IMAGES TIMELINE

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Kansas-Nebraska Act

1854

"Uncle Tom's Cabin"

1852

Fugitive Slave Act

1850

Webster-Ashburton Treaty

1842

Texas Revolution

1836

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Gadsden Purchase

1853

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Compromise of 1850

1850

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Mexican-American War

1846-1848

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Underground Railroad

1830s-60s

Period 5

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Missouri Compromise

1820

Timeline Infographic

Civil War

1861

Fort Sumter

1861

Election of Abraham Lincoln

1860

Buchanan's Presidency

1857

Bleeding Kansas

1854

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Confiscation Acts

1861

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Confederate States

1861

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John Brown's Raid

1859

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Dred Scott Decision

1857

Period 5

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Ostend Manifesto

1854

Timeline Title

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13th Amendment

1865

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Empancipation Proclamation

1863

Period 5

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Homestead Act

1862

Timeline Title

The Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed the Missouri Compromise, created two new territories, and allowed for popular sovereignty. It also produced a violent uprising known as “Bleeding Kansas,” as proslavery and antislavery activists flooded into the territories to sway the vote. Political turmoil followed, destroying the remnants of the old Whig coalition and leading to the creation of the new Republican Party. Stephen Douglas had touted his bill as a peaceful settlement of national issues, but what it produced was a prelude to civil war.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

1854

Henry Clay created an agreement which created a divide for slavery along the 36'30 parallel. This allowed slavery to exist in the South. but prevented its spread northward.

Missouri Compromise

1820

President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free."

Emancipation Proclamation

1863

The Homestead Act, enacted during the Civil War in 1862, provided that any adult citizen, or intended citizen, who had never borne arms against the U.S. government could claim 160 acres of surveyed government land. Claimants were required to live on and “improve” their plot by cultivating the land.

Homestead Act

1862

Fort Sumter, an island fortification located in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, is most famous for being the site of the first battle of the American Civil War. Originally constructed in 1829 as a coastal garrison, U.S. Major Robert Anderson occupied the fort in December 1860 following South Carolina’s secession from the Union, initiating a standoff with the state’s militia forces.

Fort Sumter

1861

The Confederate States of America was a collection of 11 states that seceded from the United States in 1860 following the election of President Abraham Lincoln. Led by Jefferson Davis and existing from 1861 to 1865, the Confederacy struggled for legitimacy and was never recognized as a sovereign nation. After suffering a crushing defeat in the Civil War, the Confederate States of America ceased to exist.

Confederate States

1861

Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in two volumes in 1852, the novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in the U.S., and is said to have "helped lay the groundwork for the [American] Civil War".

"Uncle Tom's Cabin"

1852

James Buchanan Jr. (April 23, 1791 – June 1, 1868) was an American lawyer, diplomat, and politician who served as the 15th president of the United States from 1857 to 1861. He previously served as secretary of state from 1845 to 1849 and represented Pennsylvania in both houses of the U.S. Congress. He was an advocate for states' rights, particularly regarding slavery, and minimized the role of the federal government preceding the Civil War.

Buchanan's Presidency

1857-1861

he plan adopted by Congress had several parts: California was admitted as a free state, upsetting the equilibrium that had long prevailed in the Senate; the boundary of Texas was fixed along its current lines. Texas, in return for giving up land it claimed in the Southwest, had $10 million of its onerous debt assumed by the federal government, and areas ceded by Texas became the recognized territories of New Mexico and Utah.

Compromise of 1850

1850

The 1860 United States presidential election was the 19th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 6, 1860. In a four-way contest, the Republican Party ticket of Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin, absent from the ballot in ten slave states,[2] won a national popular plurality, a popular majority in the North where states already had abolished slavery, and a national electoral majority comprising only Northern electoral votes.

Election of Lincoln

1860

John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry was an effort by abolitionist John Brown, from October 16 to 18, 1859, to initiate a slave revolt in Southern states by taking over the United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. It has been called the dress rehearsal for, or tragic prelude to, the Civil War.

John Brown's Raid

1859

This was a secret passage used by slaves to escape from the South to the North. It was not an actual railroad, but a collection of hideouts along the path.

Underground Railroad

1830s-1860s

The Gadsden Purchase, or Treaty, was an agreement between the United States and Mexico, finalized in 1854, in which the United States agreed to pay Mexico $10 million for a 29,670 square mile portion of Mexico that later became part of Arizona and New Mexico. Gadsden’s Purchase provided the land necessary for a southern transcontinental railroad and attempted to resolve conflicts that lingered after the Mexican-American War.

Gadsden Purchase

1853

Three distinct political groups occupied Kansas: pro-slavery, Free-Staters and abolitionists. Violence broke out immediately between these opposing factions and continued until 1861 when Kansas entered the Union as a free state on January 29. This era became forever known as Bleeding Kansas.

Bleeding Kansas

1854

The Confiscation Acts were laws passed by the United States Congress during the Civil War with the intention of freeing the slaves still held by the Confederate forces in the South. The Confiscation Act of 1861 authorized the confiscation of any Confederate property by Union forces ("property" included slaves).

Confiscation Acts

1861-1862

Sam Houston led Texas in a war for independence from Mexico. One significant event was the Battle of the Alamo, which became a rallying point for Texans.

Texas Revolution

1836-1845

There were conflicts between the US and Great Britain due to land disputes. Webster and Ashburton divided land in the Maine and Great Lake areas between Great Britain and America.

Webster-Ashburton Treaty

1842

The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union[e] ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), formed by states that had seceded from the Union. The cause of the war was the dispute over whether slavery would be permitted to expand into the western territories, leading to more slave states, or be prevented from doing so, which many believed would place slavery on a course of ultimate extinction.

American Civil War

1861-1865

The Mexicans still considered Texas to be their land, even though the US annexed them. The US invaded Mexico to legitimize their claim.

Mexican-American War

1846-1848

The act required that slaves be returned to their owners, even if they were in a free state. The act also made the federal government responsible for finding, returning, and trying escaped slaves.

Fugitive Slave Act

1850

The Ostend Manifesto, also known as the Ostend Circular, was a document written in 1854 that described the rationale for the United States to purchase Cuba from Spain while implying that the U.S. should declare war if Spain refused. Cuba's annexation had long been a goal of U.S. slaveholding expansionists. At the national level, American leaders had been satisfied to have the island remain in weak Spanish hands so long as it did not pass to a stronger power such as Britain or France.

Ostend Manifesto

1854

President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free."

13th Amendment

1865

In this ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court stated that enslaved people were not citizens of the United States and, therefore, could not expect any protection from the federal government or the courts. The opinion also stated that Congress had no authority to ban slavery from a Federal territory. The decision of Scott v. Sandford, considered by many legal scholars to be the worst ever rendered by the Supreme Court, was overturned by the 13th and 14th amendments to the Constitution, which abolished slavery and declared all persons born in the United States to be citizens of the United States.

Dred Scott Decision

1857