Wilmot Proviso: failed proposal to outlaw slavery in the territory added to the United States by the Mexican Cession.
Sectionalism: a devotion to the interests of one geographic region rather than those of the country as a whole.
Popular sovereignty: political authority belongs to the people, territories allowed to choose slavery.
Free-soil party: formed in 1848, anti-slavery northerners who left the Whig and Democratic Parties.
Compromise of 1850: Henry Clay’s compromise, California enters free, Mexican Cession is divided, slave trade ends in Washington, new Fugitive Slave Act, and settled border dispute between New Mexico and Texas.
Fugitive Slave Act: 1850, crime to help runaway slaves, allowed for the arrest of escaped slaves in areas where slavery was illegal and required their return to slaveholders.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin: antislavery novel, showed violent reality of slavery.
Kansas-Nebraska Act: 1854, allowed voters in KS and NE territories to choose whether to allow slavery
Pottawatomie Massacre: 1856, John Brown murdered pro-slavery Kansans with 7 other men.
Republican Party: formed in the 1850’s to stop the spread of slavery in the West
Dred Scott (Decision): U.S. Supreme Court Ruling that declared African Americans were not U.S. citizens, the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional, Congress has no right to ban slavery.
Lincoln-Douglas Debates: 7 debates for the Illinois Senate seat, 1858.
Freeport Doctrine: Douglas argued that popular sovereignty would decide slavery.
Constitutional Union Party: 1860, northerners and southerners in support of the constitution and the Union.
Secession: the act of formally withdrawing from an organization, such as a country
Confederate States of America: nation formed by the Southern states on February 4th, 1861.
Fort Sumter: federal outpost in Charleston, SC, attacked by the confederates 1861, sparking the Civil War
Border states: Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri, slave states that did not join the Confederacy during the Civil War.
Cotton diplomacy: Confederacy’s attempt to use cotton’s control on the British textile industry to persuade them to support the Confederacy.
First Battle of Bull Run: 1861, first major battle of the civil war, confederate victory, showed that the Civil War would be much more demanding than previously thought.
Seven Days’ Battle: series of battles, confederate army forced the Union army to retreat from near Richmond, Virginia, the Confederate capital.
Battle of Antietam: Union victory, bloodiest single day in U.S. history.
Ironclad: heavily armored with iron ships.
Battle of Shiloh: battle in Tennessee, Union gains greater control over the Mississippi River Valley
Siege of Vicksburg: the Union army’s six week blockade of Vicksburg that led to its surrender.
Battle of Pea Ridge: Confederate forces from Missouri with native allies defeated in Arkansas.
Emancipation Proclamation: freed the slaves in areas rebelling against the Union, effective January 1, 1863.
Contrabands: escaped or captured slaves taken in by the Union army.
54th Massachusetts Infantry: African American Civil War regiment that played a key role in the attack on Fort Wagner in SC.
Copperheads: Northern Democrats who opposed abolition and sympathized with the South during the Civil War.
Habeus corpus: protection against unlawful imprisonment.
Battle of Gettysburg: Union Civil War victory that turned the tide against the Confederates at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; resulted in the death of 50,000.
Pickett’s Charge: failed Confederate charge, led by George Pickett, at Gettysburg.
Gettysburg Address: Abraham Lincoln’s speech praising the bravery of Union soldiers, and his renewed commitment to winning the Civil War.
Wilderness Campaign
Total war: an army destroys its opponent’s ability to fight by targeting civilian, economic and military targets.
Appomattox Courthouse: Robert E. Lee surrenders, ending the Civil War.
Harper’s Ferry: John Brown’s raid, tried to free slaves and start a revolt, stopped by Colonel Robert E. Lee and hanged.
1860 Election: Lincoln wins, he receives none of the Southern electoral votes, secession seems eminent.
Union advantages: larger population, better infrastructure, more money.
Confederate advantages: long tradition of military, superior generals, purely defensive.
Henry Clay: the great compromiser, proposed the Compromise of 1850, and the Great Compromise.
William Seward: pressed CA as a free state
John C. Calhoun: Southerner, CA should not be a free state as it would upset the balance in the Senate.
Daniel Webster: supported Henry Clay’s plan, but opposed slavery, recognized the Union as more important than regional differences.
Harriet Beecher Stowe: author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, relative of Lyman Beecher
Franklin Pierce: from New Hampshire, democratic candidate, supported the Compromise of 1850, South recognized as their candidate. President from 1853-1857.
Millard Fillmore: neglected as a candidate for the Presidency, even though he had served after Taylor’s death.
Stephen Douglas: pushed for a railroad from Chicago to the Pacific, pushed for Kansas-Nebraska Act, defeated Lincoln for the Illinois Senate seat, established Freeport Doctrine.
Charles Sumner: Northern Senator, criticized pro-slavery efforts in Kansas, insulted Andrew Pickens Butler, was beat near to death by Preston Brooks, with a cane, in the Senate.
Andrews Pickens Butler: insulted in a speech called, “The Crime Against Kansas” by Sumner.
Preston Brooks: beat Sumner near to death with a cane, known as “Bully Brooks” and was mailed a great many souvenir canes from his supporters in the South.
James Buchanan: democratic candidate of 1856, Polk’s Secretary of State, won the 1856 election.
John C. Fremont: republic candidate of 1856, opposed slavery, Northern support.
Roger B. Taney: Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, 1856 during the Dred Scott Case. Wrote the majority opinion stating that blacks had no rights that whites had to respect.
Abraham Lincoln: 16th President, Civil War started, main issue was slavery, hired U.S. Grant as Union general.
John Brown: responsible for the Pottawatomie Massacre, and the failed raid on Harper’s Ferry, radical abolitionist.
George C. Meade: used the North’s numerical advantage in the Battle of Gettysburg.
William Tecumseh Sherman: sent by Lincoln to the South, destroys Atlanta, practitioner of total war.
Monitor v Virginia: battle between the ironclads, stalemate, Virginia fought for the South.
Naval blockade: the Union maintained a blockade of Southern ports, choking off the supply of cotton and weapons.
Jefferson Davis: the President of the Confederate States of America.
Winfield Scott: developed the Union’s 2 part strategy, cut off the Mississippi, and create a naval port blockade.
Tom “Stonewall” Jackson: held the Confederate line against the Union forces, part of the Confederate victory at the First Battle of Bull Run.
George B. McClellan: Lincoln’s Union general, cowardly, never pushed for victory and prolonged the war.
Robert E. Lee: brilliant general of the South, disagreed with slavery, supported his regional loyalties.
Ulysses S. Grant: “He fights.” McClellan’s replacement as Union general, used the North’s advantages to win the war.
David Farragut: Farragut captured New Orleans by passing the cannons to claim the city.
John C. Pemberton: held Vicksburg for the Confederacy, until General Grant surrounded and cut off Confederacy from aiding Vicksburg.
