Purchase of Alaska

Date: March 30, 1867 • Location: Moscow, Russia

U.S. secretary of state William H. Seward negotiated the purchase of Alaska from Russia for US$7.2 million.

William Henry Seward was an American politician who served as United States Secretary of State from 1861 to 1869 and earlier served as governor of New York and as a United States senator. A determined opponent of the spread of slavery in the years leading up to the American Civil War, he was prominent in the Republican Party in its formative years and was praised for his work on behalf of the Union as Secretary of State during the Civil War. He also negotiated the treaty for the United States to purchase the Alaska Territory.