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The Underground Railroad
A secret network of people, places, and routes in the North that led slaves to freedom in large cities, black communities, and Canada. Fugitive slaves, abolitionist, slaves, freeslaves, and conductors were involvled in the railroad. The railroad would take you from the upper and deep South states to northern states and Canada. Fugitives would escape at night and meet up with conductors that would show them the way to freedom. On April, 12 1786 the first known escape was recorded. -
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The Underground Railroad
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Levi Coffin
Levi Coffin was born October 28, 1789 in New Garden, Guilford County. He was a free white man who was against slavery. Coffin helped slaves get to Canada and gave them shelter. He was a member of the Committee on Concerns of People of Color to Consider Their Education and a delegate to the International Anti-Slavery Socity in Paris. He also worked for freedmen at the outbreak of the civil war, and devoted the rest of his life to this. He was known as president of the Underground Railroad. Coffin -
Levi Coffin
wrote his autobiograghy in the last years of his life called "Reminiscences of Levi Coffin". He died September 16, 1877. -
The Missouri Compromise
Missouri applied for admission to statehood. Congress had the ability to admit and deny states, but could not set conditions for the state. In the north the Tallmadge Amendment was proposed and said that no more slaves be brought into Missouri and the ones alredy there be freed at age 25. The south said other states did not need conditons, if they did they would be unequal states.Missouri joined as a slave state, states south of the 36'30 line were slave and states north of the line were free. -
Nat Turner's Rebellion
Nat Turner led a group of 70 slaves who went around killing all plantation owners and their families. Turner was jailed, tried in court, found guilty, then hanged. Slaves in other states were being executed because of the rebellion even thought they have nothing to do with it. Life became a lot more difficult for slaves, and they could not do much of anything because of balck codes. They now wanted their freedom even more than ever before. -
The Compromise of 1850
California joins the union as a free, so now there are more free states than slave states. The land we gained in the Mexican American war gets to decide whether or not they have slaves. The slave trade is outlawed in Washington D.C but they can still have slavery. Texas border dispute is settled . Fugitive Slave Act was passed saying that runaway slaves had to be returned to their owners, free blacks could be captured and sent to the south as slaves. -
The Compromise of 1850
Judges were paid $10 for every runaway slave returned. Whites had to report any known runaway, if they didn't they could be taken to jail or fined. The underground railroad also became very popular around this time. -
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed May 30, 1854. It let people in Kansas territories vote whether they would be a free or slave state. The south supported the act because it raised the possibility that Kansas and Nebraska might become slave states. The north was against the act because they thought he was a sellout to the slave power.Stephen Douglas thought the northerners would be okay with the act because the agriculture would not support cotton or slavery, they would choose to be a free state -
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
Popular sovereignty allowed the states to vote whether they wanted to be a free or slave state. The act had a big effect on the country. The South gave them hope for more slave states. In the North it allowed them to choose to be free or not. It made a fuse between Douglas, the South, and the Northern states. It was a negative thing for the whole country. -
Bleeding Kansas
Tension in Kansas began in 1854, when the Kansas-Nebraska Bill became law. Antislavery settlers from New England move to Kansas to try to fight against the Slave Power. Free state settlers called free soilers wanted free territory for free white people and were committed to keeping the territory of Kansas free of slavery. Proslavery settlers from Missouri moved into kansas to vote illegally in the territory trying to make Kansas a slave state. The first act of violence was in Lawrence Kansas -
Bleeding Kansas
and was started by proslavery supporters. John Brown led antislavery supporters on May 21, 1856 in a attack on proslavery settlers near Pottawatomie Creek, where they killed five proslavery men. The looting in Lawerence and Brown's reaction gave the territory the name "Bleeding Kansas". -
Dred Scott Case
March 6, 1857 was the year the Dred Scott case was decided on. Dred Scott's first owners were the Blow family and they sold him to Dr.Emerson where he worked in Illinois and Wisconsin for 12 years. When Emerson died, Scott and his family were sent to work somewhere else. A few years later Scott decided to sue for their freedom. An abolitionist lawyer represente Scott's case in court, which the question whether Scott could even appear in court came up. Whether Scott was even a citizen of -
Dred Scott Case
Missouri was another conflict that came up in the Scott vs. Standford case of 1857. The second part of the decision was whether the Missouri Compromise of 1820 was even legal still. The decision caused tension between states and was making them closer to war. Mrs.Emerson gave the Scott's back to the Blow family and she gave them their freedom. Scott died a freeman, and his court battles helped people see that slaves weren't just slaves, they were people too. -
The Election of 1860
The election was held November 6, 1860. Abraham Lincoln was repbulican. John C. Breckinridge and Stephen A. Douglas were democrat, John Bell was with the constitutional Union. Lincoln wanted to keep slavery but stop it from expanding. Douglas supported popular sovereignty and wanted the people to choose whether to have slavery or not. Breckinridge wanted to expand slavery and Bell wanted to end it completely. Lincoln recieved 180 electoral votes, Breckinridge got 72, Bell got -
The Election of 1860
39, and Douglas got 12. Lincoln had every North state except New Jersey. Breckinridge had all the Southeren states except MO, KY, TN, and MA. Bell had KY, TN, and MA. Douglas ahd just Missouri. Lincoln won without recieving any Southern votes. Southerners were outraged that the republicans won. -
The Attack on Fort Sumter
After Lincoln won the election and before he sworn into presidency SC, AL, MS, GA, NC, LA, and TX all seceded from the Union. South Carolina was the first to secede. They called themselves the Confederate States of America and elected Jefferson Davis as their president. Lincoln still considered them part of the Union and said they were just rebelling. Montgomery, AL was the original Confederate capital. On April 12, 1861 Confederate General Beaureguard forced Fort Sumter to surrender, -
The Attack on Fort Sumter
Anderson refused and the Confederate forts and batteries isolating Fort Sumter open fired. April 13, 1861 Anderson surrendered.
