Unit 4 Sectionalism (1800–1848): Slavery, Freedom, and the Fracturing Union

Sectionalism

The growing tendency for Americans to identify with and defend the interests of their region (North, South, or West) rather than the nation as a whole.

Chattel slavery

A system in which enslaved people were legally treated as property that could be bought, sold, inherited, and used as collateral.

Cotton gin

Eli Whitney’s 1793 invention that made cleaning short-staple cotton profitable on a large scale, accelerating cotton expansion and demand for enslaved labor.

Domestic slave trade

The internal U.S. trade that forcibly moved enslaved people—especially from the Upper South to the Deep South—expanding slavery after 1800 and after the 1808 import ban.

International slave trade ban (1808)

A U.S. law ending legal international importation of enslaved people; it did not end slavery or the domestic slave trade.

Gradual emancipation

Northern laws that typically freed future-born children of enslaved mothers only after long terms of indentured service rather than immediately freeing all enslaved people.

Indentured service (in gradual emancipation)

A long labor term required of children born under gradual emancipation laws before they gained freedom (often into their early-to-mid twenties).

African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church

An independent Black Christian denomination founded in 1816 that provided spiritual autonomy and supported leadership, education, and antislavery activism.

Richard Allen

Founder and key leader of the AME Church (1816), representing independent Black institution-building in the Early Republic.

Mutual aid societies

Organizations in free Black communities that provided assistance such as burial funds, aid to the poor, and support for education.

Resistance (enslaved people)

Actions ranging from everyday defiance (slowdowns, breaking tools, running away, literacy) to organized rebellion against slavery.

Slave codes

Laws that restricted enslaved people’s movement, assembly, and education; many Southern states tightened these after major rebellions like Nat Turner’s.

Gabriel’s Rebellion (1800)

A planned enslaved uprising in Virginia that was suppressed, contributing to white fears and harsher controls.

Denmark Vesey’s alleged conspiracy (1822)

A suppressed (and contested) alleged plan for rebellion in Charleston that intensified Southern surveillance and repression.

Nat Turner’s Rebellion (1831)

A violent enslaved uprising in Virginia followed by brutal retaliation and stricter Southern slave codes, intensifying sectional debate.

Abolitionism

The movement to end slavery, ranging from gradual approaches to immediate emancipation, especially influential in public debate by the 1830s–1840s.

Colonization

The proposal to relocate free Black people outside the United States (e.g., to Liberia), revealing that some anti-slavery views coexisted with opposition to Black equality.

American Colonization Society (1816)

Organization associated with colonization efforts, supporting the resettlement of free African Americans to places like Liberia.

Immediatist abolitionism

A form of abolitionism (prominent by the 1830s) calling for immediate emancipation and treating slavery as a moral evil requiring urgent action.

Moral suasion

An abolitionist strategy using persuasion (pamphlets, lectures, newspapers, petitions) to convince Americans slavery violated Christian and republican ideals.

Gag rule (1836)

A House rule to table antislavery petitions without discussion, reflecting Southern backlash and turning slavery into a conflict over free speech and democracy.

Missouri Compromise (1820)

Agreement admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state, while banning slavery in the Louisiana Purchase north of 36°30′ (except Missouri).

Tariff of Abominations (Tariff of 1828)

A high protective tariff criticized by opponents (especially in the South) as unfairly harmful, helping trigger the Nullification Crisis.

Nullification Crisis (1832–1833)

Conflict in which South Carolina claimed a state could nullify a federal tariff; President Jackson rejected nullification and a compromise tariff defused the crisis.

Wilmot Proviso (1846)

A proposal (not passed) to ban slavery in territory acquired from Mexico, significant for exposing sharp sectional voting and intensifying distrust over slavery’s expansion.