National Expansion & Antebellum America

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering territorial expansion, sectionalism, antebellum reform movements, and the escalating crises leading up to the Civil War.

Manifest Destiny

The widespread cultural belief, coined by newspaper editor John L. O'Sullivan in 1845, that the United States was divinely ordained by Providence to expand across the North American continent.

Louisiana Purchase

The 1803 territorial acquisition from France that doubled the size of the nation, raising constitutional questions regarding presidential power and sparking debates over the expansion of slavery.

War of 1812

A conflict fought against Great Britain over trade interference, sailor impressment, and British backing of Native American resistance, which surged national pride and sparked the "Era of Good Feelings."

Monroe Doctrine

An 1823 foreign policy delivered by President James Monroe warning European powers that the Western Hemisphere was closed to further colonization or political interference.

Market Revolution

The transformation from home subsistence farming to factory production and cash-crop agriculture, accelerated by advancements such as the cotton gin, mill systems, canals, and railroads.

Know-Nothing Party

A political organization established during a wave of anti-immigrant nativism and xenophobia specifically to restrict immigration and block naturalization rights.

Missouri Compromise

An 1820 agreement engineered by Henry Clay that admitted Missouri as a slave state, admitted Maine as a free state, and banned slavery north of latitude line $36^\circ 30'$ in the Louisiana Territory.

Indian Removal Act

An 1830 law signed by President Andrew Jackson designed to force Southern Native American tribes from their ancestral homelands to open land for white cotton planters.

Chief John Ross

The Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation who used legal means and official appeals to resist the forced relocation of his people.

Trail of Tears

The forced westward military march of thousands of Cherokee and other tribes to Oklahoma, during which thousands perished from disease, exposure, and starvation.

Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo

The 1848 treaty that concluded the Mexican-American War, transferring the Mexican Cession territory to the United States.

Mexican Cession

The vast southwestern territory surrendered to the U.S. in 1848, which encompassed modern-day California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and parts of Colorado.

Compromise of 1850

A legislative compromise engineered by Henry Clay and Stephen Douglas that admitted California as a free state, enacted a harsher Fugitive Slave Law, and settled southwestern territorial disputes.

Fugitive Slave Law

A strict measure included in the Compromise of 1850 that forced Northerners to assist in capturing and returning escaped enslaved people to the South.

Seneca Falls Convention

The first national women's rights convention held in 1848, organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott to advocate for full legal rights.

Declaration of Sentiments

A document produced at Seneca Falls that adapted language from the Declaration of Independence to affirm that "all men and women are created equal" and demand women's suffrage.

The Liberator

A radical abolitionist newspaper founded by William Lloyd Garrison that called for the immediate emancipation of enslaved people and full equal rights.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

An 1852 anti-slavery novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe that galvanized Northern sentiment against the brutality of human enslavement.

John Brown

A radical abolitionist who believed violence was necessary to eliminate slavery, known for leading the Pottawatomie Massacre in Kansas and the armed raid on Harpers Ferry.

Dred Scott v. Sandford

An 1857 Supreme Court ruling authored by Chief Justice Roger Taney declaring that Black people were not citizens, slaves were private property protected by the Fifth Amendment, and Congress could not ban territorial slavery.

Popular Sovereignty

A political doctrine championed by Stephen Douglas allowing voters in a territory to determine for themselves whether to permit or prohibit slavery.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

An 1854 statute sponsored by Stephen Douglas to facilitate a transcontinental railroad route, which repealed the Missouri Compromise line and opened the Kansas and Nebraska territories to popular sovereignty.

Bleeding Kansas

A cycle of violent conflict in Kansas between pro-slavery "Border Ruffians" and anti-slavery "Free-Staters" attempting to influence the territorial vote on slavery.

"Positive Good" Defense

An ideological argument advanced by Southern anti-abolitionists asserting that slavery was not a moral failing, but an institution essential for the Southern economy and social order.