The Divisive Politics of Slavery Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering major political compromises, figures, court cases, and events leading to the American Civil War.

Mason-Dixon Line

A surveyor's line drawn to settle Pennsylvania's border with Maryland and Virginia that served as the unofficial boundary between free and slave states in the U.S.

Tariff

A federal tax on an imported (foreign) good paid by U.S. businesses importing goods.

Doctrine of Nullification

The idea of a state's right to nullify (ignore) an act of Congress.

Tariff of Abominations (1830)

A high federal tariff on manufactured goods passed by Congress that led South Carolina to refuse payment and threaten secession.

John C. Calhoun

A South Carolina political leader who supported nullification and opposed Henry Clay's Compromise of 1850.

Missouri Compromise (1820)

A federal agreement that allowed slavery in Missouri, created Maine as a free state, and set the 36-30 line of latitude as the northern limit for future slave states in the Louisiana Territory.

Mexican Cession

New territory acquired by the U.S. by treaty in 1848 following the Mexican-American War.

Compromise of 1850

A series of congressional measures that admitted California as a free state, established popular sovereignty in New Mexico and Utah, and enacted the Fugitive Slave Act.

Fugitive Slave Act

A law included in the Compromise of 1850 that required northerners to assist in the capture and return of escaped slaves.

Henry Clay

Senator known as "the Great Compromiser" who offered the Compromise of 1850 to the Senate to save the Union.

Underground Railroad

A secret network of people ("conductors") and safe houses that assisted escaped slaves on their journey to freedom in the North and Canada.

Harriet Tubman

An escaped slave from Maryland who became a famous Underground Railroad conductor, making 19 trips into the South to assist 300 slaves to freedom.

Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852)

A best-selling novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe that emphasized the moral struggle of slavery and increased northern protest against the Fugitive Slave Act.

Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)

A law designed by Senator Stephen Douglas that applied popular sovereignty to the Kansas and Nebraska territories, replacing the 36-30 line ban.

Bleeding Kansas

A series of violent attacks between proslavery and abolitionist factions in Kansas that resulted in 55 deaths following fraudulent territorial elections in 1855.

Border Ruffians

Proslavery Missourians who crossed into Kansas in March 1855 to vote illegally and establish a proslavery government in Lecompton.

Charles Sumner

An abolitionist Senator from Massachusetts who delivered "The Crime Against Kansas" speech and was physically attacked on the Senate floor by Representative Preston Brooks.

Free-Soilers

A political group that primarily opposed the expansion of slavery into western territories to prevent competition with free white workers, while often supporting "black codes."

Republican Party

A political party formed in 1854 in opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Act whose primary goal was to keep slavery out of western territories.

Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)

A Supreme Court decision ruling that enslaved African Americans were property rather than citizens and that Congress could not prohibit slavery in territories under the 5th Amendment.

Roger Taney

The Supreme Court Chief Justice who wrote the majority decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford, holding that slaves were property and could not sue in federal court.

Lincoln-Douglas Debates (1858)

A series of debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas during the Illinois U.S. Senate race that focused heavily on the moral and political expansion of slavery.

John Brown

A radical abolitionist who led the Pottawatomie Creek killings in 1856 and executed the raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry in 1859.

Harpers Ferry Raid (1859)

An October 16, 1859 armed assault led by John Brown on a federal armory in Virginia intended to incite and arm a slave rebellion in the South.

Election of 1860

A four-way presidential election in which Republican Abraham Lincoln won the presidency with 180 electoral votes despite receiving only 40% of the popular vote.

Confederate States of America

The government established by 11 southern states that seceded from the United States between December 1860 and June 1861.

Jefferson Davis

A U.S. Senator from Mississippi who was chosen as the president of the Confederate States of America.