5.4 - 5.6 APUSH

Gadsden Purchase - A land purchase made by the United States from Mexico in 1853. This purchase provided the United States with a more direct route for a transcontinental railroad.

Free-Soil Party - A political party founded in 1848 that opposed the expansion of slavery into the territories of the United States, advocating instead for the rights of free men to have access to land and opportunities.

Popular Sovernighty - The principle that the people of a territory should decide whether or not to allow slavery. This doctrine was applied to the Kansas Territory and the Nebraska Territory in the 1850s.

Tammany Hall - A political organization that was based in New York City. This organization was known for its corrupt and machine-like politics.

Fugitive Slave Law - A law passed by Congress in 1850 that required all citizens to return fugitive slaves to their owners. This law was deeply unpopular in the North and helped to increase tensions between the North and the South.

Uncle Tom's Cabin - A novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe that was published in 1852. This novel was a powerful indictment of slavery and helped to fuel the abolitionist movement.

Nativists - A political movement that opposed immigration and the rights of immigrants. This political ideal was a major force in American politics in the 1840s and 1850s.

Bleeding Kansas - A sequence of violent events involving abolitionists and pro-Slavery elements that took place in Kansas-Nebraska Territory. The dispute further strained the relations of the North and South, making civil war imminent.

Kansas-Nebraska Act - A law passed by Congress in 1854 that repealed the Missouri Compromise and applied the principle of popular sovereignty to the Kansas Territory and the Nebraska Territory. This act led to the violence in Kansas.

Know-Nothing Party - A political party that was formed in the 1850s. This party was a party that opposed immigration and the rights of immigrants.

Republican Party