Bye!!!!

Our group hopes that you learned a lot about the Civil War, former slaves, and our past history.

We have done our personal best to give you the most possible amount of history that you or anyone else could ask for about the Civil War and our history.

You can go to Wikispaces.com

Time Line

This Time line will help you understand The Civil War, some of the Underground Railroad, and how long slavery lasted.



Expansion, Slavery, and Civil War Timeline

1619	Slavery introduced in Jamestown.
1787	Northwest Ordinances ban slavery in new territories of the Northwest.
1789	Constitution ratified ? acknowledges the existence of slavery indirectly and appears not to give Congress the power to abolish slavery, but sets 1808 as the date when Congress may abolish the slave trade.
1791	Amendment X ratified, guaranteeing states rights.
1808	Congress abolishes the slave trade.
1820	Missouri Compromise issued ? admits Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state; slavery is to be banned in future states above the 36° 30í line. In the constitution written by the Missouri territory, free blacks and free mulattos are barred from the future state.
1821	Mexican Independence from Spain ? Mexico begins to invite Americans to settle Texas territory under the conditions that the settlers convert to Catholicism and observe Mexican laws, including the abolition of slavery.
1830	Mexico passes anti-colonization law to prevent Americans from further colonizing Texas.
1831	Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison begins publishing The Liberator.
1831	Nat Turner leads an uprising of approximately 70 slaves in Southampton, Virginia ? 100 Virginia slaves are slaughtered in search of Turner; Turner is executed when found. The uprising so shakes Southern states that they pass more stringent laws related to slaves, increase censorship against abolition, and make military preparations to halt further uprisings.
1832	South Carolinaís Ordinance of Nullification ? South Carolina legislature also adopts measures to enforce this ordinance, even allowing for military preparations and secession if the Federal government resorts to force.
1833	Britain abolishes slavery in her colonies ? America is becoming increasingly isolated as a nation that allows slavery
1835	Santa Anna, President of Mexico, proclaims a unified constitution for all Mexican territories, including Texas ? North American settlers in Texas announce that they intend to secede from Mexico rather than give up their "right" to slavery, which Mexico had abolished.
1836	The Battle of the Alamo ? President Santa Anna leads a siege on the Alamo , in an attempt to defend his idea of a unitary state. Mexican soldiers overwhelm the fort, but the Texansí heroic defense of the Alamo inspires North American settlers to secede.
1836	Texans declare independence from Mexico ? they name Sam Houston commander of their army, and adopt a constitution that formally legalizes slavery in Texas.
1836	Texans defeat Mexicans and capture Santa Anna at the battle of San Jacinto. The Texans ratify their own constitution, elect Sam Houston as President, and send an envoy to Washington to demand annexation or recognition of the independent Republic of Texas. Annexation of Texas will remain a controversial issue for the next nine years, as it pits pro-slavery Southerners against anti-slavery Northerners.
1840	Whig William Henry Harrison is elected President, and John Tyler is his Vice President.
1841	William Henry Harrison dies of pneumonia after only one month in office. Vice President John Tyler becomes the first American to succeed to the presidency.
1842	Webster-Ashburton Treaty between the United States and Great Britain is signed, settling boundary disputes between the U.S. and Canada.
1843	Santa Anna, President of Mexico, warns that he would consider the American annexation of Texas as tantamount to a declaration of war against Mexico.
1844	James Polk , Democrat, defeats Whig Henry Clay for the presidency. Polk is somewhat unknown, but his aggressive expansionist views on acquiring Texas, Oregon, and California strike a receptive chord among Americans.
1845	President Polk decides to treat Texas as a state, though it is still Mexican territory under international law. He sends a detachment of the U.S. army, led by Zachary Taylor, to the southwestern border of Texas to guard against "invasion" from Mexico.
1845	The term, "Manifest Destiny" appears for the first time in the expansionist magazine the Democratic Review, in an article by the editor, John OíSullivan.
1845	Polk commissions John Slidell to negotiate with Mexico for the purchase of Texas, New Mexico, and California.
1845	Texas joins the Union as the twenty-eighth state.
1845	Potato famines in Ireland begin to force great numbers of Irish immigrants to America. The migration will continue for the next several years with about 1.5 million Irish arriving.
1846	John Slidell reports that his negotiations with Mexico have been unsuccessful. Polk orders General Taylor to move the American troops further south, to a position near the left bank of the Rio Grande River, which has always been recognized as Mexican territory.
1846	Mexican forces strike Fort Texas, a fort constructed by Taylorís men. At the request of President Polk, Congress approves a declaration of war with Mexico. This war is yet another divisive issue between the North and South.
1846	Oregon boundary dispute between U.S. and Britain is settled.
