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A cotton engine machinery that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, making much more productivity. (1794)

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A case court that essentially established the constitutionality of racial segregation, preventing constitutional challenges to racial segregation. Which got revoked by the U.S. Supreme Court.

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The ruling in this Supreme Court case upheld a Louisiana state law that allowed for "equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races."

During the era of Reconstruction, black Americans' political rights were affirmed by three constitutional amendments and numerous laws passed by Congress. Racial discrimination was attacked on a particularly broad front by the Civil Rights Act of 1875. This legislation made it a crime for an individual to deny "the full and equal enjoyment of any of the accommodations, advantages, facilities, and privileges of inns, public conveyances on land or water, theaters and other places of public amusement; subject only to the conditions and limitations established by law, and applicable alike to citizens of every race and color."

In 1883, the Supreme Court struck down the 1875 act, ruling that the 14th Amendment did not give Congress authority to prevent discrimination by private individuals. Victims of racial discrimination were told to seek relief not from the Federal Government, but from the states. Unfortunately, state governments were passing legislation that codified inequality between the races. Laws requiring the establishment of separate schools for children of each race were most common; however, segregation was soon extended to encompass most public and semi-public facilities.

Beginning with passage of an 1887 Florida law, states began to require that railroads furnish separate accommodations for each race. These measures were unpopular with the railway companies that bore the expense of adding Jim Crow cars. Segregation of the railroads was even more objectionable to black citizens, who saw it as a further step toward the total repudiation of three constitutional amendments. When such a bill was proposed before the Louisiana legislature in 1890, the articulate black community of New Orleans protested vigorously. Nonetheless, despite the presence of 16 black legislators in the state assembly, the law was passed. It required either separate passenger coaches or partitioned coaches to provide segregated accommodations for each race. Passengers were required to sit in the appropriate areas or face a $25 fine or a 20-day jail sentence. Black nurses attending white children were permitted to ride in white compartments, however.

In 1891, a group of concerned young black men of New Orleans formed the "Citizens' Committee to Test the Constitutionality of the Separate Car Law." They raised money and engaged Albion W. Tourgée, a prominent Radical Republican author and politician, as their lawyer. On May 15, 1892, the Louisiana State Supreme Court decided in favor of the Pullman Company's claim that the law was unconstitutional as it applied to interstate travel. Encouraged, the committee decided to press a test case on intrastate travel. With the cooperation of the East Louisiana Railroad, on June 7, 1892, Homer Plessy, a mulatto (7/8 white), seated himself in a white compartment, was challenged by the conductor, and was arrested and charged with violating the state law. In the Criminal District Court for the Parish of Orleans, Tourgée argued that the law requiring "separate but equal accommodations" was unconstitutional. When Judge John H. Ferguson ruled against him, Plessy applied to the State Supreme Court for a writ of prohibition and certiorari. Although the court upheld the state law, it granted Plessy's petition for a writ of error that would enable him to appeal the case to the Supreme Court.

In 1896, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Plessy v. Ferguson. Justice Henry Brown of Michigan delivered the majority opinion, which sustained the constitutionality of Louisiana's Jim Crow law. In part, he said:

"We consider the underlying fallacy of the plaintiff's argument to consist in the assumption that the enforced separation of the two races stamps the colored race with a badge of inferiority. If this be so, it is not by reason of anything found in the act, but solely because the colored race chooses to put that construction upon it... The argument also assumes that social prejudice may be overcome by legislation, and that equal rights cannot be secured except by an enforced commingling of the two races... If the civil and political rights of both races be equal, one cannot be inferior to the other civilly or politically. If one race be inferior to the other socially, the Constitution of the United States cannot put them upon the same plane."

In a powerful dissent, conservation Kentuckian John Marshall Harlan wrote:

"I am of the opinion that the statute of Louisiana is inconsistent with the personal liberties of citizens, white and black, in that State, and hostile to both the spirit and the letter of the Constitution of the United States. If laws of like character should be enacted in the several States of the Union, the effect would be in the highest degree mischievous. Slavery as an institution tolerated by law would, it is true, have disappeared from our country, but there would remain a power in the States, by sinister legislation, to interfere with the blessings of freedom; to regulate civil rights common to all citizens, upon the basis of race; and to place in a condition of legal inferiority a large body of American citizens, now constituting a part of the political community, called the people of the United States, for whom an by whom, through representatives, our government is administrated. Such a system is inconsistent with the guarantee given by the Consititution to each State of a republican form of government, and may be stricken down by congressional action, or by the courts in the discharge of their solemn duty to maintain the supreme law of the land, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding."

