Timeline to Civil War | Eastern North Carolina Now

   Publisher's Note: Diane Rufino has supplied us with a most interesting concept: Should individual states ever consider secession as a last resort to seek remedy?

   It is a rather long treatise on the subject so I have broken it into chapters. This is the fourth chapter. Reading the first chapter, the second chapter, the third chapter the fourth chapter, the fifth chapter, and may add to ones's understanding of this timeline to the American Civil War.

    Reference: Civil War Home Page, Timeline. Referenced at: http://www.civil-war.net/pages/timeline.asp

    1619 - English settlers in Virginia purchase 20 Africans from a Dutch ship. The Africans were sold as indentured servants, not slaves. The distinction being an indentured servant may ultimately become free for working for some number of years. It was not long before all Africans arriving were treated as slaves, bought and sold into a lifetime of slavery for them and their descendents.

    1641 - Massachusetts Bay Colony legalizes slavery.

    1663 - Maryland becomes the first colony to enact laws that recognize slavery for life. Under prior English law slaves who became Christians were granted freedom.

    1667 - Virginia passes a law revoking the prior English law that allowed for slaves that converted to Christianity to become free.

    February 1688 - The first organized protest against slavery in the new world was drafted by a group of Quakers in Germantown, PA. Known as the Germantown Protest, it argued that Christians should do as they would want to be done to them, that slavery was essentially theft as you were buying something stolen and that adultery is wrong yet slave traders/owners forced adultery on men and women by breaking up marriages when they resold husbands and wives to different owners. How could as Christians, could such actions be condoned?

    September 1739 - In the town of Stono, South Carolina a band of slaves starts an insurrection. Previous runaway slaves had made their way to Florida, where they had been given freedom and land. The Spanish had issued a proclamation stating that any slave who deserted to St. Augustine, Florida would be given freedom.

    1775 - The Pennsylvania Abolition Society is organized to protect the rights of blacks unlawfully held as slaves.

    July 1776 - The colonies declare independence from English rule with the adoption of The Declaration of Independence. Written largely by Thomas Jefferson, the document declares "all men are created equal." Jefferson and many of the signers of the document are slave holders.

    1777 - Vermont, an American colony and still not a state, is the first government entity to abolish slavery.

    1780 - Pennsylvania became the first state to abolish slavery with a laws calling for gradual abolition.

    1783 - Massachusetts abolishes slavery and grants voting rights to blacks and Native Americans.

    May 15 - Sept. 17, 1787 - At the 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, delegates debated whether Congress should halt importation of slaves. South Carolina and Georgia delegates threatened that their states would not join the new Union being planned and won concessions that the slave trade could not be restricted for 20 years. (See Article I, Section 9, clause 1 of the US Constitution)

    Congress passes the Three-Fifths Clause stating that each slave is to be counted as three-fifths of a person for calculating representation in Congress. This act strengthens the power in the House of Representatives for slave states.
Did the South fight to preserve a way of life ... an economy ... or states rights? The Hampton Plantation Manor in northern Charleston County.     photo by Stan Deatherage
    July 1787 - Congress passes the Northwest Ordinance, preventing slavery from existing in the new federal territories.

    1790 - The results of the first national census as ordered by Congress show a total population of 3,893,874 including 694,207 slaves or 18% of the population. Maine, Massachusetts and Vermont have no slaves. 43% of the population in South Carolina are slaves and 39% for Virginia and 35% for Georgia.

    1791 - Vermont becomes the fourteenth state and enters the Union as a free state. It was the first state to be admitted after the adoption of the Constitution by the 13 original states.

    June 1792 - Kentucky becomes the fifteenth state and enters the Union as a slave state.

    February 1793 - Congress passes the first Fugitive Slave Act. The act allowed for the recovery of runaway slaves and authorized the arrest or seizure of fugitives. The act also created a fine of $500 for any person who aided a fugitive.

    March 1794 - Eli Whitney receives patent for the Cotton Gin. The machine greatly increased the production of cleaned cotton thus making cotton a profitable crop for the first time and increasing the need and production value for slaves.

    June 1796 - Tennessee becomes the sixteenth state and enters the Union a slave state.

    1800 - The results of the 1800 census show a total population of 5,084,912 including 887,612 slaves or 17% of the population. Slaves are virtually non-existent in northern states and as high as 42% in South Carolina and 39% in Virginia.

    August 1800 - Slave Gabriel Prosser leads a group of armed slaves in rebellion. His plan involved seizing Capitol Square in Richmond, Virginia and taking Governor James Monroe as a hostage, in order to bargain with city authorities for freedom. Ultimately Gabriel, along with many followers, were captured and executed.

    March 1803 - Ohio becomes the seventeenth state and enters the Union as a free state based on the terms of the Northwest Ordinance.

    1804 - New Jersey's state legislature announces a gradual emancipation act.

    March 1807 - Congress passes law banning the importation of any new slaves into the United States effective January 1, 1808.

    1810 - The results of the 1810 census show a total population of 6,807,786 including 1,130,781 slaves or 17% of the population. Slaves are virtually non-existent in northern states and as high as 47% in South Carolina and 42% in Georgia.

    December 1812 - Louisiana becomes the eighteenth state and enters the Union as a slave state.

    December 1816 - Indiana becomes the nineteenth state and enters the Union as a free state.

    December 1817 - Mississippi becomes the twentieth state and enters the Union as a slave state.

