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| James Hammond | A senator from the South and is noted for his “King Cotton” speech that he gave in 1858. He believed that the exploitation of cotton was the best economic activity because as the North suffered in its Panic of 1857, the South was barely effected. |
| J.D.B. DeBow | A resident of New Orleans, used his magazine to advocate the expansion of southern agriculture and commerce so that the southern economy could become independent of the North. He warned constantly of the South's "colonial" relationship with the North, one in which the South was at a distinct disadvantage. |
| George Fitzhugh | American social theorist who published racial and slavery-based sociological theories in the antebellum era, practiced law and was a planter for years, but attracted both his fame and infamy when he published two sociological tracts for the South. He was a leading pro-slavery intellectual and spoke for many of the Southern plantation owners. |
| The Grimke Sisters | 19th-century American Quakers, educators and writers who were early advocates of abolitionism and women's rights. Among the first women to act publicly in social reform movements, they received abuse and ridicule for their abolitionist activity. They both realized that women would have to create a safe space in the public arena to be effective reformers. They became early activists in the women's rights movement |
| The Tappan Brothers | Arthur and Lewis Tappan supported a number of causes and are often remembered for their devotion to abolitionism. In 1833, the brothers and abolitionist Theodore Dwight Weld came together to form the American Anti-Slavery Society. This organization called for the immediate end to slavery and also advocated equal rights for African Americans with white people. |
| Theodore Weld | Was one of the leading architects of the American abolitionist movement during its formative years, from 1830 through 1844. Harriet Beecher Stowe partly based Uncle Tom’s Cabin on his text American Slavery As It Is and it is regarded as second only to that work in its influence on the antislavery movement; remained dedicated to the abolitionist movement until slavery was ended by the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1865. |
| William Lloyd Garrison | Was a prominent American abolitionist, journalist, and social reformer. He is best known as the editor of the radical abolitionist newspaper The Liberator, and as one of the founders of the American Anti-Slavery Society, he promoted "immediate emancipation" of slaves in the United States. Also a prominent voice for the women's suffrage movement. |
| Harriet Tubman | A black abolitionist, she was the conducter of the Underground Railroad. She risked her life to lead 60 to 70 slaves north to freedom on a total of 12 missions. |
| Frederick Douglas | A black abolitionist, he was a leader for the abolitionist movement in the North. As a former slave who escaped to freedom, he wrote The Narrative Life of Frederick Douglass. |
| David Walker | A free black living in Boston, he was an avid abolitionist. He was more radical than most abolitionists and encouraged slave rebellion. After writing Walker's Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World in 1829, he died a mysterious death. |
| John L. O'Sullivan | Though it had exhisted sooner, he coined the term Manifest Destiny in the 1840's. He wrote, "The fulfillment of our Manifest Destiny to overspread the continent alloted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions..." |
| Stephen F. Austin | An empresario provided with land grants. Mexico allowed American settlement in Texas in the 1820s and 1830s, and he was one of the pioneering leaders in bringing Americans into Texas territory. |
| Santa Anna | The President of Mexico duing the Texas Revolution (1835 to 1836). He massacred the Texans at the Battle of the Alamo and at Goliad, but lost the war at San Jacinto. He was also President during the Mexican War and lost the Mexican Cession in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848). |
| Sam Houston | Texans War hero who commanded the Texas troops against Santa Ana and the Mexicans in the Texas Revolution (1835-1836). He was the first president of The Republic of Texas. |
| John Jacob Astor | Created the American Fur company in the Oregon territory. This helped jumpstart Oregon's population and economy. |
| James K. Polk | Elected in 1844l a Democratic president who was an avid expansionalist. He wanted to organize the Oregon territory, which he did by compromising with Britain, and he wanted to buy California from Mexico, which he won via the Mexican war (sometimes called "Mr. Polk's War"). In winning this land he believed that the 36° 30' line should go all the way to the Pacific. Sometimes was also known as "Young Hickory" because he was seen by many as Andrew Jackson's protégé. |
| Henry Clay | Had his hand in many of the happenings of Early America. He was a War Hawk who helped spur on the War of 1812, he was known as the "The Great Pacificator" for his compromises that saved the nation a lot of trouble, he was a supporter of the American system, and he played a role in the Corrupt Bargain of 1824. Among his great Compromises are the Missouri Compromise, the Compromise of 1850, and his work in the Nullification Crisis. He was a part of the corrupt bargain in 1824 as Speaker of the House. He also ran for president in 1824 and 1844 as a Whig nominee, he never won. |
| Zachary Taylor | General in the Mexican War who won many important battles which propelled him to win the presidency in the election of 1848 as a member of the Whig party. He died shortly after in 1850. Though he was a slave holder the south felt that he didn't do much to further slavery's expansion. His death in 1850 opened the door for the Compromise of 1850. |
