U.S. History Regents Key Terms: Civil War, Abolition, and Expansion

The Liberator (William Lloyd Garrison)

An anti-slavery newspaper calling for the immediate end of slavery.

Uncle Tom's Cabin (Harriet Beecher Stowe)

A novel that exposed the cruelty of slavery and increased Northern opposition to it.

Nat Turner's Rebellion

A slave revolt in 1831 that led to harsher slave laws in the South.

Sojourner Truth

A former enslaved woman who became a famous abolitionist and women's rights speaker.

Harriet Tubman (Underground Railroad)

A conductor on the Underground Railroad who guided enslaved people to freedom.

Seneca Falls Convention/Declaration of Sentiments

The first women's rights meeting in 1848; demanded equality and the right to vote.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

A leader of the women's rights movement and organizer of the Seneca Falls Convention.

Manifest Destiny

The belief that the U.S. was meant to expand west to the Pacific Ocean.

Mexican-American War

A war where the U.S. defeated Mexico and gained territory in the Southwest.

Missouri Compromise

An 1820 agreement balancing free and slave states and banning slavery north of 36°30'.

Compromise of 1850/Fugitive Slave Law

A deal admitting California as free and creating a strict law requiring escaped slaves to be returned.

Popular sovereignty

Letting people in a territory vote on whether to allow slavery.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

Allowed popular sovereignty in new territories, leading to violence ("Bleeding Kansas").

Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)

Supreme Court ruling that enslaved people were property and not citizens; Congress could not ban slavery.

John Brown's Raid on Harpers Ferry

An attempted slave uprising led by abolitionist John Brown; increased tensions between North and South.

Secede/secession

When Southern states left the Union.

Confederate States of America

The government formed by the Southern states that seceded.

Election of 1860

Lincoln won; the South saw it as a threat to slavery and began seceding.

Abraham Lincoln

President during the Civil War who worked to preserve the Union and end slavery.

Jefferson Davis

President of the Confederacy.

Union

The Northern states that fought to keep the country together during the Civil War.

Border states

Slave states that stayed in the Union (ex: Maryland, Kentucky).

Emancipation Proclamation

Lincoln's order freeing enslaved people in Confederate territory.

Thirteenth Amendment

Abolished slavery in the United States.

Gettysburg Address

Lincoln's speech honoring soldiers and saying the war was to preserve democracy.