Pre-Civil War

By kree716
  • Period: to

    The Underground Railroad

    The Underground Railroad was the term used to describe a network of meeting places, secret routes, passageways and safe houses used by slaves in the U.S. to escape slave holding states to northern states and Canada.
    {http://www.historynet.com/underground-railroad}

  • The Missouri Compromise

    In 1819, Missouri made the request to become a slave state, which threatened to upset the balance between free states and slave states. To keep the peace, Congress granted Missouri's request, while also admitting Maine as a slave state, and passed an amendment that drew an imaginary line across the former Louisiana Territory, creating a boundary.

  • Tariff of 1828 & Nullification Crisis

    In 1819, Missouri made the request to become a slave state, which threatened to upset the balance between free states and slave states. To keep the peace, Congress granted Missouri's request, while also admitting Maine as a slave state, and passed an amendment that drew an imaginary line across the former Louisiana Territory, creating a boundary.
    {http://www.ushistory.org/us/24c.asp}

  • Nat Turner's Rebellion

    Spreading terror throughout the white South, his action set off a new wave of oppressive legislation prohibiting the education, movement, and assembly of slaves and stiffened pro-slavery, anti-abolitionist convictions that persisted in that region until the American Civil War
    {http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/nat-turner}

  • Compromise of 1850

    Divisions over slavery in territory gained in the Mexican-American War were resolved in the Compromise of 1850.

  • The Kansas-Nebraska Act

    The Kansas-Nebraska Act was an 1854 bill that mandated “popular sovereignty”–allowing settlers of a territory to decide whether slavery would be allowed within a new state’s borders. The conflicts that arose between pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers in the aftermath of the act’s passage led to the period of violence known as Bleeding Kansas
  • Period: to

    "Bleeding Kansas"

    Bleeding Kansas was a series of violent political confrontations in the U.S. involving anti-slavery and pro-slavery elements in Kansas. Anti-slavery citizens were known as "Free-Staters", while pro-slavery citizens were known as "Border Ruffians".

  • Dred Scott Decision

    The United States Supreme Court issues a decision in the Dred Scott case, affirming the right of slave owners to take their slaves into the Western territories, thereby negating the doctrine of popular sovereignty and severely undermining the platform of the newly created Republican Party.

  • John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry

    An attempt to start an armed slave revolt and destroy the institution of slavery.
    {http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/john-browns-raid-on-harpers-ferry}

  • Election of 1860

    Election of 1860
    An election between John Bell, Abraham Lincoln, Stephen Douglas, and John Breckinridge.

  • Secession of the Southern States

    In 1861, the Lower and Upper South severed their ties with the Union.

  • Fort Sumter is Fired Upon

    After South Carolina seceded in 1860, the state demanded the fort be turned over but Union officials refused. April 12, 1861, the Confederate guns opened fire. For thirty-three hours, the shore batteries lobbed 4,000 shells in the direction of the fort.
    {http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/fort-sumter-fired-upon}