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Fugitive Slave Act
Congress is denied interference in the slave trade between states, enabling Southern slave-owners to take free blacks from the North. It implicated free states in maintaining the slave system by including clauses that meant anyone aiding runaway slaves would be subject to fines and imprisonment. -
Kansas- Nebraska Act
The 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act overturns the Missouri Compromise by ceding rights to individual states to decide whether to be free or slave-holding through the process of Popular Sovereignty. Slave-holders flock into Kansas to secure their allegiance, sparking clashes with free-state Northerners on a scale that threatens civil war. -
Lincoln-Douglas debates
In Illinois, Democrat Stephen A. Douglas and Republican Abraham Lincoln engage in a seven debates during the Senate election campaign. Their speeches were circulated beyond the state and serve as a discussion of the problem of slavery and its future. Although he lost the election, much of what Lincoln said in the debates went on to form his presidential campaign in 1860. -
Raid on Harpers Ferry
John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry was an effort by armed abolitionist John Brown to initiate an armed slave revolt in 1859 by taking over a United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. -
Abraham Lincoln elected President
Republican Party candidate Abraham Lincoln becomes the 16th President of the United States. He wins the presidential election without carrying a single Southern vote. -
Extension of secession and the formation of the Confederacy
Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas all commit to secession in 1861. South Carolina in 1860, one of the richest states in the country, is the first to secede in the immediate aftermath of Lincoln’s election.These states form the Confederate States of America. -
Fort Sumter
The first exchange of fire in the Civil War takes place off the coast of South Carolina at Fort Sumter. -
First Battle of Bull Run
The first major battle of the Civil War occurs when public and political demands push an unprepared Union army into battle in Virginia. The arrival of Confederate reinforcements ensures a Confederate victory and a rapid retreat to Washington, D.C. for the Union army. -
Enlisting black soldiers
The thirty-seventh Congress approves of the enrolment of black troops in the Union militias out of a compulsion 'to use all the physical force' at their disposal. This constitutes a marked departure from a policy of turning away black soldiers keen to enlist. -
The Battle of Antietam
The bloodiest day of the Civil War is militarily inconclusive, but pivotal for the Union cause. An offer from Britain and France to mediate a peace on the basis of Confederate independence is dropped. Lincoln warns the Confederacy that he would order slave emancipation unless the rebelling states return to the Union by the new year. -
Battle of Gettysburg
Confederate General Robert E. Lee, in an attempt to bring the Southern cause to the North, invades Pennsylvania but is routed by the Union army. Lee fails early military advantages, leading a defeat. Both sides are exhausted; the Union fails to press advantage as Lee retreats. Confederate forces are kept out of Union territory for the rest of the war. -
Capture of Atlanta
Under General William Sherman’s command, the Union army capture the Confederate stronghold of Atlanta and embark on a campaign of destruction aimed at breaking the will of the Confederate army. -
Fort Fisher and the last days of the Confederacy
Union forces capture Fort Fisher in North Carolina, strengthening a Union blockade which has caused devastating food and clothing shortages in the South. Laws against conspiracy are tightened. -
Civil War is officially over
On April 8, 1865, General Lee surrendered his army at the Appomattox Court House. -
The Thirteenth Amendment ratified
After a great deal of political wrangling, the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery is ratified.
