U.S History Chapter 15 Terms

West Africa Squadron

British Royal Navy force formed to enforce the abolition of the slave trade in 1807, intercepting hundreds of slave ships and freed thousands of Africans.

Black Belt

Region of the Deep South with the highest concentration of slaves. It emerged in the 19th century as cotton production became more profitable and slavery expanded south and west.

Breakers

Slave drivers who employed the lash to brutally “break” the souls of strong-willed slaves.

Responsorial

Call and response style of preaching that combined Christian and African traditions. Practiced by African slaves in the South.

Nat Turner’s Rebellion

Virginia slave revolt that resulted in the deaths of 60 whites and raised fears among white southerners of further uprisings.

Amistad

Spanish slave ship seized off the coast of Cuba by the enslaved Africans aboard. The ship was driven ashore in Long Island and the slaves were put on trial. Former president John Quincy Adams argued their case before the Supreme Court, securing their eventual release.

American Colonization Society

Focusing of early abolitionists on transporting freed blacks back to Africa, the organization established Liberia, a West African settlement intended as a haven for emancipated slaves.

Liberia

West African nation founded in 1822 as a haven for freed blacks, 15,000 of whom made their way back across the Atlantic by the 1860s.

An Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World

Incendiary abolitionist tract advocating the violent overthrow of slavery. Published by David Walker, a southern-born free black.

The Liberator

Antislavery newspaper published by William Lloyd Garrison, who called for the immediate emancipation of all slaves.

American Anti-Slavery Society

Abolitionist society founded by William Lloyd Garrison, who advocated the immediate abolition of slavery.

By 1838, the organization had more than 250,000 members across 1350 chapters.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

Vivid autobiography of the escaped slave and renowned abolitionist Frederick Douglass.

Mason-Dixon Line

Originally drawn by surveyors to resolve the boundaries between Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Virginia in the 1760s, it came to symbolize the North-South divide over slavery.

Gag Resolution

Prohibited debate or action on antislavery appeals. Driven through the House by proslavery southerners, it was passed every year for eight years and was eventually overturned with the help of John Quincy Adams.

Slave Narratives

18th and 19th century accounts of slavery written by former slaves, most of whom had escaped from bondage. During the Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration recorded oral histories with former slaves.

William T. Johnson

Free New Orleans black, known as the "barber of Natchez," who eventually owned fifteen slaves.

Nat Turner

Black slave who led an ill-fated rebellion in Virginia in 1831. He sought a violent overthrow to the sinful institution of slavery. Before they were apprehended, he and his followers murdered more than sixty whites, sending a shockwave throughout the South.

William Wilberforce

British politician who promoted the abolition of the slave trade, and later slavery itself. An evangelical Christian, he delivered rousing speeches on the floor of the House of Commons, galvanizing public support for the abolitionist cause.

Theodore Dwight Weld

Fervent abolitionist and author of American Slavery as It Is, an antislavery tract that dramatized the horrors of slave life.

William Lloyd Garrison

Passionate abolitionist and publisher of The Liberator. In 1833, he founded the American Anti-Slavery Society, which became the largest abolitionist organization in the North, counting more than 250,000 members by 1838.

David Walker

Black abolitionist and author of the incendiary Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World, which advocated a bloody end to white supremacy.

Sojourner Truth

Black abolitionist, preacher, and women’s rights activist, who worked tirelessly on behalf of slaves and freed blacks.

Martin Delany

Black abolitionist and advocate of relocating freed blacks to Africa, even visiting West Africa’s Niger Valley in search of a suitable location in 1859.

Frederick Douglass

Prominent back abolitionist, whose autobiography, detailed his experience in bondage and his daring escape to the North. More practical than many of his fellow abolitionists, he looked to politics to put an end to slavery. After the Civil War, he continued to write and speak on behalf of blacks, calling on the federal government to help ensure economic independence for newly freed slaves.