CHRONOLOGY

1820

  • Missouri Compromise forged.

    • 1846

  • Wilmot Proviso introduced.

    • 1847

  • Wilmot Proviso defeated in Senate.

  • “Popular sovereignty” compromise offered.

    • 1848

  • Free-Soil Party founded.

  • Zachary Taylor elected president.

    • 1849

  • California gold rush begins.

    • 1850

  • Taylor dies; Vice President Millard Fillmore becomes president.

  • Compromise of 1850 becomes law.

    • 1852

  • Uncle Tom’s Cabin published.

  • Franklin Pierce elected president.

    • 1853

  • Gadsden Purchase negotiated.

    • 1854

  • American (Know-Nothing) Party emerges.

  • Kansas-Nebraska Act passes.

  • Republican Party founded.

    • 1856

  • “Bleeding Kansas” pits anti- versus proslavery advocates.

  • “Sack of Lawrence” orchestrated.

  • Pottawatomie massacre kills five in Kansas.

  • James Buchanan elected president.

    • 1857

  • Dred Scott decision announced.

  • Congress rejects Lecompton constitution.

  • Panic of 1857 ripples throughout economy.

    • 1858

  • Lincoln and Douglas debate; Douglas wins Senate seat.

    • 1859

  • John Brown raids Harpers Ferry.

    • 1860

  • Abraham Lincoln elected president.

  • South Carolina secedes from Union.

    • 1861

  • Six other Lower South states secede.

  • Confederate States of America formed.