Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was a series of five bills passed in congress that ended California's expansion and released the tension between the northern free states and the southern slave states. The compromise was drafted by Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky and avoided the secession of the north and south, kept the peace, and reduced conflict for four years. The Compromise's fourth bill was the fugitive slave law, an law that made it illegal to harbor, assist, or not capture escaped slaves. This law was very strictly enforces, and carried a hefty thousand dollar fine if broken.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas Nebraska Act was the act created by Stephen Douglas in 1854 which created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska. The settlers of these new westernly lands decided whether or not to be a slavery supporting state by popular sovereignty. These territories were also created to enable the continuation of the trans-continental railroad and to create new farms with rich soils. This act repealed the Missouri Compromise.
Bleeding Kansas
Bleeding Kansas was a series of bloody political battles between pro-slavery forces of the south and the anti-slavery forces of the north. These battles were over weather Kansas would enter the union as a pro-slavery state or an abolitionist anti-slavery state. At one point in time, Kansas had two governments each with separate constitutions, but only one was federally recognized. Kansas entered the Union as a free state on January 29, 1861.
The Dredd Scott Decision
The Dred Scott decision was a supreme court decision over a slave named Dred Scott born around 1800 who was taken by his owner, Peter Blow, to Missouri in 1820. Peter died the next year and Scott was sold to a doctor who traveled between free states Illinois and Wisconsin. Later Scott returned to Missouri, a slave state at the time, and appealed for his freedom to the supreme court. Roger B Taney was an enthusiastic slavery supporter and was adamant about keeping slavery alive. The court eventually ruled against Scott, due to Taney and Scotts lack of witnesses proving he belonged to someone, meaning that the supreme court ruled that since Scott was black, he had no rights to sue for his freedom or to become a free slave after entering free territory. Scott did not think this was bad, but instead thought that this ruling would gather a large amount of attention and gain popularity for anti-slavery advocates.
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
Lincoln and Douglas were both running for the Presidency in 1860, Douglas being a Democrat and Lincoln a Republican. Douglas was the crowd favorite due to his two terms as a senator and Lincoln only having one term twelve years earlier. The actual debates were Lincolns idea to try to gain the favor of the crowd. Both Lincoln and Douglas were anti-slavery, but Douglas believed in Popular Sovereignty, while Lincoln believed the only way to completely abolish slavery was with an amendment to the United States Constitution. Lincoln finally gained the attention of other Republicans and won the 1860 election.
Harper's Ferry
Harper's Ferry was an attempted slave uprising in 1859 led by John Brown. Brown studied other slave uprisings in Haiti and Ancient Rome, and with secret financial assistance from northern abolitionists led a group of mixed races of men onto Harper's Ferry in Virginia. Brown's plan was to steal weapons from the federal vault and start a slave uprising, but the plan failed and Brown was captured and hanged for treason and attempting to incite a slave rebellion.
Lincoln's Election
Abraham Lincoln was the presidential nomination for the Republican party in 1860. Lincoln said that if he was elected, all the new states would be free states, but he would not try to abolish slavery in the southern states. Even though Lincoln promised the southerners this, many still opposed him. There were three major candidates in for the running of Presidency, the northern Democratic nominee Stephen Douglas, southern Democrats supported Vice-President John C. Breckenridge, and John Bell was the final mostly unsupported nominee. Lincoln won the election even though he did not appear on some southern states ballots due to general hate. He served his presidency until John Wilkes Booth Assassinated him in Ford's Theater on April 14, 1865.
Fort Sumter
On April 12, 1861, the Confederate forces opened fire on the Union garrison holding Fort Sumter. This event is thought of as the spark and beginning of the American Civil War. Before the attack, Lincoln was trying to find a safe way to resupply the fort with ammunition and other goods. As Lincoln sent supply ships, he warned of an impending attack, and told the general, Major Robert Anderson, to surrender and evacuate the fort. Anderson refused and Confederated attacked the fort. thirty-four hours and zero deaths (other than two union deaths due to a gun malfunction) later, the fort surrendered. Lincoln called for support to suppress the rebellion, and this caused four additional states to declare their secession and join the Confederacy, thus starting the Civil War.
