Slavery and the Road to Disunion

Missouri Compromise

An agreement passed in 1820 that allowed Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state and Maine as a free state, maintaining the balance of power between slave and free states.

Compromise of 1850

A series of laws aimed at resolving the territorial and slavery controversies arising from the Mexican-American War, including the admission of California as a free state.

Underground Railroad

A network of secret routes and safe houses used by enslaved African Americans to escape to free states and Canada.

Fugitive Slave Act

A law that required the return of runaway slaves to their owners and imposed penalties on those who aided their escape.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

An 1854 law that allowed residents of Kansas and Nebraska to decide whether to allow slavery in their territories through popular sovereignty.

Bleeding Kansas

A series of violent political confrontations in the Kansas Territory between 1854 and 1859 over the legality of slavery.

Popular Sovereignty

The principle that the authority of a state and its government is created and sustained by the consent of its people, often used to decide the issue of slavery in new territories.

Dred Scott Decision

An 1857 Supreme Court ruling that declared African Americans were not citizens and that Congress had no authority to prohibit slavery in federal territories.

John Brown

An abolitionist who believed in armed insurrection as the only way to overthrow the institution of slavery in the United States.

Harpers Ferry

The site of John Brown's raid in 1859, where he attempted to initiate a slave uprising by seizing a federal armory.

Abolitionism

The movement to end slavery and promote equal rights for African Americans.

Sectionalism

The division of the United States into different regions, each with its own interests and priorities, often leading to conflict.

Free states / Slave states

States that either prohibited or permitted slavery, respectively, prior to the Civil War.

Secession

The act of withdrawing from an organization or alliance, notably the withdrawal of Southern states from the Union before the Civil War.

Anaconda Plan

The Union's military strategy during the Civil War aimed at blockading Southern ports and controlling the Mississippi River to suffocate the Confederacy.

Confederacy

The group of Southern states that seceded from the Union during the Civil War.

Gettysburg Address

A speech delivered by Abraham Lincoln in 1863 at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, emphasizing the principles of human equality.

Siege of Vicksburg

A significant battle in 1863 during the Civil War where Union forces captured Vicksburg, Mississippi, gaining control of the Mississippi River

Sherman's March to the Sea

A military campaign led by General William Tecumseh Sherman during the Civil War, involving a destructive march from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia.

Total War

A strategy of warfare that involves not only engaging enemy forces but also targeting the economic resources and civilian infrastructure that support them

Robert E. Lee

The commanding general of the Confederate Army during the Civil War, known for his leadership in several major battles.

Ulysses S. Grant

The commanding general of the Union Army during the Civil War who later became the 18th President of the United States.

Battle of Antietam

The bloodiest single-day battle in American history, fought on September 17, 1862, resulting in a strategic Union victory.

Emancipation Proclamation

An executive order issued by President Lincoln in 1863 that freed slaves in the Confederate states.