APUSH Unit 5 Part 1 Vocab

Popular Sovereignty

the idea that the people who settled a territory should decide the issue of slavery for that territory by voting

Compromise of 1850

1st proposed by Henry Clay; meant to resolve the dispute over the admission of California as a free state

Fugitive Slave Law

as part of the Compromise of 1850, it said the federal government would be responsible for hunting down runaway slaves; captured persons were denied trial by jury

Kansas-Nebraska Act

proposed by Stephen Douglas (railroad), it divided Nebraska territory into Kansas and Nebraska and allowed popular sovereignty in each place; this effectively nullified the Missouri Compromise line and upset anti-slavery northerners

Underground Railroad

system developed by some abolitionists to aid runaway slaves on their journeys north (usually to Canada)

Harriet Tubman

escaped slave who helped run Underground Railroad

Dred Scott v Sandford

court case in which slaves were deemed property and declared Missouri Compromise line unconstitutional

Bleeding Kansas

term that referred to violence between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces in Kansas

Free Soil movement

comprised of those who wanted no expansion of slavery into western territories because slaves took jobs from wage earners

Know Nothings

northern nativists who hated Irish Catholic and German Catholic immigrants

Republican Party

political party that formed as direct result of Kansas-Nebraska Act; platform was to prevent slavery's expansion

free labor ideology

idea promoted by early Republican Party that said slavery was economically inefficient

People vs Hall

court case in which Chinese were declared inferior and unable to testify against whites

nativism

hatred of immigrants

Manifest Destiny

term that implied it was America’s “obvious” destiny to take over the entire continent to the Pacific

Treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo

ended Mexican-American War; Mexico recognized Rio Grande as Texas border, US received Mexican Cession, US paid Mexico $15 million

Wilmot Proviso

said slavery should be forbidden in new territories acquired from Mexico in war

Oregon fever

took place in the 1840s as migrants rushed for land in the Pacific Northwest

Homestead Act

gave migrants 160 acres of free land if they farmed it for 5 years

Brigham Young

led the Mormons to Salt Lake City in Utah territory

James Polk

provoked war with Mexico in order to take Mexican Cession

Matthew Perry

forced the Japanese to open trade with the USA through intimidation

gunboat diplomacy

using the navy to intimidate a foreign power into doing something (trade)

Treaty of Kanagawa

official treaty that opened American trade with Japan

Mexican cession

western territory taken in the 1846 war