Chapter 14 Key Terms and People
Order by
31 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Popular Sovereignty | The idea that political power belongs to the people. |
| Wilmot Proviso | A document by Representative David Wilmot that would outlaw slavery or involuntary servitude in any part of the Mexican Cession. |
| Sectionalism | Favoring the interests of one section or region over the interests of the entire country. |
| Free-Soil Party | A political party formed by antislavery Northerners, which supported the Wilmot Proviso. |
| Compromise of 1850 | An agreement that let California enter the Union as a free state, turned the Mexican Cession into 2 territories(Utah and New Mexico), made Texas give up its land east of the upper Rio Grande in exchange for the US governments paying its debts from when it was an independent republic, ended the slave trade (but not slavery) in D.C., and promised to pass a more effective fugitive slave law. |
| Fugitive Slave Act | A law that made it a crime to assist runaway slaves. It also allowed officials to arrest them in free areas in the North. |
| Anthony Burns | A fugitive slave from Virginia who was arrested in Boston. While trying to rescue him, abolitionists killed a deputy marshal. He was ordered to go back to Virginia after his trial, which greatly angered many northerners. |
| Uncle Tom's Cabin | An anti-slavery novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe to teach Northerners about the harsh realities of slavery. Lincoln said Stowe was "The little lady who made this big war". In this book, a fugitive slave is taken from his wife and sent to Louisiana, where he becomes a slave again and is later beaten to death. |
| Harriet Beecher Stowe | Author of Uncle Tom's Cabin |
| Franklin Pierce | A little-known Democrat politician from New Hampshire who ran for president in 1852 and promised to honor the Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Act. |
| Stephen Douglas | A politician who wanted to build a railroad from Chicago to the Pacific Ocean. He wanted to turn the Louisiana Purchase into a federal territory. He created the Kansas-Nebraska Act. |
| Kansas-Nebraska Act | A plan formed by Stephen Douglas which would divide the remainder of the Louisiana Purchase into two territories (Kansas and Nebraska) and allow the people in each territory to decide on if slavery should be allowed there. |
| Pottawatomie | When John Brown and some men killed 5 pro-slavery men in Kansas. |
| Charles Sumner | A senator of Massachusetts who criticized pro-slavery people in Kansas and personally insulted Andrew Pickens Butler, a member of Preston Brooks's family who beat him unconscious with a walking cane. |
| Preston Brooks | A representative in the House who responded strongly to Charles Sumner's insult by beating him unconscious with his walking cane. |
| Republican Party | A political party united against the spread of slavery in the West. |
| James Buchanan | James Polk's Secretary of state who was running for office as a Democrat. |
| John C. Frémont | A Republican who ran for president and had little political experience. |
| Dred Scott | An enslaved man who sued the US for his freedom, claiming that after living in a free state, he was no longer a slave. |
| Roger B. Taney | A Chief Justice with a majority opinion on the Dred Scott case. He said that the nation's founders did not believe that African Americans had no respectable rights. He therefore concluded that all African Americans were not citizens of the US, making Dred Scott without the rights to file suit in federal court. |
| Abraham Lincoln | A lawyer from Illionois who warned that a future Court ruling would prohibit states from banning slavery. He was later the 14th president. |
| Lincoln-Douglas Debates | Where Abraham Lincoln challenged Stephen Douglas. |
| Freeport Doctrine | A notion that police would enforce the voters' decision if it contradicted the Supreme Court's decision in the Dred Scott Case. |
| John Brown's Raid | A raid that began when John Brown and some men took over the arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in hopes of starting a slave rebellion. |
| John C. Breckenridge | The Vice President, who supported slavery and was running for president in 1860. |
| Constitutional Union Party | A political party that recognized no political principles other than the Constitution, the Union, and the enforcement of the laws which met in Baltimore, Maryland. |
| John Bell | A presidential candidate for the Constitutional Union Party. He was a slave holder, but he was opposed to the Kansas-Nebraska Act. |
| Secession | Formally withdrawing from the Union. |
| Confederate States of America | A group consisting of Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas, which seceded from the USA. |
| Jefferson Davis | A presidential candidate from seceded states. |
| John J. Crittenden | The senator of Kentucky. He proposed a series of constitutional amendments that he believed would satisfy the South by protecting slavery. |
First Time Here?
Welcome to Quizlet, a fun, free place to study. Try these flashcards, find others to study, or make your own.