The Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Rise of the Republican Party

Vocabulary flashcards reviewing key political figures, events, and legislation surrounding the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Bleeding Kansas, and the political realignment leading up to the Election of 1856.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

The federal legislation authored by Stephen Douglas that opened territory closed to slavery for more than thirty years to slavery, enraging Northerners and spurring the formation of the Republican Party.

Republican Party

The political party established in 1854 by Northern Conscience Whigs, independent Democrats, and Free Soilers around the central principle of arresting the threat of slavery and excluding it from the Western territories.

Homestead Act

A federal policy favored by Republicans promoting upward mobility for the common working man by offering a free homestead of 160 acres out west.

Morrill Land Grant Act

A Republican-supported federal initiative designed to promote public universities and ensure equal access to economic opportunity.

Know Nothing Party

A political party built on nativism that drew Northern Whigs following the fracture and dissolution of the Whig party.

Popular Sovereignty

The concept championed by Stephen Douglas leaving the decision of whether a territory would be free or slave to its voters, a doctrine rejected by Republicans who insisted Congress outlaw slavery in the territories.

Bleeding Kansas

The mini civil war and period of violent conflict in Kansas Territory between pro-slavery forces and anti-slavery free-state advocates.

Topeka Constitutional Convention

An 1855 convention in Topeka where free-state advocates drafted a state constitution that excluded slavery, establishing a rival free-state government in opposition to the fraudulent pro-slavery legislature.

David Atchison

A former Missouri senator who urged pro-slavery southern raiders in Kansas to fight until every spark of free state sentiment was quenched, describing the day of the attack on Lawrence as the happiest day of his life.

Sack of Lawrence

The May 1856 raid in which 700 pro-slavery men entered Lawrence, Kansas, destroying property, newspaper presses, a hotel, and the free-state governor's home.

John Brown

A radical Free Soiler who believed Christians had an obligation to "break the jaws of the wicked" and carried out retaliatory attacks against slaveholders in Kansas.

Potawatomi Massacre

The retaliatory raid led by John Brown, four of his sons, and three others at Potawatomi Creek in which five pro-slavery men were hacked to death with broadswords.

Preston S. Brooks

The South Carolina representative who brutally beat Senator Charles Sumner about the head with a gold-knobbed cane on the Senate floor on May 22, 1856.

Charles Sumner

The Massachusetts senator who gave an inflammatory speech accusing Senator Andrew Pickens Butler of being a liar and keeping a slave mistress, which prompted Preston S. Brooks to beat him until he nearly died.

John C. Frémont

The military hero nominated by the newly formed Republican Party as its presidential candidate in the election of 1856.

James Buchanan

The Democratic presidential nominee from Pennsylvania in 1856 who won the presidency by an electoral college margin of 174 to 114.