Pre-Civil War Sectional Crisis and Kansas Conflict

Vocabulary flashcards covering key individuals, events, and legislation during the sectional crisis and the conflict in Kansas as described in the lecture notes.

Anthony Burns

A Virginia slave who escaped to Boston in $1853$, whose capture and trial under the Fugitive Slave Act drew national attention and increased northern antislavery sentiment.

Franklin Pierce

The Democratic nominee in the Election of $1852$; a New Hampshire Lawyer and Mexican-American War officer known as a Dark Horse candidate.

Winfield Scott

The Whig nominee in the Election of $1852$ and General-in-Chief in the Mexican-American War; his defeat contributed to the collapse of the Whig Party.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

An $1852$ novel about the evils of southern slavery written by Harriet Beecher Stowe that sold $300,000$ copies in its first year.

Harriet Beecher Stowe

The white, northern, affluent abolitionist woman who authored Uncle Tom's Cabin after witnessing slavery while living in Ohio on the Ohio River.

Slavocracy Theory

Also known as the Slave Power Conspiracy; the idea that a small minority of southern plantation owners already controlled southern states and were trying to control the federal government.

Horace Greeley

A radical abolitionist who founded the New York Tribune in $1841$, which became the most famous and influential newspaper of the era.

Stephen A. Douglas

The Senator who lobbied for a northern transcontinental railroad route and proposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act using popular sovereignty.

Kansas-Nebraska Act 1854

Legislation that nullified the Missouri Compromise of $1820$ by allowing territories to determine slavery status through popular sovereignty.

Border Ruffians

Pro-slavery temporary squatters from Missouri who used terror tactics and illegal voting to affect elections in Kansas.

Lecompton Constitution

The pro-slavery constitution submitted to the government by voters in Kansas.

Topeka Constitution

The anti-slavery constitution submitted by protestors in Kansas as an alternative to the pro-slavery government.

Sack of Lawrence

A $\text{May } 1856$ attack where proslavery forces destroyed an antislavery town with cannons, targeting the Free State Hotel and Free State Press.

Pottawatomie Creek Massacre

A $\text{May } 1856$ attack led by John Brown in which $5$ proslavery leaders were killed with machetes.

John Brown

A fanatical abolitionist who led the Pottawatomie Creek Massacre and later fled Kansas to begin planning a major slave revolt.

Jayhawkers

An antislavery group led by Charles R. Jennison whose name later became the mascot for Kansas and the University of Kansas.

Bleeding Kansas

The violent period in Kansas that lasted for half a decade and served as a state-wide opening act of the Civil War.