Westward Expansion/Slavery/Causes of Civil War

Bleeding Kansas

A sequence of violent events involving abolitionists and pro-Slavery groups that took place in Kansas-Nebraska Territory. Thousands of pro-slavery people from Missouri went to Kansas to vote in the elections. Pro-slavery groups attacked a hotel, newspaper offices and homes. Anti-slavery people retaliated. John Brown (abolitionist) led a group that killed 5 people. Armed bands of people roamed Kansas. Federal troops were called in to stop the fighting. The dispute further increased the tension between the North and the South.

Slavery

A slave is property under the law and can be bought and sold.

Underground Railroad

A system of secret routes to get slaves from the South to the North to freedom.

Civil War

A war between citizens of the same country.

Abolitionist

An abolitionist is a person who believed slavery was wrong and wanted to see slavery become illegal in this country. Most abolitionists lived in the North.

The 36º 30' line of latitude

As part of the Missouri Compromise of 1820, slavery was prohibited (not allowed) above this line of latitude in the new Louisiana Territory.

King Cotton

Cotton production increased dramatically and more than doubled between 1850 and 1860.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

Created Nebraska and Kansas as states and gave the people in those territories the right to chose to be a free or slave state through popular sovereignty (people vote/decide).

Domestic Slave Trade

Domestic slave trade continued from 1808 until 1865. Slaves were sold at many slave auctions and moved to areas in the South.

Why did Dred Scott believe he should be free?

Dred Scott, a slave, believed that he should be free since his master took him from a slave state into a free state /territory where slavery was illegal, according to the Missouri Compromise.

Slavery in the Constitution - ⅗ Compromise

Each slave would count for 3/5 of a person for representation purposes. This was agreeable to the South because it increased their representation in the House of Representatives (there were almost 4 million slaves in the South.)

Frederick Douglass Chapter 11

FD escaped to NY but was fearful of falling into the hands of a slave catcher. With the help of Mr. Ruggles, FD married and went on to MA and found work. He then began speaking to Abolitionists about his life of slavery.

Frederick Douglass Chapter 5 & 6

FD went to live with Mr. and Mrs. Auld in Baltimore and was told to take care of their young son. In the beginning, Mrs. Auld was kind to FD. She began to teach FD to read. Mr. Auld told her to stop--said it was illegal, would make him unfit to be a slave, and that a slave need only to obey their master. Mrs. Auld changed and began treating FD differently; she was corrupted by the power of slavery. Frederick realized that reading and knowledge were his pathway to freedom.

Frederick Douglass Chapter 1

FD wrote that from an early age, slaves were denied experiences important to every human. Slaves didn't know their birthdate or maybe who their parents were. FD was separated from his mother when he was a baby and said this was commonly done. He thought this was to prevent mother and child from forming a natural loving bond.

Fort Sumter

Federal fort in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. The fort needed supplies- Lincoln sent supplies to them but the Confederate soldiers opened fire on the fort on April 12, 1861 before the supplies arrived. The Confederate attack on the fort marked the start of the Civil War.

Sectionalism

Fierce loyalty to one's own region of the country, rather than to the nation as a whole. Differences between the North and the South: the North was a manufacturing economy while the South's economy was based on agriculture and heavily dependent on slave labor. The South wanted to exercise its state's rights to decide the issue of slavery. Both regions wanted to control the issue of slavery in the western territories--South wanted the new states to be slave states, while the North wanted "free soil." Conflicts arose: "Bleeding Kansas", John Brown's revenge attacks on pro-slavery people in Kansas, John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry, strong regional reactions to the Dred Scott decision and John Brown's execution.

Secession

Formal withdrawal (breaking away) of states or regions from a nation. The South decided to secede because they thought slavery would be banned. South Carolina was the first southern state to secede.

John Brown's Fate

He was convicted of treason and hung. The South worried that the abolitionist movement might grow stronger. The South thought Brown was a lunatic--a terrorist who used violence to achieve his goal. The North thought Brown was a martyr/hero--someone who was willing to risk his life for what he thought was right.

Manifest Destiny

It is our fate or destiny to control all of North America. The right to expand westward was granted to us by God.

John Brown's Raid on Harpers Ferry

John Brown was an abolitionist who wanted to start a slave rebellion in the South and felt using violence was the only way to do it. He led a small group who took over a federal arsenal (a place where weapons are stored). The raid failed and Brown was captured.

Fugitive Slave Law

Law that stated escaped slaves had to be returned to their owners. Northerners opposed to slavery were against the law and under the threat of fines or jail often ignored the law.

