UConn U.S History Unit 3 Test

Plantation Life

Large agricultural estates where enslaved people labored in harsh conditions to produce cash crops like cotton, rice, and tobacco.

Expansion of Slavery

The growth of slavery into new western territories due to cotton cultivation and demand for labor.

Slavery by the numbers

The statistical reality of slavery, including population counts, economic impact, and the scale of forced labor.

King Cotton

The idea that cotton dominated the Southern economy and drove national and international markets.

The Internal Slave Trade

The buying and selling of enslaved people within the United States, especially from the Upper South to the Deep South.

The hierarchy of the enslaved

A social order among enslaved people, including field hands, house servants, drivers, and skilled artisans.

Slave Codes

Laws that controlled enslaved people’s behavior, restricted movement, and denied legal rights.

Southern defenses of slavery

Arguments claiming slavery was necessary, natural, biblical, or beneficial to both races.

Resistance to slavery

Acts of defiance including work slowdowns, sabotage, fleeing, rebellion, and cultural resistance.

Nat Turner’s Rebellion

An 1831 violent slave revolt in Virginia led by Nat Turner that increased Southern fear and tightened slave laws.

Abolitionist Movement

A movement aimed at ending slavery in the United States.

American Colonization Society

Group that promoted sending free African Americans to Africa rather than integrating them into U.S. society.

Abolitionism

The belief that slavery should be ended immediately and completely.

William Lloyd Garrison

Radical abolitionist and publisher of The Liberator.

The Liberator

An influential antislavery newspaper calling for immediate emancipation.

Frederick Douglass

Former enslaved man, powerful speaker, and leading abolitionist.

The North Star

Frederick Douglass’s antislavery newspaper.

David Walker

Black abolitionist who wrote Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World, urging resistance to slavery.

Underground Railroad

A secret network that helped enslaved people escape to free states and Canada.

The Gag Rule

Congressional rule that banned discussion of antislavery petitions in the House from 1836–1844.

Grimke Sisters

Sarah and Angelina Grimke, Southern women who became outspoken abolitionists and women’s rights activists.

Lucretia Mott

Quaker abolitionist and early leader in the women’s rights movement.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Women’s rights leader and organizer of the Seneca Falls Convention.

Seneca Falls Convention

The first women’s rights convention held in 1848 in New York.

Declaration of Sentiments

Document modeled after the Declaration of Independence demanding equal rights for women.

Susan B. Anthony

Key leader in the women’s rights and suffrage movements.

How did slavery become entrenched in Southern life?

Slavery became central due to the profitability of cotton, plantation economics, racist ideology, and political protection.

What was plantation life like for enslaved people and how did they create a distinct and vibrant culture despite the hardship they endured?

Life involved long hours, violence, and family separation, yet enslaved people built culture through music, religion, language, and community.

What were the major forms of resistance to slavery?

Resistance included work slowdowns, escape attempts, sabotage, secret education, cultural preservation, and armed rebellion.

How did the abolitionist movement transform over time to challenge barriers to racial equality and free speech?

It grew from moderate gradualism to radical immediatism, used newspapers, activism, political pressure, and fought censorship like the gag rule.

How did early feminists define freedom?

They defined freedom as equality in legal rights, education, property, political participation, and personal independence.