    December 1818 - Illinois becomes the twenty first state and enters the Union as a free state.

    December 1819 - Alabama becomes the twenty second state and enters the Union as a slave state.

    1820 - The results of the 1820 census show a total population of 10,037,323 including 1,529,012 slaves or 15% of the population. Slaves are virtually non-existent in northern states and as high as 51% in South Carolina and 45% in Louisiana.

    March 1820 - The Missouri Compromise is negotiated allowing Maine to be admitted to the Union as a free state and Missouri as a slave state in 1821. This act will maintain a balance between free and slave states. The compromise establishes the 36 degree, 30' parallel of latitude as a dividing line between free and slave areas of the territories.

    May 1820 - Maine becomes the twenty third state and enters the Union as a as a free state.

    August 1821 - Missouri becomes the twenty fourth state and enters the Union as a slave state.

    1827 - The state of New York abolishes slavery.

    1828 - Congress again raises tariffs with the Tariff of Abominations. The tariffs are designed to support American industry and in that way are successful greatly benefiting the northern industrial economy, however the tariffs are damaging to the southern agricultural economy.

    1830 - The results of the 1830 census show a total population of 12,754,289 including 1,987,396 slaves or 16% of the population. Slaves are virtually non-existent in northern states and as high as 54% in South Carolina and 51% in Louisiana.

    January 1831 - William Lloyd Garrison publishes the first issue of the abolitionist journal, the Liberator.

    August 1831 - The Nat Turner Rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia. Over 60 whites were killed in the uprising. Turner was on the run for or nearly two months, but was eventually caught and hanged.

    1832 - The Tariff Act of 1832 reduces duties. The South, still dissatisfied threatens secession. South Carolina's legislature organizes an army and declare the tariffs null and void.

    1833 - A Compromise Tariff Act is passed as a means of gradually reducing the tariffs of concern in the southern states. Confrontation is averted with this compromise.
1834 - Slavery is abolished throughout the British Empire.

    May 1836 - The House passes a resolution that automatically tables or postponed action on all petitions relating to slavery without hearing them. Stricter versions of this gag rule are passed in succeeding Congresses.

    June 1836 - Arkansas becomes the twenty fifth state and enters the Union as a as a slave state.

    January 1837 - Michigan becomes the twenty sixth state and enters the Union as a as a free state.

    November 1837 - Abolitionist publisher Elijah P. Lovejoy is murdered in Alton, Illinois and his printing press is thrown in the river. He had been calling for an end to slavery.

    1838 - Lead by black abolitionist Robert Purvis, the Underground Railroad is formally organized.

    1840 - The results of the 1840 census show a total population of 16,987,946 including 2,482,546 slaves or 15% of the population. Slaves are virtually non-existent in northern states and as high as 55% in South Carolina and 52% in Mississippi.

    March 1845 - Florida becomes the twenty seventh state and enters the Union as a slave state in 1845.

    December 1845 - Texas becomes the twenty eighth state and enters the Union as a slave state in 1845.

    December 1846 - Iowa becomes the twenty ninth state and enters the Union as a free state in 1846.

    May 1848 - Wisconsin becomes the thirtieth state and enters the Union as a free state in 1848.

    1849 - Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery in Maryland. She reportedly returned to the South 19 times and brought out more than 300 slaves.

    1850 - The results of the 1850 census show a total population of 23,054,152 including 3,200,600 slaves or 14% of the population. Slaves are virtually non-existent in northern states and as high as 58% in South Carolina and 51% in Mississippi.

    September 1849 - Congress implements several measures forming the Compromise of 1850. The measures included California joining the Union as a free state, the territories of New Mexico and Utah are organized with no restrictions on slavery, slave trading is abolished in the District of Columbia effective January 1851 and the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 is modified and strengthened to allow slaveholders to retrieve slaves in northern states and free territories.

    1850 - California becomes the thirty first state and enters the Union as a free state in 1850.

    1852 - Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes Uncle Tom's Cabin as a response to the pro-slavery movement.

    1854 - The Kansas-Nebraska Act passes Congress and thus overturns the Missouri Compromise, thereby opening the Northern territory to slavery. Both sides begin to send settlers into the areas in an effort to influence the future status of these areas.

    1855 - As Kansas prepares for elections thousands of Border Ruffians from Missouri enter the territory in an effort to influence the election. This begins the Bloody Kansas period with duplicate constitutional conventions, separate elections and constant and violent attacks.

    May 1856 - Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner delivers a speech attacking slavery supporters in the Senate. He singles out Senator Andrew Butler of South Carolina in his speech. Two days later, South Carolina Representative Preston Brooks, Butler's nephew, attacks Sumner on the Senate floor and beats him with a cane. The House did not expel or censure Brooks for the attack, Sumner took three years to recover.

    1857 - Congress passes the Tariff of 1857 lowering rates to the lowest level since 1812 to 20%, this is very unpopular in the North and praised in the South.

March 1857 - The Dred Scott Decision is handed down denying all rights to blacks. The Supreme Court rules in Scott v. Sandford that blacks are not U.S. citizens, and slaveholders have the right to take existing slaves into free areas of the county.

    1858 - Minnesota becomes the thirty second state and enters the Union as a free state in 1858.

    1859 - Oregon becomes the thirty third state and enters the Union as a free state in 1859.

    October - John Brown attacks Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Robert E. Lee, then a Federal Army regular leads the troops and captures Brown. John Brown and two of the black members of his band were hanged.