Cotton Gin

Machine invented by Eli Whitney that was designed to clean the seeds and plant parts from the cotton. Before the Cotton Gin was invented, slaves cleaned the cotton by hand. The machine could do the work 50 times faster.

Indian Removal Act + Andrew Jackson

Made it official that the US Government could forcefully move the Native Americans off of their lands and into the West.

Frederick Douglass Chapter 10

Mr. Covey was the cruel overseer who pushed FD to his limit--Covey wanted to teach FD a lesson and attacked him. FD decided to fight back and resisted Mr. Covey. His fight with Covey strengthened his determination to be free.

Nat Turner Rebellion

Nat Turner was a slave who led a violent revolt in Virginia hoping to kill white slave owners. Total of 55 white people died. Nat Turner was caught and hung. Ten days of terror followed when hundreds of slaves and free blacks were murdered as a warning to other slaves. Southerners feared that their slaves might also rebel.

Louisiana Purchase

President Thomas Jefferson approved the purchase of the Louisiana territory from France. This land gain doubled the size of the US. Jefferson asked Lewis and Clark to explore the new territory and find the Northwest Passage.

Abraham Lincoln

Republican candidate elected president in 1860. Lincoln was one of four candidates. Lincoln didn't get one vote from the South. The South worried that he would ban slavery. His election was the immediate cause for the South to secede and form the Confederate States of America.

Slave Codes

Slave codes were laws designed to control the lives of slaves. It was against the law for a slave to learn to read or write, gather in groups of 3 or more without a white person present, and torture or death were the penalties for running away. Slave revolts triggered the slave codes.

Border State

Slave states that stayed in the Union (Kentucky, Delaware, Maryland, and Missouri)

Frederick Douglass Chapter 2

Slaves experienced harsh treatment from owners and difficult living conditions. The working day was long, slaves were whipped and were given bare minimum amounts of food and clothing. Mr. Severe was a cruel overseer who took pleasure in whipping FD.

Slave Treatment

Slaves were treated very poorly. There was inadequate food, bare minimum shelter and clothing and medical care. Families were often separated. Slaves were worked to the point of exhaustion, whipped for punishment and denied the basic things important to every human.

Confederate States of America (CSA)

The 11 southern states that seceded from the United States formed the Confederate States of America (CSA). The capital of the CSA was Richmond, Virginia and the president was Jefferson Davis.

Supreme Court Ruling regarding Dred Scott

The Supreme Court ruled that he was not free. Chief Justice Roger Taney stated that since he was a slave he was not a citizen so he could not sue in a court of law. No African-American, slave or free, could ever become a citizen. The ruling also stated that a slave could not be free just because they were in a free state and owners could not be deprived of their "property" without due process of law.

Trail of Tears

The Trail of Tears was when the United States government forced Native Americans to move from their homelands in the southern US (Georgia) to Indian Territory in Oklahoma. 1 in 4 Cherokee Indians that made the trip to Indian Territory died.

Impact of the Cotton Gin

The cotton gin made growing cotton very profitable and was responsible for the dramatic increase in cotton production, exports and the demand for slave labor. By 1860, cotton was 57% of all exports from the USA.

Cotton Belt

The geographic area where cotton was grown. In these areas, the number of slaves outnumbered the white population.

Middle Passage

The transatlantic ship crossing that brought slaves from Africa to Americas. An estimated 12 million slaves were taken on this passage. Conditions on the ships were terrible--slaves were chained and an estimated 1.5 million died. Voyage lasted 3-6 weeks

Missouri Compromise of 1820

There were 11 slave and 11 free states in the Union when Missouri wanted to enter as a slave state. To keep the balance it was agreed that Maine enter the Union as free state, Missouri enter the Union as a slave state, and that slavery would be prohibited north of 36°30'.

Triangle Trade Route

This was the trade route in which kidnapped slaves were taken from Africa across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas and traded for sugar cane, rum , tobacco, etc. from the Americas and then traded for manufactured good made in Europe.

Ban on Transatlantic Slave Trade

Transatlantic Slave trade was banned in 1808 (after almost 200 years of slave trade). This happened due to pressure from other nations that had banned slave trade. There were already about 4 million slaves in the US. Children of slaves became slaves so Southerners felt they had a supply to meet their needs.

Compromise of 1850

When California applied to become a state in 1849, it upset the balance between free and slave states. The Compromise had 4 parts: California was admitted to the Union as a free state, the Fugitive Slave Law was strengthened, ended Slave Trade in DC and the territories of Utah, Nevada, New Mexico and Arizona could vote on whether or not to have slavery.

4 main crops that required slave labor

cotton, rice, tobacco and sugar

Popular Sovereignty

rule by the people--people get to decide or vote on issues