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Massacre at Mystic
English settlers, working with the Narragansetts and Mohegans, set fire to a fortified Pequot village near the Mystic River in what is now Connecticut. The settlers kill several hundred Pequots. A few escape. Others survive only to be captured and sold into slavery in the West Indies. -
The Scalp Act
a process went into motion to make it legal to kill Indian people. And at one point it was something in the neighborhood of $25 for a male body part, whether it was a scalp, a hand, or the whole body; and then $5 for a child or a woman. In many cases, they only had to bring in the scalp. -
Three-Fifths Compromise
The Three-Fifths Compromise was reached among state delegates during the 1787 Constitutional Convention. It determined that three out of every five slaves were counted when determining a state's total population for legislative representation and taxation. -
Slave Trade Ends in The United States
The practice of slavery continued to be legal in much of the U.S. until 1865, of course, and enslaved people continued to be bought and sold within the Southern states, but in January 1808 the legal flow of new Africans into this country stopped forever -
Battle of Tippecanoe
The Battle of Tippecanoe was fought on November 7, 1811 between the American forces under the command of William Henry Harrison, and Native American warriors under the leadership of Tenskwatawa, commonly referred to as “The Prophet.” -
Indian Removal Act
The Indian Removal Act was signed into law by President Andrew Jackson on May 28, 1830, authorizing the president to grant lands west of the Mississippi in exchange for Indian lands within existing state borders. A few tribes went peacefully, but many resisted the relocation policy. -
Trail of Tears
In the 1830s, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, which forcibly removed thousands of American Indians from their homelands in the southeastern United States. They were relocated to an area of land then known as Indian Territory, now the state of Oklahoma. This tragic event is referred to as the Trail of Tears -
nat turner rebellion
Turner and his followers started at his master's house and killed the entire family. They marched throughout Southampton County in Virginia, killing at least 55 people until white authorities crushed the revolt. Turner avoided capture for nearly two months before he was caught. -
The Missouri Compromise
An Act to authorize the people of the Missouri territory to form a constitution and state government, and for the admission of such state into the Union on an equal footing with the original states, and to prohibit slavery in certain territories. -
The Fugitive Slave Act
Passed on September 18, 1850 by Congress, The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was part of the Compromise of 1850. 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. -
Emancipation Proclamation
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
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. -
14th Amendment
A major provision of the 14th Amendment was to grant citizenship to “All persons born or naturalized in the United States,” thereby granting citizenship to formerly enslaved people -
15th Amendment
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. -
Battle of Little Bighorn
The Battle of Little Bighorn, fought from June 25-26 of 1876, was one of the most important military engagements in the history of the West. Lt. Col. George Custer and the 7th Cavalry attacked a much larger fighting force of Lakota and Cheyenne warriors in Montana, and were killed as a result. -
Plessy vs. Ferguson
Ferguson, legal case in which the U.S. Supreme Court on May 18, 1896, by a seven-to-one majority (one justice did not participate), advanced the controversial “separate but equal” doctrine for assessing the constitutionality of racial segregation laws -
Battle of Wounded knee
The incident began in February 1973, and represented the longest civil disorder in the history of the Marshals Service. The town of Wounded Knee, South Dakota was seized on February 27, 1973, by followers of the American Indian Movement (AIM), who staged a 71-day occupation of the area.