Ch. 10 sec.2 The Civil War

Kansas - Nebraska Act

(1854), was proposed by sen. Stephen Douglas (IL), to divide the Nebraska Territories, it caused lots of debate in Congress, it made two territories. if passed it would repeal the Missouri Compromise and make slavery legal in areas where it had been outlawed.

Missouri Compromise

2nd compromise on slavery, when Missouri becomes a slave state and main becomes a free state to maintain the balance in the House and the Senate. it also made a line all the way to CA. and everything below it was slave and everything above it was free. solved slave problem for now.

Fugitive Slave Act

A law passed as part of the Compromise of 1850, which provided southern slaveholders with legal weapons to capture slaves who had escaped to the free states. The law was highly unpopular in the North and helped to convert many previously indifferent northerners to antislavery.

Underground Railroad

a system for helping fugitive slaves to escape into Canada or other places of safety.

Harriet Tubman

abolitionist: escaped slave and leader of the underground railroad

Harriet Beecher Stowe

author of the controversial book, Uncle Tom's Cabin, that depicted slavery as a moral , not just a political, struggle.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

controversial book, that depicted slavery as a moral , not just a political, struggle. author was Harriet Beecher Stowe.

John Brown

he lead a read on Harper's Ferry, in 1859. he contributed to the massive violence know as Bleeding Kansas. he was tried and hung for VA treason. he also was lead the Pottawatomie Massacre.

Bleeding Kansas

mass violence between people in the territories.

population sovereignty

the doctrine that sovereign power is vested in the people and that those chosen to govern, as trustees of such power, must exercise it in conformity with the general will.

personal liberty laws

was passed by 9 northern states in response to the Fugitive Slave Act, forbidding the imprisonment of runaway slaves and guaranteeing them jury trials.

Stephen Douglas

was the IL senator, proposed the Kansas - Nebraska Act. believed that popular sovereignty would allow slavery to pass away on its own, making free-soil legislation unnecessary.