Peculiar institution
Another term for slavery. and the old souths views on slaves aw well as the psychological appeal of racial superiority.
Planter
Southern Colonies highest class (plantation owners, wealthy) owned the majority of slaves, but they were the minority of whites.
yeoman farmers
Owned smaller farms and often worked side by side with their slaves. Owned 4 slaves or less.
Nat Turner
was a preacher that lead a slave revolt in 1831 in Virginia. This revolt terrified the white southerners because they feared their own slaves might rebel.
Second great awakening
A series of religious revivals starting in 1801, based on Methodism and Baptism. Stressed a religious philosophy of salvation through good deeds and tolerance for all Protestant sects. The revivals attracted women, Blacks, and Native Americans.
Brigham Young
A Mormon leader who urged the Mormons to move farther west. They settled Utah and commissioned to convert native Americans to Mormonism.
Elizabeth Stanton
A member of the women's right's movement in 1840. she shocked other feminists by advocating suffrage for women at the first Women's Right's Convention in Seneca, New York 1848. Stanton read a "Declaration of Sentiments" which declared "all men and women are created equal."
William Garrison
Prominent American abolitionist, journalist and social reformer. Editor of radical abolitionist newspaper "The Liberator", and one of the founders of the American Anti-Slavery Society.
Fredrick Douglas
American abolitionist and writer, he escaped slavery and became a leading African American spokesman and writer. He published the autobiography, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, and founded the abolitionist newspaper, the North Star.
Underground Railroad
A secret, shifting network which aided slaves escaping to the North and Canada, mainly after 1840.
Harriet Tubman
American abolitionist. Born a slave on a Maryland plantation, she escaped to the North in 1849 and became the most renowned conductor on the Underground Railroad, leading more than 300 slaves to freedom.
Sojourner Truth
United States abolitionist and feminist who was freed from slavery and became a leading advocate of the abolition of slavery and for the rights of women (1797-1883)
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.
Republic of Texas
Independent nation that was created after Texans defeated Mexico in the Texas Revolution
Oregon Trail
A 2,000-mile trail stretching through the Great Plains from western Missouri to Oregon Country for the fertile land in Oregon.
Mexican war
after disputes over Texas lands that were settled by Mexicans the United States declared war on Mexico in 1846 and by treaty in 1848.
Texas revolution
War between Texas settlers and Mexico from 1835-1836 resulting in the formation of the Republic of Texas
Mexican Cession
1848. Awarded as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo after the Mexican American War. U.S. paid $15 million for 525,000 square miles.
California Gold rush
1849 Gold discovered in California attracted a rush of people all over the country to San Francisco.
Wilmot Provisio
The intent of the proviso, submitted by Democratic Congressman David Wilmot, was to prevent the introduction of slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico. The proviso did not pass, but reopened the discussion of slavery in congress.
popular sovereignty
Notion that the people of a territory should determine if they want to be a slave state or a free state.
compromise of 1850
Proposed by Henry Clay as an 8 section bill of compromise between the north and the south but handled by Stephen Douglas to assure passage by both Northerners and Southerners.
Stephen Douglas
American politician from Illinois who developed the method of popular sovereignty as a way to settle slave state or free state. He helped passed the compromise of 1850 as well as giving the states the choice with popular sovereignty.
Fugitive slave act
(1850) a law that made it a crime to help runaway slaves; allowed for the arrest of escaped slaves in areas where slavery was illegal and required their return to slaveholders
Harriet beecher stow
(1811-1896) American author and daughter of Lyman Beecher, she was an abolitionist and author of the famous antislavery novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin.
Gadsden purchase
$10 million for a sliver of land from mexico below the border for a planned Southern Route of the Transcontinental Railroad
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.
Republican Party
One of the two major American political parties. It emerged in the 1850s as an antislavery party.
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.
Dred Scott Case
Supreme Court case which ruled that slaves are not citizens but are property, affirmed that property cannot be interfered with by Congress, slaves do not become free if they travel to free territories or states, fueled abolitionist movement, hailed as victory for the south
Lincoln Douglas Debates
1858 Senate Debate, Lincoln forced Douglas to debate issue of slavery, Douglas supported pop-sovereignty, Lincoln asserted that slavery should not spread to territories, Lincoln emerged as strong Republican candidate
Harper Ferry Raid
John Brown planned to seize south and have slaves revolt, but slaves didn't; Robert E. Lee caught him, convicted him of treason, and hanged him; became a martyr for abolitionists while south was happy and saw justice in his death
Election of 1860
Lincoln, the Republican candidate, won because the Democratic party was split over slavery. As a result, the South no longer felt like it has a voice in politics and a number of states seceded from the Union.
Crittenden Compromise
1860 - attempt to prevent Civil War by Senator Crittenden - offered a Constitutional amendment recognizing slavery in the territories south of the 36º30' line, noninterference by Congress with existing slavery, and compensation to the owners of fugitive slaves - defeated by Republicans
fort sumter
-Where the Civil War essentially started. When the Union tried to resupply the fort and the South fired on the fort, the war was inevitable. In Lincolns mind that was the end of the union.
Antietam
It was a major Union victory over the South. It removed all hopes in the South of getting foreign support.
Shiloh
A battle that took place in Shiloh, Tennessee on April 6-7 1862. Albert Johnson of the Confederacy surprised Grant, but Grant managed to make the Confederates retreat after heavy losses on both sides.
Emancipation Proclomation
order issued by President Abraham Lincoln freeing the slaves in areas rebelling against the Union, took effect January 1, 1863. Meant to change the definition of the war to slavery and reunite the union.
Thirteenth amendment
Abolished slavery
Radical Republicans
After the Civil War, a group that believed the South should be harshly punished and thought that Lincoln was sometimes too compassionate towards the South.
vicksburg
Grant besieged the city from May 18 to July 4, 1863, until it surrendered, yielding command of the Mississippi River to the Union.
Gettysberg
battle that stopped confederate advance to the north
March of the sea
Sherman's idea to march his army from Tennessee to Atlanta, Georgia, and then across Georgia to Savannah, Georgia, on the Atlantic seacoast.
Civil war
1861-1865
Reconstruction
1865-1877; the attempt to rebuild and reform the political, social, and economic systems of the South after the Civil War.
Freed Man's Bureau
Federal agency to help integrate blacks into Union and help with their basic needs after being released from slavery.
John Wilkes Booth
..., was an American stage actor who, as part of a conspiracy plot, assassinated Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. on April 14, 1865.
Black Codes
Laws denying most legal rights to newly freed slaves; passed by southern states following the Civil War
Fourteenth Amendment
A constitutional amendment giving full rights of citizenship to all people born or naturalized in the United States, except for American Indians.
Fifteenth Amendments
an U.S constitution 1870 prohibits the denial of voting rights to people their race or color because have previously been slave
Impeachment of Andrew Johnson
1868 violated the Tenure of Office Act, but really was because of his stubborn defiance of Congress on Reconstruction. Fell one vote short of being removed from office, but his presidency was put to shame.
Carpet Baggers
Northerners who moved down to the South during Reconstruction for monetary or political gain
Klu Klux Klan
A secret organization that used terrorist tactics in an attempt to restore white supremacy in the South after the Civil War.
Compromise of 1877
Ended Reconstruction. Republicans promise 1) Remove military from South, 2) Appoint Democrat to cabinet (David Key postmaster general), 3) Federal money for railroad construction and levees on Mississippi river; as long as Hayes became the president