Timeline of events leading to the American Civil War
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This is a timeline of significant events leading to the American Civil War. See also Origins of the American Civil War.
| 1787 | Northwest Ordinance, Established the precedents by which the United States would expand westward across North America by the admission of new states, rather than by the expansion of existing states. The banning of slavery in the territory had the effect of establishing the Ohio River as the boundary between free and slave territory in the region between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River. |
| 1820 | As Western territories begin applying for statehood, the Missouri Compromise makes provisions for the future admittance of slave states and free states. |
| 1828 | Calhoun's South Carolina Exposition and Protest outlines nullification doctrine. Calhoun demands that the North keep quiet about slavery in order to maintain peace. |
| 1830 | Daniel Webster delivers a memorable Reply to Hayne on January 27, denouncing the notion that Americans must choose between liberty and union. "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!" he cries. |
| 1831 | + William Lloyd Garrison begins publishing The Liberator. + Nat Turner leads a slave revolt in Southampton County, Virginia. |
| 1833 | + The Compromise Tariff of 1833 ends the Nullification crisis. + The abolitionist American Anti-Slavery Society is founded. |
| 1834 | + Anti-Slavery "debates" are held at Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati. |
| 1835 | Roger Taney succeeds John Marshall as the chief justice of the Supreme Court. Taney asserts the principle of social responsibility of private property as a basis to uphold fugitive slave laws. |
| 1836 | In response to the petition campaigns of the American Anti-Slavery Society, the U.S. House of Representatives adopts a gag rule, by which all antislavery petitions presented to the House would be immediately tabled, without discussion. John Quincy Adams leads an eight year battle against the gag rule, demonstrating how Slavery, as a political interest, threatens constitutional rights. |
| 1839 | Slaves revolt on the Amistad. |
| 1835-1840 | Alexis de Tocqueville publishes Democracy in America, noting sectional differences. |
| 1842 | The Webster-Ashburton Treaty is signed. |
| 1845 | Frederick Douglas publishes his autobiography. |
| 1846 | James D.B. DeBow establishes DeBow's Review, the leading Southern magazine warning the planter class about the dangers of depending on the North economically. DeBow's Review emerges as the leading voice for secession. The magazine emphasizes the South's economic inequality, relating it to the concentration of manufacturing, shipping, banking, and international trade in the North. |
| 1847 | Opposition to the Wilmot Proviso helps to consolidate the "free soil" forces. |
| 1848 | + On February 2, 1848, Mexico is forced sign the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, ceding vast tracts of land to the US. Free Northern farmers do not want to compete against slave labor. Debates center on whether slavery should be permitted in the newly gained Western territories. + Radical New York Democrats and anti-slavery Whigs hold a convention at Buffalo, New York in August, forming the Free-Soil party. The party supports former president Martin Van Buren and Charles Francis Adams for president and vice president, respectively. The party opposes the expansion of slavery in newly acquired territories such as Oregon and the ceded Mexican territory. |
| 1850 | Compromise of 1850 enacted |
| 1852 | + George Fitzhugh's The Pro-Slavery Argument is published. + Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes Uncle Tom's Cabin. A forceful indictment of slavery, the novel sells roughly 500,000 copies within five years. |
| 1854 | + The rise of railroads in the 1840s gives added support for those advocating government subsidies to promote transportation. Stephen A. Douglas proposes the Kansas-Nebraska Bill with the intention of building a railroad hub in his home state. + The Kansas-Nebraska Act is passed, thereby providing that popular sovereignty in the territories should decide "all questions pertaining to slavery." It effectively repeals the Missouri Compromise. |
| 1855-1856 | Violence breaks out in "Bleeding Kansas" |
| 1856 | Preston Brooks canes Charles Sumner. |
| 1857-1860 | + Over-production of manufactured goods, along with decreasing demand for agricultural products, causes economic slowdown in the industrializing North. Starting with the bankruptcy of the New York branch of the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company, a string of financial panics and the ensuing depression sharpen sectional divides. See Panic of 1857 + Southerners oppose some protection to Northern manufacturers. Tariffs are detrimental to the planting abilities of Southerners. Southerners see Northern policy proposals as an example of the willingness of the West and the North to make economic bargains at the expense of the South. |
| 1857 | + George Fitzhugh publishes Cannibals All. + Hinton Rowan Helper publishes Impending Crisis of the South. |
| 1858 | + Proslavery Lecompton constitution defeated by popular referendum in Kansas in August. + Lincoln and Douglas debate |
| 1859 | + James Hammond exclaims, "Cotton is King!" + John Brown raids the federal armory and arsenal at Harper's Ferry, hoping to start a widespread slave rebellion. |
| 1860 | + Southern "fire-eaters" oppose frontrunner Stephen A. Douglas' bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. The Democrats begin splitting between party loyalists and Southerners with slave-holding interests. + Radicals William H. Seward of New York, Salmon P. Chase of Ohio, and Simon Cameron of Pennsylvania are the leading contenders for the Republican presidential nomination. Lincoln, however, out-maneuvers his opponents. On May 16, Lincoln receives the Republican nomination at their convention in Chicago. |
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