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Senator Henry Clay introduced a series of resolutions on January 29, 1850, in an attempt to seek a compromise and avert a crisis between North and South.As part of the compromise the fugitive slave act had some changes made, and the slave trade in Washington DC was abolished.
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Fugitive Slave Act was passed by the United States Congress on September 18, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850 between Southern slave-holding interests and Northern Free-Soldiers.
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Thomas Jackson becomes a teacher at Virginia Military Institute
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Democrats Franklin pierce and William King defeat Whigs Wind-field Scott and William Ghram for president and vice president.
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The Gadsden Purchase, or Treaty, was an agreement between the United States and Mexico, finalized in 1854, in which the United States agreed to pay Mexico $10 million for a 29,670 square mile portion of Mexico that later became part of Arizona and New Mexico.
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The Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed by the U.S. Congress It allowed people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders. The Act served to repeal the Missouri Compromise of 1852
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March 30, 1855 Kansas elects its first territorial legislature. Pro-slavery Missourians cross the border into Kansas to vote against Freestate candidates
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Samuel Jones, a pro-slavery sheriff leads a band of border ruffians on a raid against Lawrence, Kansas
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The Lecompton Convention, a pro-slave constitutional convention convenes.
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Abraham Lincoln makes his "House Divided" speech before the Illinois Republican Convention to kick off his senatorial run against Stephen Douglas.
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Oregon enters the United States as a free state
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Abraham Lincoln is Nominated President, Lincoln's election for President was followed by South Carolina's succession from the Union.
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Residents of the western counties of Virginia did not wish to secede along with the rest of the state. This section of Virginia was admitted into the Union as the state of West Virginia on June 20, 1863
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Victory for Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in Tennessee, capturing Fort Henry, and ten days later Fort Do-nelson. Grant earns the nickname "Unconditional Surrender" Grant.
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President Lincoln issues the final Emancipation Proclamation freeing all slaves in territories held by Confederates and emphasizes the enlisting of black soldiers in the Union Army. The war to preserve the Union now becomes a revolutionary struggle for the abolition of slavery.
