Sectional Conflict Notes Flashcards
Abolitionists
People against slavery
Free-Soil Party
They opposed the spread of slavery into western territories
Conscience Whigs
Northers opposed to slavery and families who have been pro abolition for a long time
Secession
The process of taking states out of the Union
The Wilmot Proviso
A proposal to prohibit slavery in territories acquired by the United States at the conclusion of the Mexican War
David Wilmot
A Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from PA; proposed the Proviso
Southerners are upset…
…they profit off of slavery (agrarian)
Northerners are happy…
…they like abolition (industrial)
Popular Sovereignty
The idea that citizens of each new territory should be allowed to decide if they want to permit slavery or not
Where did Popular Sovereignty happen?
Along a regional line, not a party line
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
A book that changed Northern’s perception of African Americans and slavery as a whol
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
A book that changed Northern’s perception of African Americans and slavery as a whol
Harriet Beecher Stowe
An American abolitionist and author who is best known for Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Many different _______ helped with the abolitionist movement.
people; races, genders, ages
Fugitive Slave Acts
Allowed for the seizure and return of runaway slaves who escaped from one state into another or federal territory.
Who didn’t respect the Fugitive Slave Acts?
Free States, which further divided the country
The Underground Railroad
An informal but well-organized system that helped thousands of enslaved persons escape
The Kansas Nebraska Act
Repealed the Missouri Compromise, created two new territories, and allowed popular sovereignty
What did the Kansas-Nebraska Act cause?
A violent uprising known as “Bleeding Kansas”
“Bleeding Kansas”
Pro-slavery and anti-slavery activists flooded into the territories to sway the vote for the Kansas-Nebraska Act. They began fighting, hence the name.
Harriet Tubman
An escaped enslaved person who was a “conductor” of the Underground Railroad. She was also a nurse, a Union spy, and a women’s suffrage supporter.
“An American who fought for freedom”
Harriet Tubman
The Caning of Charles Sumner
On May 22, 1856, in the United States Senate chamber, when Representative Preston Brooks (a pro slavery Democrat from SC) used a walking cane to attack Senator Charles Sumner (a pro abolition Republican from Mass)
Republicans: _____ Democrats: ____
Generally more pro abolition; generally more pro slavery
Lecompton Constitution(1857)
A proposed state constitution crafted by pro-slavery advocates of Kansas statehood. It contained clauses protecting slaveholding and a bill of rights excluding free blacks, and it added to the frictions leading up to the U.S. Civil War.
Crittenden’s Compromise
It proposed several amendments to the Constitution concerning slavery issues
The Dred Scott Decision
The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on March 6, 1857, that having lived in a free territory and state did not entitle an enslaved person, Dred Scott, to his freedom
John Brown’s Raid
On Harpers Ferry; was an effort by abolitionist John Brown, in October of 1859, to initiate a slave revolt in Southern States by taking over the US arsenal at Harpers Ferry VA. John Brown died after the raid but was captured during it
What happened after Dred Scott attempted to purchase his freedom from Irene Emerson?
She denied the request and Dred Scott decided to sue.
After the court declared Scott a free man in 1850…
…the Missouri Supreme Court reverses the decision two years later
What happened after Irene gave land to her brother?
Dred Scott sues again; becomes Supreme Court “Scott v. Sandford”.
Effects of the Civil War
Emancipation Proclamation; Freed slaves but they aren’t treated well,
