Overview of Slavery and Abolitionism in 19th Century America

A collection of vocabulary flashcards focusing on key terms and concepts related to slavery and abolitionism in the 19th century America.

Democratic liberty

A concept suggesting that liberty is not possible without the existence of slavery, as posited by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Abolitionism

The movement advocating for the immediate and complete end of slavery.

Missouri Compromise (1820)

A legislative agreement that admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state, establishing a line for the future expansion of slavery.

Fugitive Slave Acts

Laws that enforced severe penalties on anyone assisting escaped enslaved individuals and allowed for their capture in free states.

Triangular trade

A system of trade in the 18th and 19th centuries involving routes between Europe, Africa, and the Americas, facilitating the exchange of goods and enslaved individuals.

Sectionalism

The division of different regions, particularly the North and South, due to conflicting interests, such as those over slavery and tariffs.

Slave catcher

Individuals who captured escaped enslaved people, acting under the authority of the Fugitive Slave Acts, often instilling fear across both enslaved and free Black populations.

Tariffs

Taxes imposed on imports that created economic tensions between the industrial North, which favored high tariffs, and the agricultural South, which opposed them.

Hypocrisy of Founding Fathers

The contradiction between the ideals of liberty and equality expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the personal ownership of slaves by its authors, like Thomas Jefferson.

Gradual abolition

The process by which several Northern states passed laws to gradually end slavery, leading to a growing divide with Southern states.