Dates: Civil War and Reconstruction

March 1780

Pennsylvania Gradual Abolition Act

July 1787

Northwest Ordinance

Jan. 1793

Cotton Gin

1816

American Colonization Society

Early 1800s

“Necessary Evil”

Apr 1803

Louisiana Purchase

Aug. 1846

Wilmot Proviso

Feb. 1848

Mexican Cession

Sept. 1850

Compromise of 1850

Sept. 1850

Fugitive Slave Law

May 1854

Kansas-Nebraska Act

1854–1859

Bleeding Kansas

March 1857

Dred Scott Decision

Oct. 1859

Harper’s Ferry Raid

Dec. 1860

Crittenden Compromise

Apr. 1861

Fort Sumter

1861

Anaconda Plan

July 1861

First Bull Run

Feb. 1862

Fort Donelson

Apr. 1862

Shiloh

1861

First Confiscation Act

1862

Second Confiscation Act

Sept. 1862

Antietam

July 1862

Militia Act

Sept. 1862

Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation

1863

54th Massachusetts Regiment

1863

Siege of Port Hudson

Dec. 1862

Fredericksburg

1862

Conscription Act

May 1863

Chancellorsville

Apr. 1863

Richmond Bread Riots

1863

General Order 38

July 1-3, 1863

Gettysburg

July 2, 1863

Little Round Top

July 1863

Vicksburg

Nov 19, 1863

Gettysburg Address

Feb. 1862

Partisan Ranger Act

Aug. 1863

General Order No. 11

Sept. 27, 1864

Centralia Massacre

Apr. 12, 1864

Fort Pillow Massacre

1787

three-fifths compromise

May-June 1864

Overland Campaign

May-June 1864

Cold Harbor

June 1864

Shenandoah Valley Campaign

1865

Thirteenth Amendment

Feb. 1865

Hamptons Road Conference