Vocab Quiz History

Manifest destiny

A widely held belief in the United States that its settlers were destined to expand across North America.

Samuel Morse

Contributed to the invention of a single-wire telegraph system and Morse code, and promoted commercial use of telegraphy.

Wilmot Proviso

Proposed law to ban slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico during the Mexican War; led to conflict contributing to the Civil War.

Bear Flag Republic

A short-lived, unrecognized breakaway state that controlled parts of California for twenty-five days in 1846.

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

Peace treaty signed on February 2, 1848, ending the Mexican-American War and ceding large land amounts from Mexico to the US.

Mexican Cession

Region of modern southwestern United States that Mexico ceded to the U.S. in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848.

Zachary Taylor

12th President of the United States, serving from 1849 until his death in 1850; an Army major general known for his role in the Mexican-American War.

Free soil movement

A party appealing to anti-slavery former members of the Whig and Democratic Parties, primarily in New York State.

Bleeding Kansas

Series of violent political confrontations involving anti-slavery Free-Staters and pro-slavery Border Ruffians in Kansas from 1854 to 1861.

Popular sovereignty

Principle that local residents of a territory decide slavery's legality; led to conflict in Bleeding Kansas.

Compromise of 1850

A package of five bills passed to resolve conflict over territories from the Mexican-American War regarding slavery.

Stephen A. Douglas

American politician who designed the Kansas-Nebraska Act and was the Democratic Party nominee for president in 1860.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

Created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, with a popular sovereignty clause leading to violent conflicts.

Secession

The withdrawal of a group from a larger political entity, often used as a strategy for limited goals.

Fugitive slave law

Law requiring the return of escaped slaves to their owners, enacted in 1793 and again in 1850.

Underground railroad

Network of secret routes and safe houses aiding enslaved people in their escape to free states and Canada.

Dred Scott v. Sanford

A landmark Supreme Court decision ruling that enslaved individuals could not sue for citizenship and that the federal government couldn't regulate slavery in federal territories.

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

A series of seven debates in 1858 between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas concerning slavery and political issues.

John Brown

American abolitionist known for advocating armed insurrection to overthrow slavery in the United States.

Harpers Ferry Raid

John Brown's 1859 attempt to initiate an armed slave revolt by seizing a U.S. arsenal in Virginia.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

An anti-slavery novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, published in 1852, influencing public opinion and laying groundwork for the Civil War.