Date:1862 Annotation: Law providing for free land for western settlers. The Homestead Act of 1862 provided settlers with…

Author:   Abraham Lincoln Date:1861 Annotation: When Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as the 16th president of the…

Author:   Juan Nepomuceno Cortina Date:1859 Annotation: This text appeared in the Brownsville newspaper. Document: County of Cameron, Camp…

Annotation: At 8 o’clock, Sunday evening, October 16, Brown led a party of approximately 21 men into Harpers…

Author:   Abraham Lincoln Date:1858 Annotation: The critical issues dividing the nation–slavery versus free labor, popular sovereignty,…

Author:   Roger B. Taney Date:1857 Annotation: In March 1857, the Supreme Court answered a question that…

Author:   Charles Sumner Date:1856 Annotation: This speech was delivered by Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, on May…

Date:1856 Annotation: Republican Party Platform of 1856. Document: Republican Party Platform of 1856 This Convention of Delegates, assembled in…

Annotation: In 1854, a piece of legislation was introduced in Congress that shattered all illusions of sectional peace….

Author:   John M. Clayton and Henry Lytton Bulwer Date:1850 Annotation: The Clayton-Bulwer Treaty was an agreement that…

Author:   Benjamin Drew Date:1850 Annotation: The testimony and personal accounts of fugitive slaves’ journeys to freedom written…

Date:1848 Annotation: The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was the peace treaty that ended the Mexican-American War (1846–1848). Document: ART….

Author:   Elizabeth Cady Stanton Date:1848 Annotation: Seneca Falls, New York, is the birthplace of the women’s rights…

Date:1846 Annotation: This treaty brought an end to the Oregon boundary dispute by settling competing American and British…

Author:   James K. Polk Date:1846 Annotation: Among President James K. Polk’s plans to expand the nation’s territory…

Date:1842 Annotation: The Webster-Ashburton Treaty settled several matters between the United States and Great Britain and was signed…