Unit 9 US History Terms/Elections

Test Date 4/24/24

King Cotton

King Cotton

Southern term emphasizing Southern cotton industry's economic dominance over North, belieiving North needed South's cotton and going against it would be like going against a king

West Africa Squadron

British Royal navy force enforcing slave trade's abolition (1807), intercepting hundreds of slave ships and freed 1000s of Africans.

Breakers

Slave punishers specializing in common whipping punishment to break slave's will/well-being while also keeping their "value" as "investments" intact

Black Belt

Deep South region with highest slave concentration that emerged with profitable cotton production and slavery expanded south and west.

Responsorial

Call and response style of preaching that melded Christian and African traditions. Practiced by African slaves in the South.

Nat Turner's Rebellion

Rebellion led by Nat Turner where he and his followers attacked 4 plantations and killed around 60 pro-slavery people; he later gets sentenced to death for this

Amistad

Rebelling African slaves captured this Spanish ship and attempted to sail to Africa but ended up in Long Island. John Quincy Adams fights for their freedom and later acquires it.

Abolition

Act of getting rid of slavery practice entirely (slavery no longer existing)

Emancipation

Immediate freeing of enslaved slave/slaves

American Colonization Society

Founded to transport slaves back to Africa and Liberia, but many didn't want to go back because they were already settled native-born Americans.

Liberia

A West African nation founded by the American Colonization Society to serve as a homeland for free blacks to settle

The Liberator

Anti-slavery newspaper published by William Lloyd Garrison uncompromisingly declaring anti-slavery beliefs and instigating radical conflict

American Anti-Slavery Association

Abolitionist society founded by William Lloyd Garrison advocating the immediate abolition of slavery

The North Star

Anti-slavery newspaper published by ex-slave Frederick Douglass

Mason-Dixon Line

Originally drawn to resolve Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Virginia boundary (1760s), it later symbolizied North-South divide over slavery

Slave codes

Laws that defined status of enslaved person and rights of their owners, controlling and restricting slaves of their rights.

"Happy slave" Myth

Southern propoganda to convince others (mainly North) that slavery was a good thing allowed by God and Bible

Gag Resolution

South's repeal to all Northern protests and petitions to end slavery, tabling all discussion in Congress

Popular sovereignty

Lewis Cass' doctrine stating that the sovereign people of a territory, under Constitution, could decide the status of slavery in their own territory, appealing to self-determination and compromise.

Free-Soil Party

Anti-slavery party formed out of distrust for Taylor/Cass and silence of Whigs/Dems and firmly stood for Wilmot Provisio against slavery and appeals for internal improvements and homesteads for settlers.

Foreshadowed Republic Party.

The California Gold Rush

Period when many reckless pioneers hoped to strike rich in California with gold. Few actually found god riches while struggling with outrageous prices for personal services which many grew a sustaining income with.

"Forty-niners"

Term for California Gold Rush miners who struggled for gold recklessly around 1849

Underground Railroad

Informal system of routes of "stations" (anti-slavery homes) with "passengers" (slaves) led by "conductors" (white/black abolitionists) to the free Canada

Seventh of March Speech

Daniel Webster's attempted compromise speech towards angry South, urging South that Mexico-cession land can't successfully harbor plantation slave economy because God passed Wilmot Provisio.

Compromise of 1850

Attempted agreement to ease slavery tensions, though didn't work well:

1. California admitted as Free State

2. Slave sales in DC banned but slaves can still exist here

3. New Fugitive Slave Act

4. Popular Sovereignity used Mexican Cession land because slavery not directly banned yet

5. Texas gives $10 million for ceded land

New Fugitive Slave Act

Part of Compromise of 1850: prohibits slaves from testifying on their own behalf, denying jury trial, instead allowing slave owner to file for return and bribing judges to determine if slave is a runaway. Fines/jail time enforced if you help an escaped slave.

Personal Liberty Laws

Northern laws fighting back against South's New Fugitive Slave Act, guaranteeing trial for slaves and not letting federal authority use jails to hold runaway slaves.

Clayton-Bulwer Treaty

Signed between US and Britain agreeing to protect Central American neutrality with no exclusive istmian waterway control.

Ostend Manifesto

Secret Franklin Pierce administration proposal to purcase/wrest militarily Cuba from Spain; quickly abandoned after leak caused huge North opposition

Transcontinental Railroad

Upgraded one way railroad for US transporting major economic goods (one way so recipient gets better economic stuff). South fights super hard for this because of Gadsden Purchase land and economic perks, but North disagrees and enrages South.

