1860

1868

March
The impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson begins in the Senate. He is acquitted by one vote in May after he promises to stop interfering with the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment.

July
The Fourteenth Amendment is declared officially ratified.

1866

April
The Civil Rights Act of 1866 guarantees blacks basic economic rights to contract, sue, and own property.

1865

Congress passes the Thirteenth Amendment, abolishing slavery and involuntary servitude. It is ratified by the states in December.

March
Congress establishes the Freedman’s Bureau to provide aid to former slaves during Reconstruction.

1863

President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation takes effect on New Year’s Day. It frees slaves in parts of the Confederacy not occupied by the North.

1861

February
Southern States meet in Montgomery to draft a Confederate Constitution. It forbids the passage of any law denying the right of property in slaves, and citizens of the Confederacy are guaranteed the right to take their slaves into any territory acquired by the Confederate states.

1860

In November, Abraham Lincoln is elected President. On the 20th of December, South Carolina becomes the first state to secede from the Union.

1860

In November, Abraham Lincoln is elected President. On the 20th of December, South Carolina becomes the first state to secede from the Union.

February
Southern States meet in Montgomery to draft a Confederate Constitution. It forbids the passage of any law denying the right of property in slaves, and citizens of the Confederacy are guaranteed the right to take their slaves into any territory acquired by the Confederate states.

The U.S. Congress passes a proposed thirteenth amendment to the Constitution, which Abraham Lincoln endorses in his inaugural address. It provides that no amendment shall be made to the Constitution to authorize Congress to abolish or interfere with the domestic institutions of any state, including “that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of said State.” The amendment represents a desperate attempt to hold the Union together. Ohio, Maryland, and Illinois approve the amendment, but with the outbreak of the Civil War, it is forgotten.

April
Civil War begins.

President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation takes effect on New Year’s Day. It frees slaves in parts of the Confederacy not occupied by the North.

Congress passes the Thirteenth Amendment, abolishing slavery and involuntary servitude. It is ratified by the states in December.

March
Congress establishes the Freedman’s Bureau to provide aid to former slaves during Reconstruction.

April
On the 9th, General Robert E. Lee surrenders to the General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomatox Courthouse, Virginia, ending the Civil War. On the 14th, John Wilkes Booth assassinates Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. Vice President Andrew Johnson, a Democrat, is sworn in as President. In May, President Johnson grants amnesty to former Confederate officials.

Fall
Black Codes proliferate across the South, segregating public schools and barring blacks from voting, entering into contracts, holding property, serving on juries, and testifying against whites. The Black Codes are generally understood as an attempt to reduce the newly freed blacks to a condition little better than slavery.

April
The Civil Rights Act of 1866 guarantees blacks basic economic rights to contract, sue, and own property.

June
The Fourteenth Amendment is submitted to the states. The Amendment overrules the Dred Scott case. It guarantees that all persons born or naturalized in the United States are citizens of the United States and of the state in which they reside, and that no state shall abridge the privileges and immunities of citizens, deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, nor deny to any person the equal protection of the laws.

May
The Ku Klux Klan is founded in Nashville, Tennessee.

March
The impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson begins in the Senate. He is acquitted by one vote in May after he promises to stop interfering with the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment.

July
The Fourteenth Amendment is declared officially ratified.

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