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Missouri Compromise 1820-1821
Behind the leadership of Henry Clay, Congress passed a series of agreements in 1820-1821 known as the Missouri Compromise. under these agreements, Maine was admitted as a free state and Missouri as a slave state. -
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Santa Fe Trail
Busiest routes was the Santa Fe Trail, which stretched 780 miles from Independence, Missouri, to Santa Fe in the Mexican province of New Mexico. -
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San Felipe de Austin
Austin's Colony was the first and largest Anglo-American settlement in Mexican Texas and was established by Stephen F. Austin in 1821. The Records include contracts, land titles, surveyor's field notes, correspondence, registers, and plats of surveys created as a result of the process by which settlers were admitted to the colony and given title to land. -
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The Liberator
A white abolitionist named William Lloyd Garrison. Active in religious reform movements in Massachusetts, Garrison became the editor of an antislavery paper in 1828. 3 years later established his own paper, "The Liberator", to deliver an uncompromising demand: immediate emancipation. -
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Mexico Abolishes Slavery
Despite peaceful cooperation between Anglos and Tejanos, differences over cultural issues intensified between Anglos and the Mexican government. The overwhelmingly Protestant Anglo settlers spoke English instead of Spanish. Furthermore, many of the settlers were Southerners, who had brought slaves with them to Texas. Mexico, which had abolished slavery in 1829, insisted in vain that the Texans free their slaves. -
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Nat Turner's Rebellion
Some slaves rebelled against their condition of bondage. One of the most prominent rebellions was led by Virginia slave Nat Turner. In 1831 Turner and 50 others attacked 4 plantations and killed about 60 whites. Whites eventually captured and executed many members of the group, including Turner. -
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Texas Revolution
the overwhelmingly Protestant Anglo settlers spoke English instead of Spanish. Many settlers were Southerners who brought slaves with them to Texas. -
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Stephen F. Austin goes to jail
Austin had traveled to Mexico City late in 1833 to present petitions to Mexican president Antonio López de Santa Anna for greater self-government for Texas. While Austin was on his way home, Santa Anna had Austin imprisoned for inciting revolution. -
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Oregon Trail
Stretched from Independence, Missouri, to Oregon City, Oregon. Blazed in 1836 by two Methodist missionaries named Marcus and Narcissa Whitman. -
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manifest Destiny
expressed the belief that the US was ordained to expand to the Pacific Ocean and into Mexican and Native Amer. territory. -
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Texas enters the United States
Most Texans hoped that the US would annex their republic, but US opinion divided along sectional lines. South wanted it to be a slave state but the North wanted it to be a free state. -
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Mexican-American War
The Mexican-American War, waged between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848, helped to fulfill America's "manifest destiny" to expand its territory across the entire North American continent. -
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The North Star
Frederick Douglass escaped from bondage to become an eloquent and outspoken critic of slavery. Garrison heard Douglass speaking and sponsored him; hoping that abolition could be achieved without violence. In 1847, Douglass began his own antislavery newspaper. He named it "The North Star" -
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Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Mexico agreed to the Rio Grande as the border between Texas and Mexico and ceded the New Mexico and California territories to the US. The states agreed to pay $15 million for the Mexican cession, which included present-day Cali, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, most of Arizona, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming. -
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Compromise of 1850
The question of statehood for Cali topped the agenda, of equal concern was the border dispute in which the slave state of Texas claimed the eastern half of the New Mexico Territory, where the issue of slavery had not yet been settled. As passions mounted, threats of Southerns secession, the formal withdrawal of a state from the Union, became more frequent. -
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Fugitive Slave Act
The Fugitive Slave Act surprised many people. Under the law, alleged fugitive slaves were not entitled to a trial by jury. Anyone convicted of helping a fugitive was liable for a fine of $1,000 & imprisonment for up to six months. Infuriated by this Act, Northerners resisted it by organizing “vigilance committees” to send endangered African Americans to safety in Canada. Others resorted to violence to rescue fugitive slaves. Still others worked to help slaves escape from slavery -
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Kansas-Nebraska Act
The compromise/act had provided for popular sovereignty in New Mexico and Utah. The only difficulty was that, unlike New Mexico and Utah, the Kansas and Nebraska territory lay north of Missouri Comp. line of 36°30' and therefore was legally closed to slavery. -
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Uncle Tom's Cabin
Harriet Beecher Stowe published her novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin", which stressed that slavery was not just a political contest, but also a great moral struggle. As a young girl, Stowe had watched boats filled with people on their way to be sold at slave markets. -
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Underground Railroad
A system of escape routes slaves used; "conductors" on the routes hid fugitives in secret tunnels and false cupboards, provided them with food and clothing, and escorted or directed them to the next "station." -
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Harriet Tubman
Born into slavery; when Tubman's owner died, she heard rumours that she was about to be sold. Fearing this, Tubman decided to make a break for freedom and succeeded in reaching Philadelphia. -
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Dred Scott v. Sandford
Dred Scott’s slave master had brought him from the slave state
of Missouri to live for a time in free territory and in the free state of Illinois. Eventually they returned to Missouri. Scott believed that because he had lived in free territory, he should be free. In 1854 he sued in federal court for his freedom. The court ruled against him, and he appealed to the Supreme Court. -
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Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas Debates
Several months after the Dred Scott decision, one of Illinois's greatest political contests got underway: the 1858 race for the US Senate between Democratic incumbent Stephen Douglas and Republican challenger Congressman Abraham Lincoln. -
