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Abolition
The movement to abolish slavery became the most important of a series of reform movements in America. -
Income Tax
When
white male workers went out on strike, employees hired free blacks, immigrants,
and women to replace them for lower wages. As the Northern economy grew,
Congress decided to help pay for the war by collecting the nation’s first income
tax, a tax that takes a specified percentage of an individual’s income. -
Missouri Compromise 1820-1821
When Missouri requested admission to Union, there was conflict between whether it should be a free state or a slave state. With Missouri Compromise, Maine would be admitted as a free state and Missouri a slave state. The rest of Louisiana Territory was split into two parts. Dividing line was 3630'. South of line, slavery was legal. North of line (except Missouri), slavery was banned. Under president James Monroe. -
San Felipe de Austin
Moses Austin received land grants but died before he could carry them out. Stephen, his son, obtained permission from Spain and then Mexico after it won their independence to carry out his dad's plan. He established a colony in 1821. Main settlement was San Felipe de Austin. -
Mexico abolishes slavery
Mexico abolished slavery in 1829. Problem because most settlers were Southerners, who brought saves with them to Texas. Insisted that Texas to free their slaves. -
The Liberator
William Lloyd Garrison, a white radical editor, wrote an antislavery paper for one purpose. To deliver an uncompromising demand: immediate immancipation -
Nat Turner's Rebellion
Some slaves rebelled against their condition of
bondage. One of the most prominent rebellions was led by Virginia slave Nat Turner. In August 1831, Turner and more than 50 followers attacked four plantations and killed about 60 whites. Whites eventually captured and executed many members of the group, including Turner. -
Stephen F. Austin goes to jail
Austin had traveled to Mexico City late in 1833 to present petitions to Mexican president Antonio López de Santa Anna for greater self-government for Texas. While Austin was on his way home, Santa Anna had Austin imprisoned for inciting
revolution. -
Oregon Trail
Stretched from Independence, Missouri to Oregon City, Oregon. It was blazed in 1836 by two Methodist missionaries Marcus and Narcissa Whitman. By driving their wagon as far as Fort Boise (present day Boise, Idaho), they proved that wagons could travel on the Oregon Trail. -
Texas Revolution
The 1836 rebellion in which Texas gained its independence from Mexico. After Santa Anna suspended local powers in Texas and other Mexican states, several rebellions broke out, one including the Texas Revolution. -
Santa Fe Trail
One of the busiest routes for the trek west. Stretched 780 miles from Independence, Missouri to Santa Fe. First 150 miles, traders travelled individually, but then started grouping together for fear of NA attacks. When Santa Fe came into view, cooperation stopped and everyone raced westward to be the first to arrive. After trading for a few days, they'd head back. -
Manifest Destiny
Expansion fever gripped the country. The belief that the US was ordained to expand to the Pacific Ocean and into Mexican and Native American territory. Trekked west because abundance of land, seeking new markets for their goods, personal economic problems. -
Texas enters the United States
Most Texans hoped that the United States would annex their republic, but U.S. opinion divided along sectional lines.
Southerners wanted Texas in order to extend slavery, which already had been established there. Northerners feared that the annexation of more slave territory would tip the uneasy balance in the Senate in favor of slave states—and prompt
war with Mexico. The 1844 U.S. presidential campaign focused on westward expansion. The winner, James K. Polk, a slaveholder, favored annexation. -
Mexican-American War
Lasted from 1846 to 1848. It was a battle for land where Mexico was fighting to keep what they thought was their property and the U.S. desired to retain the disputed land of Texas and obtain more of Mexico’s northern lands. -
Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas Debates
Neither wanted slavery in the territories,
but they disagreed on how to keep it out. Douglas believed deeply in
popular sovereignty. Lincoln, on the other hand, believed that slavery was immoral. However, he did not expect individuals to give up
slavery unless Congress abolished slavery with an amendment
Douglas won the Senate seat, but his response had widened the split in the Democratic Party. -
The North Star
Frederick Douglass wrote the North Star, named it after the star that guided slaves to freedom. Antislavery paper. -
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
After about a year of fighting, Mexico conceded defeat. They signed a treaty. Mexico agreed to the Rio Grande as the border between Texas and Mexico and ceded the New Mexico and California territories to the United States. The United States agreed to pay $15 million for the Mexican cession, which included presentday California, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, most of Arizona, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming. -
Underground Railroad
As time went on, free African Americans and white abolitionists developed a
secret network of people who would, at great risk to themselves, hide fugitive
slaves. The system of escape routes they used became known as the
Underground Railroad. Harriet Tubman -
Harriet Tubman
Harriet Tubman, born a slave in Maryland in 1820 or 1821. In 1849, after Tubman’s owner died, she heard rumors that she was about to be sold. Tubman decided to make a break for freedom and succeeded in reaching Philadelphia. Shortly after passage of the Fugitive Slave Act, Tubman resolved to become a conductor on the Underground Railroad. In all, she made 19 trips back to the South and is said to have helped 300 slaves to freedom -
Compromise of 1850
Clay’s compromise contained provisions to appease Northerners as well as Southerners. To please the North, the compromise provided that California be admitted to the Union as a free state. To please the South, the compromise proposed
a new and more effective fugitive slave law. To placate both sides, a provision
allowed popular sovereignty, the right to vote for or against slavery, for
residents of the New Mexico and Utah territories. -
Fugitive Slave Act
The harsh terms of the Fugitive Slave Act surprised many people. Under the law,
alleged fugitive slaves were not entitled to a trial by jury. In addition, anyone convicted
of helping a fugitive was liable for a fine of $1,000 and imprisonment for
up to six months. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
1852, Harriet
Beecher Stowe published her novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which stressed
that slavery was not just a political contest, but also a great moral struggle.
