| 1549 | 1549 Brazil becomes the focal point for the International Slave Trade. | Slavery Expansion |
| 1619 | Chattel Slavery comes to America. | Slavery Expansion |
| 1650 | Slavery expands to all thirteen American colonies. | Sectional Economics, Slavery Expansion |
| 1688 | Germantown Quakers protest against slavery. | Abolition |
| 1776 | The Declaration of Independence declares that all men are created equal | Slavery Expansion, Abolition, Nullification |
| 1783 | The Treaty of Paris ends the Revolutionary War. | Manifest Destiny |
| 1784 | Slavery fades away in the North. | Abolition, Manifest Destiny |
| 1784 | Prince Hall gains formal approval from the Masonry for African Lodge #459 | Racism, Black Experience |
| 1785 | The New York Manumission Society is founded | Abolition |
| 1785 | Thomas Jefferson stereotypes the Black race in his Notes on the State of Virginia | Racism, Black Experience |
| 1787 | Ministers Richard Allen and Absalom Jones form the Free African Society in Philadelphia | Abolition, Black Experience |
| 1787 | At the 1787 Constitutional Convention the Southern states threaten a walk-out. | Public Violence |
| 1787 | An allocation compromise satisfies the South while reducing Blacks to 3/5th of a full human | Racism, Black Experience, Territorial Constitutions, Public Violence |
| 1787 | The Northwest Ordinance draws the first boundary line dividing Free vs. Slave States | Slavery Expansion, Manifest Destiny, Territorial Constitutions |
| 1787 | The U.S. Senate and North-South factions at Baltimore | Voting Power |
| 1787 | James Madison agrees to craft a Bill of Rights for citizens and for the sovereign states | Nullification, Territorial Constitutions, Public Violence |
| 1789 | George Washington becomes the United States first President | States’ Rights |
| 1791 | Alexander Hamilton’s Report on Manufactures calls for a diverse industrialized economy | Sectional Economics |
| 1791 | Former slave Toussaint Louverture leads a successful Black revolution in Haiti | Abolition, Black Experience |
| 1794 | Reverend Richard Allen founds The African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church | Abolition, Black Experience |
| 1794 | Eli Whitney patents a ‘gin that makes producing short-staple cotton profitable | Sectional Economics, Slavery Expansion |
| 1798 | The Kentucky Resolutions challenge Federal authority to enforce the Alien & Sedition Act | Nullification, Territorial Constitutions |
| 1798 | The Territory of Mississippi is officially organized | Slavery Expansion |
| 1799 | George Washington’s Farewell Address warns against partisan political parties | Voting Power |
| 1801 | The election of Thomas Jefferson signals a shift in government policies | Sectional Economics, Public Violence |
| 1802 | Reverend Absalom Jones heralds the founding of Black churches in America | Black Experience |
| 1803 | Jefferson competes the Louisiana Purchase from Napoleon’s France | Slavery Expansion |
| 1803 | Northwest Territorial Governor Harrison supports re-opening slavery in Indiana | Racism, Slavery Expansion |
| 1804 | The State of Ohio passes its first set of Black Codes | Racism, Black Experience, Manifest Destiny, Territorial Constitutions |
| 1804 | Vice-President Aaron Burr kills Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton in a duel | Legal Verdicts, Voting Power |
| 1807 | Aaron Burr is tried for treason over a plot to form his own empire in Mexico permitting slavery | Slavery Expansion, Voting Power |
| 1808 | The ban on international slave trading prompts systematic breeding among southern owners | Sectional Economics, Racism, Slavery Expansion, Black Experience, Lincoln |
| 1813 | The “Great Triumphrate” begin their dominance over the U.S. Congress | Sectional Economics, Slavery Expansion, Lincoln |
| 1813 | James Forten protests a Pennsylvania bill discriminating against Black emigrants | Racism, Black Experience |
