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Period: 1518 to
The Middle Passage
The Middle Passage was the part of the triangle trade in which millions of Africans were forcibly transported to the Colonies as part of the Atlantic slave trade. -
The Fugitive Slave Clause
Fugitive Slave Acts, in U.S. history, statutes passed by Congress in 1793 and 1850 (and repealed in 1864) that provided for the seizure and return of runaway slaves who escaped from one state into another or into a federal territory. -
The Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise was a United States federal legislation that stopped northern attempts to forever prohibit slavery's expansion by admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state in exchange for legislation that prohibited slavery in the North, besides from Missouri. -
Underground Railroad Founding
The Underground Railroad was a network of secret routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early to mid-1800s. It was used by African American slaves to escape into the free states or Canada. -
Nat Turner’s Rebellion
Nat Turner’s Rebellion was a successful organized slave revolt in Virginia led by enslaved man Nat Turner. -
Period: to
Dred Scott Case
Missouri's Dred Scott Case, 1846-1857. In its 1857 decision that stunned the nation, the United States Supreme Court upheld slavery in United States territories, denied the legality of black citizenship in America, and declared the Missouri Compromise to be unconstitutional. -
Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was a total of five separate bills passed by the United States Congress over 1850 that settled a political confrontation between slave and free states on the status of territories acquired in the Mexican–American War. -
Publishing of Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in the U.S. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act/Bleeding Kansas
The Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed by the U.S. Congress on May 30, 1854. It allowed people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders. -
John Brown’s Raid
John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry was an effort by abolitionist John Brown, from October 16 to 18, 1859, to initiate a slave revolt in Southern states by taking over the United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. -
The Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation was an order by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln to free slaves in 10 states. It applied to slaves in the states still in rebellion in 1863 during the American Civil War.