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8.2 - The Civil War (Westward Expansion)

Terms in this set (18)

Border Ruffians
A nickname given to a group of pro-slavery men who went to Kansas to try to terrorize the people there who were opposed to slavery.
Daniel Webster
Senator from Massachusetts. He was opposed to slavery but more than anything worked to preserve the Union and prevent Southern secession. Along with Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun he helped broker the Compromise of 1850.
Free Soil Party
A political party that existed during the 1850s. They believed that slavery should not be permitted in the territories of the West saying, "Free Men on Free Soil." Most Free Soilers eventually joined the Republican Party.
Henry Clay
Congressman from Kentucky who ran many times but never won the presidency. He is remembered as one of the three great dealmakers of the early 1800s who helped prevent civil war over slavery by negotiating the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850.
John Brown
A fierce abolitionist who moved to Kansas with his family. He led the Pottawatomie Creek Massacre and later led an attack on the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry in the hope of leading a slave rebellion that would bring about the end of slavery. He was hated by Southerners but became a martyr for the abolitionist cause.
John C. Calhoun
Senator from South Carolina. In the decades before the Civil War he was the strongest voice for states' rights and defender of slavery. Along with Henry Clay and Daniel Webster he helped broker the Compromise of 1850.
Republican Party
A political party founded in the 1850s which initially opposed the expansion of slavery into the territories of the West. Abraham Lincoln was the first Republican president. Eventually the party worked to end slavery altogether.
Stephen Douglas
Senator from Illinois. He was opposed to slavery but wanted to preserve the Union. He believed that the best way was to let the people of each new state decide for themselves if slavery would be permitted. This idea, popular sovereignty is most strongly associated with Douglas.
Popular Sovereignty
The idea that the residents of each territory should decide for themselves if they would join the Union as a free or slave state. Stephen Douglas supported this idea and it was the heart of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
Secession
When a state or group of states leaves separates themselves from the country to form a new nation.
Slave Power
A phrase Northerners used to describe the political power Southern states had in Congress.
Kansas-Nebraska Act
A law that said that when the new states of Kansas and Nebraska joined the Union, the people of those states of vote to decide if they would be slave states or free states. The law proposed by Stephen Douglass and embraced his idea of popular sovereignty as a way to avoid a political fight in Congress.
Missouri Compromise
An agreement brokered by Henry Clay in 1820 to maintain the balance of slave and free states in the Senate. Missouri entered the Union as a slave state and Maine as a free state.
Wilmot Proviso
An addition to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that ended the Mexican American War proposed by David Wilmot. It stated that slavery would not be permitted in the new territories taken from Mexico, but was not adopted.
36th Parallel
The line of latitude that was the dividing line between the free and slave states of the west. The Missouri Compromise had banned slavery north of the line, but the Compromise of 1850 ended that ban by allowing Missouri to become a slave state. The line is the southern border of Missouri.
Bleeding Kansas
The name given to the time period of fighting between pro and anti-slavery forces in Kansas before it was admitted as a state.
Pottawatomie Creek Massacre
An attack by John Brown and his abolitionist followers on the town of Pottawatomie Creek, Kansas. They killed five people in revenge for the Sack of Lawrence. The events were part of the era known as Bleeding Kansas.
Sack of Lawrence
The town of Lawrence, Kansas was the center of the anti-slavery movement in that territory. In 1856 a group of pro-slavery men attacked and burned the town. The event was part of the era known as Bleeding Kansas.
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