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Fugitive Slave Law
This law was passed as a part of the Compromise of 1850. This law set horrible punishments for people who helped slaves, and rewarded those who returned slaves to their masters. This law added another reason for the North to hate slavery. -
Underground Railroad
This was a system in which slaves were assisted in escaping and leaving their masters. It was a clever and crafty system, and angered the South. The South demanded a new fugitive slave law because of this. -
Kansas-Nebraska Scheme.
The large territory of Nebraska has split has split into the two territories of Kansas and Nebraska. Nebraska is a free state, while Kansas is a slave state due to popular sovereignty. Stephen Douglas unsuccessfully tried to take Nebraska and Kansas as slave states. -
Tariff of 1857
The financial crash of 1857 caused a mass panic in the United States. Congress passes this new law that reduced duties to about
20% on suitable goods -
Scott v. Stanford
Dred Scott wanted to sue for his freedom. The Supreme Court made a decision that was less legal and more political saying Scott was a slave and therefore had no rights. This included his ability to sue -
Harper's Ferry Raid
John Brown seized the arsenal, and killed seven innocent people. Brown and his small group were stopped by the marines led by General Robert E. Lee -
Reconstruction
Tried to help heal the problems created during and before the Civil War. Overall can be seen as a success or failure. Included two presidential terms, black laws in seats of political power, and Johnson almost getting impeached -
The Iron Colt Becomes the Iron Horse
The railroad system was beginning to expand and improve by the late 1800s. Because many of these railroads projects were costly and risky, Congress put a hold on many of them. Also, Congress gave unused,public land to the railroad companies. -
Klu Klux Klan
Others known as the "invisible Empire" they worked int he shadows and opposed all other groups other than white protestants. They are afflicted the most with oppressing blacks -
The Election of 1868
The republicans nominated Ulysses S. Grant because he was a war-hero, even though he had no political background. The Democrats were very disorganized and ultimately nominated Horatio Seymour. Even though Seymour lost popularity, Grant's main winning tactic was to remind the voters that he lead the North to victory. -
The Liberal Republican Revolt of 1872
By the 1872 presidential election, the Liberal Republican Party was formed and nominated Horace Greeley as their candidate. The Democrats also supported him because they wanted a candidate in office. The election was a brutal tirade of name calling, and a landslide victory for grant. -
The Urban Frontier
In the 1860s there was no city that had a population of at least one million. By the 1890s a couple cities including Philadelphia and Chicago and passed the one million point, and New York City had 3.5 million people in its midst. Skyscrapers allowed more people and work areas to be packed onto an area of land. -
Carnegie and Other Sultans of Steel
Andrew Carnegie was the most successful out of all the steel makers. Although he was the most successful, Carnegie was not a monopolist, often putting in the extra work and assuming lots of responsibility. By 1900 he was producing one fourth of America's Bessemer Steel. -
The Platt Amendment
U.S. forced Cuba to write their own constituion. Cuba was angered because they felt this only benefited America. America also said they would intervene in Cuba, if need be, to "restore peace". -
Trusts Exposed
A couple of popular magazines at the time started to reveal the shady truth behind trusts. Steffens released several articles in which he revealed the relationship between big businesses and the government, while Tarbell talked about the ruthlessness of standard Oil -
First Successful Flight
Orville and Wilbur Wright conducted their first flight, and it lasted 12 seconds and 120 feet -
Roosevelt's Peace Agreement
Roosevelt brokered a peace agreement in New Hampshire. Japanese people received nothing for their loses but the southern half of Sakhalin -
Political Progressivism
Progressivists were mainly middle class men and women. They wanted to use state power to control trusts and to improve the common person's conditions of life and labor. They supported the "Initiative", "Referendum", and the "Recall" which gave voters more power. -
17th Amendment
Progressivists finally got Congress to pass this amendment which supported their ideas. This amendment established a direct election of U.S. senators -
Panama Canal
Britain gave America the ability to build the canal with the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty in 1901. Originally the optimal land to build the canal had been rejected to the U.S., but eventually had been sold to them due to Panamanian revolt against Colombia. Construction finished in 1914 -
