Slavery

Stono Rebellion, 1739

50 slaves march to Florida with arms seized from a gunshop. Unsuccessful and results in black codes such as the Security Act (white males carry firearms to church) and Negro Act (slaves can't learn to read)

Nat Turner Rebellion, 1831

Black priest led a revolt in Virginia which killed 60 people. This scared the Southerners because it was the first really violent action of the slaves. As a result slave codes were made stricter.

Louisiana Purchase, 1803

Governing the territory was harder than purchasing. Spanish rule had enslaved many and there was also large free black population. The Louisiana Territory was broken into smaller portions for administration, and the territories passed slavery laws similar to those in the southern states but trying to encompass the preceding French and Spanish rule. The institutionalization of slavery under US territorial law in the Louisiana Territory contributed to the American Civil War a half century later. As states organized within the territory, the status of slavery in each state became a matter of contention in Congress, as southern states wanted slavery extended to the west, and northern states just as strongly opposed new states being admitted as slave states.

abolition of international slave trade, 1808

The international slave trade was abolished in 1808 after Thomas Jefferson had signed a bill that prohibited the importation of of slaves into the United States on March 3, 1807, which went into effect on January 1, 1808, and the British House of Lords passed an act that abolished the slave trade in Britain.

Gag Resolution, 1836

Southerners drive bill (no talking about slavery) through Congress.

Amistad, 1839

Spanish slave ship dramatically seized off the coast of Cuba by the enslaved Africans aboard; the ship was driven ashore in Long Island and the slaves were put on trial; former president John Quincy Adams aruged their case before the Supreme Court, securing their eventual release. Symbol of abolitionist movement.

Compromise of 1850

This compromise admitted California as a free state, abolished slave trade in DC, allowed popular sovereignty in the Mexican cession, paid Texas $10 million to buy extra Texas land which was given to the New Mexico territory, and created the Fugitive Slave Law.

the invention of the cotton gin, 1793

made cotton a major industry and sharply increased the need for slave labor.