Indeed, it was not until the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas and congressional civil rights acts of the 1950s and 1960s that systematic segregation under state law was ended. In the wake of those Federal actions, many states amended or rewrote their state constitutions to conform with the spirit of the 14th Amendment. But for Homer Plessy the remedies came too late.

(Information excerpted from Teaching With Documents, Vol. 2 1880-1929. [Santa Barbara, CA: National Archives and ABC-CLIO, 2002] pp. 57-59

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The ruling in this Supreme Court case upheld a Louisiana state law that allowed for "equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races." During the era of Reconstruction, black Americans' political rights were affirmed by three constitutional amendments and numerous laws passed by Congress.

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Urbanization is defined as growth in cities. Factories were in urban areas, attracting immigrants and people who were looking for employment. Many cities in the north grew rapidly.

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The 14th Amendment states, neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the U.S.

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Amendment 15th granted the right for citizens of the United States to vote, including all race shall not be denied.

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The 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granted African American men the right to vote by declaring that 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." Although ratified on February 3, 1870, the promise of the 15th Amendment would not be fully realized for almost a century. Through the use of poll taxes, literacy tests and other means, Southern states were able to effectively disenfranchise African Americans. It would take the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 before the majority of African Americans in the South were registered to vote.

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Research Guides: 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Primary Documents in American History: Introduction

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The 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granted African American men the right to vote by declaring that 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."

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The 14th Amendment granted citizenship to all people born or naturalized in the U.S. Especially former enslaved people, granting them "equal protection of the laws".

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Segregation was the practice of African Americans separate from White American's and treating them differently because of the color of their skin. This was implemented from housing, education, and other services for people who had colored skin.

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A man known for recognizing businesses to make more profitable, stable, and gaining control over them.  He financed industrial consolidations that formed General Electric, U.S. Steal, and International Harvester.

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America was a neutral country until 1944, which led to America making arm productions to fill military needs. Providing both allies; Great Britain and the Soviet Union supplies.

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Take A Closer Look: America Goes to War | The National WWII Museum | New Orleans

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America's isolation from war ended on December 7, 1941, when Japan staged a surprise attack on American military installations in the Pacific.

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Women's suffrage was important to history because it resulted in passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which allowed women to vote.

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Peace Movement was a social movement that sought to end wars, minimize violence, and ultimately achieve world peace. Mahatma Gandhi of India was one of the most influential spokesmen for peace and non-violence in the 20th century.

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The Women's Movement was a series of social movements and political campaigns for reforms on women's issues and gender equality. The first wave of feminism in the 19th and early 20th centuries focused on women’s legal rights, especially the right to vote. While the second wave of feminism was the women’s rights movement. This touched on every area of women’s experience including politics, work, the family, and sexuality.

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Popular Sovereignty is the power of a state and its government is created and sustained by the permission of its people.

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Primary sources are original documents written by people who witnessed an event or lived in the same time. Secondary sources are works that analyze, assess, or interpret a historical event, era, or phenomenon. They are created by someone who did not experience first-hand or participate in the events or conditions.

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Understanding Primary & Secondary Sources

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Beginning in about 1796, political life changed as two political parties came to dominate politics. These two parties were the Federalists and Democratic-Republicans. Differences in values and how the United States government and economy should be run led to this political separation.

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A brief overview of America’s first two political parties: the Federalists and Democratic-Republicans and their similarities and differences.

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Benjamin Franklin was a Founding Father who helped to draft the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. He was one of the only Founding Fathers to have signed all key documents establishing the United States! Benjamin Franklin negotiated the 1783 Treaty of Paris ending the Revolutionary War.

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Benjamin Franklin ‑ Biography, Inventions & Facts | HISTORY

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Benjamin Franklin (1706‑1790) was a statesman, author, publisher, scientist, inventor, diplomat, a Founding Father and a leading figure of early American history.

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Characteristics of the Thirteen Colonies

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Characteristics of the Thirteen Colonies

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Each colony had its own characteristics. However, historians lump them into groups based on where they were, why they were founded, and what kinds of industry they had. They were grouped as the New England Colonies, Middle Colonies, and Southern Colonies.

