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Abolition
The movement to free African Americans from slavery. More than 100 antislavery societies were advocating that African Americans be resettled in Africa. In 1817 the American colonization society had been founded to encourage black emigration. Other abolitionists, however, demanded that African Americans remain in the United States as free citizens. -
The Liberator
William Lloyd Garrison wrote The liberator. The paper was written to deliver an uncompromising demand: immediate emancipation. In the 1830's the position gained support but whites who hated abolition hated Garrison. Three out of the four subscribers to the liberator were African Americans. -
Nat Turner's Rebellion
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. -
The North Star
Fredrick Douglass wrote the North Star. It was a guide for runaway slaves to freedom. -
Harriet Tubman
She was born a slave in Maryland in 1820 or 1821. In 1849, after her owner died, she heard rumor that she was about to be sold. She decided to try to escape and she succeeded in reaching Philadelphia. After the fugitive slave act she resolved to becoming a "conductor" on the railroad. In all she helped 300 slaves including her parents flee to freedom. -
Fugitive slave act
Under the law, alleged fugitive slaves were not entitled to a trial by jury. Also, anyone convicted of helping a fugitive was liable for a fine of $1000 and imprisonment for up to six months. some Northerners resisted it by organizing "vigilance committees" to send endangered African Americans to safety in Canada. Some others resorted to violence to rescue fugitive slaves. -
Compromise of 1850
The concern was the border dispute in which the slave state of texas claimed the eastern half of the New Mexico Territory, where slavery had not been settled. Threats of the Southern secession, the formal withdrawal of a state from the union, became more frequent. Henry Clay worked to shape a compromise that both the North and the south could accept. Clay presented the compromise to the senate as a series of resolutions. The compromise got rejected but in september became a law. -
Unle Tom's Cabin
In 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe published the novel. It stressed that slavery was not just a political contest, but also a great moral struggle. The novel expressed her lifetime hatred of slavery. The book stirred Northern abolitionists to increase their protest against the fugitive slave act, while southerners criticized the book qw qn attack on the South. -
Kansas-Nabraska Act
Douglas proposed a bill in congress that would divide the land into two territories: Nebraska in the north and Kansas in the south. If the bill is passed the bill would repeal the Missouri Compromise and establish popular sovereignty for both territories. After months of struggle, the bill became a law in 1854. -
Dred Scott v. Sandford
Dred Scott is a slave whose owner took him from the slave state of Missouri to free territory in Illinois and Wisconsin and back to Missouri. Scott's slave master had brought him from slave state o Missouri to live for a time in a free state. He believed that if he lived in a free state for a while he should be freed. The supreme court ruled that African Americans were not and could never be citizens. Meaning that Dred Scott had no right to file a lawsuit and be remained enslaved. -
Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas Debates
They argued about how to get slavery out. Stephen believed in popular sovereignty. Lincoln believed that slavery was bad however he did not expect people to give up slavery unless Congress abolished slavery with an amendment. Douglas had won the debates but his response had widened the split u=in the democratic party. -
John Brown's Raid/Harpers Ferry
At night 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 there and start a general slave uprising. There was no uprising however instead troops put down the rebellion. -
Underground Railroad
Escaping slavery was a very risky and hard task. Eventually free African Americans and white abolitionists developed a secret network of people who would hide fugitive slaves. They used the underground railroads as a system of escape. "conductors" on the route would hide slaves in secret tunnels and false cupboard, provided them with food and clothing, and directed them to the next "station" or safety. -
Abraham Lincoln Becomes Presindent
He became president in 1860. The republicans nominated him. 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 "interfere with their slaves, or with them, about their slaves" -
Battle of Bull Run
In the morning the union army gained the upper hand, but the confederates held firm, inspired by general Thomas J. Jackson. In the afternoon confederate reinforcements helped win the first southern victory. Fortunately for the union, the confederate were too exhausted to follow up their victory with an attack on Washington. Still, confederate morale soared. Many soldiers left the army and went home because they were confident the war was over. -
Formation of the Confederacy
Delegates from the secessionist states met in Montgomery, Alabama, where they formed the confederate states of America. Mississippi, South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas Joined. Jefferson Davis former senator of Mississippi was elected as president. -
Attack on Fort Sumter
As soon as the Confederacy was formed , confederate soldiers in each secessionist state began seizing federal installations; especially forts. By march 4th only four southern forts remained in union hands. The most important fort was Fort Sumter, on an island in Charleston harbor. -
Battle at Vicksburg
Union general Ulysses S. Grant fought to take Vicksburg, one of the two remaining Confederate strongholds on the Mississippi river. Vicksburg was important because it rested on buffs above the river from which guns could control all water traffic. After food ran so low that people were reduced to eating dogs and mules, the Confederate command of Vicksburg asked Grant for terms of surrender. The city fell on July 4. Five days port Hudson also fell. -
Battle at Antietam
The two sides fought near a creek called the Antietam. 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 ending the war, McClellan did nothing. As a result, Lincoln removed him from command. -
Emancipation Proclamation
The proclamation did not free any slaves immediately because it applied only to area behind confederate lines, outside Union control. However, for many, the proclamation gave the war a moral purpose by turning the struggle into a fight to free slaves. It also ensured that compromise was no longer possible. -
Conscription
As the fighting intensified, heavy casualties nd wide read desertions led each side to impose conscription, a draft that forced men to serve in the army. -
Gettysburg Address
President Lincoln spoke for a little more than two minutes. According to some contemporary historians, Lincoln's Gettysburg Address "remade America". The speech helped people realize that it was not just a collection of individual states it was one whole nation. -
Battle at Gettysburg
It began when Confederate soldiers led by A.P. Hill encountered several brigades of Union cavalry under the command of John Buford, an experienced officer from Illinois. Buford and his men were surrounding the town.By the end of the first day 90,000 union troops under command General George Meade had taken the field against 75,000 Confederates, led by General Lee. -
Sherman's March
In the Spring of 1864, Sherman began his march southeast through Georgia to the sea, creating a wide path of destruction. His army burned almost every house in its path and destroyed livestock and railroads. After reaching the ocean, Sherman's forces followed by 25,000 former slaves turned north to help Grant "wipe out Lee". -
Thirteen Amendment
After some political maneuvering, the thirteenth amendment was ratified at the end of 1865. The U.S. Constitution now stated, "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States." -
Surrender at Appomattox Court House
On April 9,1865 in a Virginia town called Appomattox Court House, Lee and Grant met at a private home to arrange a confederate surrender. The Union and Confederate were there. Grant paroled Lee's soldiers and sent them home with their possessions and three days worth of rations. Officers were permitted to keep their sidearms. Within a month al signs of Confederate were gone. After four long years the Civil War was over. -
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln. He shot Lincoln in the back of the head at a theatre. He crept in the booth his wife and him were in and shot him. He shot him during the third act of the play. He was angry that the south lost the war so he wanted him dead. -
Income Tax
As the Northern economy grew, congress decided to help pay for the war by collecting the nation's first income tax. Its a tax that takes a specified percentage of an individual's income.
