chapter 15

a.p. butler

Andrew Pickens Butler was a United States Senator from South Carolina who authored the Kansas-Nebraska Act with Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois

Charles sumner

As an academic lawyer and a powerful orator, was the leader of the anti-slavery forces in Massachusetts and a leader of the Radical Republicans in the U.S. Senate during the American Civil War working to destroy the Confederacy, free all the slaves, and keep on good terms with Europe

john brown

Brown and 21 of his followers attacked and occupied the federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry. Their goal was to capture supplies and use them to arm a slave rebellion. Brown was captured during the raid and later hanged, but not before becoming an anti-slavery icon. Abolitionist and insurrectionist

the crime against kansas

Speech delivered in the Senate condemning the Southern expansion of slavery and the force used in compelling Kansas to be a slave state. In the course of the speech, Sumner ridicules South Carolina Senator Andrew Butler

Freeport debate

The Freeport Doctrine was articulated by Stephen A. Douglas at the second of the Lincoln-Douglas debates on August 27, 1858, in Freeport, Illinois

popular sovereignty

a pre-Civil War political doctrine that held that individual states should decide whether to permit slavery or not.

compromise of 1850

in an attempt to seek a compromise and avert a crisis between North and South. As part of the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act was amended and the slave trade in Washington, D.C., was abolished

fort sumter

is a sea fort in Charleston, South Carolina, notable for two battles of the American Civil War. It was one of a number of special forts planned after the War of 1812, combining high walls and heavy masonry, and classified as Third System, as a grade of structural integrity. Work started in 1829, but was incomplete by 1860, when South Carolina seceded from the Union

pottawatomie creek

massacred five pro-slavery settlers, touching off an escalating cycle of reprisal and retribution that gave rise to the name "Bleeding Kansas

uncle tom's cabin

occurred during the night of May 24 and the morning of May 25, 1856. In reaction to the sacking of Lawrence, Kansas by pro-slavery forces, John Brown and a band of abolitionist

Daniel Webster- 7th of march speech

was a 3.5 hour speech given by Daniel Webster that discussed slavery as an historical reality rather than a moral issue. It was given on March 7, 1850 and is considered one of the most controversial speeches of the Senate

john bell

was a Northern Irish physicist, and the originator of Bell's theorem, an important theorem in quantum physics regarding hidden variable theories

dred scott decision

was a landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court on US labor law and constitutional law. It held that "a negro, whose ancestors were imported into, and sold as slaves", whether enslaved or free, could not be an American citizen and therefore had no standing to sue in federal court, and that the federal government had no power to regulate slavery in the federal territories acquired after the creation of the United States. Dred Scott, an enslaved man of "the negro African race" who had been taken by his owners to free states and territories, attempted to sue for his freedom. In a 7-2 decision written by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, the court denied Scott's request. The decision was only the second time that the Supreme Court had ruled an Act of Congress to be unconstitutional.

john breckinridge

was a lawyer, politician, and soldier from the U.S. state of Kentucky. He represented the state in both houses of Congress and in 1857, became the 14th and youngest-ever Vice President of the United States

new England emigrant aid company

was a transportation company in Boston, Massachusetts, created to transport immigrants to the Kansas Territory to shift the balance of power so that Kansas would enter the United States as a free state rather than a slave state

harriet beecher stowe

was an American abolitionist and author. She came from the Beecher family, a famous religious family, and is best known for her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), which depicts the harsh conditions for enslaved African Americans

john wilkes booth

was an American actor and assassin, who murdered President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. on April 14, 1865. Booth was a member of the prominent 19th-century Booth theatrical family from Maryland and, by the 1860s, was a well-known actor

star of the west

was an American civilian steamship, launched in 1852 and scuttled by Confederate forces in 1863. In January 1861, she was hired by the United States government to transport military supplies and reinforcements to the U.S. military garrison of Fort Sumter, but was fired on by cadets from The Citadel, in what were effectively the first shots fired in the American Civil War

preston brooks

was an American politician and Member of the US House of Representative from South Carolina, serving from 1853 until his resignation in July 1856 and again from August 1856 until his death

james buchanan

was an American politician and farmers' advocate. He served as Governor of Tennessee from 1891 to 1893, and was president of the Tennessee Farmers' Alliance and Laborers' Union in the late 1880s

Stephan douglas

was an American politician from Illinois and the designer of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. ... Douglas had previously defeated Lincoln in a Senate contest, noted for the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858

anthony burns

was born a slave in Stafford County, Virginia. As a young man, he became a Baptist and a "slave preacher" at the Falmouth Union Church in Falmouth, Virginia. In 1853 he escaped from slavery and reached Boston, where he started working

Zachary taylor

was the 12th President of the United States, serving from March 1849 until his death in July 1850. Before his presidency, Taylor was a career officer in the United States Army, rising to the rank of major general

millard fillmore

was the 13th President of the United States (1850-53), the last to be a member of the Whig Party while in the White House. ... He was instrumental in getting the Compromise of 1850 passed, a bargain that led to a brief truce in the battle over slavery

Lecompton constitution

was the second of four proposed constitutions for the state of Kansas (it was preceded by the Topeka Constitution and was followed by the Leavenworth and Wyandotte Constitutions, the Wyandotte becoming the Kansas state constitution).