Antebellum Sectional Conflict

"Remember the Alamo"

The rallying cry of the Texans in their rebellion against General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna at the Alamo mission in San Antonio, TX in 1836 when 200 Texans made a heroic stand against 3000 Mexicans under Santa Anna

Oregon Trail

Wagon trail from the Mississippi River to Oregon for settlers to travel along the desert and Rockies on

Manifest Destiny

Belief that it was the right of the US to expand from coast to coast. Built on white racial superiority and American cultural superiority, major debates of the time period

"54-40' or Fight"

Slogan by Polk in the argument with Britain over the boundary line between Oregon and Canada

James K. Polk

13th President elected in 1844; "Dark-Horse" whose approach to presidency was: reestablish the independent treasury system, reduce tariffs, acquire Oregon, and acquire California and New Mexico from Mexico; Manifest Destiny president who campaigned with slogan "54-40' or Fight"

Oregon Territory

Territory acquired from Britain in the Webster-Ashburton treaty from Idaho to the east, the 49' line in the north, and California in the south

Mexican Cession

Territories of New Mexico, Texas, Utah, and California gained after the Mexican-American War and the defeat of Santa Anna

Annexation of Texas

Nearly a decade after Texas declared itself the Republic of Texas, the US annexed it into statehood starting the Mexican-American War.

Treaty of Guadalupe-Hildago

Peace treaty between the US and Mexico to end the Mexican-American War and grant the US the Mexican Cession

Wilmot Proviso

PA Representative David Wilmot introduced amendment to Treaty of Guadalupe-Hildago to forbid slavery in newly acquired Mexican Cession; Did not pass Senate, never became law

Mexican-American War

War fought with Mexico after the Annexation of Texas; "All of Mexico" slogan called for conquering all of Mexico; ultimately US gained the Mexican Cession from the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hildago

Forty-Niners

The people that rushed to California in 1849 as gold had been struck and the Gold Rush began

Underground Railroad

A secret route from "station to station" that led many slaves to the North and eventually to Canada

Harriet Tubman

American abolitionist; born a slave on a Maryland plantation; escaped to the North in 1849 and became the most renowned conductor on the Underground Railroad, leading more than 300 slaves to freedom

Compromise of 1850

Four part compromise that instated the Fugitive Slave Act, banned slave trade in DC, admitted California as a free state, and instated popular sovereignty in Utah and New Mexico

Kansas-Nebraska Act

(1854) Negated Missouri Compromise; created Nebraska and Kansas as states and gave the people in those territories the right to chose to be a free or slave state through popular sovereignty; led to conflict known as "Bleeding Kansas"

"Bleeding Kansas"

Period of violence during the settling of the Kansas territory; (border ruffians) pro-slavery and free-state settlers flooded into Kansas to try to influence popular sovereignty vote; Pottawatomie Creek Massacre example of violence, when John Brown and sons kill pro-slavery advocates with broad swords

Nativist Movement

Discrimination against immigrants (notably Irish and Germans), heavily anti-Catholic, sought to limit power of immigrants (Know-Nothing Party)

Abolitionists

Minority in the north; used fierce arguments (Garrison's Liberator), helping slaves escape (Underground RR), and violence (Nat Turner, John Brown at Harper's Ferry)

Raid on Harper's Ferry

Also known as John Brown's Raid; in 1859, the militant abolitionist John Brown seized the US arsenal at Harper's Ferry; planned to end slavery by massacring slave owners and freeing their slaves; he was captured and executed

Dred Scott v. Sanford decision

Declared African Americans were NOT citizens; slaves were property and could not be taken away; Congress could NOT regulate slavery in territories, slavery protected in all areas of US as property rights of Constitution

Republican Party

Emerged as a sectional party in the North and Midwest; sought to keep slavery from expanding (free-soil), as seen in Lincoln's election in 1860

Lincoln's "House Divided" speech

In his acceptance speech for his nomination to the Senate in June, 1858, Lincoln paraphrased from the Bible: "A house divided against itself cannot stand." He continued, "I do not believe this government can continue half slave and half free, I do not expect the Union to be dissolved - I do not expect the house to fall - but I do believe it will cease to be divided."

Missouri Compromise

Laws enacted in 1820 to maintain balance of power between slave and free states

admitted Missouri as slave, Maine as free; a line (36, 30) drawn between slave and free states

Mexican War

Conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848 over territorial disputes, ending with a United States victory

sectionalism

Loyalty to one's own region of the country, rather than to the nation as a whole

popular sovereignty

Allowing the vote of the people to determine issue of government

election of 1860

Four-way race for the presidency that resulted in the election of a sectional minority president; Lincoln ran on a free soil platform (slavery should not expand); it was the immediate cause for the secession of southern states