IB HOTA Pre -Civil War (Chapters 1-5)

Secede

withdraw formally from membership in a federal union, an alliance, or a political or religious organization.

Fire-eaters

Southerners who wanted to leave the Union

Abolitionists

people who believed that slavery should be against the law

Cult of Domesticity

The notion that women's place was in the home

King Cotton

Expression used by Southern authors and orators before Civil War to indicate economic dominance of Southern cotton industry, and that North needed South's cotton. Coined by James Hammond

Peculiar Institution

Widely used term for the institution of American slavery in the South. Its use in the first half of the 19th century reflected a growing division between the North, where slavery was gradually abolished, and the South, where slavery became increasingly entrenched.

Manumission

A grant of legal freedom to an individual slave.

Sovereignty

Ability of a state to govern its territory free from control of its internal affairs by other states.

Second Party System

emerged when Andrew Jackson first ran for the presidency in 1824. The period from the mid-1830's to the 1850's when Democrats and Whigs were the two main parties

Whigs

conservatives and popular with pro-Bank people and plantation owners. They mainly came from the National Republican Party, which was once largely Federalists. They took their name from the British political party that had opposed King George during the American Revolution. Their policies included support of industry, protective tariffs, and Clay's American System. They were generally upper class in origin. Included Clay and Webster

Patronage

the giving of jobs or privileges to supporters

States' Rights

political powers held for the state governments rather than the federal government

VA and KY Resolutions

Written anonymously by Jefferson and Madison in response to the Alien and Sedition Acts, they declared that states could nullify federal laws that the states considered unconstitutional.

Hartford Convention

Meeting of Federalists near the end of the War of 1812 in which the party listed it's complaints against the ruling Republican Party. These actions were largely viewed as traitorous to the country and lost the Federalist much influence

Nullification

A state's refusal to recognize an act of Congress that it considers unconstitutional

Tariff of Abomination

1828 - Also called Tariff of 1828, it raised the tariff on imported manufactured goods. The tariff protected the North but harmed the South; South said that the tariff was economically discriminatory and unconstitutional because it violated state's rights.

Sectionalism

Loyalty to one's own region of the country, rather than to the nation as a whole

Egalitarian

promoting equal rights for all people

Hinton Helper

a Southern critic of slavery during the 1850s who wrote a book entitled The Impending Crisis of The South. The book put forth the notion that slavery hurt the economic prospects of non-slaveholders, and was an impediment to the growth of the entire region of the South.

William Lloyd Garrison

(1805-1879) Prominent American abolitionist, journalist and social reformer. Editor of radical abolitionist newspaper "The Liberator", and one of the founders of the American Anti-Slavery Society.

Tappan Brothers

successful merchants in NYC; used wealth to fund antislavery activities and pamphlets

The Liberator

An anti-slavery newspaper written by William Lloyd Garrison. It drew attention to abolition, both positive and negative, causing a war of words between supporters of slavery and those opposed.

Dwight Weld

American antislavery crusader in the pre-Civil War period. He left his studies in 1834 to become an agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society, recruiting and training people to work for the cause. He wrote pamphlets (largely anonymous), notably The Bible Against Slavery (1837) and Slavery As It Is (1839).

Frederick Douglass

(1817-1895) American abolitionist and writer, he escaped slavery and became a leading African American spokesman and writer. He published his biography, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, and founded the abolitionist newspaper, the North Star.

Senator James H Hammond

(1807-1864) Representative, Governor, and Senator for South Carolina. One of the major spokesmen in favor of slavery in the years before the American Civil War.

George Fitzhugh

A social theorist who published racial and slavery-based sociological theories in the antebellum era. He argued that "the Negro is but a grown up child" who needs the economic and social protections of slavery. He went as far as to say that black slaves were in a much better situation than poor, freed blacks

Missouri Compromise

"Compromise of 1820" over the issue of slavery in Missouri. It was decided Missouri entered as a slave state and Maine entered as a free state and all states North of the 36th parallel were free states and all South were slave states.

Manifest Destiny

A notion held by a nineteenth-century Americans that the United States was destined to rule the continent, from the Atlantic the Pacific.

Mexican-American War

(1846-1848) - President Polk declared war on Mexico over the dispute of land in Texas. At the end, American ended up with 55% of Mexico's land.

Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo

Treaty that ended the Mexican War, granting the U.S. control of Texas, New Mexico, and California in exchange for $15 million

Wilmot Proviso

1846 proposal that outlawed slavery in any territory gained from the War with Mexico

Calhoun Doctrine

slaves are property. People are free to take property anywhere in USA. Congress has no right to enforce Missouri Compromise

Popular Sovereignty

A government in which the people rule by their own consent.

