Chapter 10 Sectional Conflict Intensifies

Popular Sovereignty

Before the Civil War, the idea that people living in a territory had the right to decide by voting if slavery would be allowed there

Secession

Withdrawal from the Union

Underground Railroad

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

Transcontinental Railroad

A railroad system extending across the continent

Referendum

The practice of letting voters accept or reject measures proposed by the legislature

Insurrection

An act of rebellion against the established government

Confederacy

Nation declared to have been formed from the southern states that seceded from the Union in 1860-1861

Martial Law

The law administered by military forces that is invoked by a government in an emergency

Wilmot Proviso

1846 proposal that outlawed slavery in any territory gained from the War with Mexico

Lewis Cass

Democratic senator who proposed popular sovereignty to settle the slavery question in the territories

Forty-Niners

People who went to California looking for Gold (They left in 1849)

Uncle Tom's Cabin

1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe, anti-slavery book, widely read- hated by southerners - made northerners more skeptical of slavery

Fugitive Slave Act

(1850) a law that made it a crime to help runaway slaves; allowed for the arrest of escaped slaves in areas where slavery was illegal and required their return to slaveholders

Harriet Tubman

A former escaped slave, she was one of the shrewdest conductors of the underground railroad, leading 300 slaves to freedom.

Gadsden Purchase

1853 purchase by the United States of southwestern lands from Mexico.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

1854 - Created Nebraska and Kansas as states and gave the people in those territories the right to chose to be a free or slave state through popular sovereignty.

Charles Sumner

A leader of the Radical Republicans in the Senate. Senator of Massachusetts. He was strongly opposed to slavery.

Republican Party

1854 - anti-slavery Whigs and Democrats, Free Soilers and reformers from the Northwest met and formed party in order to keep slavery out of the territories

Dred Scott

American slave who sued his master for keeping him enslaved in a territory where slavery was banned under the Missouri Compromise

Locompton constitution

Would legalize slavery in the Kansas territory - Kansas settlers voted to reject constitution which delayed them becoming a state until 1861

Freeport Doctrine

Idea authored by Stephen Douglas that claimed slavery could only exist when popular sovereignty said so

John Brown

Abolitionist who was hanged after leading an unsuccessful raid at Harper's Ferry, Virginia (1800-1858)

John C. Breckinridge

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

John Bell

Presidential candidate of the Constitutional Union Party. He drew votes away from the Democrats, helping Lincoln win.

Crittendon's Compromise

last chance compromise to stop secession. 1) it preserved slavery in the South. 2) It extended the Missouri Compromise line of 36"30' to California.

Jefferson Davis

The first and only president of the Confederacy.

Ft. Sumter

Union fort attacked by Confederates in 1861 sparking the start of the Civil War

Promote

To advance in station, rank, honor; to help bring into being

Rebel

Opposing or taking arms against a government or ruler

Reconcile

To restore friendship or harmony

Reflect

To give back or exhibit as an image, likeness, or outline; to make manifest or apparent

Reinforce

To strengthen or increase by fresh additions; make stronger

Render

To transmit to another; deliver, give up, yield

Resolve

To cause resolution of; to deal with successfully, clear up

Restore

Give back, return

Reveal

To make known through divine inspiration; to make publicly or generally known

Revolutionize

To overthrow the established government; to change fundamentally or completely

Simulate

To excite to activity or growth or to greater activity

Surpass

To become better, greater, or stronger than; to go beyond

Undermine

To wash away supporting material from under; to subvert or weaken insidiously