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Invention of Cotton Gin
Cotton Gin
A machine that revolutionized the production of cotton by greatly speeding up the process of removing seeds from cotton fiber. By the mid-19 century, cotton had became America's leading export. This invention offered Southern planters a justification to maintaian and expand slavery. -
Underground Railroad
Underground Railroad
The network of routes extended through 14 Northern states and “the promised land” of Canada. Check out the timespan. -
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Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was neither underground nor a railroad. It got its name because its activities had to be carried out in secret, using darkness or disguise, and because railway terms were used by those involved with system to describe how it worked. The most active of the Railroad workers were northern free blacks, who had little or no support from white abolitionists. The most famous “conductor,” an escaped slave named Harriet Tubman, reportedly made nineteen return trips to the South; -
Missouri Compromise
missouri compromise
After months of bitter debate, Congress passes the Missouri Compromise, a bill that temporarily resolves the first serious political clash between slavery and antislavery interests in U.S. history. It also passed an amendment that drew an imaginary line across the former Louisiana Territory, establishing a boundary between free and slave regions that remained the law of the land until it was negated. -
Nat Turner's Rebellion
Nat Turner's Rebellion
In 1831 a slave named Nat Turner led a rebellion in Southhampton County, Virginia. A religious leader and self-styled Baptist minister, Turner and a group of followers killed some sixty white men, women, and children on the night of August 21. Turner and 16 of his conspirators were captured and executed, but the incident continued to haunt Southern whites. Blacks were randomly killed all over the county. -
Tariff of 1828 & Nullification Crisis
Tariff of 1828 & Nullification Crisis
In 1828, Congress passed a high protective tariff that infuriated the southern states because they felt it only benefited the industrialized north. Vice President John Calhoun agreed to the tariff but argued for a less drastic solution a doctrine of Nullification.The Nullification was enacted into law but there was no tariff. -
The Liberator is published
The Liberator is published
William Lloyd Garrison was the voice of Abolitionism. Originally a supporter of colonization, Garrison changed his position and became the leader of the emerging anti-slavery movement. His publication the liberator would not have been successful had it not been for the free blacks who subscribed. -
Compromise of 1850
Senator Henry Clay presented resolutions and argued that they represented an essential spirit of compromise.The compromise prevented further territorial expansion of slavery while strengthening the Fugitive Slave Act,law which compelled Northerners to seize and return escaped slaves to the South.While the agreement succeeded in postponing outright hostilities between the North and South, it did little to address, and in some ways even reinforced, the structural disparity that divided the U.S. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
kansas nebraska act Antislavery supporters were outraged because, under the terms of the Missouri Compromise of 1820, slavery would have been outlawed in both territories. After months of debate it was passed on May 30, 1854.The Kansas-Nebraska Act undid the compromise that was made in the Missouri Compromise, which designated a line of latitude to be the separation of free and slave states. The Kansas-Nebraska act reignited the disagreement between pro and anti slavery factions. -
'Bleeding Kansas'
Rival governments had been established in Kansas by late 1855, one backed by proslavery Missourians, the other by antislavery groups.Although Kansans in that year once and for all rejected the proslavery Lecompton constitution, such violence continued on a smaller scale into 1861.The two factions struggled for five years with sporadic outbreaks of bloodshed that claimed fifty-six lives. -
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
Debates begin! The issues they discussed were not only of critical importance to the sectional conflict over slavery and states’ rights but also touched deeper questions that would continue to influence political discourse. The issues they discussed were not only of critical importance to the sectional conflict over slavery and states’ rights but also touched deeper questions that would continue to influence political discourse. -
Election of 1860
The Democrats met in Charleston, South Carolina, in April 1860 to select their candidate for President in the upcoming election. Northern democrats felt that Stephen Douglas had the best chance to defeat the "Black Republicans." But on Nov. 6 Abraham Lincohn was elected. As a Republican, his party’s anti-slavery outlook struck fear into many Southerners. -
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Secession of Southern States
The force of events moved very quickly upon the election of Lincoln. South Carolina acted first, calling for a convention to SECEDE from the Union.Many maintain that the primary cause of the war was the Southern states’ desire to preserve the institution of slavery. Others minimize slavery and point to other factors, such as taxation or the principle of States' Rights.Six more states followed by the spring of 1861.
