Lecture Notes Flashcards

Flashcards based on lecture notes covering key events, people, and concepts related to slavery and sectionalism in the United States during the 19th century.

Who was James Tallmadge?

A U.S. lawyer and politician who served in the New York State Assembly.

What is Texas Annexation?

The Republic of Texas was annexed and admitted to the Union into the U.S.

What area was acquired in the Gadsden Purchase?

Parts of present-day southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico were acquired from Mexico.

Who was Stephen Douglass?

A lawyer and former senator who espoused the cause of Popular Sovereignty in relation to the issue of slavery.

What was the Liberty Party?

An abolitionist political party in the U.S. before the American Civil War that advocated for swift, unconditional, and universal emancipation of all enslaved people.

What did the Whig Party favor?

An economic program with a protective tariff, federal subsidies for infrastructure.

What was the Compromise of 1850?

A series of laws that temporarily eased tensions between the free and slave states.

What is Popular Sovereignty?

The principle in the U.S. that the authority of a government is created and sustained by the consent of its people.

What is a Party Convention?

A party conference or general meeting of a political party.

What factors led to the increase of slavery in the South in the 1830s?

The rise of cotton and the cotton gin increased labor demand, and the expansion of territory westward gave more room for cotton fields.

How did the Compromise of 1850 ease tension in the US?

By addressing the status of the territories newly acquired from the Mexican-American War.

What was the Wilmot Proviso?

An attempt to ban slavery in places acquired during the Mexican-American War.

How did westward expansion affect tensions in the US?

Disagreements flared up between North & South over which side would take the new territory, relating to whether slavery would be allowed.

What was the Compromise of 1850?

A series of laws led by Henry Clay and Stephen Douglas meant to temporarily ease tensions between free and slave states.

What was Bleeding Kansas?

Violent guerrilla warfare in Kansas (1854-1859) fought between pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions for control over the new territory.

What was the Kansas-Nebraska Act?

An act that allowed territories that were entering the union to decide whether they were slave or free states.

What were 'Unorganized lands'?

Areas that were not formally organized as a state or territory with a government structure.

Who was Harriet Beecher Stowe?

An American author who wrote the anti-slavery novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin".

What is the Mason-Dixon Line?

A historical boundary surveyed in the 1760s by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon that defined the border between Maryland and Pennsylvania.

What are Territories (in the context of the 19th century)?

A geographic area not under the full control of, but not fully integrated into, a state or nation.

Who was Frederick Douglass?

An American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman; the most important leader of the AA civil rights movement.

Who was James Polk?

The 11th U.S. president (1845-1849), a Democrat who extended the territory of the U.S. in the Mexican-American War.

What was Slave Power?

A term that described the perceived political and economic influence wielded by southern slaveholders, who believed they sought to expand and protect slavery.

What was the Wilmot Proviso?

An act that aimed to ban slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico during the Mexican-American War.

What was the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo?

Aided the Mexican American war and ceded a vast territory to the U.S. including California, Nevada, Utah, parts of Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado.

What is Nativism?

A political policy of promoting and protecting the interests of native-born or indigenous people over those of immigrants.

What was the Missouri Compromise of 1820?

An act that addressed the issue of slavery's expansion into Western territories by admitting Maine as a free state and Missouri as a slave state.

Who was James Monroe?

The 5th U.S. president and an American founding father credited with the Monroe Doctrine.

Who was Henry Clay?

A lawyer and former U.S. states secretary known as 'The Great Compromiser' for his attempts to resolve issues related to slavery.

What was Uncle Tom's Cabin?

A novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe reflecting the lives of enslaved people in the U.S.

What was the Fugitive Slave Act?

An act that mandated that citizens help find and return runaway slaves, even if it meant taking them from free states.

What was the Underground Railroad?

Secret networks of routes and safe houses used by enslaved people in the US to find freedom.

What happened at the Boston Slave Riot?

An unsuccessful attempt by African American abolitionists, led by Lewis Hayden, to rescue Anthony Burns from a courthouse.

How did Bleeding Kansas cause tensions to rise between the North and South?

It showed how far both sides were willing to go for their beliefs, revealing incredible tension and leading to destruction on both sides.

How did the political party system change between 1850 and 1856?

The Whig party collapsed, and the Republican party rose. The Whig party diminished to one of the largest parties, and the Republican party formed primarily due to anti-slavery sentiment.