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Missouri Compromise
It marked the beginning of the prolonged sectional conflict over the extension of slavery that led to the American Civil War. -
Nat Turner Slave Rebellion
The rebellion inspired the Virginia Slavery Debate that occurred during the 1831-32 sesson of the House of Delegates, and is considered one of the first significant strides toward the Civil War. -
War with Mexico
Territories obtained in the Mexican American War of 1848 caused further sectional strife over the expansion of slavery in the ante bellum period -
Wilmot Proviso
Wilmot Proviso provides insight into anti-slavery positions among northerners and reopened debates about slavery in the territories which had lasting effects on the larger American political landscape. -
Compromise of 1850
admitted California as a free state and did not regulate slavery in the remainder of the Mexican cession all while strengthening the Fugitive Slave Act, a law which compelled Northerners to seize and return escaped slaves to the South. -
Fugitive Slave Act
Tensions between the North and South quickly increased, leading to the eventual seces -
Publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin
widened the chasm between the North and the South, greatly strengthened Northern abolitionism, and weakened British sympathy for the Southern cause -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
This act reversed the Missouri Compromise and allowed slavery in the remainder of the original areas of the Louisiana Purchase. -
Bleeding Kansas
Radical abolitionists, like John Brown, attacked and murdered white southerners in protest. A pro-slavery US Senator, Preston Brooks, viciously beat abolitionist Senator Charles Sumner on the floor of the Senate. Bleeding Kansas foreshadowed the violence that would ensue over the future of slavery during the Civil War. -
Dred Scott Decision
outraged abolitionists, who saw the Supreme Court's ruling as a way to stop debate about slavery in the territories. The divide between North and South over slavery grew and culminated in the secession of southern states from the Union and the creation of the Confederate States of America. -
John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry
it inflamed sectional tensions and raised the stakes for the 1860 presidential election. Brown's raid helped make any further accommodation between North and South nearly impossible and thus became an important impetus of the Civil War. -
Abraham Lincoln elected president
Lincoln ran on a political platform opposed to the expansion of slavery in the territories. His election served as the immediate impetus for the outbreak of the Civil War. -
South Carolina secedes
It was the most serious secession movement in the United States and was defeated when the Union armies defeated the Confederate armies in the Civil War -
Formation of the Confederate State of America
Confederate forces fired shots at the fort and Union troops surrendered, sparking the Civil War. In rapid succession, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas joined the Confederacy. -
Fort Sumter
used it to marshal a defense of Charleston Harbor. Once it was completed and better armed, Fort Sumter allowed the Confederates to create a valuable hole in the Union blockade of the Atlantic seaboard. -
Ft. Sumter
used it to marshal a defense of Charleston Harbor. Once it was completed and better armed, Fort Sumter allowed the Confederates to create a valuable hole in the Union blockade of the Atlantic seaboard -
Antietam
enabled the Union to repel the first Confederate invasion of the North. -
Vicksburg
a decisive Union victory during the American Civil War that divided the confederacy and cemented the reputation of Union General Ulysses S. Grant. -
Gettysburg
Gettysburg would give the North a major morale boost and put a definitive end to Confederate General Robert E. Lee's bold plan to invade the North. -
Appomattox Courthouse
led to Confederate General Robert E. Lee's surrender of his Army of Northern Virginia to Union General Ulysses S. Grant.
