Period 5: Sectional Crisis Flashcards
a society in which the institution of slavery affected all aspects of life; most white southerners did not own slaves though
slave society
Old South “nobles”; owned large mansions and plantations; feared government intrusion into their slave practice and poor whites taking local control.
republican aristocracy
mid-level slaveholders with six to 20 slaves; as a group owned around 40% of southern slaves; pursued other careers such as artisans and lawyers
middling lawyer planters
owned one to five slaves and a few hundred acres of land at most; most remained in this class
small freeholders
propertyless whites; the majority of southern society; subjugated to remain in this low status by slaveholders
poor freemen
between 1821 and 1835; led by the Austins; slavery and cotton expansion
Settlement of Texas
1836; slavery abolished by Mexico; the Alamo; Battle of San Jacinto
Texas War of Independence
1836-1845; President Van Buren refused annexation, fearing a war with Mexico; thus this period
Republic of Texas
devised by Christian slaves in the Chesapeake, spreading to the South; a result of the domestic slave trade; a general idea that blacks were “Children of God”
black Protestantism
common in the rice-growing regions of S. Carolina; slaves were assigned daily tasks to complete and allowed to do as they wished after completion
task system
coined by John O’Sullivan; rhetoric that Anglo-American cultural and racial superiority would expand across the continent, moving westward
Manifest Destiny
the route that led from Independence, Missouri to the Willamette Valley
Oregon Trail
elite Mexican ranchers; primary link to the American economy
Californios
a system devoted to raising livestock; allowed Plains Indians groups to thrive prior to the Civil War
pastoral system
James K. Polk’s campaign slogan in 1844; called for American sovereignty over the Oregon Territory
“Fifty-four forty or fight!”
annexing Texas; seizure of San Francisco Bay; invasion of Mexican territories; Rio Grande dispute
Polk’s Expansionist Program
the short-lived government in California to fight a rebellion against Mexico in 1846
Bear Flag Republic
lands taken by the United States after the war with Mexico, 1846-48; modern-day California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas
Mexican cession
Whig politicians that opposed the war with Mexico on moral grounds; argued the war expanded control of the federal government
“conscience” Whigs
proposal to ban slavery in any territories gained from the war with Mexico; supported by Whigs and antislavery Democrats; a divided Congress did not pass it
Wilmot Proviso
the argument made by abolitionists, free soilers, and Republicans prior to 1861; southern slaveholders were using their representative advantage to demand proslavery policies
“slave power” conspiracy
political opposition of slavery’s expansion; new party in 1848; gained support from white farmers; promoted Jeffersonian ideals
free soil movement
a principle that ultimate power lies in the hands of the electorate; plan promoted by Democrats to allow settlers in new territories to determine its status as free or slave
popular sovereignty
laws that were meant to resolve the dispute over the status of slavery in the territories; California joins as a free state; a new Fugitive Slave Act is instituted
Compromise of 1850
