AP History Chapter 13

Wilmot Provis

1845 david Wilmot a northern whig attaches a proviso or an amendment to financial support the Mexican war if territories gained would ban slavery. This was defeated because people voted on sectional lines instead of party lines.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

1854 - 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.

Dred Scott v. Sandford

1857 Supreme Court decision that stated that slaves were not citizens; that livig in a free state or territory, even for many years, did not free slaves; and declared the Missouri Compromise unconstitional

Freeport Doctrine

1858, Stephen Douglas's support for popular sovereignty on the slavery issue, espoused during his debates with Lincoln in Illinois Senate election

"Fifty-four forty or fight!"

A campaign slogan, used in the election of 1844, that refers to the latitude 54-40, the northern limit of the disputed Oregon territory between America and the British.

Stephen Douglas

A moderate, who introduced the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 and popularized the idea of popular sovereignty.

Manifest Destiny

A notion held by a nineteenth-century Americans that the United States was destined to rule the continent, from the Atlantic the Pacific.

"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.

Lewis Cass

A veteran of the War of 1812, senator and diplomat, the "Father of Popular Sovereignty," Whig candidate in 1848

conscience Whigs

Antislavery Whigs who strongly opposed the annexation of Texas as a conspiracy by the slave power

Californios

Descendents of Spanish and Mexican conquerors; Spanish speaking inhabitants of California they were culture of Mexico carried to California.

James K. Polk

"Fifty Four-Forty or Fight!", dark hourse canidate, Mexican-American war, manifest destiny, Rio Grande/Nueces River, Ostero Manifesto, Wilmot Proviso, Mexican Cession, Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, Seneca Falls Convention

Compromise of 1850

(1) California admitted as free state, (2) territorial status and popular sovereignty of Utah and New Mexico, (3) resolution of Texas-New Mexico boundaries, (4) federal assumption of Texas debt, (5) slave trade abolished in DC, and (6) new fugitive slave law; advocated by Henry Clay and Stephen A. Douglas

John Brown

(1800-1859) anti-slavery advocate who believed that God had called upon him to abolish slavery. May or may not have been mentally unstable. Devoted over 20 years to fighting slavery, due to misunderstanding, in revenge he and his followers (his sons and others) killed five men in the pro slavery settlement of Pottawatomie Creek. Triggered dozens of incidents throughout Kansas some 200 people were killed. Was executed, still debated over whether he is a saint or killer.

Harriet Beecher Stowe

(1811-1896) American author and daughter of Lyman Beecher, she was an abolitionist and author of the famous antislavery novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Frederick douglass

(1817-1895) American abolitionist and writer, he escaped slavery and became a leading African American spokesman and writer. He published his biography, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, and founded the abolitionist newspaper, the North Star.

Zachary Taylor

(1849-1850), Whig president who was a Southern slave holder, and war hero (Mexican-American War). Won the 1848 election. Surprisingly did not address the issue of slavery at all on his platform. He died during his term and his Vice President was Millard Fillmore.

Gadsden Purchase

(1853) U.S. purchase of land from Mexico that included the southern parts of present-day Arizona and New Mexico; set the current borders of the contiguous United States (the U.S. states, minus Hawaii, Alaska, and commonwealth of Puerto Rico)

squatter sovereignty

Squatter, or popular, sovereignty was an idea hatched by Michigan senator Lewis Cass in 1848. He urged it as a solution to the question of slavery in the territories. It called for organizing territories without mention of slavery, thus leaving it to local settlers to determine the status of slavery among them.

Ostend Manifesto

a declaration (1854) issued from Ostend, Belgium, by the U.S. ministers to England, France, and Spain, stating that the U.S. would be justified in seizing Cuba if Spain did not sell it to the U.S.

free-soil movement

opposed the expansion of slavery in new states (particularly out west) ; subcatagory of the Republican party who were also abolitionists ; popular during the late antebellum period ; Abe Lincoln was the most influential person of this political party

American, or Know-Nothing, Party

opposed to immigrants to the US (especially German and Irish Catholics). They answered questions from outsiders about the party by saying "I know nothing".

personal-liberty law

pre-Civil War laws passed by Northern state governments to counteract the provisions of the Fugitive Slave Acts and to protect escaped slaves and free blacks settled in the North, by giving them the right to a jury trial.