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Underground Railroad
Free African Americans and white abolitionists developed a secret network of people who would, at great risk to themselves, hid fugitive slaves. The system of escape routes they used became known as the Underground Railroad. Conductors on the routes hid fugitives in secret tunnels and false cupboards, provided them with food and clothing, and escorted or directed them to the next station. Fugitives reached the North many remain there and others journeyed to Canada to be free ( owners). -
Harriet Tubman
One of the most famous conductors was 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. Fearing this possibility,Tubman decided to make a break for freedom and succeeded in reaching Philadelphia. After passage of the Fugitive Slave Act,Tubman resolved to become a conductor on the Underground Railroad.She made 19 trips back to the south and have helped 300 slaves including her parents flee freedom -
The Liberator
The most radical white abolitionist was a young editor named William Lloyd Garrison. Active in religious reform movements in Massachusetts, Garrison became the editor of an antislavery paper in 1828. The Liberator was a weekly newspaper. Three years later he established his own paper, The Liberator, to deliver an uncompromising demand of immediate emancipation. -
Abolition
Forten's unwavering belief that he was an American not only led him to oppose colonization the effort to resettle free blacks in Africa but also pushed him fervently to oppose slavery. Forten was joined in his opposition to slavery by a growing number of Americans in the 19th century. Abolition the movement to abolish slavery, became the most important of a series of reform movements in American. -
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. -
The North Star
In 1847, Douglass began his own antislavery newspaper. He named it The North Star, after the star that guided runaway slaves to freedom. Attempting to escape from slavery was a dangerous process and it meant traveling on foot at night without any sense of distance or direction, except for the North Star and other natural sighs. It meant avoiding patrols of armed men on horseback and struggling through forest and across rivers. Often it meant going without food for days at a time. -
Compromise of 1850
The issue of slavery in California and in the western territories led to heated debates in the halls of congress, and to a fragile compromise.Henry Clay, after obtaining support of the powerful Massachusetts senator Daniel Webster, Clay presented to the Senate a series of resolutions. The North, provided that California be admitted to the Union as a free state.The South, proposed a new effective fugitive slave law. A provision allowed popular sovereignty the right to vote for or against slavery. -
Fugitive Slave Act
Under the law alleged fugitive slaves were not entitled to a trail by jury. Anyone convicted of helping a fugitive was liable for a fine of $1,000 and imprisonment for up to six mouths. Infuriated by the Fugitive Slave Act some Northerners resisted it by organizing "vigilance committees" to send endangered African Americans to safety in Canada. Others resorted to violence to rescue fugitive slaves. Still others worked to help slaves escape from slavery. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Another woman brought the horrors of slavery into the homes of a great many Americans.In 1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe published novel.Which stressed that slavery was not just a political contest but also a great moral struggle.As a 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.The book stirred Northern abolitionists to increase their protests against the Fugitive Slave Act.(attack south) -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Kansas and Nebraska territory lay north of the Missouri Compromise line of 36*30 and was legally closed to slavery.Douglas introduced a bill in Congress on January 23, 1854, divide into two territories: Nebraska in the north and Kansas in the South. The bill would repeal the Missouri Compromise and establish popular sovereignty for both territories.Some Northern congressmen saw the bill as part of a plot to turn the territories into slave states.S defended proposed legislation.(KAN-NEB Act 1854) -
Dred Scott v. Sandford
A major Supreme Court decision was brought about by 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.On March 6, 1857,the Supreme Court ruled against Dred Scott. To the ruling, Scott lacked any legal standing to sue in federal court because he was not and never could be a citizen therefor had no right to sue in a U.S. court.The Court ruled that being in free territory did not make a slave free.Limit slavery -
Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas Debates
The 1858 race for the U.S. Senate between Democratic incumbent Douglas and Republican Challenger Congressman Lincoln.They were debating each other on the issue of slavery in the territories. Neither wanted slavery in the territories,but they disagrees on how to keep it out. Douglas believed deeply in popular sovereignty and Lincoln believed that slavery was immoral,didn't expect individuals to give up slavery unless Congress abolished slavery with an amendment.Douglas won the Senate seat -
John Brown's raid/Harpers Ferry
John Brown was studying the slaves 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 the U.S.Brown secretly obtained financial backing from several prominent Northern abolitionists.At night he led a band of 21 men, black & white,into Harpers Ferry, Virginia.His aim was to seize the federal arsenal there and start a general slave uprising.No uprising occurred instead troops put down the rebellion -
Abaham Lincoln becomes president
The Republicans nominated L president 1860.He pledged to halt the further spread of slavery he also tried reassure Southerners that a Republican administration would not interfere with their slaves or with them about their slaves.Southerners viewed him as an enemy.Lincoln's victory convinced S who had viewed the struggle over slavery partly as conflict between the states' right of selfdetermination & federal government control that they had lost their political voice in the national government. -
