American Republic Fourth Edition Chapter 13

Fort Sumter

First battle of the Civil War

Robert Anderson

Union general at Fort Sumter

West Virginia

Entered the union in 1863

Uncle Tom's Cabin

a novel published by Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1852 which portrayed slavery as brutal and immoral

Harriet Beecher Stowe

(1811-1896) American author and daughter of Lyman Beecher

Stephen Douglas

Senator from Illinois who ran for president against Abraham Lincoln. Wrote the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Freeport Doctrine

Popular Sovereignty

A government in which the people rule by their own consent.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

a law that allowed voters in Kansas and Nebraska to choose whether to allow slavery

Republican Party

Antislavery political party that formed in the 1850s.

James Buchanan

15th President

Charles Sumner

Abolitionist senator whose verbal attack on the South provoked a physical assault that severely injured him

Preston Brooks

Responsible for beating radical republican Charles Sumner with his cane

Dred Scott

United States slave who sued for liberty after living in a non-slave state

Roger B. Taney

Chief Justice of the Supreme Court during the Dred Scott decision

John Brown

Abolitionist who was hanged after leading an unsuccessful raid at Harper's Ferry

Robert E. Lee

Confederate general

Fire-eaters

Southern political leaders who held extreme pro-slavery views.

Seccession

The act of leaving the Union

John C. Breckinridge

Buchanan's vice president who was nominated for president. He supported the expansion of slavery.

Abraham Lincoln

16th President of the United States saved the Union during the Civil War and emancipated the slaves; was assassinated by Booth (1809-1865)

John Bell Presidential candidate of the Constitutional Union Party. He drew votes away from the Democrats

helping Lincoln win.

Constitutional Union Party

Formed by moderate Whigs and Know-Nothings in an effort to elect a compromise candidate and avert a sectional crisis.

Confederate States of America

A republic formed in February of 1861 and composed of the eleven Southern states that seceded from the United States

Jefferson Davis

President of the Confederate States of America

Alexander Stephens

Vice President of the Confederacy

Antebellum

before the war (especially the American civil war)

Wage Slaves

factory workers in the North who worked long hours

Article 6 of the Constitution

Supremacy Clause - clearly states that national law will be supreme over state law

Amendment 10 of the Constitution

Any powers not given to the federal government by the Constitution are reserved to the states.

Middle Passage

A voyage that brought enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to North America and the West Indies

Overseers

people who watch over and direct the work of slaves

Gang System

The organization and supervision of slave field hands into working teams on southern plantations.

Task System

A method of organizing enslaved labor in which workers were given a specific set of jobs to accomplish every day

Underground Railroad

A system that helped enslaved African Americans follow a network of escape routes out of the South to freedom in the North

Frederick Douglass

United States abolitionist who escaped from slavery and became an influential writer and lecturer in the North (1817-1895)

Abolitionist

A person who wanted to end slavery in the United States

Harriet Tubman

Former slave who helped slaves escape on the Underground Railroad

William Lloyd Garrison

United States abolitionist who published an anti-slavery journal (1805-1879)

Horace Greeley

Abolitionist newspaper publisher one of the founders of the Republican Party.

Spirituals

Religious folk songs that blended biblical themes with the realities of slavery