People of Antebellum America

Henry Clay

Henry Clay

• “Western Star” and “Great Compromiser”

• He settled the dispute of the Great Compromise

• Clay’s Proposal

  • admitted California as a free state

  • abolition of slave trade in capital

  • Stricter Fugitive Slave Act

Andrew Jackson

• Made Force Bill

  • Supported tariffs

Stephen Douglas

• Democrat

• Nicknamed Little Giant

  • Henry Clay replacement; tried to steal his thunder

• lost support to become President after he voiced his opinion rejecting Lecompton government

James Polk

• became President

• Believed it was America’s god given right to conquer the West

Franklin Pierce

• Democrat Northern 14th President

• Had a cabinet full of Southerners and mostly listened to them for policy

William Seward

• became Lincoln’s right hand man

• Told people to see who gains the majority in Kansas, Northerners or Southerners

• Didn’t approve of slavery in the midwest

John Brown

• Advocated for abolition through violent means

• Moved to Kansas to vote against slavery

  • Pottawomie Creek Massacre

Charles Sumner

• Was beaten half to death by a Southerner because he insulted the South

  • he got revenge later in the revolution

Dred Scott

• Slave

• Sued for his freedom in 1857

• Case ruled all slaves and descendants as not citizens, making slavery legal everywhere in the country

James Buchanan

• Democrat

• Absent in political action

• Did not take part in things even though lots of tragedies happened like Dred Scott, Harper’s Ferry, and Secession

Stephen Austin

• His efforts helped pave the way for the Texas Revolution and eventual independence from Mexico

• Established Texas in 1822

• Mexico responded when too many American people began crossing over, prohibiting more people in 1830

Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna

• formed Catholic, centrist, conservative government in Mexico which a lot of people hated

• Dictator of Mexico

• His actions led people of Texas to issue Texas Declaration of Independence and American Southerners aid in battle

Zachary Taylor

• “Old Rough and Ready”

• Elected in 1848 as a Whig

  • Polk lost to him

  • Wanted to annex California no matter what

• Died soon after winning election due to illness

Winfield Scott

• “Old Fuss and Feathers”

• War General

• Took part in the Trail of Tears

David Wilmot

• Passes Wilmot Proviso

  • Suggests that all of the Mexican territory should be free, including California

  • Angers the South

  • Does not pass into law

• Was a free-soiler

John L. O’Sullivan

• Newspaper writer

• Wrote about Oregon and coined the term “Manifest Destiny”

• Believed that Americans have the divine right to all of North America

  • Many disputed on whether or not this meant Mexican territory and Cuba

John Calhoun

• Disagrees with Andrew Jackson on nullification and doesn’t agree with Force Bill either

  • Against tariffs and was Andrew Jackson’s vice pres

• Wanted to suppress abolitionists and equal rights in territories

  • Basically make slavery legal everywhere

Dred Scott

• Slave who sued for his freedom

• His case ruled that slaves and their descendants are not citizens

  • basically made slavery legal everywhere

Harriet Tubman

• Underground Railroad

James Madison

• Father of Constitution

• Did Bill of Rights

Daniel Webster

• Free-Soiler

• All citizens should abide by Fugitive Slave Act

  • For tariffs

• Made a final bid for the presidency in 1852 but couldn’t

Harriet Beecher Stowe

• Made Uncle Tom’s Cabin

  • Story about a slave’s life that became popular among Northerners

Anthony Burns

• 1854, slave preacher that was sent back to the South after traveling North

  • Northerners tried to stop him from being taken back

  • Was held in Lumpkin’s Jail

Margaret Garner

• January 1856, slave that killed her own children in order for other slaves to escape slavery

David Atchison

• Led fire-eaters in fraudulent voting in Lecompton

Nat Turner

• Was a religious figure

• Leader of the 1831 slave uprising in Virginia

  • His revolt had a significant impact on the abolitionist movement

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

• fought for women's suffrage and equal rights

• Co-founded the National Woman Suffrage Association

• authored the Declaration of Sentiments.

Robert Barnwell Rhett

• Ran Nashville Convention in protest of California becoming a free state

John Green Leaf Whittier

• American poet and abolitionist who wrote influential poems

  • wrote a poem insulting Webster

Gabriel Prosser

• Planned to execute a rebellion

  • Got ratted out and was stopped

Thomas Jefferson

• Wrote the statute of Religious Freedom

• Bought Louisiana Purchase from France

James Monroe

• made the Monroe Doctrine

  • Separated European powers from Western Hemisphere

• 5th President

Robert Hayne

• Known for his debates against Daniel Webster on states' rights and nullification

  • Advocated for states' rights and limited federal power

  • Played a significant role in the Nullification Crisis

  • Against tariffs

John Quincy Adams

• Was President and had to decide whether to keep tariffs or no tariffs

  • he decided to keep tariffs

William Lloyd Garrison

• Wrote “The Liberator”

• Believed in immediate emancipation

  • Free slaves now

Frederick Douglass

• Editor of North Star Newspaper

• Was former slave

  • Wrote autobiography

Thomas Benton

• Against Foot Resolution

• Against slavery and expansion of slavery

Samuel Foot

• Foot Resolution

  • Public Land sale in US