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Fugitive Slave Act
The Fugitive Slave Act is a law passed as part of the Compromise of 1850, which provided southern slaveholders with legal weapons to capture slaves who had escaped to the three states. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin Published
The most influential American novel ever written appeared first in weekly instalments between and June 1851 and April 1852 in the National Era, a Washington DC periodical with an anti-slavery slant. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
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. -
Election of 1860
The 1860 presidential election pitted four candidates against each other: Stephen Douglas for the Northern Democrats, John C. Breckenridge for the Southern Democrats, John Bell for the Constitution Union Party, and Abraham Lincoln for the Republican Party. -
Battle of Fort Sumter
General P.G.T Beauregard, in command of the Confederate forces around Charleston Harbor, opened fire on the Union garrison holding Fort Sumter. -
The Monitor vs. The Merrimack
The March 9, 1862, battle between Monitor and the Merrimack during the American Civil War was history's first duel between ironclad warships. -
The Battle of Shiloh
The Battle of Shiloh was a major battle in the Western Theater of the American Civil War fought April 6-7, 1862, in southwestern Tennessee. -
The Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation was a presidential proclamation and executive order issued by Presidential Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863. -
The Battle of Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg was fought July 1-3, 1863 in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War. -
The Thirteenth Amendment
The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. -
Surrender at Appomattox
9,000 men under Gordon and Fitzhugh Lee deployed in the fields west of the village before dawn and waited. The attack, launched before 8:00 a.m. and led by General Bryan Grimes of North Carolina, was initially successful. -
Assassination of President Lincoln
Shortly after 10 p.m. on April 14, 1865, actor John Wilkes Booth entered the presidential box at Ford's Theater in Washington D.C., and fatally shot President Abraham Lincoln.