Bull Run
Three months after the fall of Fort Sumter and the beginning of the American Civil War, the first land battle was fought near Bull Run creek. Starting off, the Union army had the advantage, but as the day progressed and the Confederated regained strength and morale, along with re-enforcements, the Union Army fell and the Confederates won the battle, and also believed that they had won the entire war as well. General Thomas J. Jackson, A.K.A Stonewall Jackson led the Confederacy during this battle and was praised for achieving the first victory of the American Civil War.
Antietam
The battle of Antietam was the first battle fought on Union soil, and also the deadliest battle in American history with 26,000 casualties on both sides. The Union had an advantage during this battle because General George McClellan discovered a copy of Robert E. Lee's orders which told McClellan that Lee's army was separated, which made McClellan attack. Due to McClellan's failure to continue his attack on the Confederate army all the way into Virginia and possibly end the American Civil War, President Lincoln stripped away his power and removed him from the Union army.
Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation was written by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863 'gave' freedom to 3.1 million slaves in the southern states. The Proclamation did not actually free the slaves, but it declared their freedom; It did not actually free the slaves because the states for which it applied to were part of the Confederacy and out of the Union's control. The Emancipation Proclamation gave the American Civil War a purpose, which was to free the millions of slaves stuck in the south. It also made it impossible for a compromise between the north and south to exist.
The Battle Of Gettysburg
During the battle of Gettysburg, Union troops tried to defend the town of Gettysburg from General Robert E. Lee of the Confederacy's army. The Union Army had roughly ninety-thousand soldiers defending while the confederacy had approximately seventy-five thousand soldiers attempting to overtake the town. This battle lasted three days, the first of which was evenly matched and neither side gained or lost much territory, but on the second day, the Confederates took Gettysburg. On the third day, the Union troops took back the town and won the battle. The total casualties for the North were around twenty-three thousand, while the south had around twenty-eight thousand.
Gettysburg Address
Gettysburg Address was given by President Lincoln on November 19th, 1863. this speech, given to the people of Gettysburg and the soldiers who fought in the battle, lasted around two minutes and is now considered the most well known speech in history. Within those two minutes, Lincoln stated the principles of human equality, and told that the American Civil War was only to stop the secession crisis and to preserve the Union and keep it whole. Lincoln's speech opened many citizen's eyes to the fact that the many states were becoming a nation, and Lincoln told of the creation of a unified nation, where states' rights were not as prevalent.
Andersonville Prison
The Andersonville Prison was a Confederate P.O.W. camp during the Civil War which held more than forty-five thousand prisoners. The entire prison yard covered just under seventeen acres of land, and all of it was enclosed by a fence approximately fifteen feet high. Later on, the Prison expanded to cover just under twenty-seven acres. The Prison was rampant with disease, starvation, malnutrition, abusive guards, and abuse. In total 12,913 Union prisoners died due to these factors. The prison was very frequently low on food, and this caused scurvy and dysentery. In May of 1865, the Andersonville P.O.W. Prison was shut down.
Surrender at Appomattox Courthouse
This meeting set up by both North and South was the end of the civil war. At the Appomattox Courthouse, Robert E. Lee of the Confederacy surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant, thus ending the civil war. Lee's troops were sent home with three days of rations, and the confederacy crumbled leaving the Union victorious.
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
President Lincoln went with his wife to Ford's Theater to see Our American Cousin, and just five days after the surrender of Robert E. Lee to Ulysses S. Grant, John Wilkes Booth crept up behind President Lincoln, pulled out his derringer, and shot Lincoln in the back of the head. John Wilkes Booth then jumped onto the stage and yelled, "The south is avenged!" then ran through the back of the theater to escape. Ford's theater was closed down and never used as a public entertainment place again, but instead converted into a military service facility.