Unit 5 timeline

1844

• Election of James K. Polk (Democrat, expansionist president)

1845

• Texas annexed by the United States

• Manifest Destiny becomes a widespread ideology

1846

• Oregon Treaty: U.S. and Britain agree on the 49th parallel border

• Mexican-American War begins

• Wilmot Proviso proposed (ban slavery in Mexican Cession) – fails

1848

• Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends Mexican-American War

• Mexican Cession adds vast southwestern land

• Seneca Falls Convention begins the women's rights movement

• Free Soil Party formed

1850

• Compromise of 1850:

  • California enters as a free state

  • Fugitive Slave Act strengthened

  • Slave trade abolished in D.C.

  • Popular sovereignty in Utah and New Mexico

• Nashville Convention: Southern threats of secession

1852

• Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe published

1854

• Kansas-Nebraska Act: Repeals Missouri Compromise; introduces popular sovereignty

• Republican Party formed in response to expansion of slavery

1856

• "Bleeding Kansas" violence erupts

• Caning of Charles Sumner in the Senate

• Election of 1856: James Buchanan elected

1857

• Dred Scott v. Sandford: Slaves are property; Congress cannot ban slavery in territories

1858

• Lincoln-Douglas Debates highlight slavery as central issue

1859

• John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry fails but sparks Southern fears

1860

• Election of Abraham Lincoln (Republican, anti-slavery expansion)

• South Carolina secedes (Dec. 1860)

1861

• Confederate States of America formed

• Civil War begins at Fort Sumter (April)

• First Battle of Bull Run (Confederate victory)

1862

• Battle of Antietam (bloodiest single day; strategic Union victory)

• Homestead Act and Morrill Land Grant Act passed

1863

• Emancipation Proclamation (takes effect Jan 1)

• Battle of Gettysburg (Union victory, turning point)

• Gettysburg Address by Lincoln

• Vicksburg captured by Union

1864

• Sherman's March to the Sea devastates the South

• Lincoln reelected

1865

• Lee surrenders to Grant at Appomattox Court House (April)

• Lincoln assassinated

• 13th Amendment ratified (abolishes slavery)

• Freedmen’s Bureau created

1866

• Civil Rights Act of 1866 passed (first law defining citizenship)

• Ku Klux Klan founded

• Congress overrides Johnson’s vetoes

1867

• Reconstruction Acts passed (military districts in the South)

• Tenure of Office Act passed to limit presidential power

1868

• 14th Amendment ratified (birthright citizenship, equal protection)

• Andrew Johnson impeached (survives removal by 1 vote)

• Ulysses S. Grant elected president

1870

• 15th Amendment ratified (voting rights cannot be denied by race)

1873

• Panic of 1873 leads to economic depression

1876

• Election of 1876: Disputed results between Rutherford B. Hayes (R) and Samuel Tilden (D)

1877

• Compromise of 1877 ends Reconstruction:

  • Hayes becomes president

  • Federal troops withdrawn from the South