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Missouri Compromise
Congress was compelled to establish a policy to guide the expansion of slavery into the new western territory. A line was drawn through the unincorporated western territories, dividing the north and south as free and slave. -
Nat Turner's Rebellion
Nat Turner's Rebellion was a slave rebellion that took place in Southampton County, Virginia and was led by Nat Turner. Rebel slaves killed from 55 to 65 people, at least 51 being white. -
The Wilmot Proviso
A proposal to prohibit slavery in the territory acquired by the United States at the conclusion of the Mexican War. -
The Compromise of 1850
Five separate bills passed by the United States Congress, which defused a four-year political confrontation between slave and free states. -
Bleeding Kansas
A series of violent civil confrontations, which emerged from a political and ideological debate over the legality of slavery in the proposed state of Kansas. -
Dred Scott v.s Sandford
Dred Scott was an enslaved African American man in the United States who unsuccessfully sued for his freedom. -
John Brown's Raid
Was an effort by abolitionist John Brown to initiate an armed slave revolt by taking over a United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. -
Abraham Lincoln's Election
Republican Abraham Lincoln defeated Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge, Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, and Constitutional Union candidate John Bell. -
Session and War
South Carolina votes to withdraw or secede from the Union. -
The Battle of Fort Sumter
The Battle of Fort Sumter was the first battle of the American Civil War. The intense Confederate artillery bombardment of Major Robert Anderson's small Union garrison in the unfinished fort in the harbor at Charleston, South Carolina. -
Battle of Bull Run
A battle where people came and had picnics while watching the war. It was expected to be a quick and easy war, but it did not end up that way. -
Battle of Shiloh
the Confederate Army of the Mississippi under Johnston launched an attack on Maj. Gen. Grant's Army of the Tennessee near Pittsburg Landing. -
Battle of Antietam
Over 23,000 men fell as casualties in the one-day Battle of Antietam, making it the bloodiest day in American history. -
Emancipation Proclamation
A decree freeing all enslaved people in the sates still in rebellion after January 1, 1863 -
Vicksburg
Union fights to control the Mississippi River. Grant assaults, but repels, and the base is put under siege for 3 months. -
Gettysburg
Was a Union victory that stopped Confederate General Robert E. Lee's second invasion of the North. More than 50,000 men fell as casualties during the 3-day battle, making it the bloodiest battle of the American Civil War. -
Freedman's Bureau
Was established by Congress to help millions of former black slaves and poor whites in the South in the aftermath of the Civil War -
Abraham Lincoln's Assassination
He was shot in the head as he watched a play, and later died the following day. -
Military Reconstruction Act
Divided the South into five military districts governed by previous Union generals. -
Ulysses S. Grant
Becomes President and leaves politics to Congress, and carries out just laws. -
14th Amendment
The amendment grants citizenship to "all persons born or naturalized in the United States" which included former slaves who had just been freed after the Civil War. -
15th Amendment
The right to vote "Shall not be denied on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." -
Panic of 1873
Banks go bankrupt, setting off full-on depression. -
Compromise of 1877
Resulted in the United States federal government pulling the last troops out of the South, and formally ended the Reconstruction Era.
