The Antebellum Era

Pre-Civil War

Contraband

illegal, trafficked, or smuggled goods

Secede

To formally withdraw from a group of organization

Fugitive

Someone who is running away or attempting escape

Slave Codes

Laws that controlled the lives of enslaved people and denied them basic rights.

Slave Catchers

Individuals paid to travel to the north to find and bring back enslaved people that had run away.

Sectionalism

Loyalty to one’s own region of the country, rather than to the nation as a whole

Overseer

The individual hired by a planter to watch over and direct the work of enslaved people.

Conductor

The individuals who aided runaway enslaved peoples via the Underground Railroad.

Border Ruffians

Pro-slavery Missourians who went to Kansas to vote for it to become a slave-state.

10th Amendment

States any power not given to the federal government are reserved for the states or the people.

Harriet Tubman

• An escaped enslaved person

• Went back to guide more enslaved people north

• Worked as a spy, nurse, and scout for the Union during the Civil War

John Brown

• Connecticut abolitionist

• fought slavery with violence

• did attacks and raids

Harriet Beecher Stowe

• A writer and abolitionist

• Wrote “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”

• taught many to oppose slavery

Abraham Lincoln

• Became a lawyer+politician

• Believed the states should stay together

• Did NOT want slavery to spread

Stephan Douglas

• Illinois senator

• Supported PS

• Deepened north and south divisions

Dred Scott

• An enslaved person

• Sued for his freedom

• results of the trial led to tensions

Wilmot Proviso

It meant to outlaw slavery in the Mexican Cession, but it didn’t work

Popular Sovereignty

When the Government’s power comes from the people of the country

Underground Railroad

Escaped EP would use routes to safe-houses or houses to escape to the north for freedom

Missouri Compromise

Law passed to keep the slave states and free states at an equal

Compromise of 1850

Multiple laws passed in an attempt to solve the slavery issue in the new western territories.

Fugitive Slave Act

A a law apart of the Compromise of 1850 that let slaveholders recapture free formerly enslaved people

Kansas-Nebraska Act

In Kansas and Nebraska, the people were allowed to vote for either a free state or a slave state

States’ Rights

People believed that the states should have more power than the government as a whole.

Abolitionist Movement

The movement that wanted to see the end of slavery

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Harriet Beecher Stave published a novel that showed how immoral slavery was

The Dred Scott Decision

SCOTUS case which decided African Americans are NOT citizens + Congress cannot ban slavery in any territory.

Industrial Economy

When the main focus of an economy is producing/manufacturing goods

Agricultural Economy

When the main focus of an economy is farming and crops in general.

The Republican Party

Party that supported a stronger NG, but did NOT support slavery

Lincoln-Douglas Debate

Debates that Abe Lincoln+Stephan Douglas would take place in that centered on slavery