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Harriet Tubman was the most famous conductor on the Underground Railroad risking her life to help other slaves escape to freedom in Canada. -
An act drafted by Senator Stephen A. Douglas and enacted by the 33rd United States Congress that created the territories of Nebraska and Kansas. The act allowed each territory to decide the issue of slavery based on popular sovereignty and may be the reason that lead to the Civil War. -
Abolitionist John Brown led a group of supporters to Harper's Ferry in Virginia to take over the US arsenal in an attempt to start a revolt and abolish slavery. -
The election for President of the United States in 1860 was one of the most pivotal elections in history. Abraham Lincoln was running for the Republicans, Stephen Douglas for the Democrats, John Breckenridge for the Southern Democratic Party, and John Bell for the Constitutional Union Party. The main issues were slavery and state's rights. Lincoln won with 180 electoral college votes and 40% of the popular vote to become the 16th US President. -
The Confederacy consisted of 11 states that seceded from the Union and fought against the United States of America in the Civil War. Jefferson Davis was elected their first president.
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Jefferson Davis orders General Beauregard to take Fort Sumter. At 4:30 a.m. a flaming mortar shot explodes over Fort Sumter beginning the Civil War. Confederate guns begin to blast Fort Sumter form Charleston Harbor. -
Confederate troops fired on Fort Sumter beginning the Civil War. The battle was waged from Charleston Harbor. Union forces surrendered 34 hours later. -
The first major battle of the Civil War was fought in Prince William County, Virginia 30 miles west-southwest of Washington DC. -
Davis was confirmed to be the President of the Provisional Government of the Confederacy for a full six years as a compromise between the radicals and the moderates. -
A proclamation made by President Lincoln declaring that all slaves living in the 10 rebellious states that had seceded from the Union would be free. -
The three day battle at Gettysburg, PA was the bloodiest single conflict or the Civil War with over 50,000 estimated causalities. This marked the turning point for the war with a Union victory. -
General Tecumseh Sherman of the Union Army choose to wage a war by scorching a 60 mile wide path to the sea destroying military targets, civilian property, transportation, infrastructure, and industry. The goal was to frighten the Georgian people to abandon the cause of the Confederacy while avoiding causeless deaths. No cities were destroyed in the process. -
One of the last battles of the Civil War was fought the morning of April 9, 1865 at Appomattox Courthouse, VA. After Grant successfully cut off supplies and support to the Confederate Army, Lee begrudgingly went to Grant to surrender. Grant drew up terms that ended the Civil War. -
President Lincoln and his wife were attending a play at Ford's Theatre when a confederate sympathizer, John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln in the back of the head. Lincoln was carried across the street to Petersen House where he died at 7:15 a.m. the next morning. This came only five days after the surrender of Lee at Appomattox Courthouse, VA. -
The 13th Amendment abolishes slavery and involuntary servitude except as punishment for a crime. It was first passed in January of 1865, but Lincoln was killed and there were not enough votes from the States to ratify it until December 1865. -
The 14th Amendment grants citizenship to all people born in the US or naturalized in the US and provides equal protection of the laws to them. -
The 15th Amendment was voted on in 1869, but was not enforced until 1870 with the creation of the Enforcement Act. The 15th Amendment outlaws discrimination in voting based on race, color, and previous servitude.
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