Browse all Entries in the Antebellum Time Period.
Samuel Ryan Curtis
February 3, 1805 – December 26, 1866 Perhaps one of the more underrated Union officers of the American Civil War, Major General Samuel R. Curtis played a prominent role in securing and maintaining Federal control of the border state of Missouri throughout the conflict. Samuel Ryan Curtis was born near Champlain, New York, on February…
Samuel Sullivan Cox
September 30, 1824 – September 10, 1889 Samuel Cox was a prominent lawyer, newspaper editor, and Peace Democrat who represented Ohio and, later, New York in Congress. Samuel Sullivan Cox was born on September 30, 1824, at Zanesville, Ohio. He was the grandson of Revolutionary War General James Cox. Cox was the second son of…
Samuel Wylie Crawford
November 8, 1829 – November 3, 1892 A prominent Union general officer, Samuel W. Crawford was possibly the only person who was present for the beginning of the American Civil War at Fort Sumter and for the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House four years later. Samuel Wylie Crawford was…
Scott v. Sandford
1857 Dred Scott v. Sandford was a historic ruling by the United States Supreme Court that declared that people of African descent were not citizens of the United States and that Congress had no Constitutional authority to regulate slavery in U.S. territories. The U.S. Constitution and Slavery When delegates to the Constitutional Convention assembled in…
Simon Bolivar Buckner
April 1, 1823 – January 8, 1914 A prominent Confederate commander during the American Civil War, General Simon Buckner also served one term as governor of Kentucky after the conflict. Simon Bolivar. Buckner, Sr. was born on April 1, 1823, at Glen Lily, his family's estate near Munfordville, Kentucky. He was the third child and…
Sojourner Truth
c. 1797–November 26, 1883 Born into bondage in New York, escaped slave Sojourner Truth was a renowned champion for abolition, women's rights, temperance, and prison reform during the 19th Century. Acclaimed abolitionist and women's rights supporter Sojourner Truth was born into slavery as Isabella Baumfree sometime between 1797 and 1800 in Ulster County, New York. She…
South Carolina Exposition and Protest
December 1828 In December 1828, United States Vice-President John C. Calhoun anonymously penned two documents collectively known as the South Carolina Exposition and Protest, which outlined his objections to the Tariff of 1828. On May 19, 1828, United States President John Quincy Adams approved "An Act in alteration of the several acts imposing duties on…
South Carolina Ordinance of ification
November 24, 1832 On November 24, 1832, a special convention convened by the South Carolina Legislature approved the South Carolina Ordinance of Nullification, declaring the tariffs of 1828 and 1832 to be null and void in the State of South Carolina and threatening secession from the Union if the United States government attempted to use…
Stand Watie
December 12, 1806 – September 9, 1871 The only American Indian to achieve the rank of general on either side during the American Civil War, Stand Watie was also the last Confederate general to lay down his sword. Stand Watie was born on December 12, 1806 in Oothcaloga, Cherokee Nation (modern-day Gordon County, Georgia). Watie's…
Stephen Arnold Douglas
April 23, 1813 – June 3, 1861 Two-term United States Congressman and three-term United States Senator from Illinois Stephen A. Douglas was a prominent antebellum politician who championed popular sovereignty and was influential in the enactment of the Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. Stephen Arnold Douglas was born in Brandon, Vermont,…