Free Soil Party

Formed in 1847 - 1848, dedicated to opposing slavery in newly acquired territories such as Oregon and ceded Mexican territory.

Stephen A Douglas

A moderate senator from Illinois who ran for president against Abraham Lincoln. He introduced the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 and popularized the idea of popular sovereignty. Wrote the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Freeport Doctrine

Compromise of 1850

(1) California admitted as free state, (2) territorial status and popular sovereignty of Utah and New Mexico, (3) resolution of Texas-New Mexico boundaries, (4) federal assumption of Texas debt, (5) slave trade abolished in DC, and (6) new fugitive slave law; advocated by Henry Clay and Stephen A. Douglas

Henry Clay

Distinguished senator from Kentucky. He was a strong supporter of the American System, a war hawk for the War of 1812, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and known as "The Great Compromiser." Outlined the Compromise of 1850 with five main points. Died before it was passed however.

Daniel Webster

Famous American politician and orator. he advocated renewal and opposed the financial policy of Jackson. Many of the principles of finance he spoke about were later incorporated in the Federal Reserve System. Would later push for a strong union.

Fugitive Slave Act

A law that made it a crime to help runaway slaves; allowed for the arrest of escaped slaves in areas where slavery was illegal and required their return to slaveholders

Uncle Tom's Cabin

an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in the U.S. and is said to have "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War".

Gadsden Purchase

Agreement w/ Mexico that gave the US parts of present-day New Mexico & Arizona in exchange for $10 million; all but completed the continental expansion envisioned by those who believed in Manifest Destiny.

Ostend Manifesto

The recommendation that the U.S. offer Spain $20 million for Cuba. It was not carried through in part because the North feared Cuba would become another slave state.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

1854 - Created Nebraska and Kansas as states and gave the people in those territories the right to chose to be a free or slave state through popular sovereignty.

Know-Nothings

the American Party; anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic

Party

an organized political group

Republican Party

1854 - anti-slavery Whigs and Democrats, Free Soilers and reformers from the Northwest met and formed party in order to keep slavery out of the territories

Bleeding Kansas

A sequence of violent events involving abolitionists and pro-Slavery elements that took place in Kansas-Nebraska Territory. The dispute further strained the relations of the North and South

Pottawatomie Creek

In 1856, abolitionist John Brown and his sons attacked this pro-slavery farm settlement and killed five settlers

Massacre

cruel killing of a large number of people

Charles Sumner

Radical Republican against the slave power who insults Andrew Butler and subsequently gets beaten by Preston Brooks

Preston Brooks

Was a Congressman from South Carolina, notorious for brutally assaulting senator Charles Sumner on the floor of the United States Senate.

John C Fremont

an American military officer, explorer, the first candidate of the Republican Party for the office of President of the United States, and the first presidential candidate of a major party to run on a platform in opposition to slavery.

Mormons

Church founded by Joseph Smith in 1830 with headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah, religious group that emphasized moderation, saving, hard work, and risk-taking; moved from IL to UT. Some practice polygamy (the act of having more than one spouse)

Dred Scott Case

Supreme Court case which ruled that slaves are not citizens but are property, affirmed that property cannot be interfered with by Congress, slaves do not become free if they travel to free territories or states, fueled abolitionist movement, hailed as victory for the south

Panic of 1857

Economic downturn caused by over-speculation of western lands, railroads, gold in California, grain. Mostly affected northerners, who called for higher tariffs and free homesteads

Lecompton Constitution

The pro-slavery constitution suggested for Kansas' admission to the union. It was rejected.

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

series of debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas over the issue of slavery

Freeport Doctrine

Idea authored by Stephen Douglas that claimed slavery could only exist when popular sovereignty supported it

John Brown

(1800-1858) Abolitionist who was hanged after leading an unsuccessful raid at Harper's Ferry, Virginia. Also involved in "Bleeding Kansas"

Raid at Harper's Ferry

effort by abolitionist John Brown to initiate an armed slave revolt in 1859 by taking over a United States arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia. Eventually surrounded and defeated by US Marines, led by Robert E. Lee. Brown was tried, found guilty of treason, and hanged.

John Breckinridge

Senator from Kentucky and V.P. under James Buchanan. An unsuccessful candidate for President in 1860, nominated by the Southern faction of the split Democratic party, losing to Abraham Lincoln but receiving more electoral votes than the other major candidates. He won the South with his pro-slavery platform, but was unable to win the Border States; received almost no support in the North. Strongly for slavery and states' rights.

Constitutional-Union Party

a political party formed in 1860 by a group of northerners and southerners who supported the Union, its laws, and the Constitution

Confederacy (CSA)

The alliance of 11 Southern states to form a new nation (Confederate States of America)

Fort Sumter

Federal fort in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina; the confederate attack on the fort marked the start of the Civil War