Chapter 7 US History Study guide

How were the North and South different after the American Revolution?

The North had more industry, cities, and small farms, while the South depended on plantations and enslaved labor.

What was the Wilmot Proviso?

A proposal that banned slavery in land gained from Mexico. It passed in the House but failed in the Senate.

How did the North view slavery?

Most Northerners opposed slavery’s spread to new territories but many didn’t push to end it where it already existed.

How did the South view slavery?

Southerners defended slavery as necessary for their economy and way of life.

What was the Free Soil Party?

A party formed in 1848 to keep slavery out of western territories. Their slogan was “free soil, free speech, free labor, and free men.

What was popular sovereignty?

The idea that people in a territory should vote to decide if slavery would be allowe

Why was Henry Clay called the “Great Pacificator”?

Because he created compromises that helped settle big national arguments (like the Missouri Compromise and Compromise of 1850).

What was in the Compromise of 1850?

California free, popular sovereignty in Mexican lands, slave trade banned in D.C., Fugitive Slave Act passed.

How did the Underground Railroad work?

Secret routes and safe houses helped enslaved people escape.

Who was Harriet Tubman?

Former enslaved woman who rescued many via Underground Railroad.

Why was Uncle Tom’s Cabin important?

Novel showing slavery’s cruelty—rallied Northerners, angered Southerners.

What was the Kansas-Nebraska Act?

Law allowing popular sovereignty in Kansas and Nebraska.

What was “Bleeding Kansas”?

Violent clashes between pro- and anti-slavery groups.

What happened between Charles Sumner and Preston Brooks?

Brooks beat Sumner with a cane in Congress over slavery insults.

Why did the Whig Party decline?

Split over slavery and couldn’t agree on candidates.

Who were the Know-Nothings?

Anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic political party that later split over slavery.

Why was the Republican Party formed?

To oppose the spread of slavery into western territories.

Who won the Election of 1856?

Democrat James Buchanan.

What was the Dred Scott decision?

Supreme Court ruled African Americans weren’t citizens and Congress couldn’t ban slavery in territories.

What were the Lincoln-Douglas debates about?

Debates in 1858 on slavery and popular sovereignty.

What was Stephen Douglas’s position on slavery?

Supported popular sovereignty.

What was Abraham Lincoln’s position on slavery?

Opposed slavery’s expansion, rejected Dred Scott, supported natural rights.

What was John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry?

1859 attempt to seize arsenal and start slave revolt; failed.

Why did Brown choose Harpers Ferry?

It had a federal arsenal and was near enslaved populations.

Was John Brown a hero or a terrorist?

Some saw him as a hero against slavery, others as a violent extremist.

Wilmot Proviso

the proposed, but rejected, 1846 bill that would have banned slavery in the territory won from Mexico in the Mexican War

Free-Soil Party

an antislavery political party in the mid-1800s

popular sovereignty

a principle in which the people are the only source of government power

secede

to withdraw formally from a membership in a group or an organization

Compromise of 1850

a political agreement that admitted California to the Union as a free state while permitting popular sovereignty in the territories and enacting a stricter slave law

Fugitive Slave Act

a law that required all citizens to aid in apprehending runaway slaves; a part of the Compromise of 1850

personal liberty laws

the laws enacted by northern states to counteract the Fugitive Slave Act by granting rights to escaped slaves and free African Americans

Underground Railroad

a system that existed before the Civil War in which African American and white abolitionists helped escaped slaves travel to safe areas in the North and in Canada