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During the 19th Century, more than a million square miles of land west of the Mississippi River was obtain by the United States Federal government.

California requested permission to enter the Union as a free state. so the Missouri Compromise happened because the south wanted equal control of the senate.

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It was an act to authorize the people of the Missouri territory to form a constitution and state government.

It brought more bills to the table to get more states in as free states and slave states.

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This was a series of acts that dealt with issues related to slavery and territorial expansion.

The compromise pushed for the formation of the republican party because of the souths push to get more slave states.

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The Formation of the Republican Party in 1854

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The Formation of the Republican Party in 1854

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The Republican Party emerged out in 1854 to combat the expansion of slavery to new states

This lead to the cause of the fugitive slave act because the southern states saw the new north states allowing the runaway slaves to get a free life.

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Runaway slaves would have to return to their owners back in the south even if they made it to the northern free states

The north didn't realize how truly bad the slavery was and how cruel the plantation owners were so Uncle Tom's Cabin was published showing the horrific ways of slavery

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Uncle Tom's Cabin was published which showed the horrors of the slavery in the south

Next came the Kansas-Nebraska act which repealed the Missouri compromise and introduced the voting of popular sovereignty and the two new territories

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An act of Congress (1854) canceling the Missouri Compromise provided for the organization of the territories of Kansas and Nebraska and allowed these territories to decide on  slavery.

Conflicts between pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers after the law was passed led to an era of violence known as Bleeding Kansas and helped pave the way for the American Civil War (1861-1865).

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Bleeding Kansas depicts repeated outbreaks of violent guerrilla warfare between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces following the creation of the new  Kansas Territory in 1854.

The Ostend Manifesto arose out of debates about slavery and manifest destiny in the United States,  and the Monroe Doctrine because slave owners were looking for new areas to expand slavery.

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Declaration of Ostend, Belgium (1854), issued  by American ministers to England, France, and Spain, declaring that the United States has the right to occupy Cuba if Spain does not sell it to the United States.

Southerners generally supported the manifesto because many believed that Cuba would become an independent black republic. The incident further strained relations between northern and southern politicians  and brought the country one step closer to civil war.

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The dred scott decision was a ruling by the united states supreme court on march 6, 1857 that living in a free country and territory did not entitle a slave, dred scott, to their freedom. In essence, the ruling said that, as someone's property, Scott was not a citizen and could not sue in  federal court. The majority opinion of Chief Justice Roger B. Taney also held that Congress had no power to exclude slavery from the territories (which repealed the Missouri Compromise [1820]) and that African-Americans could never become US citizens.

At the Freeport Debate, Lincoln supported Douglas' angle by asking, in light of the Dred Scott case, how territory could  prevent slavery? If Douglas said they could not, he would lose votes in Illinois, where most  people preferred to limit slavery in the territories.

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Douglas said a region might avoid slavery by failing to pass favorable legislation. Basically, the territorial legislature might make it hard for slave owners to re-capture the slaves that escaped.

Abolitionist John Brown leads a small group in an attack on a  federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in an attempt to start an armed rebellion by enslaved people and destroy the institution of slavery.

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His plan was to incite a major slave rebellion in the South. He confiscated the guns and ammunition in the federal arsenal, armed the slaves in the region.

It inflamed sectional tensions and raised the stakes for the 1860 presidential election. Brown's raid helped make any further accommodation between North and South nearly impossible and thus became an important impetus of the Civil War.

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The election of 1860 was one of the most important presidential elections in American history. It faced Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln and Democratic Party candidate Senator Stephen Douglas.

The elections of 1860 proved to be a turning point for an already unstable country. By the time Lincoln was set up in March 1861, seven states in the Deep South had already break from the Union. Lincoln ended his first inaugural address with a plea that the war to not tear his nation apart.

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A war that occurred between the Confederacy and the Union in 1861. It was created by the states that retreated from it.

The Emancipation Proclamation ensured that the enslaved people from the Civil War secured their own liberty.

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The Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Lincoln in 1863 was made to free all the slaves from the states that seceded from the United States.

The Emancipation Proclamation in December of 1862 provided the motivation to recruit free black men as soldiers, at the time when state governors were in charge for recruiting regiments for federal service, Massachusetts was the first to respond with the formation of the 54th Regiment.

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In 1863 the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment participated in the Civil War. A group of men from United States Colored Troops of the 54th, distinguished themselves as brave, courageous soldiers.

The regiment freed many black slaves so they were able to fight in the battle of Gettysburg.

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A major battle in the Civil War fought by the Confederate and Union forces in 1863. The turning point of the war.

On July 4th 1863, the Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg on turned the tide of the Civil War. These victories had a big impact on the Union diplomacy.

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In the summer of 1863,Grant resorted to a siege. For seven weeks, Union gunboats and land-based artillery bombarded the town and its defenses, armies clashed, and trapped residents huddled in caves and dirt bunkers. On July 4, 1863, Vicksburg surrendered.

Vicksburg's strategic location on the Mississippi River made it a critical win for both the Union and the Confederacy. The Confederate surrender there ensured Union control of the Mississippi River and cleaved the South in two.

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Sherman's army marched 285 miles east from Atlanta to the coastal town of Savannah, which surrendered. Sherman's 37-day campaign is remembered as one of the most successful examples of “total war.”

Sherman's March to the Sea, may have tipped the rate of victory toward the Union in the Civil War. The destruction wreaked by the operation caused significant Confederate economic loss.

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Confederate general Robert E. Lee surrendered his army to Union general Ulysses S. Grant, precipitating the capitulation of other Confederate forces and leading to the end of the bloodiest war in American history.