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Invention of the Cotton Gin
Eli Whitney was the inventor of the cotton gin. The machine would separate the seeds from the cotton and then you would be left with the cotton. After the invention of the cotton gin, the yield of raw cotton doubled each decade after 1800.
https://www.eliwhitney.org/7/museum/eli-whitney/cotton-gin(http://www.timetoast.com) -
The Missouri Compromise
The U.S. Congress allowed Missouri to become the 24h state. It began the conflict over slavery which led to the American Civil War. Votes in the House made Maine a free state and Missouri a slave state. All western territories north of Missouri's southern border free soil.
https://www.britannica.com/event/Missouri-Compromise -
Tariff of 1828 and Nullification Crisis
President Andrew Jackson issued a proclamation to the South Carolina people. He declared the tariff acts that are unauthorized by the constitution, violate the true meaning and intent thereof and are null, void, and no law, nor binding upon this State. After this issue, Congress passed the Force Act which the authorized the use of military forces against any state that resisted the tariff.
https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/Nullification.html -
Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad helped thousands of slaves escape to the North or even Canada. The first step was to escape from the slaveholder. The fugitive moved at night and would walk 10 to 20 miles between stations. At the stations, they would eat and rest before they had to move again.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2944.html -
Nat Turner's Rebellion
Nat Turner led a rebellion of Virginia slaves that led to many deaths. Turner and some of other slaves went into their master's house and started an uprise. He was soon captured and the uprising was put to an end. -
The Liberator is Published
The Liberator was a weekly newspaper published by William Lloyd Garrison. On January 1, 1831 it first appeared, with the motto: “Our country is the world – our countrymen are mankind.” After the end of the civil war, Garrison published his last issue of the Liberator. -
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Wilmot Proviso
The Wilmot Proviso was a piece of legislation proposed by David Wilmot. If passed, it would have outlawed slavery in territory, which included most of the southwest and extended up through California. Wilmot spent 2 years fighting his plan, but all attempts failed. -
Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was a set of laws passed dealing with the issue of slavery. California requested permission to enter the Union as a free state, potentially upsetting the balance between the free and slave states in the U.S. Senate. An act was passed settling a boundary dispute between Texas and New Mexico that also established a territorial government in New Mexico.
https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/Compromise1850.html -
Uncle Tom's Cabin in Published
Uncle Tom's Cabin was the most influential American novel ever written with an anti-slavery slant. It sold more than 300,000 copies in the first year. The story changed how Americans viewed slavery, a system treated people as property.
http://www.historytoday.com/richard-cavendish/publication-uncle-toms-cabin -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed the Missouri Compromise, allowing slavery in the territory north of the 36° 30´ latitude. The act laid down the issue of slavery would be decided by the residents of each territory. After the bill passed on May 30, 1854, violence erupted in Kansas between pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers. -
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Bleeding Kansas
"Bleeding Kansas" was a term used to describe the violent hostilities between pro and antislavery forces in the Kansas territory.Attitudes began to change as people traveled westward across the Santa Fe Trail and discovered the area’s richness. Both sides had resorted to fraud and violence, but it was clear the prevailing sentiment in Kansas was antislavery.
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h84.html -
Brooks-Sumner Event
Charles Sumner was Massachusetts senator as for Preston Brooks who was a representative for South Carolina. Brooks thought Sumner went too far. Brooks proceeded to strike Sumner over the head repeatedly with a gold-tipped cane which he was fined $300 for the assault. -
Dred Scott Decision
The United States Supreme Court issues a decision in the Dred Scott case, affirming the right of slave owners to take their slaves into the Western territories. Dred Scott was a slave whose owner, had spent time in Illinois, a free state, and Wisconsin, a free territory at the time of Scott’s residence.The court held that Scott was not free based on his residence in either Illinois or Wisconsin because he was not considered a person under the U.S. Constitution. -
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
The Lincoln-Douglas debates were a series of formal political debates. Although Lincoln lost the election, these debates led to his election as President of the United States. The other would speak for an hour and a half. The first then had 30 minutes of rebuttal. -
John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry
John Brown leads a small group on a raid against a federal armory in Harpers Ferry, Virginia. It was an attempt to start an armed slave revolt and destroy the institution of slavery. Brown and his band overran the arsenal. Some of his men rounded up a handful of hostages, including a few slaves. -
Election of 1860
United States presidential election of 1860American presidential election held on November 6, 1860. Republican Abraham Lincoln defeated Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge, Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, and Constitutional Union candidate John Bell. The electoral split between Northern and Southern Democrats was emblematic of the severe sectional split, particularly over slavery. -
Secession of Southern States
The first seven seceding states of the Lower South set up a provisional government at Montgomery, Alabama. After hostilities began at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, the border states of Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina joined the new government. 21 northern and border states retained the style and title of the United States, while the eleven slave states adopted the nomenclature of the Confederate States of America. -
Fort Sumter is Fired Upon
The American Civil War begins when guns fired on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor in South Carolina. At 4:30 a.m. on April 12, the Confederate guns opened fire. For 33 hours, the shore had about 4,000 shells. Finally, the garrison inside the battered fort raised the white flag.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/fort-sumter-fired-upon
