Causes of the Civil War, Vocabulary Review #2 (ADV)

John Brown

Radical abolitionist who participated in Bleeding Kansas; was hanged after leading an unsuccessful raid at Harpers Ferry

Compromise of 1850

*California = free state and the Fugitive Slave Act

*Popular sovereignty in remaining Mexican-American War territories

*Banned slave trade in D.C. but slavery itself was still legal

*Henry Clay

Kansas-Nebraska Act

*a law that allowed voters in Kansas and Nebraska to choose whether to allow slavery (popular sovereignty)

*Changed the Missouri Compromise

*S. Douglas (wanted the transcontinental RR through his home state)

Popular Sovereignty

Idea that the voters of a new state would vote to determine if a new state would be free or slave

Dred Scott Decision

Supreme Court ruling that decided:

1. African Americans were not U.S. citizens

2. Enslaved people were property

3. Outlawing slavery was unconstitutional (5th Amendment protects a citizen’s right to own property).

4. (Enraged John Brown and led to his attempted raid at Harpers Ferry).

Henry Clay

Politician responsible for both the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850

Gold Rush

Caused a significant increase in California's population which led to the Compromise of 1850

Washington D.C.

The Compromise of 1850 banned the slave trade in this place.

Fugitive Slave Act

Part of the Compromise of 1850 that favored the South. A law that made it a crime to help runaway slaves; allowed for the arrest of escaped slaves and required their return to slaveholders.

Bleeding Kansas

Term referring to bloodshed over popular sovereignty in a particular territory (1856); John Brown was involved

Free Soil

Position of people who opposed the expansion of slavery but accepted it where it already existed. Republican Party’s position in the 1860 Presidential Election.

Georgia Platform

Georgia’s position on the Compromise of 1850; “shut up” John C. Calhoun. Made by Alexander Stephens.

Alexander Stephens

Georgia Congressman who supported the Georgia Platform in 1850 and fought against secession in 1861 but eventually became the Vice President of the Confederate States of America.

Stephen A. Douglas

A politician who supported the Kansas-Nebraska Act & popular sovereignty. Ran for president in 1860 as a Northern Democrat.

John Bell

Presidential candidate of the Constitutional Union Party in 1860

John Breckinridge

Southern Democrat candidate in the 1860 Presidential election. Supported slavery, states' rights, and no tariffs.

Avoid secession

Primary goal of the Constitutional Union political party

South Carolina

The first state to secede from the Union

Abraham Lincoln

This 1860 presidential candidate's position on slavery was that it should not be allowed to spread/Free Soil

California became a free state

Part of the Compromise of 1850 that favored the North.

Confederacy

*Included 11 Southern states

*President Jefferson Davis

*VP Alexander Stephens

Border States

Slave states that did NOT secede from the Union

Battle of Fort Sumter

*First battle in the Civil War

*Confederate victory

*Led 4 more states to secede

Emancipation Proclamation

Stated that all enslaved people in the seceded states were freed as of January 1, 1863

Union Blockade

Intended to “squeeze” the Confederacy’s economy to death so they had no money for war materials and would be forced to surrender

Battle of Chickamauga

*Second-bloodiest Civil War battle

*Confederate victory (forced the Union to retreat)

*Confederacy made the mistake of not capturing or killing Union troops

The Atlanta Campaign

*Led by Sherman

*Atlanta was targeted for its railroads and factories

Sherman’s March to the Sea

*Atlanta to Savannah

*Total War

*Goal: destroy the South’s morale and (hopefully) force a surrender

Andersonville

*Prisoner of war camp for captured Union soldiers

*Horrific conditions