Unit 4 Quiz Study - Antebellum America: Causes of Conflict

Cotton gin

An invention by Eli Whitney in 1793 that quickly and easily separated cotton fibers from their seeds.

Missouri Compromise

A 1820 agreement that temporarily resolved the issue of slavery's expansion by admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state.

Texas annexation

The 1845 incorporation of the Republic of Texas into the United States, which was highly controversial because it was expected to extend slavery.

Compromise of 1850

A series of five bills intended to resolve disputes over slavery in the newly acquired Mexican Cession territories.

Fugitive Slave Act

Part of the Compromise of 1850, this law strengthened earlier acts by requiring federal officials and citizens in free states to assist in the capture and return of escaped enslaved people.

Popular sovereignty

The principle that the residents of a territory should vote to decide for themselves whether to allow slavery when seeking statehood.

John Brown

A fervent, militant abolitionist who believed armed insurrection was the only way to overthrow the institution of slavery.

Harper's Ferry raid (1859)

John Brown led a raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, intending to seize weapons and incite a slave rebellion.

Abolitionism

The movement to end slavery in the United States, active from the colonial era up to the Civil War.

William Lloyd Garrison

An influential white abolitionist and editor of the anti-slavery newspaper The Liberator.

Frederick Douglass

An escaped former enslaved person who became a powerful orator, writer, and the most influential Black abolitionist leader.

Uncle Tom's Cabin (Harriet Beecher Stowe)

An anti-slavery novel published in 1852 that depicted the horrors of slavery in a personal and emotional way.

1860 presidential election

The election that saw Abraham Lincoln win the presidency for the Republican Party, which opposed the expansion of slavery.

Abraham Lincoln

The 16th President of the United States who led the country through the Civil War and issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

Stephen Douglas

A U.S. Senator and Democratic candidate in the 1860 election who was a proponent of Popular Sovereignty.

Emancipation Proclamation

An executive order issued by President Lincoln on January 1, 1863, that declared all enslaved people in Confederate-held territory were legally free.

13th Amendment

Ratified in 1865, this amendment abolished slavery and involuntary servitude in the United States.

14th Amendment

Ratified in 1868, it granted citizenship to all people born or naturalized in the U.S. and guaranteed them equal protection under the law.

15th Amendment

Ratified in 1870, this amendment prohibited states from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's race.

Freedman's Bureau

Established in 1865, it provided food, medical aid, education, and legal assistance to newly freed people and impoverished white Southerners.

Black codes

Laws passed by Southern state governments in 1865 and 1866 that severely restricted the economic and civil rights of formerly enslaved people.

Ku Klux Klan (KKK)

A white supremacist terrorist organization that emerged during Reconstruction to undermine Republican rule and Black political power.

Ku Klux Klan Act

A federal law passed in 1871 that empowered the federal government to suppress the KKK and protect the civil rights of citizens.

Civil Rights Act of 1875

The last major piece of Reconstruction legislation, which outlawed racial discrimination in public places.

Andrew Johnson

The 17th President who served after Lincoln's assassination and favored a lenient approach to Reconstruction.

impeachment

The process by which a legislative body initiates charges against a public official.

Compromise of 1877

An informal agreement that resolved the highly contested 1876 presidential election.