Civil War and Secession Vocab.

Dredd Scott Decision

Definition: A Missouri slave sued for his freedom, claiming that his four year stay in the northern portion of the Louisiana Territory made free land by the Missouri Compromise had made him a free man. Significance: Drove the nation closer to Civil War.

Copperheads

Definition: A group of northern Democrat's who opposed abolition and sympathized with the south during the Civil War. Significance: Forced Lincoln to move cautiously surrounding the war.

Confederate States of America

Definition: A republic formed in February of 1861 and composed of the eleven southern states that seceded from the United States. Significance: Seceded to make a stronger state government.

John Brown

Definition: Abolitionist who was hanged after leading an unsuccessful raid at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (1800-1858). Significance: Changed forever how Americans viewed slavery.

Jefferson Davis

Definition: An American statesman and politician who served as President of the Confederate States of America for its entire history from 1861 to 1865. Significance: First and only president of the Confederate States of America. Was a distinguished Secretary of War and Mississippi Senator.

Robert E. Lee

Definition: Confederate General who had opposed secession but did not believe the Union should be held together by force. Significance: Lee assumed command of the army of northern Virginia, which he would lead for the rest of the war.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

Definition: Created in 1854, and allowed Nebraska and Kansas to decide for themselves if they wanted to be a slave state or free state. Significance: Those who wanted slavery traveled to Kansas and Nebraska to vote for slavery. However it was counted as Fraud and a redo was done.

Compromise of 1820 & 1850

Definition: Forestalled the Civil War by installing the Fugitive Slave Act, banning slave trade in DC. Admitting California as a free state, splitting up the Texas territory and installing popular sovereignty in the Mexican secession. Significance: The importance lies on the continuation of peace achieved by the Missouri Compromise.

Border States

Definition: In the civil war, the states between the north and the south: Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri Significance: Part of the Union who still had slaves.

Emancipation Proclamation

Definition: Issued by Abraham Lincoln on September 22, 1862. It declared that all slaves in the rebellious Confederate States would be free, not all slaves however. Significance: Led the way to total abolition of slavery. What freed the slaves were the 13th Amendment.

Clara Barton

Definition: Nurse during the Civil War (Supported the Union), as well as the teacher and patent clerk. Significance: Founded the American Red Cross; Noteworthy for doing humanitarian work.

Free Soil Party

Definition: Political party dedicated to stopping the expansion of slavery (1847-1848). Significance: Former members of the party were part of the new republican party that formed in 1854.

Gettysburg Address

Definition: Speech given by Abraham Lincoln which captured the spirit of liberty and morality ideally held by citizens of a democracy. That ideal was threatened by the Civil War. Significance: Abraham Lincoln's most famous speech. It was a Morale booster to the loosing Union Army.

Conscription Laws

Definition: The Civil War draft forced people (including non-citizen Irish) to fight in the Civil War. Significance: Led to bloody draft riots in New York City, because wealthy individuals were exempted. Hasn't been used since the 1970's.

Anaconda Plan

Definition: The Union plan devised by General Winfield Scott to blockade the south and restrict its trade to win the war. Significance: It would cut off supplies and food to the confederacy's Atlantic and Gulf coasts and launched a land and naval attack on the Mississippi River.

Popular Sovereignty

Definition: The idea that political authority belongs to the people. The notion that power lies with the people. Significance: A significant principle to the United States Constitution. Considered one of the most important, basic, and essential rights of American people.

Secession

Definition: The withdrawal of eleven southern states from the Union in 1860 which precipitated the American Civil War. Significance: Caused/Played a role in the beginning of the Civil War.

U.S. Grant

Definition: Ulysses S. Grant, first president after the Civil War. Previously a union General who defeated General Lee at Appotmattox Court House, which ended the Civil War. Significance: Was seen as a Heroe, but was only good on the battlefield not in the White House.

John Wilkes Booth

Definition: United States actor and assassin of President Lincoln (1838-1865). Supporter of the confederates, and viewed Abraham Lincoln as a traitor. Significance: Killed Abraham Lincoln.

Iron Clads

Definition: Wooded ships with metal armor that were employed by both sides during the war. Significance: Replaced unarmored ships as the most powerful warship afloat.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

Definition: Written by Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1853 that highly influenced England's view on the American deep south and slavery. A novel promoting abolition intensified sectional conflict. Significance: Changed forever how Americans viewed slavery.