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Nat Turner's Rebellion
It was a slave rebellion that took place in Southampton County, Virginia, during August 1831. Nat Turner lead rebel slaves that killed anywhere from 55 to 65 people, the highest number of fatalities caused by any slave uprising in the American South. -
The Mexican War Ended
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed on February 2, 1848, ended the Mexican-American War in favor of the United States. The war had begun almost two years earlier, in May 1846, over a territorial dispute involving Texas. America was ceded and the new territories caused a problem, would the new states be free or slave states? -
Fugutive Slave Act
It was passed by the United States Congress on September 18, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850 between Southern slave-holding interests and Northern Free-Soilers. This was one of the most controversial elements of the 1850 compromise because it required that all escaped slaves were, upon capture, to be returned to their masters and that officials and citizens of free states had to cooperate in this law. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
It was an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. The novel was known for "helping lay the groundwork for the Civil War" by a lot of people. -
Dred Scott v. Sanford Decision
It was a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court held that African Americans could not be American citizens and therefore had no standing to sue in federal court. It threatened to entirely recast the political landscape that had thus far managed to prevent civil war -
John Brown’s Raid
John Brown led a small army of 18 men into the small town of Harper's Ferry, Virginia. His plan was to instigate a major slave rebellion in the South. He was tried for treason and, upon his execution, became a martyr for the abolitionist cause. After this southerners began to militarize in preparation for future raids. -
Abraham Lincoln’s Election
He was elected over a deeply divided Democratic Party, becoming the first Republican to win the presidency. Lincoln received only 40 percent of the popular vote but handily defeated the three other candidates: John C. Breckinridge, John Bell, and Stephen Douglas. A little over a month after the polls closed, South Carolina seceded from the Union and six more states followed by the spring of 1861. -
Confederacy Begins
It was an unrecognized confederation of secessionist American states existing from 1861 to 1865. It was originally formed by seven slave states in the Lower South region of the United States who depended on slavery. Each state had declared its secession from the United States following the November 1860 election of Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln to the U.S. presidency on a platform which opposed the expansion of slavery. -
The Battle of Fort Sumter
It was the bombardment and surrender of Fort Sumter, near Charleston, South Carolina. With secession, several federal forts, including Fort Sumter in South Carolina, suddenly became outposts in a foreign land. It started the American Civil War. -
Bleeding Kansas
It was a series of violent political confrontations in the United States involving anti-slavery Free-Staters and pro-slavery. It took place in the Kansas Territory and the neighboring towns of the state of Missouri between 1854 and 1861. It called for popular sovereignty, which is the decision about slavery was to be made by the settlers.
