AICE U.S. History Unit 1 Origins of the Civil War Vocabulary (part 2)

William Lloyd Garrison

white abolitionist who wrote the "Liberator" newspaper in 1831, which lasted until 1865 (end of the Civil War). Led abolition campaigns with other abolitionists in Massachusetts. He tore up the Fugitive Slave Law and is also known as a radical and agitator.

Free soilers/ free soil party

against slavery in the new territories. They also advocated federal aid for internal improvements and urged free government homesteads for settlers. Party foreshadowed the emergence of the Republican party.

fire-eaters

were a group of pro-slavery, radical, and extreme Southern leaders who advocated for secession from the United States in the years leading up to the American Civil War

opposed the admission of California as a free state and the ending of the slave trade in Washington, D.C. during the debates that led to the Compromise of 1850

Gold Rush 49ers

were the prospectors who rushed to California in 1849 in search of gold. They were migrants from Asia, South America, and Europe. The Gold Rush started when, on January 24, 1848, carpenter James Marshall found shiny particles (gold bits) near John Sutter's sawmill. News of discoveries spread like wildfire and the rush began. Effects of this? Population of California exceeded 100,000 by the end of 1849.

Compromise of 1850

A series of resolutions introduced by Senator Henry Clay in an attempt to prevent a crisis between the North and South.

Five laws passed in September 1850 that addressed slavery and territorial expansion in the United States: 

• California: Admitted as a free state 

• Utah and New Mexico: Organized as territories without restrictions on slavery 

• Texas-New Mexico boundary: Settled with Texas receiving $10 million for the land south of the 32nd parallel and south of the 36°30' parallel 

• Washington, D.C.: Slave trade abolished, but slave ownership was permitted 

• Fugitive Slave Act: Amended to make it easier for slave owners to recover runaway slaves 

Daniel Webster

• In support of the compromise of 1850

• He wanted to preserve the Union

• Thought slavery was wrong

• But to keep the southern states from seceding, he supported the Compromise of 1850 allowing slavery in new territories.

William Seward

was a prominent American politician and statesman in the 19th century. He served as the Secretary of State under Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. Seward is best known for his role in the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867, a transaction that was initially mocked as "Seward's Folly" but later recognized as a strategic and resource-rich acquisition for the United States. He was also a strong opponent of slavery and played a significant role in the anti-slavery movement, aligning himself with the Republican Party and supporting the Union during the Civil War.

Popular Sovereignty

Power and authority to govern resides with the people. The people in a territory had the right to choose their own method of government for the state they would become, and specifically, if they were a free of slave state.

Stephen Douglas

(Illinois Senator) ran in the 1860 presidential election against Abraham Lincoln (w Abraham Lincoln because he ate and he won). Douglas beat Lincoln in the 1858 election, but debated Lincoln on slavery and Douglas championed popular sovereignty.

Fugitive Slave Act of 1793

Gave effect to the Fugitive Slave Clause of the Constitution (mentioned above). Slaves that ran away from their masters into a different slave state or a free state would be captured and returned to their owners.

underground railroad

Underground Railroad, in the United States, a system existing in the Northern states before the Civil War by which escaped slaves from the South were secretly helped by sympathetic Northerners, in defiance of the Fugitive Slave Acts, to reach places of safety in the North or in Canada.

Harriet Tubman

was a famous conductor on the Underground Railroad, helping slaves escape to freedom in the North.

liberated more than 700 slaves

Sojourner Truth

worked with William Lloyd Garrison in the Anti-Slavery Society. Gave the speech "Ain't I a Woman?" in 1851. Also worked with Frederick Douglass.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

In Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe shared ideas about the injustices of slavery, pushing back against dominant cultural beliefs about the physical and emotional capacities of black people

Aunt Phillis’ Cabin

Aunt Phillis's Cabin by Mary Henderson Eastman is significant because it was a response to Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin and was one of the most well-known "anti-Tom" novels of its time

The novel is set in a rural Virginia town where the plantation owners treat their slaves well to keep them peaceful and ensure the safety of the town. The story highlights the contrast between the perceived happiness of the enslaved people and the underlying issues of slavery. 

Kansas Nebraska Act

created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, opening new lands for settlement.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed the Missouri Compromise, created two new territories, and allowed for popular sovereignty. It also produced a violent uprising known as “Bleeding Kansas,” as proslavery and antislavery activists flooded into the territories to sway the vote.

Republican Party

Was formed in the 1850s in response to the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which allowed for the possibility of slavery expanding into new western territories. It was founded by anti-slavery activists, former Whigs, and Free Soilers who opposed the expansion of slavery. The party quickly grew in popularity in the Northern States and became a major political force. In 1860 Abraham Lincoln won the presidency which led to the secession of southern states and the onset of the civil war. During the war they were the primary political party of the union, advocating for the preservation of the United States and the abolition of slavery.

New England Emigrant Aid Co

An organization founded in 1854 to promote and assist the migration of anti-slavery settlers to the Kansas Territory. Its primary goal was to ensure that Kansas would enter the Union as a free state rather than a slave state. The company provided financial support, transportation, and supplies to settlers, helping to establish anti-slavery communities and institutions in the territory. This effort was part of the larger conflict known as Bleeding Kansas where pro slavery and anti-slavery forces clashed violently over the expansion of Slavery.

