Chapter 10 Flashcards
Free labor
free men and women working to earn a living and improve their
lives.
Fugitive Slave Law of 1850
Whig senator Henry Clay, compromise settle the controversy
over California, but also to resolve the issue of slavery’s expansion once and for all.
• The Compromise of 1850 attempted to satisfy both sides.
• To placate Northerners-California as a free state and eliminating
the slave trade (but not slavery) in the District of Columbia.
Southerners,-stronger fugitive slave law • Clay’s bill did not pass. Southern opponents like John C. Calhoun could not tolerate the
admission of California without slavery.
Popular sovereignty
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
1. Popular sovereignty is the principle that each state should decide major issues, such as
slavery, on its own.
2. Popular sovereignty angered many Northerners because it created the possibility that
slavery might expand to areas where it had been prohibited
Dred Scott v. Sanford
Dred Scott was an African American that went to court over his freedom. he contended that because he had been taken to territory where slavery was
illegal, he had become a free man.-lost his first suit, won his second, but lost again on appeal to the Missouri Supreme
Court.
Chief justice Roger Taney asked the court two questions to decide the Scott case.
1. could Scott, a black man, sue in a federal court? 2.was Scott free because he had been
taken to a state and a territory where slavery was prohibited?
In response to the first question, the Court, led by Taney, ruled that Scott could not sue in
a federal court because black people were not citizens.
A majority of the Court also answered no to the second question. Scott was not a free
man, although he had lived in places where slavery was illegal.
7. The Court also ruled that Congress could not pass measures—including the Missouri
Compromise or the Kansas-Nebraska Act
Wilmont Proviso
An 1846 measure to prohibit slavery in lands captured from Mexico.
Battle at Christiana
Christian PA. Slaveowner tried to recover two runaway slaves but was met with resistance and killed.
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Kansas-Nebraska Act was an 1854 Act granting residents of Kansas the right to vote on
whether or not slavery should be allowed in the territory.
It destroyed an already divided Whig Party and drove a wedge between the North and South.
Harpers Ferry
John Brown and his fellow conspirators were preparing to end slavery by force. Their raid
on Harpers Ferry further polarized the country.
Positive good
Something that produces an unambiguous benefit.
trial at Christiana
Perpetrators of Violence in the battle were tried for treason, but acquitted.
“Bleeding Kansas”
term for Kansas following the violence after the passage of the Nebraska-Kansas Act
Secession
Withdrawal from the United States.
Compromise of 1850
Whig senator Henry Clay To placate Northerners he proposed admitting California as a free state and to satisfy southerners strengthen fugitive slave laws• Clay’s bill did not pass. Southern opponents like John C. Calhoun could not tolerate the
admission of California without slavery
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Harriet Beecher Stowe depicted slavery’s cruelty, inhumanity, and destructive impact on
families through characters and a plot that appealed to the sentimentality of 19th century
readers.
Caning of Sumner
Because of Kansas-Nebraska Act violence erupted. Preston Brooks beat Sumner unconscious with a cane in response to his speech against
proslavery settlers.
