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Cotton Gin
Eli Whitney's invention of a Cotton Gin in 1793 had helped to set the south on a different course of development from the north.The cotton gin was invented in the United States in 1793. Eli Whitney applied for a patent on October 28, 1793; the patent was granted on March 14, 1794, but was not validated until 1807. -
Louisiana Purchase
Napoleon offered all of Louisiana to the U.S. for 15 million dollars. After a delay, Jefferson submitted the treaty finalizing the purchase, and the senate ratified it. With the Louisiana Purchase, which included all the land drained by the western tributaries of the Mississippi River, the size of the US more than doubled. -
American System
There are three main points to the American System. The first was developing transportation systems and other internal improvements. The second was establishing a protective tariff. The third was resurrecting the national bank. Henry Clay promoted these points as the American System. -
Missouri Compromise
Under the leadership of Henry Clay, however, Congress managed to temporarily resolve the crisis with a series of agreements collectively called the Missouri Compromise. Missouri was split in half because there was uneven slave states to non-slave states to give each side what they wanted. -
Monroe Doctrine
The US would not involve itself in Europeasn affairs or interfere with existing colonies in the western hemisphere. These principles became known as the Monroe Doctrine.The Monroe Doctrine was distinct in President James Monroe's seventh annual message to Congress on December 2, 1823. -
Nat Turner's Rebellion
Nat Turner's Rebellion was a slave rebellion that took place in Southampton County, Virginia, during August 1831. Led by Nat Turner, rebel slaves killed anywhere from 55 to 65 people, the highest number of fatalities caused by any slave uprising in the American South. -
Nullification Crisis
The Nullification Crisis was a sectional crisis during the presidency of Andrew Jackson created by South Carolina's 1832 Ordinance of Nullification.The Compromise Tariff of 1833 was eventually accepted by South Carolina and ended the nullification crisis. It contains a broadside providing the names of the State Rights and Nullification ticket for the South Carolina state convention in 1832. -
Texas Revolution
After Santa Anna revoked local powers in Texas and other Mexican states, several rebellions erupted, including what would eventually become the Texas Revolution. It started with the battle of Gonzales in October 1835 and ended with the battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836. -
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
On Febuary 2, 1848, the United States and Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Mexico agreed to the Rio Grande border for Texas and ceded New Mexico and California to the United States. The United States agreed to pay 15 million for the mexican cession, which included present-day California, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, most of Arizona, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming. -
Compromise of 1850
Henry Clay worked to create a compromise that both the North and the South could accept. With the support of Webster, eight days later, Clay presented to the Senate a series of resolutions later called the Compromise of 1850. This hoped to settle all questions in controversy between the free and slave states, growing out of the subject of slavery. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Harriet Beecher Stowe published Unclw Tom's Cabin. Stirring strong reactions from the North and South alike, the novel became an instant bestseller. More than a million copies had been sold by the middle of 1853. The novel's plot was emotional and exaggerated with stereotype characters, but it did deliver the message that slavery was not just a political contest, but also a great moral struggle. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
With the help of President Franklin Pierce, a Democrat elected in 1852, Douglas steered his proposal through the Senate. After months of struggle and strife, the Kansas-Nebraska Act became law in May 1854. All eyes turned west-ward as the fate of the new territories hung in the balance. -
Beating of Charles Sumner
On May 22, 1856, in the United States Congress, Representative Preston Brooks attacked Senator Charles Sumner with his walking cane in return for a speech given by Sumner two days earlier. He did not agree with him, so he turned to violence. -
Dred Scott Decision
In 1856 an important legal question came before the Supreme Court. The case concerned Dred Scott, a slave from missouri. Scott's owner had taken him north of the Missouri compromise line in 1834. They lived in free territory in Illinnois and Wisconson for four years. His owner died and he began a lawsuit to gain his freedom. He claimed to be free, but the Supreme Court thought otherwise. -
Harper's Ferry
This was when, John Brown tried to start an armed slave revolt in 1859 by seizing a United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Brown's raid, accompanied by 20 men in his party, was defeated by a detachment of U.S. Marines. -
Election of 1860
The election was held on Tuesday, November 6, 1860 and served as the immediate movement force for the outbreak of the American Civil War. The United States had been divided during the 1850s on questions surrounding the expansion of slavery and the rights of slave owners. -
South Carolina Secedes
On December 20, 1860, a secession convention called by the South Carolina legislature voted unanimously, to secede from the United States. After the election of Abraham Lincoln on November 6, 1860, people in South Carolina perceived a threat to their slave system that Congressional compromise could not restore to a state of peace.