| 1814 | The New England states threaten secession at the Hartford Convention | Sectional Economics, Nullification, Voting Power |
| 1815 | Paul Cuffee transports 38 African-Americans to a new home in Sierra Leone | Black Experience |
| 1816 | Clergyman Robert Finley founds the American Colonization Society to return Blacks to Africa | Black Experience |
| 1819 | The Tallmadge Amendments signals Northern opposition to the extension of slavery in the west. | States’ Rights, Slavery Expansion, Abolition, Manifest Destiny, Public Violence |
| 1820 | Henry Clay’s 1820 Missouri Compromise averts a North-South crisis over slavery | States’ Rights, Slavery Expansion, Abolition, Manifest Destiny, Territorial Constitutions |
| 1821 | Benjamin Lundy’s paper, The Genius of Universal Emancipation, energizes abolitionists | Slavery Expansion, Abolition |
| 1821 | Mexico gains its independence from Spain in the Treaty of Cordoba. | Slavery Expansion, Abolition |
| 1823 | Mexico makes Empresario land grants to Moses Austin in the Tejas Province | Slavery Expansion |
| 1825 | Revival meetings toward the end of the Second Great Awakening fuel social reform movements | Abolition |
| 1826 | Quaker Levi Coffin leads early development of the Underground Railroad | Abolition |
| 1828 | The so-called “Tariff of Abominations” outrages the South’s cotton producers | Sectional Economics |
| 1829 | Black activist David Walker issues his “Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World | Racism, Abolition, Black Experience |
| 1830 | A Senate debate on The “Value of the Union” captures the growing sectional divide | Sectional Economics |
| 1831 | The first edition of the Liberator demands an immediate end to slavery in America | Abolition |
| 1831 | Nat Turner’s Rebellion terrifies the South and fosters savage reprisals | Racism, Abolition, Black Experience, Legal Verdicts |
| 1831 | JQ Adams returns to the House and becomes the leading proponent of abolition | Abolition |
| 1833 | The “Nullification Crisis” threatens the viability of the Union | Sectional Economics, Territorial Constitutions |
| 1833 | The American Anti-Slavery Society is founded | Abolition |
| 1834 | Parliament officially abolishes slavery in Britain | Abolition, Territorial Constitutions |
| 1835 | Oberlin College is the first to admit both Black and women students | Abolition |
| 1835 | The so-called Five Civilized Tribes are driven out of their homelands along the Trail of Tears | Racism, Slavery Expansion, Territorial Constitutions |
| 1836 | Angelina Grimke writes her “Appeal to Christian Women in the South” to end slavery | Abolition, Lincoln |
| 1836 | JQ Adams ignores a Southern “Gag Order” against reading anti-slavery petitions | Abolition, Territorial Constitutions |
| 1838 | Mexican troops massacre hundreds of American settlers at the Alamo and the town of Goliad | Slavery Expansion |
| 1836 | The Republic of Texas is founded after Santa Anna defeated at the Battle of San Jacinto | Slavery Expansion |
| 1837 | John C. Calhoun delivers his “Slavery Is A Positive Good” speech in the Senate | Sectional Economics, Racism, Lincoln |
| 1837 | Abolitionist Elijah Lovejoy is murdered by a mob in Alton, Illinois | Abolition, Legal Verdicts |
| 1837 | Calvinist John Brown vows to “consecrate my life to destroying slavery.” | Slavery Expansion, Abolition |
| 1838 | Joshua Giddings is elected to House from Ohio | Abolition |
| 1840 | New York abolitionists under Gerrit Smith form their Liberty Party | Abolition |
| 1840 | The North gains seats in the House after the Biennial Census results | Public Violence |
| 1840 | Bogus research by Dr. Samuel Morton finds that Negroes are a different and inferior race | Racism |
| 1841 | Frederick Douglass delivers his first address to a white audience on Nantucket Island | Abolition, Black Experience |
