[APUSH] Secession and Civil War Vocabulary

Popular Sovereignty

When people who lived in new territories voted for slavery in a particular region

Stephen Douglass

• Illinois senator who wrote the Kansas-Nebraska Act

• Elected after the Lincoln-Douglas debates 1858

Liberty Party

• Abolitionist party in the U.S. before the Civil War

• Merged with the Free-Soil Party

Free Soil Party

• Farmers heading west wanted the newly annexed land from Mexico to be free.

• They didn’t care about the slavery that already existed in the south,

Republican Party

• Created by anti-slavery whigs, democrats, and Free-soilers.

• Led by Abraham Lincoln

• wanted to abolish slavery

Compromise of 1850

• Written by Henry Clay

• California enters the Union as a free state

• Popular Sovereignty in the rest of the lands won in Mexico.

• Texas/New Mexico border dispute

• South wanted a stronger fugitive slave law

• Abolish the slave trade (not slavery itself) in DC

Fugitive Slave Law

• Part of the Compromise of 1850

• Required U.S. Marshals in the north to return runaway slaves from the south

• Aimed at eliminating the underground railroad after lax efforts by the north

Personal Liberty Laws

• Laws passed by Northern states forbidding the imprisonment of escaped slaves

• In response to the Fugitive Slave Law passed

Kansas-Nebraska Act

• Proposed by Stephen Douglas, popular sovereignty in Kansas/Nebraska territory

• Produced “Bleeding Kansas”

“Bleeding Kansas”

• Violent conflict in Kansas territory over disputes over slavery

• Showed that popular sovereignty was a bad idea

• 1854 - 1861

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

• fictional novel about an enslaved person’s life; helped impact public opinion on slavery

• Influential for changing public opinion on slavery

Harriet Beecher Stowe

• Author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin

• Abolitionist and advocate for women’s rights

John brown

• Abolitionist in the 1800s who used violence to overthrow the institution of slavery

• Raid on Harpers Ferry where he attempted to initiate a slave uprising

• Believed the ends justifies the means

Harper’s Ferry

• John Brown’s plan to incite a slave rebellion with guns in the South 

• Eventually caught by Robert E. Lee and southern military and was hanged

• Pivotal point, helped start the Civil War

Brooks-Summer Incident

• Southern Congressman Preston Brooks beat Northern Senator Charles Sumner, for giving a speech about Kansas’ slavery

• Attack symbolized the building animosity between the North and South 

• Sumner Speech is about Southern efforts to make Kansas a Slave state.

Dred Scott Decision

• Dred Scott is a slave in Wisconsin who sues for his freedom after his master’s death. Court rules…

• Slaves are property and cannot be represented in court; The court does not have the right to take property from someone; Implication is that free slaves cannot exist; Slaves are not citizen

Lincoln-Douglas Debate

• A series of seven debates. The two argued the important issues of the day like popular sovereignty, the Lecompton Constitution and the Dred Scott decision. 

• Douglas won these debates, but Lincoln's position in these debates helped him beat Douglas in the 1860 presidential election.

Secession

• To leave the Union

• 11 Southern states seceded from the Union after Lincoln’s election to form the Confederacy

Confederate States of America

• New nation formed by the south. There were slave states that did not fully secede

• States independence was stressed

Jefferson Davis

• President of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War

• Struggled to form a solid government for the states to be governed by

Crittenden Compromise

• Crittenden’s unsuccessful solution to the tension between the north and the south was to include slavery in the constitution

• Extended the Missouri Compromise to the Pacific

• Would of prohibited abolition in federal land in slaveholding states

Border States

• States along the mason-dixon line that bordered the north, but were not Pro-Confederacy

• Slave states that remained in the Union and did not secede

Robert E. Lee

• Commander of the south, Mexican War veteran, war genius

• Defeated at Gettysburg by the Union and surrendered at Appomattox Court House in 1865

“Stonewall” Jackson

• Confederate General that served under Robert E. Lee

• Held out against the Union in the Battle of Bull Run in North Virginia which led to the union’s surrender

• Became known as Stonewall Jackson afterwards

Ulysses S. Grant

• Commanded the northern states after the Battle of Gettysburg, drunk, didn’t have a very good reputation, but pulled off the victory for the north

• 18th President of the United States

William T. Sherman

• Union Army General 

• Carried out Sherman’s March where he led the Union Army south destroying resources and towns 

• Eventually leading to Confederate surrender in Savanna

Anaconda Plan

• A strategy by the north to cut off the south’s trade or “squeeze” the south into submission

• Called for blockade of south’s Atlantic and Gulf’s coast with naval ships

Trent Affair

• Union warship stopped a British ship on way to England and arrested 2 Confederate diplomats-James Mason and John Slidell

• Nearly brought the United States at war with Britain, ultimately averting by Lincoln releasing the two diplomats

Ironclads

• Iron ships created during the civil war replacing wooden ships

• Confederate Merrimack and Union Monitor battled, ended in stalemate

Conscription laws

• 1863 (U) 1862 (C)

• Required all body men from 20-45 in the Union to be drafted unless hired a substitute or paid $300

• Draft on men 17-50 which could be exempted if you were a slave owner with more than 20 slaves

• "It was a rich man's war but a poor man's fight.

Clara Barton

• Founded the American Red Cross in the 1880s

• Organized nursing care for Union soldiers during the Civil War

Emancipation Proclamation

• To declare freedom for all slaves within the rebellious states which kept slavery. It was a military measure brought forth by Abraham Lincoln, insinuating a new war which would soon occur to fight for abolition of slavery throughout the union.

• Directed toward the south confederate states

Gettysburg Address

•  After the battle of Gettysburg, speech by Lincoln

• To honor the dead soldiers of the Civil War who died at Gettysburg and to show how it is worth fighting for future ideals.

Copperheads

• Faction of northern Democratic party formed after Stephen Douglas’ death

• Opposed the Civil War and wanted peace settlements with the Confederacy

John Wilkes Booth

Actor who was upset over the north’s victory and assassinated Lincoln in 1865