Formation of the Confederacy
Mississippi soon followed South Carolina's lead, as did Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. In February 1861, delegates from the secessionist states met in Montgomery, Alabama, where they formed the Confederate states of America or Confederacy. The most important difference was that it protected and recognized slavery in new territories. The Confederates then unanimously elected former senator Jefferson Davis of Mississippi as president. -
Battle of Bull Run
The Battle of Bull Run occurred about three months after Fort Sumter fell.The battle was a seesaw affair. The Union army gained the upper hand, but the Confederates held firm, inspired by General Thomas J. Jackson. "There stands Jackson like a stone wall!".The Confederate reinforcements help win the first Southern victory. Union, the Confederates were to tried to follow up their victory and Confederate soldiers, confident that the war was over,left the army and went home. -
Income Tax
The war's effect on the economy of the North was much more positive. Wages did not keep up with prices, and many people's standard of living declined. When white male workers went out on strike, employees hired free blacks, immigrants, and women to replace them for lower wages. Norther 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. -
Attack on Fort Sumter
As soon as the Confederacy was formed, Confederate soldiers in each secessionist states began seizing federal installations especially forts. On March 4, 1861 only four Southern forts remained in Union hands. The most important was Fort Sumter, on an island in Charleston harbor. Lincoln decided to neither abandon Fort Sumter nor reinforce it. He would merely send in food for hungry men. The deadly struggle between North and South was under way. News of Fort Sumter's fall united the North. -
Battle at Antietam
McClellan ordered his men to pursue Lee, and the two sides fought on September 17 near the a creek called 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 the battered Confederate army into Virginia and possibly ending the war, McClellan did nothing. As a result, Lincoln removed him from command. -
Emancipation Proclamation
Lincoln's power as commander-in-chief allowed him to authorize the army to emancipate slaves. Emancipation became a weapon of war. January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation. The proclamation did not free slaves immediately because it applied only to areas behind Confederate lines, outside Union control. For many the proclamation gave the war a moral purpose by turning the struggle into a fight to free slaves. It ensured that compromise was no long possible. -
Conscription
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
In November 1863, a ceremony was held to dedicate a cemetery in Gettysburg. There, President Lincoln spoke for a little more then two minutes. According to some contemporary historians, Lincoln's Gettysburg Address remade America. Before Lincoln's speech, people said, "The United States are..." Afterward, they said, "The United States is...." The speech helped the country to realize that it was not just a collection of individual states; it was one unified nation. -
Battle at Vicksburg
Union general Ulysses S.Grant fought to take Vicksburg,one of the two remaining Confederate strongholds on the Mississippi River. Grant tried several schemes to reach Vicksburg and take it from the Confederates.In May 1863,Grant settled in for a siege.He set up a steady barrage of artillery,shelling the city from both the river and the land for several hours a day. City fell on July 4 & five days later Port Hudson,Louisiana Confederate on Mississippi fell.Union achieved the Confederacy cut N two -
Battle at Gettysburg
Town of Gettysburg, in southern Pennsylvania.The Battle of Gettysburg began on July 1,1863 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.The three-day battle produced staggering losses:23,000 Union men and 28,000 Conferaterates were killed or wounded.Total casualties were more than 30 percent.The Northerners were enthusiastic about breaking the charm of Robert Lee's invincibility. -
Sherman's March
In the spring of 1864, Sherman began his march southeast through Georgia to the sea. His army burned almost every house in its path and railroads. Sherman was determined to make Southerners "so sick of war that generations would pass away before they would again appeal to it". By mid-November he had burned most of Atlanta. After reaching the ocean, Sherman's faces followed by 25,000 former slaves and turned north to help Grant "wipe out Lee". -
Surrender at Appomattox Court House
Southerners had abandoned the city the day before, setting it afire to keep the Northerners from taking it. On April 9, 1865, in Virginia town called Appomattox Court House, Lee and Grant met at a private home to arrange a Confederate surrender. Grant paroled Lee's soldiers and sent them home with their possessions and three day's worth of rations. Within a month all remaining Confederate resistance collapsed. After 4 years Civil War was over. -
Thirteenth Amendment
The government had to decide what to do about the border states, where slavery still existed. The president believed that the only solution was a constitutional amendment abolishing slavery. 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". -
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
On April 14,1865,five days after Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox, Lincoln and his wife went to Ford's Theatre in Washington to see a British comedy,our American Cousin. During its third act,a man crept up behind Lincoln and shot the president in the back of his head.After the shooting,the assassin,John Wilkes Booth a 26 year old actor Southern sympathizer,he escaped.He did it to revive the Confederate cause by eliminating the three most important officials of the United States government.