1846	Wilmot Proviso introduced in the House by David Wilmot, representative from Pennsylvania, which states that "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of territories that might be acquired from Mexico." This bill does not pass.
1847	Abraham Lincoln takes his seat in the House of Representatives for Illinois.
1848	The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is signed by the Senate, ending the war with Mexico. The United States gains over 500,000 square miles which include what shall become the states of California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and parts of Wyoming and Colorado. Texas is also conceded to the U.S., with its boundary at the Rio Grande. The U.S. pays $15 million.
1848	The Free Soil movement begins, opposing the spread of slavery into the new territories.
1848	Zachary Taylor, hero of the Mexican War, is elected President. Millard Fillmore is Vice President.
1849	Thoreau publishes "Civil Disobedience," an essay that grew out of his refusal to pay taxes supporting the Mexican War.
1850	President Taylor dies of cholera and vice-president Millard Fillmore assumes office.
1850	Congress adopts the Compromise of 1850, based on the five resolutions as drawn up by Henry Clay. California is admitted as a free state; the territories of New Mexico and Utah are organized without any restriction on slavery, to be decided by popular sovereignty; slave trade is abolished in the District of Columbia; a more stringent Fugitive Slave Act is issued.
1851	Uncle Tomís Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe, begins to appear as a serial in the anti-slavery publication, The National Era. The complete novel is published in 1852. It will sell over one million copies within a year. It will also be adapted as a stage play and thus reach even more people.
1852	A resolution against the Fugitive Slave Act is submitted by Senator Charles Sumner.
1852	Democrat Franklin Pierce is elected President over General Winfield Scott. William R. King is Vice President.
1853	Gadsden Purchase ­ for $10 million, Mexico agrees to cede a rectangular strip of territory along the present-day border of Arizona and New Mexico, which provides part of an ideal route for a railroad to the Pacific Ocean.
1854	The Kansas-Nebraska Act passes Congress ­ creates two new territories with "squatter" or "popular sovereignty" concerning the question of slavery. The act effectively repeals the Missouri Compromise. Opponents to this act form the basis of the new Republican Party. The party is made up of former Whigs, anti-slavery Democrats, and Free-soilers.
1854	The "Ostend Manifesto" is drawn up by American foreign ministers in Cuba ­ they argue that Cuba must be annexed as a slave state, and that if Spain refuses to sell the island, it should be taken by force. When the document is published in the U.S., the public reaction is negative and the proposal falls from view.
1854	The Know-Nothing Party holds its first meeting in Cincinnati.
1854	"Bleeding Kansas" ­ small scale civil war erupts in Kansas between free-state and slave-state factions. Battles will continue until 1856 and beyond.
1855	Frederick Douglass publishes his autobiography, My Bondage and My Freedom
1856	"The Caning of Sumner" ­ Charles Sumner, the outspoken anti-slavery senator from Massachusetts, gives a speech against the pro-slavery elements in the Senate; three days later, South Carolina representative Preston Brooks beats Sumner unconscious with a cane.
1856	Democrat James Buchanan is elected President. Republican Frémont second, sweeping the Northern states. John C. Breckenridge is Vice President.
1857	Dred Scott case ­ in Dred Scott v. Sanford, the Supreme Court declares that the Missouri Compromise is unconstitutional.
1857	Hinton R. Helper publishes the Impending Crisis of the South ­ he argues that slavery has impoverished Southern whites; it is banned in the South.
1858	Lincoln-Douglas debates ­ the two candidates for representative of Illinois meet for a series of seven debates. Slavery is the main subject.
1859	John Brownís raid on Harpers Ferry ­ Brown leads a group of whites and blacks to attack the Federal arsenal. Brown is tried for conspiracy and then hanged.
1860	Republican Abraham Lincoln elected President ­ he wins with a clear majority of electoral votes but only a plurality of the popular votes. He defeats Breckenridge, Douglas, and Bell. Hannibal Hamlin is his vice-president.
1860	In his final message to Congress, President James Buchanan stresses that states have no legal right to secede, yet neither does the Federal Government have the basis to prevent such an action.
1860	South Carolina legislature convenes and votes to secede from the Union. Meanwhile, Congress convenes in an effort to work out some compromise; the Crittenden Compromise is proposed, which would restore the Missouri Compromise line across the continent. The compromise is ineffectual in the face of the events at hand.
1861	March 4, Abraham Lincoln inaugurated president.
1861	March 11, The Confederate States of America adopts a Constitution. The Confederacy presently includes only the seven states of the Deep South ­ Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas.
1861	April 12, South Carolina troops fire on the Federal arsenal at Fort Sumter. The Civil War begins. The states of Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas will secede from the Union in coming months. Though they are slave states, the "border states" of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri will remain loyal to the Union.