| Abraham Lincoln | Perhaps the most prominent figure of the American Civil War, Lincoln was a man who did great things to try and preserve the Union. He was a supporter of The American Colonization Society, he was an abolitionist who didn't believe in racial equality, and he was a moderate Republican. He Debated with Douglas for the Illinois Senate in 1858 and lost, but his views and speeches helped win him the presidency in 1860 over Douglas. During the Civil War Lincoln was not the aggressor, he didn't try and recapture seceded lands. Instead he wanted to defend federal lands and preserve the Union. His main priority was preserving the Union, NOT abolishing slavery. |
| John C. Fremont | An American military officer, explorer, the first candidate of the Republican Party for the office of president of the U.S., and the first presidential candidate of a major party to run on a platform opposing slavery |
| Winfield Scott | United States Army general-captured Mexico City, and unsuccessful presidential candidate of the Whig Party in 1852 |
| Nicholas Trist | successfully negotiated the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo on February 2, 1848. |
| Lewis Cass | the losing nominee of the Democratic Party for president in 1848. Original proponent of popular sovereignty. |
| Daniel Webster | His increasingly nationalistic views and the effectiveness with which he articulated them led Webster to become one of the most famous orators and influential Whig leaders of the Second Party System. Known for his "Seventh of March" Address during the Compromise of 1850 |
| William Seward | Delievered his "Higher Law" Speech during the Compromise of 1850- United States Senator and the United States Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. An outspoken opponent of the spread of slavery in the years leading up to the American Civil War, he was a dominant figure in the Republican Party in its formative years, and was widely regarded as the leading contender for the party's presidential nomination in 1860 – yet his very outspokenness may have cost him the nomination. |
| Jefferson Davis | a Mississippian with impeccable credentials: he was a war hero from the Mexican War, a former Secretary of War for the United States, and the future President of the Confederate States of America. |
| Franklin Pierce | Democraatic candidate from New Hampshire in the 1852 election who ran against Winfield Scott (Whig). Pierce won despite being a lackluster contender. He was known as a Doughface. His victory initiated the demise of the Whigs. His pro-southern cabinet proposed the Ostend Manifesto. |
| William Walker | Filibuster who organized several private military expeditions into Nicaragua, with the intention of establishing English-speaking colonies under his personal control, an enterprise then known as "filibustering." |
| Commodore Matthew Perry | In 1854, sent by President Pierce to open Japan to trade, basically at gunpoint. |
| Stephen Douglas | Democratic politician from Illionis who battled Abraham Lincoln (R) for an Illinois Senate seat, proposed the Freeport Doctrine where came across badly as having a moral indifference to slavery. Douglas eventually won the senate seat in 1858, but will lose the presidential election because of the Freeport Doctrine. |
| John Brown | During a mini-civil war in Kansas, he and his sons massacred pro-slavery settlers at Pottawatomie Creek. Later lead a massive slave insurrection on Harper’s Ferry, were he was captured and later executed; However, was seen as a Martyr in the North. |
| James Buchanan | A Democrat with Southern alliances, he threw his support behind the Lecompton Constitution. This antagonized the Democrats in the North, successfully creating a division in the last remaining national party. He won the presidency of 1856, and was president during the Dred Scott Case (1857). He exerted no leadership in the lame duck period as the country was breaking apart. He declared succession illegal but denied the right of the federal government to restore the Union by force, crippling the North and pushing the South farther away. |
| Harriet Beecher Stowe | Author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, published in 1852.It is considered one of the most influential books in American history. By portraying the horrors of slavery, she inspired many northern states to pass personal liberty laws and greatly angered the South (they felt the book was an attack on their way of life). |
| Hinton Helper | Author of The Impending Crisis of the South, published in 1857. He was a white southerner, and argued that non-slaveholding whites are the real losers in slavery. He stated that slavery "lies at the root of all the shame, poverty, ignorance, tyranny, and imbecility of the South". |
| Dred Scott | A slave, he sued for his freedom when his master died and he had lived in free territory for some time. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney ruled that he was not in fact free, even though he had traveled to free areas, and that because Scott was a slave (not a citizen) he could not sue. It was also ruled in Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional and the federal government could not stop the movement of property from one territory to another. This angered the North and overjoyed the South. |
| Roger B. Taney | A slaveholder in Maryland, he was the Chief Justice who ruled in the controversial court case, Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857). Taney polarized the North and South with his pro-slavery ruling. He ruled that Scott was not a citizen and therefore could not sue for freedom, and that his travels to free places did not make him free. He should have ended there, but Taney continued on to declare the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional and claimed the federal government could not stop the movement of property throughout the territories. |
| John Bell | In the Election of 1860, he acted as a compromise candidate. He tried to maintain the middle path with the Constitutional Union Party, but lost the election to Abraham Lincoln. |