Gadsden Purchase

Allowed claim to New Mexico from Santa Anna and solidified borders, South used this as a bargaining chip to get Transcontinental Railraod to end on their side

Kansas Nebraska Act

Stephen Douglas' attempted proposal to allow slave issue to be decided by popular sovereignty in Kansas and Nebraska territory (Nebraska = Free, Kansas = Slave)

Republican Party

Forms in opposition to Kansas-Nebraska Act (Whigs, Free-Soilers, Know-Nothings) and was opposed to spread/expand slavery into new territories (not to get rid of slavery entirely)

Uncle Tom's Cabin

Radical novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, rallying North by showing the brutal truths/horrors of slavery that ripped families apart, urging others to not support the Fugitive Slave Law.

The Impending Crisis in the South

Written by Hinton R. Helper using statistics to prove why non-slaveholding whites suffered most from slavery and the Blacks Helper hated so much

New England Aid Company

Northern group in Kansas fighting South for anti-slavery there while also making profit

Pottawatomie Massacre

John Brown leads followers to Pottawatomie Creek and kills 5 pro-slavery people ruthlessly at night.

Bleeding Kansas

Civil war in Kansas over slavery issue in territory until 1861 when it merged with national Civil War

Dred Scott v. Sandford

Decision by court on slave living in free territory, Dred Scott, which gave federal protection to slavery and asserting slaves as private property that cannot be taken away from the people, regardless of where. It also enforced Missouri Compromise as unconstitutional (can't ban slavery in any territory)

Panic of 1857

Financial crash due to gold-fueled inflation, over speculation, and excess grain production that raished Northern calls for higher tariffs and free homesteads on public lands

Hurt North more than overconfident Southern plantation economy

Tariff of 1857

Lowered duties on imports due to high Treasury surplus and pressure by Southern farmers

North enraged because they felt this Southern tariff was hurting their economy

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

Series of debates for senate seat between renown debator Stephen Douglas vs. challenger Abraham Lincoln consisting of Freeport Question and Freeport Doctrine.

This propelled Lincon's moral popularity for future Rep. president in 1860

John Brown's Raid

To get weapons to arm slaves, John Brown and followers raid federal arsonal but fail, getting surrounded, captured, and sentenced to death. North sees him as a martyr/hero while South sees as a brutal killer.

Constitutional Union Party

"Compromise" desiring party of Election of 1860 filled with Whigs/Know-Nothings who feared for Union: elected Dem. inclined John Bell

Secession

Act of formally withdrawing from a membership or federal body (ex: Southern states withdrawing from Union)

Confederate States of America

Republic composed of 11 seceded Southern states after election of Rep. Pres. Lincoln led by Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

Crittenden Amendments

Last ditch effort by senator John Crittenden to stop secession:

1. Slavery prohibited North 36'30 but allowed in South

2. Slavery has federal protection in current/future territories south of 36'30

3. Future states north/south of 36'30 (ex: Cuba) can come into union w/ or w/o slavery (pop. sov)

Fails because Lincoln rejects out of Rep. moral principle

Election of 1848

Dem. Lewis Cass (Polk doesn't run) vs. Whig Zachary Taylor (Clay too many enemies) vs. Free Soil former Pres. Martin Van Buren

Lewis Cass doesn't speak on slavery --> popular sovereignty Zachary Taylor doesn't speak on it but owns slaves

Taylor wins because of warhero persona (Buren hurts Cass' chances)

Election of 1852

Taylor dies midterm and succeeded by Whig Millard Fillmore, but he doesn't rerun:

Whig Whinfield Scott vs. Dem. Franklin Pierce vs. American Party John Hale

Franklin Pierce (pro-Southern northerner supporting Fugitive Slave Act and Comp. of 1850) wins because Hale pulls votes from Scott

Election of 1856

Dem. James Buchanan (Pierce too many enemies) vs. Rep. John C. Fremont (Whigs dead) vs. American Party Millard Fillmore

Buchanan wins because Fremont seen as untrustworthy (secession threat)

Republicans grow substantially

Election of 1860

Northern Dem. Stephen Douglas vs. Rep. Lincoln vs. South Dem. Breckenridge vs. Const. Union Party Bell

Rep. Lincoln wins because Democrats are divided among the 3 candidates, splitting up votes and chances.