A Country in Crisis

Irish Potato Famine (1845-52)

A devastating famine in Ireland caused by potato crop failures, leading to mass starvation, emigration, & social upheaval.

Nativism

A political & social movement favoring native-born citizens over immigrants, often rooted in xenophobia.

"Know Nothing" Party/American Party

A 19th-century nativist political party that opposed immigration & Catholic influence in the U.S.

Second Great Awakening

A Protestant religious revival in the early 19th century emphasizing personal salvation, social reform, & evangelical zeal.

Temperance Movement

A 19th-century social movement advocating for reduced alcohol consumption or complete abstinence.

Prison Reform Movement

A 19th-century initiative aimed at improving prison conditions & focusing on rehabilitation rather than punishment.

Dorothea Dix

A social reformer who advocated for better treatment of the mentally ill & reformed asylums in the U.S.

Educational Reform Movement

A 19th-century movement to improve public education, promoting universal schooling & better teacher training.

Utopian Societies

Experimental communities in the 19th century aimed at creating ideal societies, often emphasizing equality & shared property.

The Shakers

A religious sect known for communal living, celibacy, & their distinctive worship practices involving dance.

Abolition Movement

The campaign to end slavery in the United States, culminating in the Civil War & the 13th Amendment.

American Colonization Society

An organization that promoted relocating freed African Americans to Africa, leading to the establishment of Liberia.

American Anti-Slavery Society (1833)

An abolitionist group that advocated for the immediate end of slavery in the U.S.

William Llyod Garrison

An abolitionist leader & editor of The Liberator, a prominent anti-slavery newspaper.

Frederick Douglass & Sojourner Truth

Formerly enslaved abolitionists & civil rights advocates; symbols of the fight for abolition & equality.

Underground Railroad

A network of secret routes & safe houses that helped enslaved people escape to freedom.

Harriet Tubman

An escaped enslaved woman who became a leading abolitionist & conductor on the Underground Railroad.

Suffrage Movement

The campaign for women's right to vote in the United States & other countries.

Elizabeth Cady Stantion, Lucretia Mott, & Susan B. Anthony

Pioneering leaders in the women's suffrage & rights movements in the 19th century.

Seneca Falls Convention (1848)

The first women's rights convention in the U.S., where the Declaration of Rights & Sentiments was presented.

Declaration of Rights & Sentiments (1848)

A document asserting women's equality & demanding suffrage, modeled after the Declaration of Independence.

Free-Soil Party

A political party that opposed the expansion of slavery into western U.S. territories.

Zachary Taylor

The 12th U.S. president (1849-1850) & a Mexican-American War hero who opposed the spread of slavery.

Compromise of 1850

A series of laws attempting to resolve disputes over slavery, including admitting California as a free state.

Fugitive Slave Act (1850)

A law requiring citizens to assist in the capture of runaway enslaved people, intensifying sectional tensions.

Millard Fillmore

The 13th U.S. president (1850-1853), who supported the Compromise of 1850.

Franklin Pierce

The 14th U.S. president (1853-1857), known for signing the Kansas-Nebraska Act into law.

Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)

Legislation that allowed settlers in Kansas & Nebraska to decide on slavery through popular sovereignty.

Bleeding Kansas (1856)

A series of violent conflicts in Kansas between pro-slavery & anti-slavery settlers; considered the catalyst of the Civil War.

Bleeding Sumner (1856)

An incident where Senator Charles Sumner was brutally beaten on the Senate floor after criticizing pro-slavery advocates.

Republican Party

A political party founded in 1854 to oppose the expansion of slavery.

James Buchanan

The 15th U.S. president (1857-1861), whose inability to address sectional tensions contributed to the Civil War.

Dred Scott Decision (1857)

A Supreme Court ruling declaring that African Americans were not citizens *& that Congress could not ban slavery in territories.

Raid on Harpers Ferry (1859)

An abolitionist-led raid by John Brown to incite a slave rebellion, intensifying sectional tensions.