CC:11 key terms

Alcalde

A Mexican official who served as a judge, law enforcer, and civil administrator.

Barnburners

Northern Democrats who opposed expanding slavery into new territories and later broke away from the Democratic Party.

Californios

Mexican residents of California.

Compromise of 1850

Five laws passed in 1850 to deal with the Mexican Cession and disagreements over slavery.

Corps of Discovery

The expedition led by Lewis and Clark to explore and map the Louisiana Purchase.

Empresario

A person who brought settlers to Texas in exchange for a land grant.

Filibuster

A person who unofficially uses military force to take foreign land or start a revolution.

Forty-Niners

People who traveled to California in 1849 to search for gold.

Free-Soil Party

A political party that wanted to keep slavery out of western territories and protect White workers from competing with enslaved labor.

Liberty Party

A political party formed in 1840 that wanted to end slavery through political action.

Mexican Cession

Land Mexico gave to the United States in 1848, including present-day California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming.

Missouri Compromise

The 1820 agreement that made Missouri a slave state, Maine a free state, and banned slavery north of 36°30′ in the Louisiana Territory.

Northwest Passage

A supposed all-water route across North America that explorers searched for but never existed.

Slave Power

A term Northerners used for the strong political influence of wealthy Southern slaveholders.

Tallmadge Amendment

A 1819 proposal that would have made Missouri a free state and gradually ended slavery there. It did not pass.

Tejanos

Mexican residents of Texas.

Wilmot Proviso

A proposed amendment that would have banned slavery in all land gained from Mexico.