APUSH Chapter 19

Jefferson Davis

An American politician who served as President of the Confederate States of America for its entire history, 1861 to 1865, during the American Civil War.

Hinton Helper

Another trouble-brewing book appeared in 1857, five years after the debut of Uncle Tom. Titled The Impending Crisis of the South, it was written by Hinton R. Helper, a nonaristocratic white from What does it say about nineteenth-century American culture that Stowe's appeal to sentiment succeeded so much more dramatically in exciting antislavery passions than did the factual and moral arguments of many other (mostly male) abolitionists?North Carolina. Hating both slavery and blacks, he attempted to prove by an array of statistics that indi- rectly the nonslaveholding whites were the ones who suffered most from the millstone of slavery. Unable to secure a publisher in the South, he finally managed to find one in the North

The Impending Crisis of the South

Antislavery tract, written by white Southerner Hinton R. Helper, arguing that non- slaveholding whites actually suffered most in a slave economy.

Pottawatomie Creek

Brooding over the recent attack on Lawrence, "Old Brown" of Osawatomie led a band of his followers to Pottawatomie Creek in May 1856. There they literally hacked to pieces five surprised men, presumed to be proslaveryites. This fiendish butchery, clearly the product of a deranged mind, besmirched the free-soil cause and brought vicious retaliation from the proslavery forces.

"Bleeding Kansas"

Civil war in Kansas over the issue of slavery in the territory, fought intermittently until 1861, when it merged with the wider national Civil War.

"Border Ruffians"

Crisis conditions in Kansas rapidly worsened. When the day came in 1855 to elect members of the first territorial legislature, proslavery "border ruffi- ans" poured in from Missouri to vote early and often.

Freeport Doctrine

Declared that since slavery could not exist without laws to protect it, territorial legislatures, not the Supreme Court, would have the final say on the slavery question. First argued by Stephen Douglass in 1858 in response to Abraham Lincoln's "Freeport Question".

Harpers Ferry

Federal arsenal in Virginia seized by abolitionist John Brown in 1859. Though Brown was later captured and exe- cuted, his raid alarmed Southerners who believed that Northerners shared in Brown's extremism.

Panic of 1857

Financial crash brought on by gold-fueled inflation, overspeculation, and excess grain production. Raised calls in the North for higher tariffs and for free homesteads on western public lands.

Constitutional Union Party

Formed by moderate Whigs and Know-Nothings in an effort to elect a compromise candidate and avert a sectional crisis.

Confederate States of America

Government estab- lished after seven Southern states seceded from the Union. Later joined by four more states from the Upper South.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

Harriet Beecher Stowe's widely read novel that dramatized the horrors of slavery. It heightened Northern support for abolition and escalated the sectional conflict.

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Harriet Beecher Stowe, a wisp of a woman and the mother of a half- dozen children, published her heartrending novel Uncle Tom's Cabin. Dismayed by the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law, she was determined to awaken the North to the wickedness of slavery by laying bare its terrible inhumanity, especially the cruel splitting of families.

New England Emigrant Aid Company

Organization created to facilitate the migration of free laborers to Kansas in order to prevent the establishment of slavery in the territory.

"Lame duck" period

Period between Lincoln's election and his inauguration, during which the ineffectual President Buchanan remianed in office

Lecompton Constitution

Proposed Kansas constitution, whose ratification was unfairly rigged so as to guarantee slavery in the territory. Initially ratified by proslavery forces, it was later voted down when Congress required that the entire constitution be put up for a vote.

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

Series of debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglass during the U.S. Senate race in Illinois. Douglass won the election but Lincoln gained national prominence and emerged as the leading candidate for the 1860 Republican nomination.

Dred Scott v. Stanford

Supreme Court decision that extended federal protection to slavery by ruling that Congress did not have the power to prohibit slavery in any territory. Also declared that slaves, as property, were not citizens of the United States.

Election of 1860

The election of 1860 was virtually two elec- tions: one in the North, the other in the South. South Carolinians rejoiced over Lincoln's victory; they now had their excuse to secede. In winning the North, the "rail-splitter" had split off the South.

John Brown

The fanatical figure of John Brown now stalked upon the Kansas battlefield. Spare, gray-bearded, and iron-willed, he was obsessively dedicated to the abolitionist cause. The power of his glittering gray eyes was such, so he claimed, that his stare could force a dog or cat to slink out of a room. Becoming involved in dubious dealings, including horse steal- ing, he moved to Kansas from Ohio with a part of his large family.

Sumner-Brooks Affair

The free-soil North was mightily aroused against the "uncouth" and "cowardly" "Bully" Brooks. Copies of Sumner's abusive speech, otherwise doomed to obscurity, were sold by the tens of thousands. Every blow that struck the senator doubtless made thou- sands of Republican votes. The South, although not unanimous in approving Brooks, was angered not only because Sumner had made such an intemper- ate speech but because it had been so extravagantly applauded in the North.

Beecher's Bibles

The most famous of these antislav- ery organizations was the New England Emigrant Aid Company, which sent about two thousand people to the troubled area to forestall the South—and also to make a profit. Shouting "Ho for Kansas," many of them carried the deadly new breech-loading Sharps rifles, nicknamed "Beecher's Bibles" after the Rev- erend Henry Ward Beecher (Harriet Beecher Stowe's brother), who had helped raise money for their pur- chase.

Crittenden Compromise

The proposed Crittenden amendments to the Constitution were designed to appease the South. Slavery in the territories was to be prohibited north of 36° 30', but south of that line it was to be given federal protection in all territories existing or "here- after to be acquired" (such as Cuba). Future states, north or south of 36° 30', could come into the Union with or without slavery, as they should choose. In short, the slavery supporters were to be guaranteed full rights in the southern territories, as long as they were territories, regardless of the wishes of the majority under popular sovereignty. Federal protec- tion in a territory south of 36° 30' might conceivably, though improbably, turn the entire area perma- nently to slavery.

James Buchanan

The scene next shifted to Washington. President Pierce had been succeeded by the no-less-pliable James Buchanan, who was also strongly under for the Whigs were dead and the Republicans were sectional. With the disruption of the Democrats came the snapping of one of the last important strands in the rope that was barely binding the Union together.