Term | Definition |
Missouri Compromise | For every free state admitted to the Union, a slave state must also be admitted, keeping an equal balance of free and slave states. |
Compromise of 1850 | California could enter the Union as a free state and the new states of Utah and New Mexico could decide for themselves to be free or slave. |
Kansas-Nebraska Act | A law that allowed citizens in the new states to decide for themselves whether they would be free or slave states. |
Bleeding Kansas | Because of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, people who supported both free states and slave states went to Kansas to help fight and vote. There were violent conflicts. |
Fugitive Slave Law | A law that required Northern citizens and law officers to return escaped slaves to their owners. |
Abolitionists | People who wanted to end slavery. |
Dred Scott Decision | A slave could not be free just because he is living in a free state. Also, slaves could not sue because they are not considered citizens. |
Stephen Douglas | An Illinois senator who ran against Lincoln in the presidential election. |
Basis of economies of North and South | The North had an industrial economy and the South had an agricultural economy. |
Cotton Gin | An invention that caused plantation owners to increase the number of slaves on their plantations to harvest more cotton. |
Harper's Ferry | A federal storehouse in West Virginia that was invaded by John Brown and his followers. They also called for a slave rebellion |
John Brown | An abolitionist who led the attack on Harper's Ferry and called for a slave rebellion. |
Slavery | A person is owned by another person, used in the South as labor |
State's Rights | The belief that states have the right to make decisions about issues that concern them. |
Federal Rights | The belief that the federal government should have more control than the states. |
Abraham Lincoln | The president who was elected in 1860 and had to try to keep the country united during the Civil War. |
Uncle Tom's Cabin | A book written by Harriet Beecher Stowe about the harsh treatment of slaves. It was a bestseller in the North as well as in England and Europe. |
Harriett Beecher Stowe | An abolitionist who wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin and Lincoln said of her, "So this is the little lady who wrote the book that made this great war!" |
Frederick Douglass | An escaped slave who bought his freedom. He became a well-known abolitionist. |
Fort Sumter, SC | The location of the first battle of the Civil War. |
States seceding from the Union | Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia |
Union states or states remaining in the Union | Maine, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas, Oregon, California |
Border states--slave states that were unsure whether or not to stay in the Union or join the Confederacy. | Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri |
Harriet Tubman | A conductor of the Underground Railroad who led more than 400 slaves to freedom. |