Chapter 15

Fort Sumter

Federal fort in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina; the Confederate attack on the fort April 12, 1861 marked the start of the Civil War.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

Harriet Beecher Stowe's 1852 best selling novel portraying the cruelty of slavery. It contributed to the growing anti-slavery movement in the North

Lincoln-Douglass debates

Republican Abraham Lincoln faced off against Democrat Douglass running for the Illinois Senate seat in 1858. Lincoln opposed slavery and Stephen Douglass stood for popular sovereignty. Lincoln lost but became known nationally

Kansas-Nebraska Act

Senator Stephen Douglass' act that created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, opened new lands, repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820, and allowed the settlers to decide whether or not to have slavery within those territories (popular sovereignty)

Henry Clay

Senator who persuaded Congress to accept the Missouri Compromise, which admitted Maine into the Union as a free state, and Missouri as a slave state.

John Brown

abolitionist who believed that God had chosen him to end slavery; he murdered 5 pro-slavery supporters at Pottawatomie Creek, Kansas and led the failed raid on Harper's Ferry

popular sovereignty

allowing the people to decide whether to allow slavery in a state

slave state

any of the southern states in which slavery was legal prior to the Civil War (map-red states)

free state

any state prohibiting slavery prior to the Civil War (map-green states)

states' rights

belief that because the states created the United States, individual states have the power to nullify federal laws

1860 election

election where slavery was the central issue, Abraham Lincoln (Republican) won over John Breckinridge (Democrat), and John Bell (Constitutional Union Party). Lincoln won 40% of popular vote, but won a large majority of electoral votes. Lincoln's victory leads the south to secede.

sectionalism

extreme loyalty to a particular region above loyalty to the nation

Compromise of 1850

measures passed by Congress in 1850 to admit California into the Union as a free state, to divide 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, to ban slavery in Washington, DC and to establish a new, stronger fugitive slave law

Abraham Lincoln

modern Republican presidential candidate in 1860; he opposed the expansion of slavery into new territories; he was the favorite candidate of those who opposed slavery and its expansion; elected president in 1860

Free Soil Party

new party that opposed slavery in new states; Martin Van Buren was the presidential candidate in 1848

Texas

new western land that became a slave state in 1845

Republican Party

political party formed in 1854 as a party opposed to the spread of slavery; it had strong support in the North; ran John C. Fremont as its presidential candidate in 1856

"Bleeding Kansas"

Dispute in Kansas over popular sovereignty. So many people were feuding that disagreements eventually led to killing in Kansas between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces. It was a mini-civil war.

Stephen Douglass

Illinois Senator and 1860 Democratic candidate that supported popular sovereignty; he was the favorite candidate of northern Democrats

Harper's Ferry

(October 1859) John Brown led a raid on a federal arsenal at this place in Virginia. He and his followers hoped to distribute weapons to slaves in Virginia and start a slave rebellion. The raid failed to spark a slave revolt. Brown was hanged and became a martyr for the abolitionist cause.

Dred Scott Decision

1857 US Supreme Court ruling that declared slaves had no rights and that slavery could not be limited by law-- therefore the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional

John Breckinridge

1860 election--he was the favorite candidate of the southern Democrats

Fugitive Slave Act

A law that made it a crime to help runaway slaves; allowed for the arrest of escaped slaves in areas where slavery was illegal and required their return to slaveholders. It was very unpopular in the North

Missouri Compromise

Compromise worked out by Henry Clay in 1820: slavery would be prohibited in the Louisiana territory north of 36,30'N; Missouri would enter the Union as a slave state, Maine would enter the Union as a free state.

John Bell

Constitutional Union Party candidate in the 1860 election; he took no position on slavery and was supported by many northern and southern moderates

secession

The withdrawal of eleven Southern states from the Union in 1860 which precipitated the American Civil War.