Timeline of the Civil War

Price of Freedom:
Stories of Sacrifice

This timeline features key turning points leading up to and during the Civil
War. Following each is a link to a student-friendly resource to learn more.

1787: United States Constitutional Convention

Delegates at the Constitutional Convention created a Constitution that
protected slavery and granted slaveholding states disproportionate power
in the national government.

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1793: Invention of the Cotton Gin

Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin revived Southern agriculture and
made cotton and slavery more profitable than ever. By 1860, cotton, grown
mainly by slave labor, was the most profitable product in the U.S.

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January 1, 1804: Haiti, The First Black Republic

A coalition of slaves and their allies won independence from France after
thirteen years of fighting in the Caribbean colony of Saint Domingue,
becoming Haiti, the first country to abolish slavery. Exhausted by war, France
sold to the U.S. the Louisiana territory that stretched from the Mississippi
River to the Rocky Mountains. This new territory increased sectional conflict
over the expansion of slavery that culminated with the Civil War.

White slaveholders in the Southern states attempted to keep news of Haiti’s

success from their enslaved people and pressured the U.S. government not
to recognize the new republic of Haiti. Nevertheless, enslaved people learned
about Haiti and were inspired. Subsequent leaders of slave revolts [Gabriel
Prosser (1800), Charles Deslondes (1811), and Denmark Vesey (1822)] looked
to the Haitian example.

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1808 to 1865: Second Middle Passage

Facing pressure from Britain that banned the Atlantic slave trade in
1807, Congress ended the U.S. slave trade in 1808, the earliest the
Constitution permitted it to do so. Other countries like France and the
Netherlands soon followed the example set by Britain and the U.S. Still,
the trade within the U.S. grew as owners in states too far north to profit
from the cotton boom sold their slaves to states further south. Historians
call this second forced migration that affected over a million enslaved
people the “Second Middle Passage.”

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Price of Freedom:
Stories of Sacrifice
1820: Missouri Compromise
The U.S. Congress was divided on the issue of allowing slavery in newly
acquired territories. Northerners wanted the West to be closed to slavery and
set aside for white farmers. Southerners hoped to expand their slave empire
across the West. This congressional compromise accepted Maine as
a free state and Missouri as a slave state, thus preserving the balance
of power in Congress between free and slave states. To avoid conflict in
the future, the compromise also divided the territory from the Louisiana
Purchase along the 36°30’ latitude line and only allowed slavery in states
that were formed south of it.

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1831: Trans-Atlantic Slave Revolts

Within four months two large-scale slave revolts instilled fear in slave holders.
In Virginia, Nat Turner led a slave rebellion in which he and 40 other enslaved
individuals raided plantations and killed nearly 60 whites. Just months
later, in the British colony of Jamaica, Sam Sharpe launched the ten-day
“Christmas Rising” that involved around 50,000 enslaved individuals. Initially,
white citizens in Jamaica and Virginia reacted similarly, killing leaders and
brutally suppressing enslaved and freed Black people. Governments, however,
responded very differently. Facing economic pressure and fearing further
uprisings, Britain ended slavery in its Empire in 1833 financially compensating
slaveholders for economic loss. Although the Virginia legislature briefly
considered ending slavery in response to such violence, it instead tightened
control on all Black Virginians both free and enslaved. Other Southern state
governments responded similarly. Moreover, at the federal level, Southern
slaveholders become more insistent that the national government should
allow the unbounded expansion of slavery and protect slaveholders’
“property.”

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1830s: Indian Removal

The U.S. government forced nearly all of the remaining Indigenous people out
of the South with the Indian Removal Act of 1830. This opened up more land
for cotton production and thus fueled the growth of slavery and the domestic
slave trade. Furthermore, because some Indigenous people enslaved African
Americans, this act led to the expansion of slavery into the territory the U.S.
had set aside for Indigenous Americans, the region that would become the
state of Oklahoma.

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1836 to 1848: Battling Over Manifest Destiny

Because Northerners and Southerners saw land as a key part of the
American Dream, many believed in the concept of “manifest destiny.”
This ideology claimed that God had intended the United States to occupy
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Price of Freedom: the entirety of the continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans.
Stories of Sacrifice
Because Northerners and Southerners disagreed on whether or not slavery
should expand with the nation, as the U.S. grew, both sides became more
dissatisfied with the status quo that the Missouri Compromise laid out.

