Abolition, Reform, and the Road to the Civil War (Second Great Awakening through Bleeding Kansas)

Vocabulary flashcards covering key people, events, laws, and parties connected to the Second Great Awakening, abolitionism, and the political crises of the 1850s leading to the Civil War.

Second Great Awakening

A religious revival that spurred broad reform movements, including abolition, temperance, public education—often through large, multi-day revival meetings.

Abolitionist movement

Efforts and campaigns aimed at ending slavery in the United States.

Temperance

Movement advocating moderation or abstinence from alcohol.

Fugitive Slave Act (Part of the Compromise of 1850)

Law enforcing the return of escaped enslaved people and predisposing harsher penalties for aiding fugitives; intensified anti-slavery tensions in the North.

Compromise of 1850

Legislation that included California as a free state and the Fugitive Slave Act, among other provisions, in an attempt to resolve sectional conflicts.

Personal Liberty Laws

Northern state laws that protected alleged fugitives by guaranteeing jury trials and limiting enforcement.

Underground Railroad

Secret network of routes and safe houses aiding enslaved people in escaping to free states or Canada.

Harriet Tubman

Renowned Underground Railroad conductor known as the Black Moses for guiding enslaved people to freedom.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Influential abolitionist novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe that portrayed slavery as a moral wrong and spurred northern opposition to slavery.

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin; sister of Henry Ward Beecher and related to abolitionist action.

Missouri Compromise

1820 agreement admitting Maine as a free state and Missouri as a slave state, temporarily regulating slavery in western territories (later repealed).

Kansas–Nebraska Act (1854)

Law that allowed popular sovereignty to decide slavery in Kansas and Nebraska, repealing the Missouri Compromise.

Popular sovereignty

Idea that residents of a territory should vote to determine whether slavery would be legal there.

Bleeding Kansas

Period of violent conflict in Kansas between pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions following the Kansas–Nebraska Act.

Sack of Lawrence

Pro-slavery attack on Lawrence, Kansas, an anti-slavery stronghold, during Bleeding Kansas.

John Brown

Violent abolitionist who believed in armed Resistance against slavery, active in Kansas and beyond.

Potawatomi Creek Massacre

Massacre (1856) where pro-slavery forces killed anti-slavery residents along Potawatomi Creek.

Sumner–Brooks incident

1836 incident? (Note: in context) 1856 Senate beating: Senator Charles Sumner was assaulted by Representative Preston Brooks with a cane.

Preston Brooks

Pro-slavery congressman who attacked Sumner on the Senate floor, seen as defending Southern honor.

Republican Party

New political party founded in the 1850s to oppose the expansion of slavery into new territories.

Free Soil Party

Political party opposed to the expansion of slavery into new territories; contributed to the formation of Republicans.

Northern Whigs / Conscience Whigs

Faction of the Whig Party opposed to slavery’s expansion; contrasted with Southern Whigs.

American Party / No Nothing Party

Nativist party opposing immigration; grew amid fears over Catholic influence and was a foe to both major parties.

John C. Fremont

Republican candidate in 1856, explorer and pathfinder who popularized the Oregon Trail.

James Buchanan

Democratic candidate who won the 1856 presidency; viewed as a northern president with southern sympathies.

Lecompton Constitution

Pro-slavery Kansas constitutional proposal leading to heated political conflict in Kansas.

Topeka Constitution

Anti-slavery Kansas constitutional proposal as part of the rival governance in Kansas.

Dressing the Kansas crisis as a dress rehearsal for the Civil War

Characterization of Bleeding Kansas as a preview of the sectional conflict that would culminate in the Civil War.