7.1 - 7.2 Vocab

7.1

Wilmot Proviso - the proposed, but rejected, 1846 bill that would have banned slavery in the territory won from Mexico in the Mexican War

Free-Soil Party - an antislavery political party in the mid-1800s

Popular Sovereignty - a principle in which the people are the only source of government power

Secede - to withdraw formally from a membership in a group or an organization

Compromise of 1850 - a political agreement that admitted California to the Union as a free state while permitting popular sovereignty in the territories and enacting a stricter fugitive slave law

Fugitive Slave Act - a law that required all citizens to aid in apprehending runaway slaves; a part of the Compromise of 1850

Personal Liberty Laws - the laws enacted by northern states to counteract the Fugitive Slave Act by granting rights to escaped slaves and free African Americans

Underground Railroad - a system that existed before the Civil War in which African American and white abolitionists helped escaped slaves travel to safe areas in the North and in Canada

Harriet Tubman - Harriet Tubman (c.1820–1913) was born into slavery in Maryland. In 1849, she escaped and traveled to Philadelphia. She then became a "conductor" on the Underground Railroad, leading hundreds of enslaved people, including her parents and siblings, to freedom in the North.

Harriet Beecher Stowe - Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–1896) was an American writer and abolitionist best known for her antislavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, published in 1852. She began writing her novel as a series of stories, which first appeared in the abolitionist newspaper National Era in 1851–1852.

7.2

Kansas-Nebraska Act - a 1854 law that divided the Nebraska Territory into Kansas and Nebraska, giving each territory the right to decide whether or not to allow slavery

John Brown - John Brown (1800–1859) was an American abolitionist best known for leading a raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry in 1859. During that raid, he and his co-conspirators were captured and later executed. Brown is remembered by some as a militant extremist and by others as a martyr in the cause against slavery.

“Bleeding Kansas” - a term used to describe the violence between proslavery and antislavery supporters in Kansas from 1854 to 1856

Nativist - a person who favors native-born inhabitants over immigrants

“Know-Nothings” - a political party of the mid-1800s, officially known as the American Party, that opposed immigration

Republican Party - a political party established around an antilsavery platform in 1854

Dred Scott - Dred Scott (c.1800–1857) was an African American man born into slavery who sued for freedom on the grounds that he had lived for a time in a state where slavery was prohibited. In Dred Scott v. Sandford , the Supreme Court ruled against Scott, stating that his time in a free state did not nullify his status as a slave and that as a slave he was property and could not sue in the courts. Following the ruling, the sons of Scott's original owner purchased Scott and his wife and freed them both.

Roger B. Taney - Roger B. Taney (1777–1864) served as the fifth Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. He is best known for his decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford , in which he wrote that enslaved persons were not entitled to the rights guaranteed by the Constitution and that Congress had no authority to ban slavery in the territories, as such laws would deprive slaveowners of their property.

Abraham Lincoln - Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) was born on a Kentucky farm. He was self-educated and became an attorney. He joined the Whig Party and was elected to serve in the Illinois state legislature. He ran an unsuccessful campaign against Stephen A. Douglas for a seat in the U.S. Senate in 1858, during which he gained national acclaim for his performance in a series of debates and for his strong stance against the expansion of slavery. Though he lost the Senate race, he went on to become president in 1861. He led the country during the Civil War and was assassinated in April 1865.

Steven A Douglas - Stephen A. Douglas (1813–1861) was a U.S. Senator. Douglas was an ardent supporter of westward expansion and an advocate for popular sovereignty on the question of slavery in new states and territories. He helped win passage of the Compromise of 1850 and proposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854. Douglas gained national acclaim for his role in the Senate campaign debates with Abraham Lincoln in 1858.

Harpers Ferry - a town in Virginia (now in West Virginia) where abolitionist John Brown raided a federal arsenal in 1859