Road to the Civil War and Compromises

A comprehensive set of vocabulary flashcards covering the major events, compromises, legislation, parties, and figures leading up to the American Civil War.

Missouri Statehood Controversey

The controversy caused by Missouri requesting statehood, which threatened to create an imbalance of power in Congress.

Henry Clay

The statesman who proposed the Missouri Compromise.

Missouri Compromise

An agreement admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state, establishing that territory south of 36 30' is slave and north of 36 30' is free.

Sectionalism

Loyalty to a specific part of a country.

Popular Sovereignty

The ability of a state to decide whether they would allow slavery through a vote by the people.

Free Soil Party

A political party formed to keep slavery out of western territories.

Compromise of 1850

A compromise that admitted California as a free state, organized New Mexico and Utah territories under popular sovereignty, created a new Fugitive Slave Act, and abolished the slave trade in Washington D.C. while allowing slaveholders to keep their slaves.

Fugitive Slave Law of 1850

A law requiring all citizens to return runaway slaves, which enraged northerners because it forced them into the slavery system.

Kansas Nebraska Act

Legislation proposed by Stephen Douglass allowing people in Kansas and Nebraska to vote on slavery, which undid the Missouri Compromise by permitting slavery to spread into territories where it was previously banned.

Stephen Douglass

The politician who proposed the Kansas Nebraska Act and won the Illinois Senate election of 1858 against Abraham Lincoln.

Border Ruffians

The name for a proslavery group that battled in Kansas.

Bleeding Kansas

A term for Kansas describing the outbreak of fighting between proslavery and antislavery factions in which 200 people died.

Republican Party (1854)

A political party formed in 1854 whose main goal was to oppose the expansion of slavery into the territories.

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

A series of seven debates held in Illinois between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglass.

Harper's Ferry Raid

A raid on an arsenal led by John Brown in an attempt to plan a slave revolt.

Election of 1860

A four-way presidential race between Lincoln (Republican), Douglass (Democratic), Bell (Constitutional Union), and Breckenridge (Southern Democratic), won by Abraham Lincoln.

Southern Secession

The response of southerners who felt Lincoln's victory meant they no longer had a voice in government and that their only choice was to secede.

South Carolina

The first state to secede from the Union, followed by Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas.

Confederate States of America

The nation formed by the seven states that seceded from the Union.

Jefferson Davis

The president of the Confederacy.

Fort Sumter

A fortification guarding Charleston Harbor whose raid marked the beginning of the Civil War after Lincoln faced the difficult decision of allowing it to be claimed or starting a war.