CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION

MISSOURI COMPROMISE

• March 3, 1820
• The Missouri Compromise was an effort by Congress to defuse the sectional and political rivalries triggered by the request of Missouri for admission as a state in which slavery would be permitted. At the time, the United States contained twenty-two states, evenly divided between slave and free.

THE LIBERATOR IS PUBLISHED

• January 1, 1831
• 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.

NAT TURNER LEADS SLAVE REBELLION

• August 21, 1831
• On the evening of August first, Nat Turner and a group of conspirators killed over sixty white men, women, and children.

WILMOT PROVISO

• August 8, 1846
• The Wilmot Proviso prohibited the expansion of slavery into land acquired from the Mexican-American War.

COMPROMISE OF 1850

• January 29, 1850
• The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five separate bills passed by the United States Congress in 1850, which defused a four-year political confrontation between slave and free states regarding the status of territories acquired during the Mexican-American War.

UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

• No specific date
• The Underground Railroad was a network of secret routes and safe houses used by slaves in the United States in efforts to escape to free states with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause

UNCLE TOM'S CABIN PUBLISHED

• March 20, 1852
• Uncle Tom's Cabin is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. The novel helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War.

KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT

• May 30, 1854
• The Kansas–Nebraska Act created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, opening new lands for settlement, and had the effect of repealing the Missouri Compromise of 1820 by allowing white male settlers in those territories to determine whether they would allow slavery within each territory.

CREATION OF REPUBLICAN PARTY

• March 20, 1854
• In 1854, a party split away from the Whig party, and became the Republican Party.

BROOKS ATTACKS SUMNER IN SENATE

• May 20, 1856
• On May 22, 1856, in the United States Congress, Representative Preston Brooks attacked Senator Charles Sumner with his walking cane in retaliation for a speech given by Sumner two days earlier.

POTTAWATOMIE CREEK MASSACRE

• May 24, 1856
• In reaction to the sacking of Lawrence, Kansas by pro-slavery forces, John Brown and a band of abolitionist settlers—some of them members of the Pottawatomie Rifles—killed five settlers north of Pottawatomie Creek in Franklin County, Kansas with broadswords.

DRED SCOTT DECISION

• March 6, 1857
• A controversial ruling made by the Supreme Court in 1857, shortly before the outbreak of the Civil War. Dred Scott, a slave, sought to be declared a free man on the basis that he had lived for a time in a “free” territory with his master.

LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES

• Aug 21, 1858
• A series of debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas in 1858, when both were campaigning for election to the United States Senate from Illinois. Much of the debating concerned slavery and its extension into territories such as Kansas.

HARPER'S FERRY

• Oct 16, 1859
• Historically, Harpers Ferry is best known for John Brown's raid on the Armory in 1859 and its role in the American Civil War.

JOHN BROWN HANGING

• Dec 2, 1859
• Brown's attempt in 1859 to start a liberation movement among enslaved African Americans in Harpers Ferry, Virginia, electrified the nation. He was tried for treason against the Commonwealth of Virginia, the murder of five men and inciting a slave insurrection. He was found guilty on all counts and was hanged

LINCOLN ELECTED PRESIDENT

• Nov 6, 1860
• Abraham Lincoln was elected 16th president of the United States in 1860 as the Republican candidate on a platform opposing the expansion of slavery.

VIRGINIA SECEDES

• Dec 20, 1860
• April 15 President Abraham Lincoln called for troops from all states still in the Union in response to the Confederate capture of Fort Sumter. On April 17, the Virginia convention voted to secede, pending ratification of the decision by the voters.

SOUTH CAROLINA SECEDES

• Dec 20, 1860
• On December 20, South Carolina became the first Southern state to declare its secession and later formed the Confederacy.

CSA ARE FORMED

• Feb 4, 1861
• The eleven states that seceded from United States in order to preserve slavery formed the Confederate Staes of America

CONFEDERACY ATTACKS FORT SUMTER

• Apr 12, 1861
• Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. On April 12, 1861, General P.G.T. Beauregard, in command of the Confederate forces around Charleston Harbor, opened fire on the Union garrison holding Fort Sumter.

JEFFERSON DAVIS ELECTED PRES. OF CSA

• Nov 6, 1861
• Jefferson Davis was elected president, not of the United States of America but of the Confederate States of America. He ran unopposed and was elected to serve for a six-year term. Davis had already been serving as the temporary president for almost a year.