Civil War Vocabulary Flashcards
Abolitionist
A person who wanted to end slavery in the United States
The Liberator
An anti-slavery newspaper written by William Lloyd Garrison. It drew attention to abolition, both positive and negative, causing a war of words between supporters of slavery and those opposed
Underground Railroad
A system of secret routes used by escaping slaves to reach freedom in the North or in Canada
Civil Disobedience
A nonviolent, public refusal to obey allegedly unjust laws
Missouri Compromise
“Compromise of 1820” over the issue of slavery in Missouri. It was decided Missouri entered as a slave state and Maine entered as a free state and all states North of the 36th parallel were free states and all South were slave states
Popular Sovereignty
A belief that ultimate power resides in the people
Compromise of 1850
(1) California admitted as free state, (2) territorial status and popular sovereignty of Utah and New Mexico, (3) resolution of Texas-New Mexico boundaries, (4) federal assumption of Texas debt, (5) slave trade abolished in DC, and (6) new fugitive slave law; advocated by Henry Clay and Stephen A. Douglas
Fugitive Slave Act
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
Kansas-Nebraska Act
1854 - Created Nebraska and Kansas as states and gave the people in those territories the right to choose to be a free or slave state through popular sovereignty
Dred Scott v Sandford
1857 Supreme Court decision that stated that slaved were not citizens; that living in a free state or territory, even for many years, did not free slaves; and declared the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional
Treason
The crime of betraying one’s country
Martyr
A person who dies for a cause
Border State
State on the border between the North and South: Delaware, Maryland. Kentucky, and Missouri
Emancipation Proclamation
Proclamation issued by Lincoln, freeing all slaves in areas still at war with the Union
54th Massachusetts Regiment
All-black unit led by Union Colonel Robert Gould Shaw during the Civil War
Copperhead
A Northerner who opposed using force to keep the Southern states in the Union
Battle of Bull Run
July 21, 1861. Va. (outside of D.C.) people watched the battle. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson: Confederate general, held his ground and stood in battle like a “stone wall”. Union retreated. Confederate victory. Showed that both sides needed training and war would be long and bloody.
Battle of Antietam
Civil War battle in which the North succeeded in halting Lee’s Confederate forces in Maryland. Was the bloodiest battle of the war resulting in 25,000 casualties
Battle of Fredericksburg
The Union, led by Major General Ambrose Burnside, was defeated and lost 12,000 men. General Robert E. Lee, Commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, was the Confederate general who led in the defeat
Battle of Gettysburg
Turning point of the War that made it clear the North would win. 50,000 people died, and the South lost its chance to invade the North
Pickett’s Charge
A failed confederate attack during the Civil War led by general George Pickett at the Battle of Gettysburg
Gettysburg Address
A 3-minute address by Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War (November 19, 1963) at the dedication of a national cemetery on the site of the Battle of Gettysburg
Appomattox Courthouse
The Virginia town where Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant in 1865, ending the Civil War