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The History of America's 13 Colonies | Educational Rap for Social Studies

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The Constitution is the supreme law of the United States of America. It established America's national government and fundamental laws and guaranteed certain basic rights for citizens. The Constitution was signed on September 17, 1787.

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The Indian Removal Act was a law passed by President Andrew Jackson that gave the president power to grant lands west of the Mississippi in exchange for Indian lands within existing state borders.

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Jackson's views in favor of the removal of Indians to the west were well known before he was elected. His position on this matter was one of the main reasons for his support in the South. The major issue was focused around determining the future of "The Five 'Civilized Tribes'" (the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw and Seminole.) Through a treaty agreement, these tribes occupied large areas of Georgia, Alabama, part of Tennessee, North Carolina and Florida. In 1822, the federal government commissioned geographer Jedidiah Morse to survey the Native Americans. He reported back on the tremendous transformation these tribes had undergone. They lived in villages, farmed the land and practiced animal husbandry in the same way as their white neighbors. Large numbers of Native Americans had even converted to Christianity, thanks to the efforts of the Christian missionaries who had established schools there.
Despite the major lifestyle changes of the Native Americans, the white settlers in the states remained envious and wanted the lands the Indians occupied for themselves. The states insisted they had rights to the lands the Indians inhabited. They also asserted that the treaties granting the Native Americans any land were to be ignored. The fact the Indians were successful economically worked against what the white settlers had hoped. The newly prosperous Indians had not need to sell any of their lands. Furthermore, these thriving tribes had no incentive to sell their land.
Georgia was the most vigorous in taking actions against the Native Americans. During the Adams administration Georgia did whatever it could to push out the Cherokee and Creek nations. President Adams vigorously objected to the actions of Georgia. Adams often called in Federal troops to protect the Native Americans. However, Georgia was determined to continue to act against the Indians. With the election of Jackson it believed, rightly, it would have a green light. In December 1828, the Georgia legislature passed a law stating that starting in 1830 Georgian law would be imposed on the Indian areas. The Georgians claimed (as they ignored the treaties signed between the US government and the Indians) that the Indians were just "tenants at will". Once the Jackson administration took office, Secretary of War Eaton, ordered the withdrawal of federal troops. Without the support of federal troops the Native Americans were left to the mercy of the Georgians.

President Jackson was not satisfied with taking just a passive role regarding the Indians. Instead, Jackson wanted to pass his own "Indian Removal Act". This act would voluntarily remove the Native American from their lands, and transfer them to lands in the West. While the law claimed the removal would be "voluntary", that was a mere technicality. As everyone believed that once the Indian Removal Act was passed there would be no way to stop the removal of the Indians. Some thought it important that the act would at least mandate Indians receive compensation. Others reluctantly supported the legislations believing that it was better that the Indians be removed under federal law than by states in defilement of Federal Law. Despite Jackson's popularity he had a hard time passing the Indian Removal Act. The Act was not popular in the North. Christian missionary were vocal opponents of the Act. Opponents considered the Indian Removal Act immoral, and a repudiation of years of treaties.

President Adams called the removal "a perpetual harrow upon my feelings". As a result of the intense opposition to the Act, it passed by only 2 votes in the House of Representatives; and only after the President put pressure on Pennsylvania Democrats to change their votes and support the measure.

After the bill passed, the government began with the Choctaws. It cost $5 million to move the first Indians - despite the fact Jackson had promised it would cost only $2 million to move all of the Native tribes. Once the Choctaws had been moved Jackson turned to the other tribes. He started placing as much pressure as he could on them. He cut off funding for the missionary schools. He stated publicly that he would ignore all existing treaty responsibilities of the US government. The Cherokees then decided to turn to the courts for protection. The first lawsuit was 'Cherokee Nation v. Georgia'. The justices in this case decided to sidestep the issues, by ruling on procedural matters. Thus, they avoided a ruling the court feared would put it in a confrontation with the Executive branch. However, the court could not avoid the issue when it took the case of 'Worcester vs. Georgia'. In that case the state of Georgia had imprisoned two missionaries to pressure them to support the Removal Act. These missionaries were arrested on Indian lands and appealed their imprisonment to the Supreme Court. In this case, John Marshall, writing for the court stated that: "the Cherokees were protected within their lands, and in which the law of Georgia can have no right to enter, but with the assent of the Cherokees. " The court had no way to enforce its decision. Jackson chose to ignore it completely.
This is how one of the most woeful acts in American history took shape. The forced removal of ten of thousands of Native Americans, who were living their lives in lands granted them just a generation earlier by the American government.

