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Massacre at Mystic
The Englishmen wanted to conquer the Pequot's land but the Pequots believed it was there for everyone to share. They didn't want to move because they'd settled there and after a while, the Englishmen felt no mercy for them. They burned down their forts because hand fighting wasn't working. The Native Americans helped the English because they had the advantage. They killed women, men, elders, and children within an hour. The survivors were sold into slavery or became servants. -
The Scalp Act
Governor Robert Morris enacted the Scalp Act. Anyone who brought in a male scalp above the age of 12 would be given $150. Females above the age of 12 or males under the age of 12, would be paid $130. The act turned all the tribes against the Pennsylvania legislature. “This was the turning point for the Delawares,” Houser said. The Scalp Act was renewed in 1757, and the battle with Delaware lasted until September 1756. -
The 3/5ths Compromise
Agreement between delegates from the Northern and the Southern states at the United States Constitutional Convention. Three-fifths of the slave population would be counted for determining direct taxation and representation in the House of Representatives. -
Slave Trade Ends in the United States
Some Southern congressmen joined with the North in voting to abolish the African slave trade, an act that became effective on January 1, 1808. The widespread trade of enslaved people within the South was not prohibited, however, children of enslaved people automatically became enslaved themselves. -
Battle of Tippecanoe
The conflict between the confederacy of native warriors led by a Shawnee tribe member, and the United States armed forces under the leadership of General William Henry Harrison. They fought primarily over white expansion into Indian territory, the battle lasted about one day with the United States claiming victory. -
The Missouri Compromise
A law that tried to address growing sectional tensions over the issue of slavery. By passing the law, that President James Monroe signed, the U.S. Congress admitted Missouri to the Union as a state that allowed slavery, and Maine as a free state. -
Trail of Tears
The Choctaw were under a threat of invasion by the U.S. Army, they became the first nation to be expelled from its land altogether. They made the journey to Indian Territory on foot while some were “bound in chains and marched double file." Also without any food, supplies, or other help from the government. -
Indian Removal Act
Andrew Jackson, as an army general, had spent years leading brutal campaigns against the Creeks in Georgia and Alabama and the Seminoles in Florida campaigns that resulted in the transfer of hundreds of thousands of acres of land from Indian nations to white farmers. -
Nat Turner Rebellion
Nat Turner was an enslaved man who led a rebellion against enslaved people on August 21, 1831. His action set off a massacre of up to 200 black people and a new wave of oppressive legislation prohibiting the education, movement, and assembly of enslaved people. The rebellion also stiffened pro-slavery, anti-abolitionist convictions that persisted in that region until the American Civil War -
The Fugitive Slave Act
Pairs of federal laws allowed for the capture and return of runaway enslaved people within the territory of the United States. The first Fugitive Slave Act authorized local governments to seize and return escapees to their owners and imposed penalties on anyone who aided in their flight. Widespread resistance to the 1793 law led to the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which added more provisions regarding runaways and levied even harsher punishments for interfering in their capture. -
Dred Scott Decision
A legal case in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled (7–2) that a slave (Dred Scott) who had resided in a free state and territory was not thereby entitled to his freedom, "that African Americans were not and could never be citizens of the United States." The Missouri Compromise declared free all territories west of Missouri and north were unconstitutional. The decision added fuel to the sectional controversy and pushed the country closer to civil war. -
Emancipation Proclamation
Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free." -
13th Amendment
"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." -
14th Amendment
"No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." -
15th Amendment
"Granted African American men the right to vote." -
Battle of Little Bighorn
The battle was a momentary victory for the Lakota and Cheyenne. The death of Custer and his troops became a rallying point for the United States to increase their efforts to force native peoples onto reservation lands. Lakota hunting grounds were invaded by powerful Army expeditionary forces determined to conquer the Northern Plains Indians. Most of the hostiles had surrendered within one year of the fight, and the Black Hills were taken by the US government without compensation. -
Battle of Wounded Knee
Located on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota was the site of two conflicts between Native Americans and representatives of the U.S. government, including the U.S. Army and, later, the FBI. An 1890 massacre left some 150 Native Americans dead, in what was the final clash between federal troops and the Sioux tribe. -
Plessy vs. Ferguson
Landmark 1896 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine. The case stemmed from an 1892 incident in which African American train passenger Homer Plessy refused to sit in a car for Black people. Rejecting Plessy’s argument that his constitutional rights were violated, the Supreme Court ruled that a law that “implies merely a legal distinction” between white people and Black people was not unconstitutional.