| 1841 | The South is alarmed by the Supreme Court ruling in the Amistad Affair | Abolition, Black Experience, Territorial Constitutions |
| 1841 | Henry Clay’s “American System” economic vision is set back by the death of President Harrison | Sectional Economics, States’ Rights |
| 1841 | Another violent race riot breaks out in Cincinnati | Racism, Black Experience, Legal Verdicts |
| 1842 | The Supreme Court affirms the Fugitive Slave Act in Prigg v Pennsylvania | Abolition, Black Experience, Territorial Constitutions |
| 1842 | The South suffers another legal setback in the Creole case ruling | Abolition, Black Experience, Territorial Constitutions |
| 1842 | Joshua Giddings is forced to resign from the House for supporting the Creole decision | Abolition |
| 1843 | Garrison reacts to the Prigg ruling by demanding an end to the Union | Abolition |
| 1843 | Douglass joins Garrison’s “Lecturers” preaching moral suasion to end slavery | Racism, Abolition, Black Experience |
| 1843 | The Democrat Party begin to be reshaped by the election of Stephen A. Douglas | Sectional Economics, Racism, Manifest Destiny, Voting Power |
| 1843 | Preacher Henry Highland Garnet delivers his “Call to Rebellion” speech | Racism, Black Experience |
| 1845 | Schisms over slavery divide both the Methodist and Baptist Churches | Racism, Slavery Expansion, Black Experience, Lincoln |
| 1845 | Presbyterian Reverend James Henley Thornwell leads the clerical defense of slavery for the South | Slavery Expansion, Black Experience |
| 1846 | President James Knox Polk’s election sets the stage for the western expansion of slavery | Slavery Expansion, Territorial Constitutions |
| 1846 | The fateful Mexican War gets underway | Slavery Expansion |
| 1846 | America occupies California after The Bear Flag Revolt | Slavery Expansion |
| 1846 | The Wilmot Proviso shocks the South | Slavery Expansion, Territorial Constitutions, Voting Power |
| 1847 | Political maneuvering follows General Winfield Scott conquest of Mexico City | Racism, Slavery Expansion |
| 1847 | One term Congressman Abraham Lincoln denounces the war as “a sheer deception.” | Slavery Expansion, Voting Power, Lincoln |
| 1860 | Lincoln carries the northern states to become the 16th President | Slavery Expansion, Voting Power, Lincoln |
| 1847 | Democrats propose “Popular Sovereignty” elections as an alternative to the Wilmot Proviso | Sectional Economics, Slavery Expansion |
| 1848 | William Yancey proposes his Alabama Platform alternative to “popsov.” | Slavery Expansion, Voting Power |
| 1848 | Mexico cedes 525,000 square miles of land to America in The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo | Slavery Expansion |
| 1848 | Abolitionist Salmon Chase founds the Free Soil Party | Slavery Expansion, Voting Power |
| 1848 | Joshua Giddings proposes a ban on slavery in the District of Columbia | Slavery Expansion, Territorial Constitutions, Public Violence, Voting Power |
| 1849 | Newly elected Whig President Zachary Taylor surprises the South | Racism, Slavery Expansion, Public Violence |
| 1849 | Calhoun’s Address to the Southern Delegates in Congress offers another dire warning | Slavery Expansion, Abolition |
| 1850 | The Biennial Census shows that the Northern states have 60% of the total U.S. population | Slavery Expansion, Public Violence |
| 1850 | Henry Clay seeks another North-South Compromise with his 1850 Omnibus Bill | Slavery Expansion |
| 1850 | The sides line up for and against Clay’s Bill | Slavery Expansion |
| 1850 | William Henry Seward claims “there is a higher law than the Constitution.” | Slavery Expansion |
| 1850 | Southerners hold the Nashville Convention to debate the Omnibus Bill | Slavery Expansion, Voting Power |
| 1850 | A racist New York mob breaks up an Abolition Conference in New York City | Racism, Abolition, Legal Verdicts |