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Jackson's views in favor of the removal of Indians to the west were well known before he was elected. His position on this matter was one of the main reasons for his support in the South. The major issue was focused around determining the future of "The Five 'Civilized Tribes'" (the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw and Seminole.)

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Thomas Jefferson was the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. Thomas Jefferson was the author of the Declaration of Independence and one of America's Founding Fathers.

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Thomas Jefferson: Revolutionary, U.S. President, Founding Father | Biography

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The New Deal is a domestic program of the administration of U.S. Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt between 1933 and 1939, took action to bring about immediate economic relief as well as reforms in industry, agriculture, finance, waterpower, labor, and housing, vastly increasing the scope of the federal government’s activities.

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The New Deal was a group of U.S. government programs of the 1930s. President Franklin D. Roosevelt started the programs to help the country recover from the economic problems of the Great Depression.

Some New Deal programs gave jobs to unemployed people. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) put young men to work in national forests. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) created many different kinds of jobs. Some WPA workers built roads, schools, or airports. Others created art for public buildings or set up community theaters.

The best-known results of the New Deal include Social Security and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). Social Security is a system that continues to provide income for retired or disabled workers. The TVA built dams and electric power plants on the Tennessee River. It still provides electricity to seven Southern states.

Other New Deal programs were supposed to fix some of the problems that led to the Great Depression. During the Great Depression many people lost money when banks closed. As part of the New Deal the government set up the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). It was meant to get people to trust banks again. The FDIC pays people when a bank loses money or has to close.

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The New Deal was a group of U.S. government programs of the 1930s. President Franklin D. Roosevelt started the programs to help the country recover from the economic problems of the Great Depression. Some New Deal programs gave jobs to unemployed people. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) put young men to work in national forests.

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Franklin D. Roosevelt was the 32nd President of the United States; elected four times; instituted New Deal to counter the Great Depression and led country during World War II.

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Assuming the Presidency at the depth of the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt helped the American people regain faith in themselves. He brought hope as he promised prompt, vigorous action, and asserted in his Inaugural Address, "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

Born in 1882 at Hyde Park, New York-now a national historic site-he attended Harvard University and Columbia Law School. On St. Patrick's Day, 1905, he married Eleanor Roosevelt.

Following the example of his fifth cousin, President Theodore Roosevelt, whom he greatly admired, Franklin D. Roosevelt entered public service through politics, but as a Democrat. He won election to the New York Senate in 1910. President Wilson appointed him Assistant Secretary of the Navy, and he was the Democratic nominee for Vice President in 1920.

In the summer of 1921, when he was 39, disaster hit-he was stricken with poliomyelitis. Demonstrating indomitable courage, he fought to regain the use of his legs, particularly through swimming. At the 1924 Democratic Convention he dramatically appeared on crutches to nominate Alfred E. Smith as "the Happy Warrior." In 1928 Roosevelt became Governor of New York.

He was elected President in November 1932, to the first of four terms. By March there were 13,000,000 unemployed, and almost every bank was closed. In his first "hundred days," he proposed, and Congress enacted, a sweeping program to bring recovery to business and agriculture, relief to the unemployed and to those in danger of losing farms and homes, and reform, especially through the establishment of the Tennessee Valley Authority.

By 1935 the Nation had achieved some measure of recovery, but businessmen and bankers were turning more and more against Roosevelt's New Deal program. They feared his experiments, were appalled because he had taken the Nation off the gold standard and allowed deficits in the budget, and disliked the concessions to labor. Roosevelt responded with a new program of reform: Social Security, heavier taxes on the wealthy, new controls over banks and public utilities, and an enormous work relief program for the unemployed.

In 1936 he was re-elected by a top-heavy margin. Feeling he was armed with a popular mandate, he sought legislation to enlarge the Supreme Court, which had been invalidating key New Deal measures. Roosevelt lost the Supreme Court battle, but a revolution in constitutional law took place. Thereafter the Government could legally regulate the economy.

Roosevelt had pledged the United States to the "good neighbor" policy, transforming the Monroe Doctrine from a unilateral American manifesto into arrangements for mutual action against aggressors. He also sought through neutrality legislation to keep the United States out of the war in Europe, yet at the same time to strengthen nations threatened or attacked. When France fell and England came under siege in 1940, he began to send Great Britain all possible aid short of actual military involvement.

