-
First Issue of The Liberator
In 1831, abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison started a newspaper called The Liberator -
Dred Scott Decision
Dred Scott was still an enslaved person. As such, he was not a citizen and had no right to bring a lawsuit. Taney wrote that living on free soil did not make Scott free. A slave was property. The Fifth Amendment prohibited the taking of property without "due process." -
Compromise of 1850- passed
In 1850 Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky suggested a compromise. California would be a free state, but other new territories would have no limits on slavery. In addition, the slave trade, but not slavery itself, would be illegal in Washington, D.C. Clay also pushed for a stronger fugitive slave law. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin is published
Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1852, and it made a major impact on public opinion. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act-passed
In 1854 Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois introduced a bill to settle the issue of slavery in the territories. It organized the region west of Missouri and Iowa as the territories of Kansas and Nebraska. Both were north of 36°30' N latitude, the line that limited slavery. -
James Buchanan sworn into office as 15th president
Buchanan took all Southern states except Maryland. Frémont won 11 of the 16 free states but did not get any electoral votes from south of the Mason-Dixon Line. With 174 electoral votes compared to 114 for Frémont and 8 for Fillmore, Buchanan won. -
John Brown's Raid at Harper's Ferry
On October 16, 1859, John Brown led a group on a raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia. His target was a federal arsenal, a storage site for weapons. Brown hoped to arm enslaved African Americans and start a revolt against slaveholders. Abolitionists had paid for the raid. -
South Carolina secedes from Union
On December 20, 1860, South Carolina voted to secede from the Union. -
Abraham Lincoln elected President
In his Inaugural Address, Lincoln spoke to the seceding states directly. He said that he could not allow secession and that "the Union of these States is perpetual [forever]." He vowed to hold federal property in the South, including a number of forts and military installations, and to enforce the laws of the United States. At the same time, Lincoln pleaded with the South. -
Battle at Fort Sumter begins
The day after taking office, Lincoln received a message from the commander of Fort Sumter, a U.S. fort on an island guarding Charleston Harbor. The message warned that the fort was low on supplies and the Confederates demanded its surrender. Lincoln responded in a message to Governor Francis Pickens of South Carolina that he was sending an unarmed group to the fort with supplies. He promised Union forces would not "throw in men, arms, or ammunition" unless they were fired upon. -
1st Battle of Bull Run
Tension mounted in the summer of 1861, leading to the first major battle of the Civil War. On July 21, about 30,000 Union troops commanded by General Irvin McDowell attacked a smaller Confederate force led by General P.G.T. Beauregard. The fighting took place in northern Virginia, near a small river called Bull Run. Hundreds of spectators from Washington, D.C., watched the battle from a few miles away. Both sides lacked battle experience. -
Battle of Gettysburg Begins
In July 1863, a small town in southern Pennsylvania became the site of one of the most decisive battles in the Civil War. Gettysburg was not a capital, a key port, or the location of a fort. It was almost an accident that such serious fighting took place there.The battle started at 7:30 a.m. on July 1. -
Sherman's March to the Sea Begins
The Union was determined to break the South's will to continue the fight. To break this will, Sherman burned much of the city of Atlanta in November 1864. Sherman then had his troops march across Georgia toward the Atlantic, burning cities and crops as they went. This trail of destruction is known as Sherman's March to the Sea.Sherman continued his march through the Carolinas to join Grant's forces near Richmond.Union troops took food, tore up railroad lines and fields, and killed livestock.
