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Pre-Civil War Timeline
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Uncle Tom's Cabin by: Harriet Beecher Stowe
Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War" -
Henry Ward Beecher
An advocate of Women's suffrage, temperance and Darwin's theory of evolution,and a foe of slavery and bigotry of all kinds (religious, racial and social), Beecher held that Christianity should adapt itself to the changing culture of the times. -
New England Emigrant Aid Company
The New England Emigrant Aid Company was a transportation company created to transport immigrants to the Kansas Territory to shift the balance of power so that Kansas would enter the United States as a free state rather than a slave state. Created by Eli Thayer in the wake of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which allowed the population of Kansas Territory to choose whether slavery would be legal -
James Buchanan
Buchanan was nominated in the 1856 election. Buchanan's efforts to maintain peace between the North and the South alienated both sides, and the Southern states declared their secession in the prologue to the American Civil War. Buchanan's view of record was that secession was illegal, but that going to war to stop it was also illegal. -
Preston S. Brooks
Preston Smith Brooks was a Democratic Congressman from South Carolina. Brooks is primarily remembered for his severe beating of Senator Charles Sumner on the floor of the United States Senate with a gutta-percha cane, delivered in response to an anti-slavery speech in which Sumner compared Brooks' relative, South Carolina Senator Andrew Butler, to a pimp or john, a humiliation laden with sexual innuendo. Brooks was cheered across the South, but the episode -
Charles Sumner
Sumner changed his political party several times, gaining fame as a Republican. One of the most learned statesmen of the era, he specialized in foreign affairs, working closely with Abraham Lincoln to keep the British and the French from intervening on the side of the Confederacy during the Civil War. He devoted his enormous energies to the destruction of what he considered the Slave Power, that is the efforts of slave owners to take control of the federal government and ensure the survival and -
Bleeding kansas
Bleeding Kansas was a proxy war between Northerners and Southerners over the issue of slavery in the United States.At the heart of the conflict was the question of whether Kansas would enter the Union as a free state or slave state. -
Dred scott v. sandford
Dred Scott was an African-American slave in the United States who unsuccessfully sued for his freedom and that of his wife and their two daughters in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case of 1857, popularly known as "the Dred Scott Decision." His case was based on the fact that although he and his wife Harriet Scott were slaves, he had lived with his master Dr. John Emerson in states and territories where slavery was illegal according to both state laws and the Northwest Ordinance. -
Roger B. Taney
He is most remembered for delivering the majority opinion in Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857), that ruled, among other things, that African Americans, having been considered inferior at the time the Constitution was drafted, were not part of the original community of citizens and could not be considered citizens of the United States. -
Panic of 1857
The Panic of 1857 was a financial panic in the United States caused by the declining international economy and over-expansion of the domestic economy. -
tariff of 1857
The Tariff of 1857 was a major tax reduction in the United States, creating a mid-century lowpoint for tariffs. It amended the Walker Tariff of 1846 by lowering rates to around 17% on average.Supporters of the bill came mostly from Southern and agricultural states, which tended to be export dependent and tended to support the "free trade" position. They were also joined by a handful of New England wool manufacturers. -
The Impending Crisis of The South
The Impending Crisis of the South is a book written by a white male named Hinton Rowan Helper, which he self-published in 1857. It was a strong attack on slavery as inefficient and a barrier to the economic advancement of whites. The book was widely distributed by Horace Greeley and other antislavery leaders, much to the vehement anger of the white Southern leaders. -
Lincoln-Douglas debates
The Lincoln–Douglas Debates of 1858 were a series of seven debates between Abraham Lincoln, the Republican candidate for Senate in Illinois, and the incumbent Senator Stephen Douglas, the Democratic Party candidate. -
Freeport question and Freeport Doctrine.
