APUSH 16-17 Simple IDs

Cotton Kingdom

Term for the ante-bellum South that emphasized its economic dependence on a single staple product

West Africa Squadron

British naval unit that seized hundreds of slave ships in the process of suppressing the illegal slave trade in the early 1800s

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Harriet Beecher Stowe’s powerful 1852 novel that focused on slavery’s cruel effects in separating black family members from one another

Black Belt

The fertile region of the Deep South, stretching across Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, where the largest concentration of black slaves worked on rich cotton plantations

Amistad

Spanish slave ship, seized by revolting African slaves that led to a dramatic U.S. Supreme Court case that freed the slaves.

American Slavery As It Is

Theodore Dwight Weld’s powerful antislavery book

American Colonization Society

Organization founded in 1817 to transport American blacks back to Africa

Liberia

African republic founded by freed American slaves in 1822

Lane Rebels

The group of theology students, led by Theodore Dwight Weld, who were expelled from their seminary for abolitionist activity and later became leading preachers of the anti-slavery gospel

The Liberator

William Lloyd Garrison’s fervent abolitionist newspaper that preached an immediate end to slavery

American Anti-Slavery Society

Garrisonian abolitionist organization, founded in 1833, that included the eloquent Wendell Phillips among its leaders

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

Classic autobiography written by a leading African American abolitionist

Mason-Dixon Line

The line across the southern boundary of Pennsylvania that formed the boundary between free states and slave states in the East

Gag Rule

Strict rule passed by pro-southern Congressmen in 1836 to prohibit all discussion of slavery in the House of Representatives

Free Soilers

Northern antislavery politicians, like Abraham Lincoln, who rejected radical immediate abolitionism, but fought to prohibit the expansion of slavery in the western territories

Eli Whitney

Inventor of a machine for extracting seeds from cotton that revolutionized the southern economy

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Author of an abolitionist novel that portrayed the separation of slave families by auction

Nat Turner

Visionary black preacher whose bloody slave rebellion in 1831 tightened the reins of slavery in the South

William Wilberforce

British evangelical Christian reformer who in 1833 achieved the emancipation of slaves in the British West Indies

Theodore Dwight Weld

Leader of the Lane Rebels who wrote the powerful antislavery work American Slavery As It Is

Wendell Phillips

New England patrician and Garrison follower whose eloquent attacks on slavery earned him the title “abolition’s golden trumpet”

Denmark Vesey

Free black whose failed attempt to lead a slave revolt in Charleston, South Carolina, led to the execution of more than thirty of his followers

William Lloyd Garrison

Leading radical abolitionist who burned the Constitution as “a covenant with death and an agreement with hell”

David Walker

Black abolitionist writer who called for a bloody end to slavery in an appeal of 1829

Sojourner Truth

New York free black woman who fought for emancipation and women’s rights

Martin Delany

Black abolitionist who visited West Africa in 1859 to examine sites where African Americans might relocate

Frederick Douglass

Escaped slave and great black abolitionist who fought to end slavery through political action

Lewis Tappan

Wealthy New York abolitionist merchant whose home was ransacked by a proslavery mob in 1834

John Quincy Adams

Former president who won the Amistad rebellious slaves’ freedom and fought for the right to discuss slavery in Congress

Elijah Lovejoy

Illinois editor whose death at the hands of a mob made him an abolitionist martyr

Caroline

American ship involved in supplying Canadian rebels that was sunk by British forces, sparking an international crisis between Britain and the United States

Aroostook War

Outbreak of fighting between American and Canadian lumberjacks over disputed Maine boundary

Conscience Whigs

Antislavery Whigs who strongly opposed the annexation of Texas as a conspiracy by the slave power

54°40′ Parallel

Northern boundary of Oregon territory jointly occupied with Britain, advocated by Democratic party and others as the desired line of American expansion

Oregon Trail

Two-thousand-mile-long path along which thousands of Americans journeyed to the Willamette Valley in the 1840s

Manifest Destiny

The widespread American belief that God had ordained the United States to occupy all the territory of North America

Liberty Party

Small antislavery party that took enough votes from Henry Clay to cost him the election of 1844

Walker Tariff of 1846

Reduced tariff law sponsored by President Polk’s secretary of the Treasury that produced substantial revenue and bolstered the U.S. economy

California

Rich Mexican province that Polk was determined to buy and Mexico refused to sell

Nueces River

River that Mexico claimed as the Texas-Mexico boundary, crossed by Taylor’s troops in 1846

Spot Resolutions

Resolution offered by Congressman Abraham Lincoln demanding to know the precise location where Mexicans had allegedly shed American blood on American soil

Bear Flag Republic

Short-lived West Coast republic proclaimed by American rebels against Mexican rule just before the arrival of U.S. troops in the province

Buena Vista

Site of major victory by American troops under Zachary Taylor over Mexican troops under Santa Anna

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

Treaty ending the Mexican War and granting vast territories to the United States

Wilmot Proviso

Controversial amendment, which passed the House but not the Senate, stipulating that slavery should be forbidden in all territory acquired from Mexico

John Tyler

Leader elected vice president on the Whig ticket who spent most of his presidency in bitter feuds with his fellow Whigs

Henry Clay

Leader of Senate Whigs and unsuccessful presidential candidate against Polk in 1844

Aroostook War

Clash between Canadians and Americans over disputed timber country

Daniel Webster

Whig leader and secretary of state who negotiated an end to Maine boundary dispute in 1842

Texas

Independent nation that was the object of British, Mexican, and French scheming in the early 1840s

Oregon

Northwestern territory in dispute between Britain and United States, subject of Manifest Destiny rhetoric in 1844

James K. Polk

Dark-horse presidential winner in 1844 who effectively carried out ambitious expansionist campaign plans

John C. Frémont

Dashing explorer/adventurer who led the overthrow of Mexican rule in California after war broke out

Abraham Lincoln

Congressional author of the spot resolutions criticizing the Mexican War

Rio Grande

Claimed by United States as southern boundary of Texas

Zachary Taylor

American military hero who invaded northern Mexico from Texas in 1846–1847

Winfield Scott

“Old Fuss and Feathers,” whose conquest of Mexico City brought U.S. victory in the Mexican War

Santa Anna

Mexican military leader who failed to stop humiliating American invasion of his country

Nicholas Trist

Long-winded American diplomat who negotiated the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

David Wilmot

Congressional author of resolution forbidding slavery in territory acquired from Mexico