The Union Crisis

Flashcards for U.S. History Honors, covering key vocabulary and concepts related to the Union Crisis, including border states, significant legislative acts, Supreme Court decisions, political parties, and events leading to the Civil War.

Border states

States on the border between the North and South: Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri.

Secede

To officially leave an organization.

The Fugitive Slave Act (1850)

Part of the Compromise of 1850, a law that stated anyone who helped a fugitive slave could be fined or imprisoned.

Emancipation Proclamation

A decree issued by President Lincoln freeing enslaved people in those parts of the Confederacy still in rebellion on January 1, 1863.

Habeas Corpus

A legal order that guarantees a prisoner the right to be heard in court.

Greenbacks

Paper money issued by the U.S. government.

Wilmot Proviso

A proposal by Rep. David Wilmot (PA) to ban slavery in any lands the U.S. might acquire from Mexico.

Free-Soil Party

A political party formed by those who opposed slavery; their slogan was 'Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor and Free Men.'

Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)

A bill that introduced popular sovereignty to the territories, allowing residents to decide on the issue of slavery by voting, and effectively repealed the Missouri Compromise.

Popular sovereignty

The principle that the authority of a state and its government are created and sustained by the consent of its people, through their elected representatives, who are the source of all political power, particularly used here for territories deciding on slavery.

Border ruffians

Armed pro-slavery supporters who crossed the border from Missouri to illegally vote for slavery in Kansas, leading to civil unrest.

Bleeding Kansas

The period of civil unrest and violence in Kansas during the mid-1850s, stemming from the conflict between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces vying for control of the territory.

American Party (Know-Nothings)

A political party active in the 1850s, which nominated Millard Fillmore in the Election of 1856.

Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857)

A Supreme Court case ruling that Dred Scott, an enslaved person, was not a citizen and therefore could not sue in federal court, that living on free soil did not make him free, and that Congress had no right to ban slavery in the territories, declaring the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional.

Republican Party

A political party formed by Anti-Slavery Whigs and Free-Soilers, with a major goal to ban slavery in the territories.

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

A series of seven debates held in 1858 between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas for an Illinois Senate seat, primarily discussing the issue of slavery and its expansion.

John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry

An 1859 attack led by abolitionist John Brown on a federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry, VA, with the aim of arming enslaved African Americans and initiating a revolt against slaveholders.

Confederate States of America

The new government formed by the Southern states that seceded from the Union, beginning with South Carolina in December 1860.

States' rights

The theory that individual states are independent and have the right to control their most important affairs, often cited by Southern states as justification for secession.

Fort Sumter

A U.S. fort guarding Charleston harbor where Confederate forces attacked U.S. supply ships, marking the beginning of the Civil War.