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John Brown's raid/ Harpers Ferry
John Brown studied the slave uprisings that had occurred in ancient Rome and on the French island of Haiti. He believed that the time was ripe for similar uprisings in the US. Brown secretly obtained financial backing from several prominent Northern abolitionists. On Oct. 16, 1859, he led 21 men, both black and white, into Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. His aim was to seize the federal arsenal there and start a general slave uprising. this didn't happen, instead troops put the rebellion down. -
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Abraham Lincoln becomes president
Lincoln appeared to be moderate in his views. Although he pledged to halt the further spread of slavery, he also tried to reassure Southerners that Republic administrations wouldn't "interfere with their slaves, or with them, about their slaves." Many Southerners saw him as an enemy. -
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Formation of the Confederacy
Mississippi soon followed S. Carolina's lead, as did Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. In Feb. 1861, delegates from the secessionist states met in Montgomery, Alabama, where they formed the Confederate States of America, or the Confederacy. -
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Battle of Bull Run
First bloodshed on the battlefield occurred about three months after Fort Sumter fell, near the little creek of Bull Run, just 25 miles from Washington, D.C. The battle was a seesaw affair. In the morning the Union army gained the upper hand, but the Confederates held firm. -
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Battle of Bull Run
First bloodshed on the battlefield occurred 3 months after Fort Sumter, near the little creek of Bull Run, 25b miles from Washington DC. The battle was a seesaw affair. In the morning the Union army gained the upper hand, but the Confederates held firm. -
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Battle of Antietam
McClellan ordered his men to pursue Lee, and the two sides fought on September 17 near a creek called the Antietam. The clash proved to be the bloodiest single-day battle in Amer. history, with casualties totaling more than 26,000. The next day, instead of pursuing the battered Confederate army into Viginia and possibly ending the war, McClellan did nothing, and as a result, Lincoln removed him from his command -
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Attack on Fort Sumter
After the Confederacy was formed, Confederate soldiers in each secessionist state began seizing federal installations - especially forts. By the time of Lincoln's inauguration, only four Southern forts remained in Union hands. The most important was Fort Sumter, on an island in Charleston harbor, -
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Emancipation Proclamation
"I do order & declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, & parts of States are henceforward shall be free; & that the Executive gov of the US, including the military & naval authorities thereof, will recognize & maintain the freedom of said persons. I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages." -
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Battle of Gettysburg
Near Gettysburg, in southern Pennsylvania, the most decisive battle of the war was fought. The Battle of Gettysburg began on July 1 when Confederate soldiers led by A. P. Hill encountered several brigades of Union cavalry under the command of John Buford, an experienced officer from Illinois. -
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Gettysburg Address
In Nov. 1863, a ceremony was held to dedicate a cemetery in Gettysburg. Lincoln spoke for a little more than 2 min. According to some contemporary historians, Lincoln's Gettysburg Address "remade America." Before Lincoln's speech, people said, "The United States are..." Afterward, they said "The United States is..." In other words, the speech helped the country to realize that is was not just a collection of individual states; it was one unified nation. -
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Battle at Vicksburg
Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s armies went to Vicksburg, investing the city & entrapped a Confederate army under Lt. Gen. John Pemberton. Vicksburg surrendered after prolonged siege operations. With the loss of Pemberton’s army and this vital stronghold on the Mississippi, the Confederacy was effectively split in half. Grant's successes in the West boosted his reputation, leading ultimately to his appointment as General-in-Chief of the Union armies. -
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Sherman's March
In spring, Sherman began his march southeast through Georgia to the sea, creating a wide path of destruction. His army burned almost every house in its path and destroyed livestock and railroads. Sherman was determined to make Southerners "so sick of war that generations would pass away before they would again appeal to it." By mid-Nov. he burned most of Atlanta. After reaching the ocean, Sherman's forces - followed by 25,000 former slaves - turned north to help Grant "wipe out Lee." -
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Surrender at Appomattox Court House
On April 3, Union troops conquered Richmond, The Confederate capital. Southerners had abandoned the city the day before, setting it afire to keep the Northerners from taking it. On April 9, Lee and Grant met at a private home to arrange a Confederate surrender. At Lincoln's request, the terms were generous. Grant paroled Lee's soldiers and sent them home with their possessions and 3 days' worth of rations. Officers were permitted to keep their sidearms. In months Confederate resistance collapsed -
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13th Amendment
After some political maneuvering, the 13th Amendment was ratified at the end of 1865. The US Constitution now stated, "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the US." -
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Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
April 14, five days after Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox, Lincoln and his wife went to Ford's Theatre in Washington to see a British comedy; during the 3rd act, John W. Booth shot Lincoln in the back of the head. Lincoln never awoken and died on April 15. -
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Abolition
The movement to abolish slavery, became the most important of a series of reform movements in America. -
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Income Tax
As the Northern economy grew, Congress decided to help pay for the war by collecting the nation's first income tax, a tax that takes a specified percentage of an individual's income. -
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Conscription
As the fighting intensified, heavy casualties & widespread desertions led each side to impose conscription, a draft that forced men to serve in the army. In the North, conscription led to draft riots, the most violent of which took place in NYC. Sweeping changes occurred in the wartime economies of both sides as well as in the roles played by African Americans and women.