> CHRONOLOGY

1808
  • External slave trade outlawed.

1820s–1830s
  • Southern legislatures enact slave codes.

  • Southern intellectuals fashion systematic defense of slavery.

1830
  • Southern slaves number approximately two million.

1836
  • Arkansas admitted to Union as slave state.

1840
  • Cotton accounts for more than 60 percent of nation's exports.

1845
  • Texas and Florida admitted to Union as slave states.

1860
  • Southern slaves number nearly four million, one-third of South's population.