Events Leading to Civil War Flashcards
Harriet Beecher Stowe
American author and abolitionist, wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
Sam Houston:
He was a general in the Mexican-American War and lead the Battle of San Jacinto, ending the war and forcing Santa Anna to sign the independence treaty. He became president of Texas and advocated for Texas to join the Union.
The Lecompton Constitution:
A document, that if approved, would allow slavery in Kansas. Framed in Lecompton, the Territorial Capital of Kansas, 1857.
William Lloyd Garrison:
Abolitionist and journalist that believed in moral suasion and urging slaves to escape . Founded the American Anti-Slavery Society and the abolitionist newspaper “The Liberator”.
The Wilmot Proviso:
1845 August 8, Pennsylvania Democrat Representative David Wilmot, upon President Polk’s proposition of a bill to allocate 2M$ to purchase land from Mexico as war reparations, proposed that all land acquired from Mexico be slavery-free, limiting slavery’s expansion to the territories, since the new territories were outside the Missouri Compromise’s jurisdiction. Wilmot’s true intentions were not centered around equality or liberty, but rather an economic interest to limit the competition between non-slave owning white farmers and slave-owning white farmers, who earned a lot more than the former and often drove them out of business, and a political/philosophical interest to preserve land for the whites, Black-free.
Santa Ana:
Takes over Mexico in 1834, authoritarian and non-liberal, wanted to keep Anglo-Texans under his rule and fought against them in the Texan War of Independence, and then lead Mexico against the Union in the Mexican-American War. He lost both of these.
Lucy Stone:
First Massachussetts woman to earn a college degree. She was an orator for the abolitionist and suffragist movements.
American Colonization Society:
First society that tried to deal with the slavery issue, it believed in resettling freed African-American slaves to African land in order to stop racial tensions froom rising and leading to a race war. They urged free Blacks to resettle, and bought land that would become Liberia for this.
The Free Soil Party:
Believed that slavery posed a threat to expansion, wanted slavery banned from the territories gained by the Mexican War. True intentions were not centered around equality or liberty, but rather an economic interest to limit the competition between non-slave owning white farmers and slave-owning white farmers, who earned a lot more than the former and often drove them out of business, and a political/philosophical interest to preserve land for the whites, Black-free.
Dred Scott:
Dred Scott, a slave taken north of the Missouri Compromise line where slavery was banned, argued before the Supreme Court that because he had spent so long in a free terriotory he was a free man. The Court voted against him, under Chief Justice Taney, saying that Scott was property, not a citizen, and had no right to sue, reasoning that no African American could be a citizen and Congress could not ban slavery from any territory because that would be taking away property from an owner.
Frederick Douglass
Escaped slave and free African-American abolitionist.
Popular Sovereignty:
Principle that stated that the people living in each territory had the right to decide on how their territory’s government would proceed with certain issues.
The Harper’s Ferry Raid:
1859, John Brown, an abolitionist who believed violence was the only way to end slavery, lead a group of 21 men to sieze the federal arsenal in Harper’s Ferry, Virginia. It was the junction for different train, boat and trade routes and it bordered two free states, so it was the best launching point for the movement and the best place for slaves to escape. By securing the arsenal, they hoped to an incite a revolt among slaves that would enslavement in the South once and for all. However, Brown had little followers in the end, and even Douglass warned him against this violent act for the country would turn against them. The attack failed and federal troops rounded up Brown and his followers and executed them at the gallows.
James K Polk:
A Southern expansionist and follower of Manifest Destiny that believed in annexing Texas and won the presidential election of 1844. He promised to acquire the Oregon Territory, but fell short on this promise and compromised with Britain instead because it was too strong to fight against. He instead acquired more land through the war with Mexico, that he instigated by sending troops to the Mexican border.
The Fugitive Slave Act:
Part of the Compromise of 1850, it required that escaped slaves be returned to their owners, even in free states, and mandated citizens in free states to help in this.
