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Missouri Compromise
In order to preserve the balance of power in Congress between slave and free states, the Missouri Compromise was entering Missouri as a slave state leaving Maine to be a free state. The compromise is later repealed by the Kansas-Nebraska Act. -
Nat Turner Slave Rebellion
Nat Turner was an enslaved man who led a rebellion with the other enslaved. His contribution led to a massacre of 200 black people. These events lead to a new wave of oppression through legislation, education, and the right of assembly. -
War with Mexico
The Mexican-American War was a conflict of land. The war stemmed from the annexation of the Republic of Texas by the US. -
Wilmot Proviso
The Wilmot Proviso was designed to eliminate slavery within the land acquired as a result of the Mexican War. Soon after the war began, President James K. Polk sought the appropriation of $2 million as part of a bill to negotiate the terms of a treaty -
Compromise of 1850
A set of laws that admitted California as a free state, left Utah and New Mexico to decide for themselves whether they are slave or free state. This event made it easier for slave owners to recover runaways under the Fugitive Slave Act -
Fugitive Slave Act
This act was a pair of federal laws that allowed for the capture and return of runaway enslaved people within the territory of the United States. -
Publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin
An anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. It was published in 1852. The novel had a large effect on the attitude towards African Americans and slavery in the US. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
A bill that mandated popular sovereignty allowing settlers of a territory to decide whether slavery would be allowed within a new state's borders. Kansas was admitted as a free state weeks after Southern states seceded from the union. -
Bleeding Kansas
Bleeding Kansas is a term used to describe the period of violence during the settling of Kansas territory. Proslavery and free-state settlers flooded into Kansas to try to influence the decision. Violence soon erupted as both factions fought for control. -
Dred Scott Decision
A US Supreme Court ruling that living in a free state and territory did not entitle a slaved person, Dred Scott, to his freedom. It was ruled that Scott was not a citizen and could not sue in a federal court. -
John Brown's Raid on Harpers Ferry
Abolitionists John Brown leads a small group on a raid against a federal armory in Harpers Ferry, Virginia in an attempt to start an armed revolt of enslaved people and destroy the institution of slavery. -
Abraham Lincoln elected President
The Republican Party ticket of Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin emerged as a victory. Lincoln's election served as the primary catalyst of the American Civil War. -
South Carolina secedes
South Carolina acted first, calling for a convention to secede from the Union. State by state, conventions were held, and the Confederacy was formed. Within three months of Lincoln's election, seven states had seceded from the Union. -
Formation of Confederate States
The seven secessionist slave states such as South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. After the war began, four slave states like Virginia, Arkansas, Tenessee, and North Carolina also seceded and joined the Confederacy. -
Fort Sumter
Fort Sumter is an island fort located in Charleston Harbour, South Carolina most famous for being the site of the first shots of the Civil War. -
Antietam
A decisive engagement that halted the Confederate invasion of Maryland, an advance that was regarded as one of the greatest Confederate threats to Washington, D.C. -
Appomattox Compromise
The Battle of Appomattox near the town of Appomattox Court House, Virginia, and led to Confederate General Robert E. Lee's surrender of his Army of Northern Virginia to Union General Ulysses S. Grant. -
Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg is considered the most important engagement of the American Civil War. General Robert E. Lee marched his Army of Northern Virginia into Pennsylvania. -
Vicksburg
The Siege of Vicksburg was a great victory for the Union. It gave control of the Mississippi River to the Union.