Bleeding Kansas

Kansans engaged in a violent guerrilla war between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces in an event known as Bleeding Kansas

The violence in Kansas intensified the debate over slavery and deepened the divide between the North and South. The events in Kansas also led to the Lecompton Constitution crisis, when national politicians were pressured to accept a constitution that would legalize or prohibit slavery

Border Ruffians

Border ruffians were pro-slavery Missourians who crossed into Kansas Territory in the mid-1800s to influence the decision of whether Kansas would become a free or slave state

• Border ruffians participated in a variety of illegal activities, including: 

  • Voting illegally in Kansas elections 

  • Organizing secret societies to transport and pay proslavery families to migrate and vote 

  • Intimidating and harassing Free-State settlers at polling places 

  • Making raids

• part of bleeding Kansas

John Brown: Pottawatomie

The Pottawatomie Massacre took place on May 24–25, 1856, when abolitionist John Brown and his followers murdered five men from a proslavery settlement on Pottawatomie Creek in Kansas:

• led to the beginning of bleeding Kansas

• The massacre showed that the anti-slavery side was willing to use violence to oppose the pro-slavery side.

Caning of Charles Sumner

The "Caning of Charles Sumner" refers to a violent incident in the U.S. Senate where a Representative from South Carolina, Preston Brooks, attacked Senator Charles Sumner from Massachusetts with a cane, brutally beating him on the Senate floor after Sumner gave a speech strongly criticizing slavery and a pro-slavery senator from South Carolina

Lecompton constitution

The Lecompton Constitution is a pro-slavery document. If approved it would allow slavery in the state of Kansas. Calling for a Vote. Both the proslavery constitutional convention and the free-state legislature claimed to have the authority to call for an election on the Lecompton Constitution.

Dred Scott

a slave who lived in Missouri and was taken to Wisconsin by his master. Lived there for 2 years before returning to Missouri. Sued in a Missouri court for freedom, arguing that he touched free soil, and that made him a free blackie (no longer enslaved). Dred Scott v. Sandford. They said hell nah because he is PROPERTY, not a person.

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

series of 7 debates for the spot of Senator of Illinois. Douglas won the Senate seat. Lincoln and Douglas expressed their viewpoints on slavery, the Dred Scott decision, NEGRO RIGHTS, differences between themselves (Lincoln and Douglas), and whether the Union could remain half free and half slavery.

Freeport Doctrine

• proposed by Stephen Douglas

• The doctrine stated that territories could prevent slavery by not passing laws that would favor slave owners, such as making it difficult to recapture escaped slaves.

• The doctrine was based on the idea of popular sovereignty, which states that the government's authority comes from the consent of the people.

• Douglas contradicted the Freeport Doctrine by essentially arguing that while the Dred Scott decision stated that territories couldn't ban slavery, local populations could effectively exclude it by refusing to pass laws that supported slavery

House Divided Speech

speech made by Abraham Lincoln after being nominated for Republican president. He stated that the Union/government cannot handle being half slave and half free.
Impact of this? Douglas claimed Lincoln was a radical (he wasn't) and said that Lincoln did not believe in the state's fundamental beliefs, and would abolish slavery.

Harper’s ferry raid

Although the raid on Harpers Ferry was denounced by a majority of Northerners, it electrified the South—already fearful of slave rebellions—and convinced slaveholders that abolitionists would stop at nothing to eradicate slavery. It also created a martyr, John Brown, for the antislavery cause

Election of 1860

Abraham Lincoln was elected to be president of the United States in 1860 and 1864, just before and during the American Civil War. The election of 1860 shaped the future of the United States by heralding the end of slavery and marked by a time of unprecedented violence in the nation.

Constitution Union party

The Constitutional Union Party campaigned on a simple platform "to recognize no political principle other than the Constitution of the country, the Union of the states, and the Enforcement of the Laws".

• did not have an opinion on slavery

• wanted a united union

Secession

Secession is the formal act of a group or state withdrawing from a political entity, such as the United States

The most famous example of secession in US history is the secession of 11 slave states from the Union between 1860 and 1861. This secession led to the formation of the Confederate States of America and the American Civil War. (South Carolina)

Confederate States of America

The Confederate States of America was a collection of 11 states that seceded from the United States in 1860 and disbanded with the end of the Civil War in 1865. These states include South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina. These states formed their own government in response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President and the perceived threat to the institution of Slavery.

Jefferson Davis

President of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War from 1861-1865. Before becoming confederate president, he served as a U.S. Senator from Mississippi and as the U.S. secretary of war under President Franklin Pierce. Davis was a supporter of state rights and the institution of slavery which were central issues leading to the secession of Souther States and the subsequent Civil War. After the Confederacy’s defeat, Davis was captured, imprisoned for 2 years, and later released without trial.

Alexander Stephens

The Vice President of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. Before his role in the confederacy, Stephens served as a U.S. Congressman from Georgia. He is perhaps best known for his Cornerstone Speech in which he stated that the Confederacy was founded on the principle of white supremacy and the institution of slavery. After the war Stephens was imprisoned for a brief period and later returned to politics, serving again in congress and as the governor of Georgia.

Crittenden compromise

• Extend the Missouri Compromise

• Prohibit Congress from abolishing slavery

• Protect slave owners

• Popular sovereignty

• Protect slavery in the District of Columbia