AICE Chap 1. topics 1-8 Key Figures

Harriet Beecher Stowe

(1811-1896)

New England writer and

abolitionist; wrote Uncle Tom's

Cabin (1852), exposing slavery and

criticizing the Fugitive Slave Act.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

Lawyer and politician; opposed

slavery expansion and became the

16th US president, leading the nation

during the Civil War.

Frederick Douglass

(1818-1895)

Former enslaved person and

leading abolitionist; gave speeches

and wrote about slavery to influence

public opinion.

William Lloyd Garrison

(1805-1879)

Abolitionist and founder of The

Liberator newspaper; publicly burned

copies of the Fugitive Slave Act and

Constitution in protest

John O'Sullivan (1813-1895)

Journalist who coined the term

'Manifest Destiny" in 1845; argued

the US had a God-given right to

expand across the continent.

James Polk (1795-1849)

President during the

Mexican-American War; supported

annexing Texas and acquiring land

from Mexico.

David Wilmot (1814-1868)

Northern Democrat

congressman; introduced the Wilmot

Proviso (1846) to ban slavery in lands

acquired from Mexico.

Henry Clay (1777-1852)

Kentucky politician and Whig

leader; helped negotiate the Missouri

Compromise and attempted to ease

tensions with the Compromise of

1850.

James Monroe (1758-1831)

President during the Missouri

Compromise (1820); signed the bill to

maintain balance between free and

slave states.

Stephen Douglas

(1813-1861)

Illinois senator; promoted

popular sovereignty in the

Compromise of 1850 and the

Kansas-Nebraska Act, increasing

sectional tensions.

William Parker (active 1850s)

Former slave; led resistance

to the Fugitive Slave Act during the

Christiana Riot (1851) and helped

escaped slaves via the Underground

Railroad.

Anthony Burns (c.

1834-1860)

Former slave in Boston; arrested

under the Fugitive Slave Act (1854),

sparking the Boston Slave Riot and

national anti-slavery protests

John Brown (1800-1859)

Radical abolitionist; led violent

attacks in Kansas, including the

Pottawatomie Massacre, to resist

slavery expansion.

Charles Sumner (1811-1874)

Massachusetts senator and

abolitionist; delivered speeches

against slavery in Kansas and was

attacked by Preston Brooks in 1856.

Preston Brooks (1819-1857)

Southern congressman from

South Carolina; beat Charles Sumner

in the Senate to defend Southern

honor, escalating sectional tensions

John Frémont (1813-1890)

Explorer and first Republican

presidential candidate (1856);

opposed slavery expansion and

supported Kansas as a free state.