Emergency Quota Act of 1921
Only 3% of each European nationality could come to America each year (based on their 1910 population) -
The Growth of The Ku Klux Klan
In the early 1920s, a shadowy group of individuals formed. This group was anti-foreign, anti-Catholic, anti-black, anti-Jewish, anti-pacifist, anti-Communist, anti-internationalist, etc. -
Great Depression Cause #1
In 1929, consumers were spending less and thus overproduction was starting to happen. Then, on a day known as Black Thursday, the stock market started to become troublesome. Finally, on a day known as Black Tuesday, the stock market crashed. This caused many rich investors to become poorer than dirt. -
Great Depression Cause #4
America had set their own tariff, so that foreign countries would not be able to compete with American industry. In turn, these foreign countries established their own tariffs on imports. This "tariff war" greatly deepened the Great Depression. -
Great Depression Cause #2
After the stock market crash occurred, many people grew scared and started to withdraw all their money from banks. Because of this, the bank system started to fail because of their lack of funds. By 1933, pretty much half of the banks in America had failed. -
Great Depression Cause #3
Even though the bank system was failing and the stock market had crashed, the Federal Reserve System (The Fed) still reined in the American economy. The Fed increased interest rates, did nothing to help the banking panics, and only helped specific banks. -
Consumer Culture In the 1950s
The Plastic Credit Card was Introduced(1949) soon after the first fast-food restaurant opened up(McDonald's). Soon after(1955) Disneyland opened to the public in California. The 6 existing TV stations in 1946 rapidly grew to to 442 stations in 1956. -
SAC
Strategic Air Command. John Foster Dulles proposed to equip a fleet of super bombers with nuclear weapons in order to help threaten foreign powers -
Battle of Dien Bien Phu
French forces with American support ended up losing to Vietnamese nationalists. In a peace, called the 17th parallel, the nationalists secured the north and the pro-Western officials had the south. -
Peaceful Relations Turned Sour
The Soviet Union and United States paused nuclear tests In 1959 Khrushchev, Soviet dictator, talked to the United Nations hoping for peace. Unfortunately a US spy plane was shot down in Russia ending any hopes for peaceful encounters -
Alliance for Progress
President Kennedy signed the Alliance for Progress in 1961. Its purpose was to help bring the rich in the poor together in Latin American countries thus quieting communist politicians. Unfortunately this was a fail, as America's action of using money served no impact on the social lives of Latin Americans. -
Berlin Wall
The Soviet Union began construction of the Berlin Wall in August of 1961.This wall was created to block the immense population influx into West Germany from East Germany, which was through Berlin. This wall was equipped with all sorts of traps and defenses to scare away people and punish trespassers. -
Kennedy is Killed
On November 22, 1963 President Kennedy was killed. Kennedy was shot dead while riding in a limousine in Dallas,TX. His killer, Lee Harvey Oswald, was shot by an avenger by the name of Jack Ruby -
Griswold vs. Connecticut
got rid of a state law that banned the use of contraceptives -
Great Society Plan Expansion
Nixon increased funding for Medicare,Medicaid, and Aid to Families with Dependent Children(AFDC). He also created the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) which gave help to the poor aged, blind, and/or disabled -
Vietnamization
President Nixon withdrew 540,000 U.S. troops from South Vietnam. Nixon then would leave it up to the South Vietnamese to use American resources and supplies to win the war. -
The Election of 1980
The Republican nominee was Ronald Reagan, and the Democratic nominee was Jimmy Carter. Reagan said the Democrats only supported big government and would one help minorities. Reagan won with a landslide victory -
Reaganomics
President Reagan called for immense tax cuts, and felt that doing so would put the money back in the economy. Congress pitched in to the effort by approving a set of tax reforms that lowered individual tax rates, reduced federal estate taxes, and formed new tax-free saving plans for small investors. -
Reagan's Second Term
Reagan dominated the polls once again in the 1984 election against Walter Mondale. Reagan had his fair share of foreign policy issues during his second term. President Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev(leader of the Soviet Union) signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty which banned all nuclear missiles in Europe and brought an end to the Cold War