| 1850 | A filibustering attempt to conquer Cuba fails | Sectional Economics, Slavery Expansion |
| 1850 | Douglas passes the 1850 Compromise after Clay exits DC for good | Slavery Expansion, Territorial Constitutions |
| 1851 | Northerners resist the new Fugitive Slave Act | Abolition, Legal Verdicts |
| 1851 | “General” Harriet Tubman comes to symbolize the Underground Railroad | Racism, Abolition |
| 1851 | Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, builds Northern empathy for the enslaved | Abolition, Black Experience |
| 1851 | The Christiana Treason Trial is another blow to the Fugitive Slave Act | Abolition, Territorial Constitutions, Legal Verdicts |
| 1851 | Abolitionist Sojourner Truth asserts her equality | Abolition, Black Experience |
| 1852 | Frederick Douglass castigates white complacency in his “What to the Slave is the 4th of July” speech | Racism, Abolition, Legal Verdicts |
| 1852 | Southerners step up their defense of slavery | Racism |
| 1852 | Newly elected President Franklin Pierce owes his victory to the South | Slavery Expansion, Voting Power |
| 1852 | The New York Superior Court rules in favor of a “once free, forever free” doctrine | Slavery Expansion, Abolition, Black Experience, Territorial Constitutions |
| 1853 | The North and South vie over a route for a transcontinental railroad | Sectional Economics, Slavery Expansion |
| 1853 | Filibusterer William Walker fails in his attempt to set up an empire in Mexico with slavery | Slavery Expansion |
| 1854 | Stephen Douglas’ Kansas-Nebraska Act upsets the delicate status quo on slavery | Slavery Expansion, Manifest Destiny, Voting Power |
| 1854 | Boston vigilantes free another runaway | Abolition, Black Experience, Territorial Constitutions, Legal Verdicts |
| 1854 | The Kansas-Nebraska controversy brings Abraham Lincoln back into national politics | Slavery Expansion, Lincoln |
| 1854 | The first test of “PopSov” elections in Kansas turns into a fiasco | Slavery Expansion, Manifest Destiny, Legal Verdicts |
| 1854 | President Pierce is embarrassed by another attempt to acquire Cuba | Slavery Expansion |
| 1854 | Filibusterer William Walker conquers Nicaragua and re-introduces slavery | Slavery Expansion, Legal Verdicts |
| 1855 | Political turmoil continues in Kansas and President Pierce sacks Governor Reeder | Slavery Expansion |
| 1855 | The Free State forces in Kansas draft the first of their Topeka Constitutions | Racism, Slavery Expansion, Black Experience, Manifest Destiny |
| 1855 | A skirmish known as the Wakarusa War foretells violence to come in Kansas | Slavery Expansion, Legal Verdicts |
| 1855 | Former Democrat icon, Francis Blair Sr. of Missouri, helps form the Republican Party | Voting Power |
| 1856 | Moderate Georgia Democrat Robert Toombs tells a Boston audience why he supports slavery | Slavery Expansion |
| 1856 | President Pierce delivers his State of the Union address about the “disturbances in Kansas.” | Slavery Expansion, Manifest Destiny |
| 1856 | The Free State Topeka Constitution arrives at the Senate’s Committee on Territories | Slavery Expansion, Manifest Destiny |
| 1856 | Charles Sumner is nearly beaten to death on the floor of the Senate | Abolition, Legal Verdicts |
| Violence in Kansas escalates as the Free State capital at Lawrence is sacked | Abolition, Legal Verdicts |
| 1856 | John Brown responds with his Pottawatomie Massacre | Abolition, Legal Verdicts |
| 1856 | Historians refer to The Battle of Black Jack as “the first engagement in the Civil War.” | Abolition, Legal Verdicts |
| 1856 | The Toombs Bill calls for a fair do-over election in Kansas | Slavery Expansion, Manifest Destiny, Public Violence |
| 1856 | The two sides in “Bloody Kansas” exchange more blows | Legal Verdicts |
| 1856 | General John Geary’s arrival quells the violence in the Territory | Legal Verdicts |