EMANCIPATION PROCLATION

Our group is studying the Emancipation Proclamation and the activities that went on in that life changing time in our history.
Did you know as early as 1849, Abraham Lincoln believed that slaves should be emancipated, advocating a program in which they would be freed gradually. Early in his presidency, still convinced that gradual emancipation was the best course, he tried to win over legislators. To gain support, he proposed that slave owners be compensated for giving up their "property." Support was not forthcoming. Abraham Lincoln didn't think that it was fair for slaves to be treated like property but they were.

But, in September of 1862, after the Union's victory at Antietam, Lincoln issued a preliminary decree stating that, unless the rebellious states returned to the Union by January 1st , freedom would be granted to slaves within those states. The decree also left room for a plan of compensated emancipation. No Confederate states took the offer, and on January 1st, Lincoln presented the Emancipation Proclamation. The proclamation declared, "All persons held as slaves within any States, or designated part of the State, the people where of shall be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free."So Lincoln got what he wanted mostly.

But, sadly The Emancipation Proclamation did not free all slaves in the United States, so that was his goal. Rather, it declared free only those slaves living in states not under Union control. William Seward, Lincoln's secretary of state, commented, "We show our sympathy with slavery by emancipating slaves where we cannot reach them and holding them in bondage where we can set them free." Lincoln was fully aware of the irony, but he did not want to antagonize the slave states loyal to the Union by setting their slaves free.

The proclamation allowed black soldiers to fight for the Union -- soldiers that were desperately needed. It also tied the issue of slavery directly to the war.

Take The Time

Take time to think about how hard it was for slaves. White people treating you like an object. Punishing you by putting you in chains. If I was a slave at that time I would cry everyday of my life. Something else for you to think about would be, why couldn't all be friends?

Just Imagine

Why is slavery needed? well for me, slavery is like being a dog in chains. Just imagine, being in a boat for about 1 or 2 weeks, with your head, hands, and feet being cuffed up. How would you eat, or use the restroom? Think about it.

Thinking about the Underground Rail road

Today we have done many different searches on the Underground Railroad. Many people just think of the Underground Railroad as just an escape for enslaved African American people to get freedom, but then there is other people like me that think more about the Underground Railroad than what I just described.




People like me think of it as a blessing to have had Harriet Tubman to be know as the leader of the Underground Railroad. Harriet Tubman was a runaway slave from Maryland who became known as the "Moses of her people." Over the course of 10 years, and at great personal risk, she led hundreds of slaves to freedom along the Underground Railroad, a secret network of safe houses where runaway slaves could stay on their journey north to freedom.But, going with Harriet Tubman would mean serous consequences for you, her, and anyone who was with her.It was not easy for a slave or a run away slave.You would been forced to work dawn to dusk without a break and hardly any food or sleep.But, many slaves took the risk and were freed of hard labor.


Did you know that the person that watched the slaves to make sure that they did not leave
helped her many other slaves get away during the time that the owner was asleep?

Slavery during the Civil War

My group is doing research on slavery during the Civil War.We are going to be telling you about the slavery during and before the war.We will be adding time lines to our blog to show you the dates of important events that happened in those many unfortunate years.

So far Google has been our main source to find things relevant to the Civil War and the slavery that happened during the time frame of our history.You can look up many of the different activities that we did to find facts about the Civil War and the many different things that happened during those many years.