The renewed debate over slavery in the West set off a political chain reaction.
It started in 1836 when American slave-holders split off from Mexico and
created the Republic of Texas to protect their right to own people. The U.S.
Congress, fearing Mexico’s reaction and facing popular opposition, waited
until 1845 to accept Texas as a state. A few months later, the U.S. entered a
war with Mexico over the contested borderlands of Texas that ended with an
1848 treaty that granted the U.S. more than half of Mexico’s land.

In what became known as the Wilmot Proviso, Pennsylvania Congressman

David Wilmot made a proposal to prohibit slavery in these newly acquired
territories. Although it failed, the Wilmot Proviso set off an intense national
debate that would not end until the Civil War. Furthermore, it led to the
creation of the Republican Party, a political party committed to end the
expansion of slavery in the West.

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1850: Compromise of 1850

The Compromise of 1850 refers to five laws Northern and Southern
congressmen negotiated to temporarily silence the debate over the
expansion of slavery. In 1849, California, a territory taken from Mexico
during the Mexican-American War, applied to enter the United States
as a free state, which would have upset the balance between free and
slave states.

To gain the support of Southern congressmen for the admission of California,

Northern congressmen agreed to the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. This law
reinforced the Fugitive Slave Clause in the U.S. Constitution by mandating
that all citizens aid in the capture of escaped enslaved people, denying
fugitives or anyone accused of being a fugitive the right to a jury trial, and
tasking the Federal Government with recovering enslaved people who had
escaped. Moreover, these laws dictated that territorial legislatures in the
former Mexican lands – not the U.S. Congress –would decide by popular vote
if they would allow slavery when they applied for statehood. Lastly, one law
abolished the slave trade in Washington D.C. but allowed slavery to continue
in the nation’s capital. While the compromise kept the country united, it was
only a temporary solution. Some historians have called it “The Truce of 1850.”

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1854 to 1856: Kansas-Nebraska Act and

“Bleeding Kansas”
In 1854, Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas authored the Kansas-Nebraska
Act.It was intended to empower the residents of the Kansas and Nebraska
territories, both north of the Missouri Compromise line, to vote on whether or
not to allow slavery, a policy known as “popular sovereignty.” Instead the Act
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inadverently set off a series of fraudulent elections that resulted in a pro-
Price of Freedom: slavery government that shut down free speech. This led to a guerilla war
Stories of Sacrifice
between armed pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces, both of which had their
own government and tried to apply for statehood. Only after the secession of
the Southern states did Kansas finally enter the U.S. as a free state in 1861.

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1855: High Point of the Filibusters

From 1830–1860, small groups of pro-slavery Americans tried to take over
Latin American countries in order to add more slave states to the U.S. These
men were known as “filibusters” and unsuccessfully attempted to conquer
Cuba, Honduras, Costa Rica, and parts of Mexico. They had no formal legal
or military support from the U.S. Government. The only successful filibuster
was William Walker. He took over Nicaraugua and reimposed slavery. Still, he
only ruled from 1855-1857 and like most filibusters, his life ended in front of a
firing squad.

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1857: Dred Scott Decision

The United States Supreme Court ruled in Dred Scott v. Sandford that African
Americans were not citizens and “had no rights the white man was bound to
respect.” Furthermore, the Supreme Court concluded that Congress could not
constitutionally prohibit slavery in any territory because that would violate
the Constitution’s protection of private property. Southerners felt like the
decision validated their views; Northerners became increasingly fearful that
their country was ruled by a small group of slaveholding elite, which they
termed “the Slave Power.”

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1859: John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry

Abolitionist John Brown, who had led anti-slavery guerilla fighters in Kansas,
unsuccessfully tried to incite a slave revolution. He and his followers briefly
took control of the U.S. Armory at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia (today part of
West Virginia), hoping to redistribute the weapons made and stored there
to enslaved people in the area. Brown and his men were quickly captured.
At his trial, Brown spoke out against the horrors of slavery. For Southerners,
Brown’s raid triggered their ever-present fear of slave rebellion and made
them think that abolitionists would go to any lengths to end slavery.

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1860: Election of Abraham Lincoln

Americans understood that the election of 1860 was critical; 85% of eligible
voters cast a ballot. (Keep in mind that at this time only 17% of the U.S.
population had the right to vote.) Because four candidates ran, Abraham
Lincoln, the Republican candidate, won the electoral college with just under
40% of the popular vote. The Democrats nominated two candidates, Stephen
4 Douglas, who opposed a pro-slavery party platform (instead favoring
Price of Freedom: popular sovereignty) and the other, John Breckinridge who openly supported
Stories of Sacrifice
slavery. Additionally, a third party, the Constitutional Union Party, promised
to enforce the law and took no stand on slavery. With the pro-slavery vote
split, Lincoln was able to win, even though Southern states had refused to
include him on the ballot.

