APUSH Manifest Destiny and the Sectional Crisis Flashcards

Nat Turner’s Rebellion

A slave uprising in 1831 led by Nat Turner in Virginia, which resulted in the deaths of 60 white people and led to harsh reprisals against enslaved and free African Americans.

Manifest Destiny

The 19th-century belief that the U.S. was destined by God to expand westward across North America, spreading democracy and capitalism.

Texas Annexation

The process by which the U.S. admitted the independent Republic of Texas as the 28th state in 1845, leading to tensions with Mexico.

Oregon Territory

A region in the Pacific Northwest that was jointly occupied by Britain and the U.S. until the Oregon Treaty of 1846, which established the U.S. claim to the land.

Mexican Cession

The territory ceded by Mexico to the U.S. after the Mexican-American War (1846–1848), which included present-day California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Colorado, New Mexico, and Wyoming.

Wilmot Proviso

A proposal to ban slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico, introduced by Congressman David Wilmot in 1846, though it was never passed.

Crittenden Compromise

A failed attempt in 1860 to resolve sectional tensions by extending the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific and protecting slavery in southern territories.

Bleeding Kansas

A series of violent confrontations in Kansas between pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions (1854–1859) after the Kansas-Nebraska Act allowed popular sovereignty to decide the issue of slavery.

John Brown’s Raid

An 1859 attempt by abolitionist John Brown to start a slave revolt by seizing the U.S. arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. The raid failed, and Brown was executed.

Compromise of 1850

A package of five bills aimed at resolving sectional conflicts, including the admission of California as a free state and the strengthening of the Fugitive Slave Act.

Sectionalism

The division of the United States into regions with distinct economic, cultural, and political interests, particularly between the North and South before the Civil War.

Ostend Manifesto

A document from 1854 that urged the U.S. to annex Cuba, by force if necessary, to expand slavery and increase southern power in the government.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

An 1854 law that created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska and allowed for popular sovereignty to decide the slavery issue, leading to violence and the rise of the Republican Party.

Popular Sovereignty

The idea that the people living in a territory should decide for themselves whether to allow slavery, as proposed in the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

Stephen Douglas

A U.S. senator from Illinois, known for his debates with Abraham Lincoln and for pushing the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which allowed popular sovereignty to decide slavery issues in the territories.

Abraham Lincoln

16th President of the United States, leader during the Civil War, and the president who issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed enslaved people in Confederate states.

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

A series of seven debates in 1858 between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas for a Senate seat in Illinois, focusing on slavery and its expansion into the territories.

Fugitive Slave Act

A law passed in 1850 as part of the Compromise of 1850, which required citizens to assist in the capture of runaway slaves and imposed penalties on those who aided them.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

An 1852 anti-slavery novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe that dramatized the harsh realities of slavery and helped galvanize the abolitionist movement in the North.

Harriet Beecher Stowe

An American abolitionist and author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which was pivotal in changing Northern attitudes toward slavery.

Dred Scott Decision

A 1857 Supreme Court decision that ruled African Americans were not citizens and that Congress could not ban slavery in U.S. territories.

Whig Party

A political party active in the early 19th century that opposed President Andrew Jackson and supported a strong federal government and economic modernization. It dissolved in the 1850s.

Free Soil Party

A short-lived political party in the mid-1800s that opposed the expansion of slavery into the western territories, advocating instead for "free soil" for free labor.

Constitutional Union Party

A political party formed in 1860 to avoid secession and civil war, advocating for the preservation of the Union and compromise on the issue of slavery.

Democratic Party

One of the two major U.S. political parties, with a platform historically supportive of states' rights, and, during the pre-Civil War period, often defending slavery.

Know-Nothing Party

An anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic political party in the 1850s, which later merged with other groups to form the Republican Party.

Republican Party

Founded in 1854, the Republican Party was an anti-slavery party that sought to prevent the expansion of slavery into new territories and eventually supported the abolition of slavery.

Edmund Ruffin

A Southern agrarian who advocated for secession and was one of the first to fire shots at Fort Sumter, starting the Civil War.

Sojourner Truth

An African American abolitionist and women’s rights activist, known for her famous speech "Ain't I a Woman?" delivered in 1851.

Harriet Tubman

A former enslaved woman who became a conductor on the Underground Railroad, helping many enslaved people escape to freedom.

Henry Highland Garnet

An African American abolitionist and minister who advocated for slave rebellion and the immediate abolition of slavery.

Secession

The act of Southern states leaving the Union in the lead-up to and during the Civil War, beginning with South Carolina in December 1860.

Confederate States

The 11 Southern states that seceded from the Union and formed the Confederacy during the Civil War (1861-1865).

Union States

The Northern states and border states that remained loyal to the U.S. government during the Civil War.

Border States

Slave states that remained part of the Union during the Civil War, including Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, and West Virginia.

Henry Clay

A prominent U.S. senator and statesman known for his role in crafting key compromises, including the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850.

Martin Van Buren

The 8th President of the United States (1837-1841) and a key figure in the formation of the Democratic Party.

William Henry Harrison

The 9th President of the United States, serving only 31 days, the shortest presidency in history, before dying in office.

John Tyler

The 10th President of the U.S., who assumed the presidency after Harrison's death and annexed Texas.

John Quincy Adams

The 6th President of the U.S., known for his role in the Monroe Doctrine and his later opposition to slavery as a congressman.

James K. Polk

The 11th President of the U.S., responsible for the Mexican-American War and the acquisition of territories such as California and the Oregon Territory.

Zachary Taylor

The 12th President of the U.S. and a hero of the Mexican-American War, dying in office after only 16 months.

Sumner-Brooks Affair

A violent incident in 1856 in which Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina beat Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts with a cane on the floor of the Senate over Sumner’s anti-slavery speech.

These events and figures played pivotal roles in shaping U.S. history, particularly during the lead-up to the Civil War.