As a young girl, Stowe had watched boats filled with people on
their way to be sold at slave markets. Uncle Tom’s Cabin expressed her
lifetime hatred of slavery. Northerners protested more. Southerners criticized. -
Kansas Nebraska Act
Kansas and Nebraska territory lay north of the Missouri Compromise line of 36°30’ and therefore was legally closed to slavery. Douglas introduced a bill in Congress on January 23, 1854, that would divide the area into two territories: Nebraska in the north and Kansas in the south. If passed, the bill would repeal the Missouri Compromise and establish popular sovereignty for both territories. Congressional debate was bitter. Northerners criticized Southerners defended. -
Dread Scott v. Sandford
Dred Scott, a slave whose owner took him from
the slave state of Missouri to free territory in Illinois and Wisconsin
and back to Missouri. Finally, on March 6, 1857,
the Supreme Court ruled against Dred Scott. Scott appealed to the Supreme Court for his
freedom on the grounds that living in a free state—Illinois—and
a free territory—Wisconsin—had made him a free man. -
John Brown’s raid/Harpers Ferry
John Brown was studying the slave uprisings that had
occurred in ancient Rome and, more recently, on the French island of
Haiti. He believed that the time was ripe for similar uprisings in theUnited States. Brown secretly obtained financial backing from several prominent Northern abolitionists. On the night of October 16, 1859,he led a band of 21 men, black and white, into Harpers Ferry, Virginia(now West Virginia). His aim was to seize the federal arsenal thereand start a general slave uprising -
Abraham Lincoln Becomes President
Lincoln appeared to be moderate
in his views. Although he pledged to halt the further spread of slavery, he also
tried to reassure Southerners that a Republican administration would not “interferewith their slaves, or with them, about their slaves. Lincoln emerged as the winner with less than half the popularvote and with no electoral votes from the South. He did not even appear on theballot in most of the slave states because of Southern hostility toward him. Theoutlook for the Union was grim -
Formation of the Confederacy
In
February 1861, delegates from the secessionist states met in
Montgomery, Alabama, where they formed the Confederate
States of America, or Confederacy. They also drew up a
constitution that closely resembled that of the United
States, but with a few notable differences. The most important
difference was that it “protected and recognized” slavery
in new territories. -
Attack of Fort Sumter
By
the time of Lincoln’s inauguration on March 4, 1861, only four Southern forts
remained in Union hands. The most important was Fort Sumter.Lincoln decided to neither abandon Fort Sumter nor reinforce it. He would
merely send in “food for hungry men.” At 4:30 A.M. on April 12, Confederate batteries
began thundering away to the cheers of Charleston’s citizens.The four remaining slave states—
Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, and Missouri—remained in the Union. -
Battle of Bull Run
The first bloodshed on the battlefield occurred about three months
after Fort Sumter fell, near the little creek of Bull Run, just 25 miles from
Washington, D.C. The battle was a seesaw affair. In the morning the Union army
gained the upper hand, but the Confederates held firm, inspired by General
Thomas J. Jackson -
Battle of Antietam
McClellan ordered his men to pursue Lee, and the two
sides fought on September 17 near a creek called the
Antietam (Bn-tCPtEm). The clash proved to be the bloodiest
single-day battle in American history, with casualties
totaling more than 26,000. The next day, instead of pursuing
the battered Confederate army into Virginia and possibly
ending the war, McClellan did nothing. As a result,
Lincoln removed him from command. -
Emancipation Proclamation
On January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation
The proclamation did not free any slaves immediately because it applied only
to areas behind Confederate lines, outside Union control. Nevertheless, for many,
the proclamation gave the war a moral purpose by turning the struggle into a fight
to free the slaves. It also ensured that compromise was no longer possible. -
Battle at Gettysburg
The three-day battle produced staggering losses: 23,000 Union men and 28,000
Confederates were killed or wounded. Total casualties were more than 30 percent.
Despite the devastation, Northerners were enthusiastic about breaking “the
charm of Robert Lee’s invincibility.” -
Conscription
The war led to social upheaval and political unrest in both the North and the
South. As the fighting intensified, heavy casualties and widespread desertions led
each side to impose conscription, a draft that forced men to serve in the army.
In the North, conscription led to draft riots, the most violent of which took place
in New York City. Sweeping changes occurred in the wartime economies of both
sides as well as in the roles played by African Americans and women. -
Gettysburg Address
Lincoln’s
Gettysburg Address “remade America.” Before Lincoln’s speech, people said,
“The United States are . . .” Afterward, they said, “The United States is . . .” In
other words, the speech helped the country to realize that it was not just a collection
of individual states; it was one unified nation.