When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Roosevelt directed organization of the Nation's manpower and resources for global war.

Feeling that the future peace of the world would depend upon relations between the United States and Russia, he devoted much thought to the planning of a United Nations, in which, he hoped, international difficulties could be settled.

As the war drew to a close, Roosevelt's health deteriorated, and on April 12, 1945, while at Warm Springs, Georgia, he died of a cerebral hemorrhage.

For more information about President Roosevelt, please visit Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum

Learn more about Franklin D. Roosevelt's spouse, Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

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Assuming the Presidency at the depth of the Great Depression as our 32nd President (1933-1945), Franklin D. Roosevelt helped the American people regain faith in themselves.

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The Gilded Age are the tumultuous years between the Civil War and the turn of the twentieth century.

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Industrial Revolution is the process of change from an agrarian and handicraft economy to one dominated by industry and machine manufacturing.

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A slave state was any of the southern states of the US in which slavery was legal before the Civil War.

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In the history of the United States of America, a slave state was a U.S. state in which the practice of slavery was legal at a particular point in time. A free state was one in which slavery was prohibited. Slavery was an issue that divided the country. It was one of the primary causes of the American Civil War. The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1865, abolished slavery in every state and territory of the United States. After that time the terms became more or less obsolete because all states were free of slavery.

Early history

Slavery was legal and practiced in each of the Thirteen Colonies. Organized political and social movements to end slavery began in the mid- 18th century. The desire for freedom from Britain, expressed in the American Revolutionary War, caused many black Americans to join the revolution in hopes they would be freed also. Others joined the British Army, encouraged by British promises of freedom in exchange for military service. After the British lost the war, none of their promises were kept.

In the 1770s, blacks throughout New England began sending petitions to northern legislatures demanding freedom. At the Constitutional Convention many slavery issues were debated and for a time slavery was a major obstacle to passage of the new constitution. As a compromise the institution of slavery was acknowledged although never mentioned directly in the constitution. An example is the Fugitive Slave Clause. By 1789, five of the Northern states had policies that started to gradually abolish slavery: Pennsylvania (1780), New Hampshire and Massachusetts (1783), Connecticut and Rhode Island (1784). Vermont abolished slavery in 1777, while it was still independent. When it joined the United States as the 14th state in 1791, it was the first state to join that had no slavery. By 1804 all of the northern states had abolished slavery or had plans in place to gradually reduce it.

In the South, Kentucky was created as a slave state from a part of Virginia (1792). Tennessee was created a slave state out of a part of North Carolina (1796). By 1803, after Ohio had been admitted to the United States, there were nine free states and eight slave states. The geographic divide between northern free states and southern slave states became the Mason-Dixon line. In 1820, the Missouri Compromise extended the Mason-Dixon line westward as the official dividing line between free and slave states east of the Ohio River.

New territories

The Northwest Ordinance of 1787, passed just before the U.S. Constitution was ratified, prohibited slavery in the Northwest Territory. The southern boundary of the territory was the Ohio River. This was regarded as a westward extension of the Mason-Dixon line. The territory was generally settled by New Englanders and American Revolutionary War veterans who were granted land there. The states created from the territory - Ohio (1803), Indiana (1816), Illinois (1818), Michigan (1837), Iowa (1846), Wisconsin (1848), and Minnesota (1858) - were all free states.

During the War of 1812, the British accepted all slaves who came into their hands as free. This was without any conditions as to military service such as had been made in the Revolutionary War. By the end of the War of 1812, the momentum for antislavery reform, state by state, appeared to lose momentum. Half the states had already abolished Slavery, had prohibited it from the start or were in the process of eliminating slavery. The other half were committed to preserving slavery within their borders.

At the federal level politicians were concerned over the balance of power in the United States. Each state had two senators so if there were an equal number of states on both sides of the issue, nothing could be done on the federal level. With an equal number of slave states and free states, the Senate was equally divided on issues important to the South. Both the North and South were concerned over the western territories and whether new states would be admitted as free states or slave states.

Missouri Compromise

Controversy over whether Missouri should be admitted as a slave state, resulted in the Missouri Compromise of 1820. This specified that Louisiana Purchase territory north of latitude 36° 30', which described most of Missouri's southern boundary, would be organized as free states. Territory south of that line would be reserved for organization as slave states. As part of the compromise, the admission of Maine (1820) as a free state was secured to balance Missouri's admission as a slave state (1820). The growing population in the industrialized North resulted in the House of Representatives having more free state votes than slavery votes. To overcome this imbalance, in 1836 the House instituted a "gag rule" forbidding the House from considering any anti-slavery petitions. It was repealed on December 3, 1844.

