Major Events

Chapter 16 · 1793–1860

Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin

1793

American Colonization Society founded

1816

The Denmark Vesey conspiracy

1822

Nat Turner's Rebellion

1831

The "positive good" defense of slavery emerges

1830s

Cotton production peaks in the Deep South

1830s–1850s

Harriet Tubman escapes slavery

1849

The Fugitive Slave Act

1850

Uncle Tom's Cabin is published

1852

North and South diverge sharply

by 1860