The Origins Of The Civil War

  • Missouri Compromise

    What:
    Admitted Maine as a free state, and Missouri as a slave state. Also, no slavery would be permitted in other states developed out of the Louisiana Purchase north of 36 degrees 30 minutes latitude.
    Who:
    Jesse B Thomas, James Tallmadge, President James Moore, Thomas Jefferson, Henry clay
    Why?
    In 1820 Missouri was suppose to be admitted as a slave state, but this would disrupt the balance of free and slave states.
  • Indian Removal Act

    Who:
    President Andrew Jackson, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole
    What:
    The demand of both political and military action on removing, and relocating Native American Indians from the southern states of America.
    Where:
    everywhere!
    Why:
    The plan was to try authorizing the president to grant unsettled lands west of the Mississippi in exchange for Indian lands within existing state borders. Some left peacefully to avoid conflict, but others had to face serious consequences.
  • Texas Annexation

    Who:
    President James K Polk
    President Tyler
    What:
    Texas claimed independence after winning war with Mexico.
    Where:
    Texas
    Why:
    Have its own form of government and establishment.
  • Mexican- American War

    Who:
    President James K Polk, Zachary Taylor
    What:
    A border skirmish along the Rio Grande started off the fighting and was followed by a series of U.S. victories. Nearly after, Mexico had lost about one-third of its territory, including almost all of present-day California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico.
    Where:
    Rio Grande
    When:
    1846-48
    Why:
    President James K. Polk believed the United States had a “manifest destiny” to spread across the continent to the Pacific Ocean.
  • Oregon Treaty

    Who:
    James K. Polk, UK, US
    What:
    A controversy over the political division of the Pacific Northwest of North America between several nations that had competing territorial and commercial aspirations over the region.
    Where:
    Oregon
    Why:
    To bring an end to the Oregon boundary dispute by settling competing American and British claims to the Oregon Country; the area had been jointly occupied by both Britain and the U.S. since the Treaty of 1818.
  • Period: to

    Wilmot Proviso

    Who:
    David Wilmot, Martin Van Buren, John Davis
    What:
    David Wilmot devised a treaty to outlaw slavery in the acquired land from the Mexican American war. This was one of the many major events that led to the civl war.
    Where:
    Pennsylvania
    Why:
    These were the final negotiations in hopes to resolve Mexican-American war.
  • Treadty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

    Who:
    Mexico, Robert E Lee, US
    What:
    additional 525,000 square miles to United States territory. Mexico also gave up all claims to Texas and recognized the Rio Grande as America’s southern boundary. In return, the United States paid Mexico $15 million and agreed to settle all claims of U.S. citizens against Mexico
    Where:
    Mexico
    Why:
    Following the defeat of the Mexican army and the fall of Mexico City, in September 1847, the Mexican government surrendered and peace negotiations began.
  • Compromise of 1850

    Who:
    Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, John C Calhoun
    What:
    Admitting California as a free state, creating Utah and New Mexico territories with slavery being questioned in each state, and to be determined by popular sovereignty, settling a Texas-New Mexico boundary dispute in the former’s favor, ending the slave trade in Washington, D.C.
    Why:
    The compromise enabled Congress to avoid sectional and slavery issues for several years
  • Fugitive Slave Act

    Who:
    Henry Clay, African Americans, Millard Fillmore
    What:
    This allowed for the capture and return of runaway slaves within the territory of the United States.
    Where:
    Southern and Northern states
    Why:
    An extension to the original acts allowed for harsher punishments and laws to stop slaves from escaping.
  • Uncle Toms Cabin

    Who:
    Harriet Beecher Stowe
    What:
    The most controversial books, at that time, that showed how life really was for slaves in the south. Also helped open up the minds of northerners who did not believe the slaves had it all that bad. Sold 300,000 copies.
    Where:
    Cincinnati
    Why:
    After having met runaway slaves herself, Stowe felt the need to not only share their experience, but with the tightening fugitive slave acts, she released the book to help gain vote to abolish slavery.
  • Republican Party Formed

    Who:
    Whigs
    What:
    Party formed trying to oppose slavery for states in the west.
    Where:
    Ripon, Wisconsin
    Why:
    to try and limit the spread of slavery
  • Bleeding Kansas

    Who:
    border ruffians
    What:
    Proslavery and free-state settlers flooded into Kansas to try to influence the decision
    Where:
    Kansas
    Why:
    To try and bet more pro slavery votes.
  • Kansas- Nebraska Act

    Who:
    Stephen A. Douglas,
    What:
    To mandated “popular sovereignty”–allowing settlers of a territory to decide whether slavery would be allowed within a new state’s borders.
    Where:
    Kansas
    Why:
    Stephen A. Douglas, wanting to ensure a northern transcontinental railroad route that would benefit his Illinois constituents, introduced a bill to organize the territory of Nebraska in order to bring the area under civil control
  • Dred Scott decision

    Who:
    Dred Scott, Roger B Taney
    What:
    A slave who had lived with his owner in a free state before returning to the slave state of Missouri. Scott argued that his time spent in these locations entitled him to emancipation.
    Where:
    Missouri
    Why:
    The court found that no black, free or slave, could claim U.S. citizenship, and therefore blacks were unable to petition the court for their freedom.
  • Raid On Harpers Ferry

    Who:
    John Brown, Robert E Lee
    What:
    The raid was intended to be the first stage in an elaborate plan to establish an independent stronghold of freed slaves in the mountains of Maryland and Virginia.
    Where:
    Virginia
    Why:
    After pro-slavery men raided the abolitionist town of Lawrence on May 21, 1856, Brown personally sought revenge. Several days later, he and his sons attacked a group of cabins along Pottawatomie Creek.
  • South Carolina secedes from USA

    South Carolina adopted the Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union on December 20, 1860
  • Presidential election of 1860

    Who;
    Abraham Lincoln, John C Breckenridge
    What:
    The senatorial campaign featured a remarkable series of public encounters on the slavery issue, known as the Lincoln-Douglas debates, in which Lincoln argued against the spread of slavery, while Douglas maintained that each territory should have the right to decide whether it would become free or slave.
    Where:
    Washington D.C
    Why:
    To hope to make a difference in the things were back then.
  • Battle of fort summter

    Who:
    Major Robert Aderson
    What:
    The Southern states had seceded from the Union. They considered themselves to be an independent nation no longer under the control of the United States
    Where:
    South Carolina
    Why:
    Southern states had seceded