Download Timeline to Civil War

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1846-48 = MEXICAN WAR
– 1. Summary of Events
• Pressure for Expansion &
Texas annexation
• US offers buy Cal. & NM but
Mexico refuses
• Border dispute starts war
– 2. Results/Significance/Importance
• S. border Texas = Rio Grande,
& gain Cal. & NM
• Gaining land = renew
sectional feelings about
extension of slavery
•
1848-49 = GOLD RUSH
– 1. Summary of Events
• Gold found at Sutter’s Mill in
1848
• “Rush” of people go West in
1849
• Need for Local Government
– 2. Results/Significance/Importance
• 1849 = Californians draft
constitution & apply to Union
as a Free State
•
1850 = COMPROMISE OF 1850
– 1. Summary of Events
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Gaining land from Mexican War &
California Gold Rush bring settlers
California wants enter as Free
State
“Fire-Eaters” oppose plan
Henry Clay & Daniel Webster help
get a compromise
2. Results/Significance/Importance
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Compromise of 1850 (5 Parts)
– Admission of California as a
free state
– Remaining western
territories organized with no
restriction on slavery
– End of all slave trade in the
District of Columbia
– Strict federal fugitive slave
law
– Assumption of Texas' debt
by the national government
Buys some time for nation
Angers Extremists on both sides
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1852 = UNCLE TOM’S CABIN
– 1. Summary of Events
• Written by Harriet Beecher
Stowe
• Want to show evils of slavery,
especially splitting families &
brutality
• Inspired by Fugitive Slave
Law
– 2. Results/Significance/Importance
• Becomes best-seller (300,000
1st Year, 2 million in decade)
• North = many see evils of
slavery & boosts abolitionist
movement
• South = angered & condemn
book
•
1854 = KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT
– 1. Summary of Events
• Stephen Douglas wants RR
come through North
• Proposes
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1) Kansas and Nebraska
territories be divided into
two sections
2) Missouri Compromise be
repealed, with settlers in
each territory choosing
whether or not they wanted
slavery (popular
sovereignty)
2. Results/Significance/Importance
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1) Party realignments
– a) Whig Party collapsed
– b) Know-Nothing Party
(anti-immigrant, antiCatholic) emerged
– c) Republican Party,
organized in support of
keeping slavery out of the
territories, gained strength
in northwestern states
2) Bleeding Kansas violence as proand anti-slavery forces rushed in to
Kansas Territory
•
1856 = BLEEDING KANSAS
– 1. Summary of Events
• “Border Ruffians” move in to
create Pro-Slavery Govt.
• Anti-Slavery groups organize
& refuse recognize proslavery
govt.
• Proslavery forces attack
Lawrence
• John Brown & sons attack
proslavery Pottawatomie
settlement = kill 5
– 2. Results/Significance/Importance
• Pierce Administration doesn’t
do anything to keep order
• Continued fighting & splits
Democratic party between
North & South
•
1856 = BROOKS-SUMNER INCIDENT
– 1. Summary of Events
• Sumner = Sen. Mass,
– gives speech “Crimes
Against Kansas”
– Insults Proslaveryite S.C.
senator
• Brooks = S.C. congressman
– retaliated by hitting
Sumner over the head 30
times or more (11 oz.
Gold headed cane)
– 2. Results/Significance/Importance
• House of Rep. Try expel Brooks
= he resigns (would be reelected)
• Sumner & Bleedin Kansas
come to represent evils of
slavery system & South for
North
• In a broad sense, can represent
first blows of the war
•
1857 = DRED SCOTT V. SANFORD
– 1. Summary of Events
• Dred Scott, slave who lived in
free territory
• Taken back to Missouri, and
sued for freedom
– 2. Results/Significance/Importance
• Chief Justice Taney’s ruling
– Scott a slave, could not
sue in Federal Court
– Missouri Compromise
unconstitutional
• North = fear expansion of
slave power (overrule
Miss Comp & Pop Sov)
• South = feel backed by
Const. & Supreme Court
•
1859 = HARPERS FERRY
– 1. Summary of Events
• Brown and his followers
planned a slave insurrection to
begin in western Virginia.
• Seized federal arsenal at
Harper's Ferry, but was
quickly captured, tried, and
hanged.
– 2. Results/Significance/Importance
• Impact of Brown
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Northern abolitionists
(Emerson and Thoreau)
viewed him as a martyr,
taking action against the evil
of slavery
Southerners generally
viewed Brown as a madman,
symbolizing the fanatical
hatred of the North
Moderates (Lincoln)
condemned Brown's action,
while admiring his
commitment to countering
slavery
•
1860 = ELECTION OF 1860
– 1. Summary of Events
• Democrats split into northern
and southern factions and
nominated two candidates
(Douglas and Breckenridge)
• Former Whigs nominated Bell
in an attempt to preserve
Union with Constitutional
Union Party. Strong only in
Virginia and upper South
• Republicans nominated
Lincoln as a moderate
compromise candidate.
– 2. Results/Significance/Importance
• Lincoln carried the Northern
states and won the
electoral vote, though earning
less than 40% of all votes cast
• On December 20, 1860, South
Carolina seceded from the
Union
• 1860-61 = SECESSION &
FAILURE OF COMPROMISE
– 1. Summary of Events
• After S.C., six more states
seceded
• 1861 = Meet in Alabama & form
Confederate States of America
• Crittenden Compromise
– Propose going back to 36,30
line for slavery
– 2. Results/Significance/Importance
• South feel acting like revolutionaries
& North tyrants so can break away
• Lincoln can’t accept Compromise =
ran on promise not to allow
expansion of slavery
• 1861 = FORT SUMTER
– 1. Summary of Events
• Federal fort in S.C.
• Federal troops cut off from
supplies
• Lincoln’s choice = send just
supplies
• South has to choose = South
opens fire to take fort
– 2. Results/Significance/Importance
• Four more states join Confederacy
& Capital moved to Richmond
• Start of Civil War
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AT WHAT POINT DID ARMED CONFLICT BETWEEN THE TWO REGIONS BECOME
INEVITABLE, BEYOND WHICH EVEN EXTRAORDINARY STATESMANSHIP COULD
NOT HAVE HEALED THE WOUNDS? EXPLAIN.