Unit 9 Vocab APUSH Sectional Crisis

APUSH Vocab Sectional Crsis

Popular Sovereignty

Government based on the consent of the people. Allowed people of each territory to decide the status of slavery.

Compromise of 1850

A set of laws passed in September 1850 aimed at resolving issues related to slavery and territorial expansion, which included admitting California as a free state, implementing the Fugitive Slave Act, and allowing new territories to decide the slavery issue through popular sovereignty. Many ideas were proposed by Henry Clay.

Henry Clay

Most prominent speaker in the compromise of 1850, proposed the following:
Allowing California to enter as a free state.

That the other territories acquired from Mexico be formed without slave restrictions

That Texas yield in its border dispute with New Mexico

That the slave trade be abolished in D.C.

That a new and more effective fugitive slave law be passed.

Fugitive Slave Act

Required that slaves be returned to their owners even if they were in a free state. Made Northerners upset because it seemed to violate the liberties of white Northerners.

The Anthony Burns Affair

Run-Away-slave captured in Boston, his capture peaked the political heat between the north and the south, as well as becoming a cause for northern anti-slavery forces and a showcase of President Franklin Pierce’s enforcement of the law.

Transcontinental Railroad

After the kansas-nebraska act, people wanted a way to maintain communication between older and newer states to settle in them. This created demand for a trans-continental railroad. Jefferson Davis sent James Gadsden to get a strip of land through Mexico to build the southern trans-continental railroad via the Gadsden Purchase.

Jefferson Davis

Secretary of War who sent Gadsden to buy a strip of land from Mexico to build the southern part of the transcontinental railroad via the Gadsden Purchase.

James Gadsden

Southern railroad builder sent by Jefferson Davis to buy a strip of land from Mexico to build the southern transcontinental railroad via the Gadsden Purchase.

The Gadsden Purchase

Purchase made by James Gadsden to acquire land from Mexico to build a southern transcontinental railroad.

Stephen A. Douglas

Senator from IL, wanted the northern route of the railroad to run through the Indian Territory, introduced a legislation to organize the Nebraska, the huge piece for territory west of Iowa and Missouri. To gain southern support, said that the status of slavery would rest with popular sovereignty.

Know-Nothing Party

A political party that emerged in the 1850s, primarily in response to the increasing immigration of Catholics and foreigners. They were known for their secretive meetings and often claimed to know nothing about their organization, advocating for strict immigration laws and expressing nativist sentiments during the sectional crisis.

William Seward - Higher Law

Led the against side of the compromise of 1850, he States in his higher law speech that there is law higher than the constitution, says that territory is a part of mankind: this speech made him the main anti-slavery voice in the Senate.

Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)

Legislation that created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska and allowed the settlers in those territories to determine through popular sovereignty whether they would allow slavery.

Bleeding Kansas

After Kansas became a slave state, Seward told southern senators that he will engage in battle in Kansas itself to fight over slavery. The anti-slavery forces prevailed and Kansas became a free state.

Sack of Lawrence

An event that occurred in May 1856 in the bleeding Kansas war where pro-slavery forces attacked the anti-slavery town of Lawrence, Kansas, resulting in the destruction of property and heightened tensions between pro-slavery and anti-slavery supporters during the period of Bleeding Kansas.

John Brown

Anti-slavery proponent, murdered 5 proslavery settlers (Pottawatomie massacre). Attacked United states arsenal at Harpers Ferry, VA hoping to incite a slave uprising in the south, got shut down by Robert E lee.

Pottawatomie Massacre

John Brown and six followers murdered 5 proslavery settlers, create more strife in the form of guerilla warfare and occurred against the congressional debates of Kansas.

Senator Charles Sumner, MA

Gave the speech “the crime against Kansas” and was a strong opposer of slavery

Representative Preston Brooks, SC

Looked down upon Sumner, beat Sumner over the head with a gold ended cane numerous times until he collapsed.

Sumner - Brooks Affair

An incident in 1856 where Senator Charles Sumner delivered a speech criticizing pro-slavery forces in Kansas, leading to his being attacked by Representative Preston Brooks. Brooks assaulted Sumner with a cane in the Senate chamber, which highlighted the intense sectional conflict and violence over the issue of slavery in the United States.

Bleeding Sumner

Refers to Sumner’s empty chair in the Senate after Brooks beat, resulting in Sumner having a bleeding head and being out of office. Became part of the anti-slavery sentiment

Crime Against Kansas

Sumner’s 2-day speech against slavery, threw shots against Senator Andrew Butler of South Carolina.

Lecompton Convention/Constitution

A convention to draft a constitution where slavery was legalized by proslavery advocates. However because freesoilders outnumbered proslaves in Kansas, it was not ratified in Congress, and Kansas would later enter the Union as a free state.

Scott v. Sanford [Dred Scott Decision]

The 1857 Supreme Court ruling that declared that African Americans were not U.S. citizens and therefore had no right to sue in federal court. The Court also stated that the federal government had no authority to regulate slavery in the territories, effectively nullifying the Missouri Compromise and intensifying national tensions over slavery. This made the southerners very happy.

Lincoln/Douglass Debates - 1858

A series of seven debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas during the Illinois Senate race, focusing on the issues of slavery and its expansion into the territories. These debates brought national attention to Lincoln as he argued against the spread of slavery, while Douglas supported popular sovereignty. The debates showcased contrasting visions for America and significantly shaped public opinion leading up to the Civil War. And the hatred for Lincoln in the South grew.

Lincoln - House divided Speech

Part of the Lincoln-Douglass debates, Lincoln talks about how if slavery is contained it will eventually die out. He also said the Union could not exist divided over slavery and the Union will either become all slavery or all free, no inbetween.

Douglas - Freeport Doctrine

Argued that slavery should be left to popular sovereignty, and despite the Dred Scott Decision, a slave could be taken from a slave owner as long as it’s what majority of the people in the state wanted. This resulted in Douglass being loved by southerns to being a pariah.

John Brown’s raid, Harper’s Ferry, Va, 1859

John Brown tried to insurrect a slave uprising in the South. He and his followers were executed on treason, however fear arose in the South of a massive slave uprising and that Southerners were not safe in the Union.

1860 National Election

Between Douglass (northern Democrat), Breckinridge (South Democrat), Bell (Union party) and Abe Lincoln (republican). Beckanridge and Lincoln were on the extremes of what they represented. While Douglass and Bell tried to find a middle ground. Abe Lincoln won by the electoral vote (not the popular vote). Resulting in the South wanted to leave the Union and seven States seceded from the Union.

Harriett Beecher Stowe

Woman who wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin, an abolitionist novel,

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

An Abolitionist novel written by Stowe, admired by Fredrick Douglass and Lincoln