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Civil War Timeline

By jayceeday
  • Abraham Lincoln Was Born

    Abraham Lincoln Was Born

    Lincoln was born in a one-room cabin near Louisville, Kentucky.
  • Lincoln Took a Job

    Lincoln Took a Job

    He moved farm produce from Indiana to New Orleans and there he had his first contact with slavery when he observed a slave auction.
  • Lincoln Resigned From Congress

    Lincoln Resigned From Congress

    He was not offered the position he wanted so he returned home to Illinois to practice law.
  • Compromise

    Compromise

    California applied to Congress to become a state, which led to a historic debate between pro-slavery and antislavery legislatures.
  • Kansas-Nebraska Act

    Kansas-Nebraska Act

    The Kansas-Nebraska Act became law and it outraged northerners, weakened Democrats, and destroyed the Whig Party.
  • Election of 1856

    Election of 1856

    The democrats won the election and Buchanan became president.
  • Dred Scott Decision

    Dred Scott Decision

    The court ruled against Dred Scott, a slave that lived on free soil for years, in a Supreme Court case and said that the Fifth Amendment protected the property rights of slaveholders.
  • Pro-Slavery Convention

    Pro-Slavery Convention

    A pro-slavery convention tries to push through a state constitution that would allow slavery in Kansas.
  • Lincoln-Douglas Debates

    Lincoln-Douglas Debates

    Lincoln challenged Douglas on the work ability of popular sovereignty. Douglas was seeking re-election to the Senate.
  • Marais des Cygnes Massacre

    Marais des Cygnes Massacre

    A pro-slavery gang gunned down 11 unarmed antislavery settlers.
  • John Brown's Raid

    John Brown's Raid

    John Brown raided Harpers Ferry, Virginia to get guns for a slave revolt.
  • John Brown's Death

    John Brown's Death

    Marines captured Brown and sentenced him to death.
  • The Election of 1860

    The Election of 1860

    In the North, it was Lincoln vs Douglas. In the South, it was Breckinridge vs Bell. Lincoln won presidency.
  • Period: to

    Secession

    South Carolina withdraws from the Union. Other slave states follow South Carolina's lead and form the Confederate States of America.
  • Convention to Consider Leaving the Union

    Convention to Consider Leaving the Union

    They passed a resolution stating "the union now subsisting between South Carolina and the other states under the name of the United States of America is hereby dissolved."
  • Forming the Confederacy

    Forming the Confederacy

    Representatives of the 7 seceded states met and wrote a constitution that guaranteed the rights of citizens to own slaves.
  • Lincoln Became President

    Lincoln Became President

    In his inaugural address, he promised not to interfere with slavery where it existed.
  • Southern Chivalry Argument

    Southern Chivalry Argument

    South Carolina representative Preston Brooks attacked Massachusetts senator Charles Sumner over an antislavery speech Sumner had made.
  • Voting Rights Act

    Voting Rights Act

    This act enforces and expands the voting protections of the Fifteenth Amendment.