Texas and the Mexican Cession

The admission of Texas (1845) and the U.S. obtaining the vast new Mexican Cession territories (1848) after the Mexican-American War created further North-South conflict. Although the settled portion of Texas was an area rich in cotton plantations and dependent on slavery, the territory acquired in the Mountain West did not seem hospitable to cotton or slavery. As part of the Compromise of 1850, California was admitted as a free state (1850), without a slave state pair. To avoid creating a free state majority in the Senate, California agreed to send one pro-slavery and one anti-slavery senator to Congress.

Last battles

The difficulty of identifying territory that could be organized into additional slave states stalled the process of opening the western territories to settlement. Slave state politicians sought a solution, with efforts being made to acquire Cuba (see Ostend Manifesto, 1852) and to annex Nicaragua (see Walker affair, 1856-57). Both were to be slave states.

In 1854, the Missouri Compromise of 1820 was superseded by the Kansas-Nebraska Act. This allowed white male settlers in the new territories to determine through popular sovereignty whether they would allow slavery within each territory. The result was that pro- and anti-slavery elements flooded into Kansas with the goal of voting slavery up or down. This led to the conflict known as Bleeding Kansas. An effort was attempted to organize Kansas for admission as a slave state. It was to be paired with Minnesota as a free state. But the admission of Kansas as a slave state was blocked because of questions over the legitimacy of its slave state constitution. Anti-slavery settlers in Kansas in the 1850s were called Free-Soilers, because they fought (successfully) to include Kansas in the Union as a free state in 1861. When the admission of Minnesota proceeded unimpeded in 1858, the balance in the Senate was lost. Oregon was admitted in 1859 as a free state.

End of slavery

At the start of the Civil War, there were 34 states in the United States, 15 of which were slave states. Of these, 11 slave states declared their secession from the United States to form the Confederacy. The slave states that stayed in the Union were Maryland, Missouri, Delaware, and Kentucky, and were referred to as the border states. By the time the Emancipation Proclamation was made in 1863 Tennessee was already in Union control. So the Proclamation applied only to the 10 remaining Confederate states. Abolition of slavery also became a condition of the return of local rule in those states that had declared their secession. The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution abolished slavery throughout the United States on December 18, 1865, ending the distinction between slave and free states.

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In the history of the United States of America, a slave state was a U.S. state in which the practice of slavery was legal at a particular point in time. A free state was one in which slavery was prohibited. Slavery was an issue that divided the country.

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A free state was a state of the US in which slavery was illegal.

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The Bill of Rights is the first ten amendments to the US Constitution, ratified in 1791 and guaranteeing such rights as the freedoms of speech, assembly, and worship.

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The Trail of Tears was part of a series of forced displacements of approximately 60,000 Native Americans of the Five Civilized Tribes between 1830 and 1850 by the United States government known as the Indian removal.

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Trail of Tears

In 1838 Cherokee people were forcibly moved from their homeland and relocated to Indian Territory, now Oklahoma. They resisted their Removal by creating their own newspaper, The Cherokee Phoenix, as a platform for their views. They sent their educated young men on speaking tours throughout the United States. They lobbied Congress, and created a petition with more than 15,000 Cherokee signatures against Removal. They took their case to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that they were a sovereign nation n Worcester vs. Georgia (1832). President Andrew Jackson ignored the Supreme Court decision, enforced his Indian Removal Act of 1830, and pushed through the Treaty of New Echota.
In 1838 Cherokee people were forcibly taken from their homes, incarcerated in stockades, forced to walk more than a thousand miles, and removed to Indian Territory, now Oklahoma. More than 4,000 died and many are buried in unmarked graves along "The Trail Where They Cried."

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Trail of Tears | The Museum of the Cherokee Indian

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In 1838 Cherokee people were forcibly moved from their homeland and relocated to Indian Territory, now Oklahoma. They resisted their Removal by creating their own newspaper, The Cherokee Phoenix, as a platform for their views. They sent their educated young men on speaking tours throughout the United States.

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Indigenous peoples, also known as first people, culturally distinct ethnic groups who are native to a place which has been colonized and settled by another ethnic group.

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Chronology is the arrangement of events or dates in the order of their occurrence.