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1860 to 1861: Waves of Secession and War

South Carolina was the first state to secede from the United States.
Its Declaration of Secession on December 20, 1860 stated that “increasing
hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the institution
of slavery” led the state to declare its independence. Before Lincoln’s
inauguration in March (the Twentieth Amendment in 1933 moved
inauguration to January), six other states seceded, created the
Confederate States of America, drafted a Constitution, and elected
Jefferson Davis as President and Alexander Stephens as Vice President.

Within these states, support for secession was not universal. Moreover
eight slaveholding states remained in the U.S. and tried to negotiate a
compromise that would reunite the states. One of those failed compromises
was a proposed thirteenth constitutional amendment that would have
guaranteed slavery in the South but not in the western territories. On April
12,1861, Confederate forces opened fire and forced the surrender of the U.S.
Army forces defending Fort Sumter, in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina.
Two days later President Lincoln issued a call for troops. This led Virginia,
Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee to secede and join the
Confederate States.

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1861: Border States in Conflict

In the fall of 1861, pro-Confederate factions in Kentucky and Missouri
drafted secession declarations and created their own state governments.
The Confederacy recognized these governments. However, both states,
as well as Delaware and Maryland, the other slaveholding border states,
officially stayed in the Union. Citizens of all four states fought both for the
Union and the Confederacy.

Once the first large battle of the war, the Battle of Bull Run or Manassas,
destroyed illusions of a quick outcome, federal and state governments
adopted extreme measures to keep Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri in the
Union, including the suspension of habeas corpus, disenfranchisement of
citizens in the Confederate army, and the declaration of martial law. Lastly,
residents in western Virginia who opposed secession and supported the
Union gained recognition from the U.S. Government for the new state of West
Virginia in 1863.

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Price of Freedom:
Stories of Sacrifice
1862: Battle of Antietam & Emancipation
Proclamation
In 1862, Great Britain and France, the world’s superpowers, came close
to formally recognizing the Confederate States Government and giving it
military support. Then, U.S. forces successfully stopped the first Confederate
invasion into Union territory at the Battle of Antietam on September 17,1862.
After this Union victory—the bloodiest single day of the war—Lincoln issued
the Emancipation Proclamation. As of January 1, 1863, enslaved people in the
Confederacy were to be considered free if they could reach U.S. lines. Black
men now had the right to enlist in the Union Army.

After the Battle of Antietam and the Emancipation Proclamation, European

governments reconsidered their tentative plans to help the Confederacy and
maintained neutrality throughout the war. The Union Army’s performance
suggested to them that the United States could reestablish its control over
the Southern states. Moreover, both Great Britain and France had already
ended slavery. They did not want to support the Confederacy once the Union
had declared it was also fighting to end slavery.

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July 1 to 4, 1863: The Battle of Gettysburg &

Confederate Surrender of Vicksburg
Two Union victories, the Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania (July 1–3), and
the Confederate surrender in Vicksburg, Mississippi (July 4), paved the way
for U.S. victory. The capture of Vicksburg gave the Union full control of the
Mississippi River, cutting off the western half of the Confederacy [Louisiana,
Texas, and Arkansas] from the eastern half.

The Confederate invasion of Pennsylvania, intended to dampen Northern

morale and push Lincoln to negotiate for peace, also failed. The three day
Battle resulted in over 50,000 Union and Confederate soldiers wounded,
captured, or killed. Both victories bolstered Northern support for the war and
demoralized many in the South. On November 19, 1863, Lincoln spoke briefly
at the dedication of a U.S. cemetery at Gettysburg. He defined the Union
cause as the nation’s “new birth of freedom” in what would become famous
as the Gettysburg Address.

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July 13-18, 1863 New York Draft Riots and Massacre

The Emancipation Proclamation and a new national draft law outraged poor
white New Yorkers. Working class immigrants already faced considerable
economic hardship and feared that Black Southerners freed by the
Emancipation Proclamation would migrate North and take their jobs. The
draft seemed unfair to the poor because rich men could pay a substitute to
fight in their places. On July 13, thousands of white men and women stormed
the U.S. Army recruitment office, attacked wealthy homes, and murdered
hundreds of Black citizens. Finally, Union troops stopped the white mob.
Government officials announced that they would postpone the draft for New
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Price of Freedom: York City. It was one of the largest riots in American history, with at least 100
Stories of Sacrifice
killed and 2,000 injured, most of whom were African American. Policemen,
aid organizations, and business professionals, both black and white, worked
together to rebuild the community.