On August 27, 1858, the second debate between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas took place in Freeport and gave the nation direction in the following years. Although Stephen Douglas won the election and retained his U.S. Senate seat, his reply to a question on slavery alienated the South, which called it the "Freeport Heresy", and split the Democratic Party. This enabled Abraham Lincoln to win the Presidency. Douglas' reply became known as the freeport doctrine. -
Harpers Ferry
On October 16, 1859, the radical abolitionist John Brown led a group of 21 men in a raid on the arsenal. Five of the men were African American: three free African Americans, one a freed slave and one a fugitive slave. During this time assisting fugitive slaves was illegal under the Dred Scott decision. Brown attacked and captured several buildings; he hoped to use the captured weapons to initiate a slave uprising throughout the South.he was unsuccessful. -
John C. Breckinridge
In the 1860 presidential election, he ran as one of two candidates of the fractured Democratic Party, representing Southern Democrats. Breckinridge came in third place in the popular vote, behind winner Abraham Lincoln, a Republican, and Stephen Douglas, a Northern Democrat, but finished second in the Electoral College vote. -
Constitutional Union Party
The Constitutional Union Party was a political party in the United States created in 1860. It was made up of conservative former Whigs who wanted to avoid disunion over the slavery issue. These former Whigs (some of whom had been under the banner of the Opposition Party in 1854-58) teamed up with former Know-Nothings and a few Southern Democrats who were against disunion to form the Constitutional Union Party -
Confederate States of America
.The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession.In 1861 West virginia tore itself away from virginia. It along with Missouri,Kentucky, Maryland, and Deleware made up the border states (slave states loyal to the union). -
Lincoln takes office
Abraham Lincoln takes the presidential office. -
Fort Sumpter
The issue of the divided Union came to a head over the matter of federal forts in the south. As the seceding states left, they seized the united states arsinals,mints, and other public property within their borders. When Lincoln took office there were only two forts in the south that still flew the stars and stripes. The more important of the pair was Fort Sumpter. Fort Sumpter was fired on April 12,1861, which provoked the north to fight back. -
Morill Tariff Act
The Morrill Tariff raised rates to protect and encourage industry and the high wages of industrial workers. It replaced the low Tariff of 1857, which was written to benefit the South. Two additional tariffs sponsored by Morrill, each one higher, were passed during Abraham Lincoln's administration to raise urgently needed revenue during the Civil War. -
The Crittenden Amendment
The Crittenden Compromise was an unsuccessful proposal introduced by Kentucky Senator John J. Crittenden on December 18, 1860. It aimed to resolve the U.S. secession crisis of 1860–1861 by addressing the grievances that led the slave states of the United States to contemplate secession from the United States. -
trent affair
The Trent Affair was an international incident that occurred On November 8,1861, the USS San Jacinto, intercepted the British mail packet RMS Trent and removed, as contraband of war, two Confederate diplomats, James Mason and John Slidell. The envoys were bound for Great Britain and France to press the Confederacy’s case for diplomatic recognition by Europe.The hope was that the incident would lead to a permanent rupture in Anglo-American relations and the south would be recognized as a nation. -
Writ of Habeus Corpus
Lincoln suspended the writ of Habeus Corpus(is a writ, or legal action, through which a prisoner can be released from unlawful detention,) so that anti-unionists might be summarily arrested. In taking this step he defied a dubious ruling by the cheif of justice that the safegaurds of habeus corpus could be set aside only by the authorization of congress. -
Jefferson Davis
Jefferson Finis Davis was an American statesman and leader of the Confederacy during the American Civil War, serving as President for its entire history.On February 9, 1861, after Davis resigned from the United States Senate, he was selected to be the provisional President of the Confederate States of America; he was elected without opposition to a six-year term that November. -
Homestead Act
The Homestead Act was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on May 20, 1862.The law required three steps: file an application, improve the land, and file for deed of title. Anyone who had never taken up arms against the U.S. government, including freed slaves, could file an application to claim a federal land grant. The occupant also had to be 21 or older, had to live on the land for five years and show evidence of having made imporovements. -
Sally Tompkins
Sally Louisa Tompkins was a humanitarian, nurse, and philanthropist. She is best-remembered for privately sponsoring a hospital in Richmond, Virginia to treat soldiers wounded in the American Civil War. Under her supervision, although little was known about the cause of infections, her insistence on cleanliness is said to have been a major key to the lowest mortality rate of any such military hospital, Union or Confederate, during the Civil War.Whatever her dev -
alabama
Another major crisis in anglo-american relations arose over the unnuetral building in braitain of confederate commerce-raiders, notbly the alabama. These vessels were not warships within the meaning of loopholed british law because they left their shipyards unarmed and picked up their guns elsewhere. the alabama escaped in 1862 with weapons and a british crew. it was the cheif naval base of the confederacy. -
U.S.Sanitary Commision
Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, amrica's firstfemale physician, helped organize the U.S. Sanitary Commision to assist the Union armies in the feild. The commision trained nurses, collected medical suplies, and equpied hospitals. This helped many women to aquire organizaional skills and the self confidence to propel the women's movement forward after the war. Clara barton helped transform nursing into a respected profession in the process opening up a sphere of employment oppertunity for women. -
new York Draft riots
The New York City draft riots were violent disturbances in New York City that were the result of discontent with new laws passed by Congress to draft men to fight in the ongoing American Civil War.The rioters were mostly working class men, resentful because the draft unfairly affected them while sparing wealthier men, who could afford to pay a $300 commutation fee to exclude themselves from its reach. -
National banking system
Greenback was currency issued during the American Civil War. Its value fluxated with thefortunes of the union arms. at one point they were only worth 39 cents on the gold dollar. A financial landmark of the war was the national banking system authorized by congress in 1863. launched partly as a stimulous to government bonds, it was also designed to establish a standard banknote currency. -
Laird Rams
the final anglo-american crisis was touched off in 1863 when by the laird rams 9 two confederate warships being consructed). They weredesigned to destroy the wooden ships of the union navy with their iron rams and caliber guns, they were far more dangerous and swift than the alabama. Charles francais adam warned them if they were released then it would be war. Britain reluctantly bought the ships and later apologized for their role in the alabama and paid america 5.5 million for damages caused. -
Maximilian
After a distinguished career in the Austrian Navy, he was proclaimed Emperor of Mexico on April 10, 1864, with the backing of Napoleon III of France and a group of Mexican monarchists who sought to revive the Mexican monarchy. Many foreign governments, including that of the United States, refused to recognize his administration. -
Dominion of Canada
2 nations emerged from the American Civil war. One was a reunited united stated, the other was a united Canada. The British parliment established the Domain of Canada in 1867.