emancipation Proclamation. The proclamation did not free any slaves because it applied only to areas behind Confederate lines, outside Union control. For many the proclamation gave the war moral purpose by turning the struggle into a fight to free slaves. -
Surrender at Appomattox
On April 3, 1865 Union troops conquered Richmond, the Confederate capitol. After this, in a Virginia town called Appomattox Court House, Lee and Grant met at a private home and Lee surrendered by signing the documents of surrender in the parlor of the house owned by Wilmer McLean. -
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
After the end of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln decided he wanted a night out with his wife, therefore, they went out to dinner and to see a play called "Our American Cousin" at the Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C.. While attending the play the president was shot in the head by well-known stage actor John Wilkes Booth. -
The 13th, 14th, & 15th Amendments
The 13th amendment abolished slavery and freed 400,000,000 people. The 14th amendment established if you were born in the United States you are automatically a citizen. The 15th amendment established that anybody has the right to vote no matter their race.
