Civil War Timeline
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Resource 1: Civil War Timeline 1787 Northwest Ordinance: Set rules for how the Northwest Territory, what is today Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, would be admitted to the United States, including banning slavery. 1789 3/5s Compromise: Determined that the government would count 3/5s of a state’s slave population for representation and taxation. 1794 Cotton Gin: Separated seeds from cotton fibers much faster making cotton more profitable and increasing the amount of cotton that could be processed. 1820 Missouri Compromise: Determined that Maine would enter as a free state and Missouri as a slave state to maintain the balance of power in congress. It also outlawed slavery in all territories above the 36,30 line. 1832 Jackson’s Nullification Crisis: Began the idea that states can nullify a federal law if it benefits one part of the country at the expense of the other and that states can secede if the federal government acts unconstitutionally. 1846-1848 Mexican-American War: America’s victory gives it control over the California and New Mexico territories, expanding the amount of land below the 36,30 line. Compromise of 1850: California comes into the Union as a free state, slavery is allowed in Washington D.C. but the slave trade is banned there, and the fugitive slave law requiring runaway slaves to be returned is enacted. 1852 Uncle Tom’s Cabin: Novel published by Harriet Beecher Stowe that increased support for the abolitionist movement by illustrating the plight of slaves in the South for those who had never experienced it. 1854 Kansas Nebraska Act: The future of slavery in the Kansas and Nebraska territories would be determiend by popular sovereignty thus opening them up to slavery and upeneding the precendent set by the Missouri Compromise. 1854 Republican Party: Party founded to oppose the expansion of slavery into new territories. Its founding created a North/South split in political affiliation. 1857 Dred Scott v. Sanford: Supreme Court ruled that slaves were property, not people, and therefore the federal government cannot legislate on the future of slavery in new territories because it would be denying people their right to property without due process of law. 1860 Election of Lincoln: Abraham Lincoln wins election on the platform that he will not allow slavery to expand. The Deep South secedes. .