Antebellum Sectionalism, Key Legislation, and the Road to the Civil War

Political Terminology and Core Concepts

  • Agitator: Someone who tries to stir up public feelings about a controversial issue.

  • Arsenal: A stockpile of weapons and military equipment or the building in which they are stored.

  • Popular Sovereignty: A political practice, common in the United States before the Civil War, in which the people living in a newly organized territory had the right to vote on whether to allow slavery in the territory.

  • Sectionalism: Strong concern for local interests.

  • Secession: Formal withdrawal from a group; in U.S. history, the formal withdrawal of 11 Southern states from the Union in 1860-1861, leading to the Civil War.

Legislative Compromises and Federal Acts

  • Missouri Compromise:

    • Measures passed by Congress in 1820.

    • Admitted Missouri into the Union as a slave state.

    • Admitted Maine as a free state.

    • Set a line at latitude 36° 30' (Missouri's southern border) north of which all Louisiana Purchase territory would be free.

  • Compromise of 1850:

    • Measures passed by Congress in 1850.

    • Admitted California into the Union as a free state.

    • Divided the rest of the Southwest into the New Mexico and Utah territories, with the people there determining for themselves through popular sovereignty whether or not to accept slavery.

    • Banned slavery in Washington, D.C.

    • Established a new, stronger fugitive slave law.

  • Fugitive Slave Law:

    • 1793 Version: A law first passed by Congress in 1793 to allow the seizure and return of slaves who escaped into another state or a federal territory.

    • 1850 Version: Congress passed a second version of the law in 1850 which:

    • Established fines on federal officials who refused to enforce the law or from whom a runaway slave escaped.

    • Established fines on individuals who helped slaves escape.

    • Banned runaway slaves from testifying on their own behalf in court.

    • Gave special commissioners power to enforce the law.

  • Kansas-Nebraska Act:

    • A law passed by Congress in 1854.

    • Established Kansas and Nebraska as territories with popular sovereignty.

Political Parties, Conflict, and Civil War Events

  • Republican Party:

    • One of the two major U.S. political parties.

    • Founded in 1854 by antislavery opponents of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

  • John Brown's Raid:

    • A raid led by abolitionist John Brown in 1856.

    • Conducted in hopes of seizing the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, in order to distribute the weapons to slaves in the area and spark a slave revolt.

    • The attempt failed when federal troops captured the men.

    • Led to John Brown's execution for treason.

  • Fort Sumter:

    • A federal fort located in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina.

    • The location at which the first battle of the Civil War took place on April 12, 1861.