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1864: Fall of Atlanta and Election of Lincoln

In the summer of 1864, former U.S. general George McClellan ran as the
Democratic candidate against Lincoln. The Democratic platform of ending
the war with a negotiated peace proved popular in the North, especially after
Union forces suffered massive casualties in failed attempts to take Richmond,
Virginia (the capital of the Confederacy). In September 1864, U.S. General
William Sherman captured Atlanta, Georgia, the central transportation hub
of the Confederacy. This victory proved to doubting Northerners that the
war for union and emancipation could be won. The surge of Northern morale
ensured Lincoln won a second term. Lincoln was determined to gain total
military victory.

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April 1865: Surrender of Confederate Forces &

Assassination of Lincoln
Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia surrendered
to U.S. forces at Appomattox, Virginia, on April 9, 1865. The surrender of
the most successful of the Confederate armies triggered the surrender of
all other Confederate armies between April and June. On April 14, John
Wilkes Booth, a famous Southern actor committed to the Confederate cause,
assassinated Lincoln. Lincoln’s death left the complex but vital issue of
reconstructing the union of states to the next president, Andrew Johnson, a
Southern Democrat. Johnson would not prove to be capable of the task.

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December 1865: Ratification of the

Thirteenth Amendment
The Thirteenth Amendment granted enslaved people legal freedom. Even
though many men and women had already secured their own freedom as
a practical matter during the Civil War, the Thirteenth Amendment granted
them constitutional protection to live with family, marry, and move freely. To
regain readmission into the U.S. Congress, former Confederate states had to
ratify the Thirteenth Amendment.

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 Bibliography
Price of Freedom:
Stories of Sacrifice

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https://www.battlefields.org/learn/civil-war/battles/fort-sumter.

American Battlefield Trust. 2010. “States of the Pseudo-Confederacy:

Rough Road to Secession.” Hallowed Ground Magazine (Winter).
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/states-pseudo-confederacy.

American Yawp. “How Cotton and Tobacco Reshaped the South.” Newsela,
October 31, 2019. https://newsela.com/read/lib-virginia-tobacco-west-
slavery/id/2000000622/activities

Atlanta History Center. “Turning Point: The American Civil War.”

Barnes, David M. 2006. The Draft Riots in New York, July, 1863: The
Metropolitan Police, Their Services During Riot Week, Their Honorable Record.
Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Library.

Bender, Thomas. 2013. A Nation Among Nations: America’s Place in World

History. New York: Hill and Wang.

Destrehan Plantation. “1811 Slave Revolt.” Accessed November 10, 2020.

https://www.destrehanplantation.org/history/1811-slave-revolt

Gates, Henry Louis. 2013 “What Was the Second Middle Passage?”
The African Americans: The Many Rivers to Cross. PBS. https://www.pbs.org/
wnet/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross/history/what-was-the-2nd-
middle-passage/

Guarneri, Carl J. 2007. America in the World: United States History in Global
Context. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Hassan, Adeel. 2016. “Nat Turner Was Far From Alone.” The New York
Times, October 7, 2016. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/08/us/nat-
turner-was-far-from-alone.html#:~:text=As%20long%20as%20there%20
have,treatment%20in%20the%20late%201990s.

History.com. 2019. “The Election of 1860.” Newsela, June 18, 2019.

newsela.com/read/lib-history-election-1860-lincoln/id/52204/?collection_
id=2000000398&search_id=74b08ec5-891e-4849-a25f-e69b1194cf1f

History.com. 2020. “How the Union pulled off a presidential election

during the Civil War.” Newsela, May 21, 2020. newsela.com/read/lib-
presidential-election-civil-war/id/2001008905/activities?collection_
id=2000000398&search_id=cdda7a3e-6b75-4e1d-80cf-99449d9722b7

History Detectives. “The Filibuster Movement.” PBS.

www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/feature/the-filibuster-movement/

McClean, Michael. 2015. “The 3/5ths Clause and Indian Removal.”

We’re History: America then for Americans now. November 12, 2015.
werehistory.org/indian-removal/