He is one of the first men to die in the cause of American independence. First recorded arrival of South Asians in the United States. Congress passes the first Fugitive Slave Act, making it a crime to harbour an escaped slave or to interfere with his or her arrest. The Missouri Compromise provides for Missouri to be admitted to the Union as a slave state, Maine as a free state, and western territories north of Missouri's southern border to be free soil. Nat Turner leads the only effective, sustained slave rebellion in U.S. history, attracting up to 75 fellow slaves and killing 60 whites.
Chinese miners begin to arrive.
In its Dred Scott decision, the U.S. Supreme Court legalizes slavery in all the territories. Central Pacific Railroad Co. recruits Chinese workers for the transcontinental railroad. The Civil War ends on April 26, after the surrender of the Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and J.E. Johnston. Hiram R. Revels of Mississippi takes the former seat of Jefferson Davis in the U.S. Senate, becoming the only black in the U.S. Congress and the first elected to the Senate. Chinese Exclusion Law suspends U.S. immigration of laborers for 10 years.