Unit 6: The Union in Peril

Vocabulary and key concepts from Unit 6 regarding the political crises, legal decisions, and legislative acts leading up to the American Civil War.

Sectionalism

Regional differences and loyalties regarding slavery that existed among the North, South, Midwest, and West, contributing to the Civil War.

Border States

Slave states that did not secede from the Union, which students were required to color purple on their maps.

Missouri Compromise ($1820$)

A legislative agreement where Maine entered as a free state, Missouri as a slave state, and slavery was banned north of $36^\circ 30'$.

Wilmot Proviso

A failed attempt to ban slavery in the new territory acquired after the Mexican-American War.

Compromise of $1850$

A series of resolutions created by Henry Clay that included admitting California as a free state and passing a strict new fugitive slave law.

Fugitive Slave Act

A law where alleged fugitives were denied fair trials and testimony; those helping fugitives faced a $1000$ fine and $6 \text{ months}$ in jail.

Personal Liberty Laws

Northern laws that forbade the imprisonment of runaway slaves and guaranteed them jury trials to increase slave catchers' expenses.

Underground Railroad

A system of safehouses and protection used to help people escape from slavery on the journey to Canada.

Popular Sovereignty

A policy where the people who live in a state or territory get to vote to decide on the issue of slavery.

Franklin Pierce

The only President from New Hampshire, who ran against Winfield Scott (also known as "Ole Fuss and Feathers").

Kansas-Nebraska Act ($1854$)

An act to organize Western Territories into states using popular sovereignty to decide on slavery, which repealed the Missouri Compromise.

Free Soil Movement

A group in Kansas that opposed slavery because it took land away from free whites and brought African Americans into the settled area.

Bleeding Kansas

A period of violence between pro-slavery and Free Soil supporters in Kansas, characterized by rigged elections and the burning of a hotel.

Pottawatomie Massacre

An event where John Brown and a group including his sons killed $5$ pro-slavery men, leading to a total of $55$ deaths in the region.

Charles Sumner

A Senator who gave the "Crime Against Kansas" speech and was beaten with a cane by Preston Brooks, causing brain damage.

James Buchanan

The winner of the election of $1856$, which saw the first appearance of the Republican Party.

Dred Scott Decision ($1856$-$1857$)

A Supreme Court ruling that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional and that people of African descent were not citizens.

Roger Taney

The Supreme Court Chief Justice who delivered the ruling in the Dred Scott case.

John Brown

A deeply religious abolitionist born in $1800$ who believed his destiny was to end slavery and had $20$ children.

The Secret Six

A group of $6$ wealthy and influential men who funded John Brown's attack on Harper's Ferry.

Harper's Ferry ($1859$)

The site of a federal armory in Virginia where John Brown and $18$ supporters launched a raid before being defeated by U.S. Marines.

Know Nothing Party

Also known as the American Party, a nativist group that was anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic and used secret handshakes.

Election of $1860$

A four-way presidential race won by Abraham Lincoln, which triggered the secession of South Carolina in December $1860$.