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The Missouri Compromise admitted Maine to the United States as a free state and Missouri as a slave state, which kept a balance of power in congress. It also stated that the 36th parallel was to be the border of slave and free states in western territories.
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Nat Turner's Rebellion was a rebellion of slaves that took place in Southampton County, Virginia, in August 1831, led by Nat Turner. The rebels killed about 60 people.
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The Wilmot Proviso was an unsuccessful 1846 proposal in the United States Congress to ban slavery in territory acquired from Mexico in the Mexican–American War. The conflict over the Wilmot Proviso was one of the major events leading to the American Civil War.
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The Mexican–American War was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. It was fought over territory.
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The Compromise of 1850 was five separate bills passed by Congress in September 1850 that settled between slave and free states on the status of territories acquired in the Mexican–American War.
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The Fugitive Slave Act or Fugitive Slave Law was passed by the United States Congress on September 18, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850 between Southern slave-holders and Northern Free-Soilers.
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Uncle Tom's Cabin is an anti-slavery novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe. The book had a large effect on attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in America. It also helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War.
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The Kansas–Nebraska created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska. It was drafted by Stephen A. Douglas and signed into law by President Franklin Pierce.
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Bleeding Kansas was a series of violent civil confrontations in the Kansas Territory between 1854 and 1859, which emerged from a political debate over slavery in the proposed state of Kansas.
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The Dred Scott decision was the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling that having lived in a free state and territory did not entitle a slave to his freedom. The decision argued that, as someone's property, Scott was not a citizen and could not sue in a federal court.
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John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry was an effort by abolitionist John Brown to start a slave revolt in Southern states by taking over the United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. It has been called the dress rehearsal for the Civil War.
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Abraham Lincoln was elected the 16th president of the United States, becoming the first Republican to win the presidency. Lincoln received only 40 percent of the popular vote but defeated the three other candidates.
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On November 10, 1860, South Carolina seceded from the Union. South Carolina became the first slave state in the south to declare that it had seceded from the United States. Many more states soon followed the state's lead.
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Fort Sumter is the first battle of the American Civil War. Union soldiers were inside, so the Confederate army attacked. There were no casualties.
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By February 1861, seven Southern states had seceded. On February 4, representatives from South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana met in Montgomery, Alabama, with representatives from Texas arriving later, to form the Confederate States of America.
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Union and Confederate troops clashed at the town of Sharpsburg, Maryland. The Battle of Antietam remains the bloodiest single day in American history. The battle left 23,000 men killed or wounded in the fields, woods, and dirt roads, and it changed the course of the Civil War.
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A victory at the siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi, in 1863 gave the Union control of the Mississippi River in the American Civil War. By having control of the river, Union forces split the Confederacy in two and gained control of an important route to move men and supplies.
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The Battle of Gettysburg was a Union victory that stopped Confederate General Robert E. Lee's second invasion of the North. More than 50,000 men were killed during the 3-day battle, making it the bloodiest battle of the American Civil War.
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The Battle of Appomattox Court House was fought on April 9, 1865, near the town of Appomattox Court House, Virginia, and led to Confederate General Robert E. Lee's surrender to Union General Ulysses S. Grant.
