civil rights

Missouri compromise

an 1820 agreement that admitted missouri as a slave state to keep the balance of power

compromise of 1850

a set of laws that admitted California as a free state and allowed new territories to decide about slavery

kansas-nebraska act

a 1854 law that allowed people in kansas and Nebraska to vote on whether to allow slavery

bleeding Kansas

a violent conflict between pro-slavery and anti-slavery groups in Kansas

dred scott’s decision

and 1857 supreme court ruling that said enslaved people were not U.S citizens and could not sue in federal court

freeport doctrine

Stephen Douglas’s idea that territories could effectively prevent slavery by refusing to pass laws supporting it

states’ rights

the idea that states have the right to govern themselves and make their own laws

abolitionism

the movement to end slavery

nationalism

strong pride in and loyalty to one’s country

sectionalism

loyalty to one’s region or section of the country over the nation as a whole

fugitive slave act

a law that required escaped enslaved people to be returned to their enslavers

popular sovereignty

the idea that people in a territory should vote to decide whether slavery would be allowed there

anaconda plan

the Unions plan during the Civil War to blockade the South and cut off its supplies

emancipation proclamation

Lincoln’s 1863 order that declared enslaved people in confederate states free

gettysburg

a major civil war battle where the Union defeated the Confederacy and stopped its advance into the North

gettysburg address

Lincoln’s short speech honoring soldiers who died at gettysburg and promoting equality and democracy

vicksburg

a major union control of the Mississippi river and split the confederacy in two

secession

the act of a state leaving the U.S