| 1856 | Political Party turmoil is evident in the run-up to the 1856 Presidential election | Slavery Expansion, Voting Power |
| 1856 | Buchanan’s win guarantees ongoing North-South conflicts over slavery | Slavery Expansion, Manifest Destiny |
| 1857 | The Taney Court issues its infamous Dred Scott ruling by 7-2 | Slavery Expansion, Abolition, Black Experience, Territorial Constitutions, Lincoln |
| 1857 | The Free State forces win a pivotal Legislative election in Kansas | Slavery Expansion, Voting Power |
| 1857 | Buchanan sacks Walker while the Pro-Slavery men finally write their Lecompton Constitution | Slavery Expansion, Manifest Destiny |
| 1858 | Stephen Douglas publicly opposes the Lecompton Constitution and Buchanan | Slavery Expansion, Manifest Destiny, Voting Power |
| 1858 | Kansas voters overwhelming reject the Lecompton Constitution | Slavery Expansion, Manifest Destiny |
| 1858 | South Carolina Senator John Henry Hammond delivers his Cotton is King speech | Sectional Economics, Slavery Expansion, Legal Verdicts |
| 1858 | Expanding slavery into the west is now crucial to the future growth of the Southern economy | Sectional Economics, Slavery Expansion |
| 1858 | Abraham Lincoln delivers his House Divided Speech to launch his Senate campaign | Slavery Expansion, Lincoln |
| 1858 | Buchanan suffers another humiliating loss in Kansas | Slavery Expansion, Manifest Destiny |
| 1858 | The Lincoln-Douglas Debates capture the nation’s attention | Racism, Slavery Expansion, Abolition, Lincoln |
| 1858 | In the mid-term elections of 1858, the Republicans win a majority of seats in the House | Slavery Expansion, Voting Power |
| 1859 | Oregon is admitted as a Free State while banning all Blacks from residency | Racism, Slavery Expansion, Manifest Destiny |
| 1859 | John Brown arrives in Maryland on his abolitionist mission | Abolition, Legal Verdicts |
| 1859 | Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry succeeds before falling apart | Abolition, Legal Verdicts |
| 1859 | Brown’s fate is symbolic of the North-South divide | Abolition, Legal Verdicts |
| 1860 | Jefferson Davis announces the Southern demands in Congress | Slavery Expansion, Voting Power |
| 1860 | Abraham Lincoln travels east to make his Cooper’s Union Speech | Lincoln |
| 1860 | Southern delegates upset the Democrat Party nominating convention in Charleston | Voting Power |
| 1860 | Moderates found the Constitutional Union Party to avoid the sectional divide | Voting Power |
| 1860 | Lincoln wins the Republican Party nomination | Slavery Expansion, Lincoln |
| 1860 | The Democrats formally split in half between Stephen Douglas and JC Breckinridge | Slavery Expansion, Voting Power |
| 1860 | Buchanan’s administration disintegrates around him | Voting Power |
| 1860 | Two special Congressional Committees search for, but fail to arrive at a compromise | Slavery Expansion, Voting Power |
| 1860 | South Carolina secedes from the Union | Nullification, Voting Power |
| 1860 | An ultimatum to surrender the federal forts at Charleston is sent and retracted | Nullification, Voting Power |
| 1860 | Ft. Sumter becomes a North-South flashpoint | Nullification |
| 1861 | With the Secession floodgates open, The Confederate States of America are formed | Nullification |
| 1861 | President-elect Lincoln badly misreads the Confederate’s intentions | Nullification, Lincoln |
| 1861 | Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address signals determination along with a plea for reconciliation | Slavery Expansion, Nullification, Lincoln |
| 1861 | Lincoln decides to send an expedition to relieve Ft. Sumter and Ft. Pickens | Nullification, Lincoln |
| 1861 | Breakdowns in the chain of command hamper the Union efforts | Nullification, Lincoln |
| 1861 | The Confederate Cabinet agrees to attack Ft. Sumter | States’ Rights, Legal Verdicts |
| 1861 | War begins with the April 12 bombardment of Ft. Sumter | — |
