| A | B |
|---|
| Know Nothing Party | Political Party comprised of nativists who when asked about their activities they replied " I know nothing." They targeted Catholics and immigrants. |
| Nothern Democrats | Remained with their party even though it supported slavery because they were afraid to lose their money investments in the South if they joined the Republicans. |
| Dred Scott | Slave who sued for his freedom based on the fact he traveled into a free state. |
| Dred Scott Case | Dred Scott lost his case. Supreme Court returned a decision that said 1) slaves were property 2) just by traveling in a free state did not make a slave free 3) Congress NEVER had right to allow or end slavery, only the courts did. |
| Impact of the Dred Scott Case | Pro slavery groups thrilled. Case supported the EXPANSION of slavery and abolitionists devasted they had no say in ending slavery, only the courts did (judicial review) |
| Panic of 1857 | Hurt Northern manufacturers terribly while the South reamined virtually untouched. King Cotton remained king. Result: Led the South to believe that nothing could hurt their economy. |
| Abraham Lincoln | Methodical, slow mover in politics. Common sense ruled his decisions. He hates slavery but promises the south not to end it because he is a UNIONIST, preserve the union first. Changes his mind in the middle of the Civil War. |
| Stephen Douglas | Running for senator against Abraham Lincoln. Short man known who his debate/speaking skills that overwhelmed his opponents. Debated against Lincoln and won. |
| Douglas-Lincoln Debates | Each wanted to be senator of Illinois. The debate was over the issue of slavery in the territories. Douglas argued that with POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY the people would vote down slavery. Lincoln argued that slavery would destroy the union as the country could not have both slave and free states under the same flag. Douglas won the senate seat BUT Lincoln gained the favor for the presidential nomination. . |
| Freeport Doctrine | Stephen Douglas' postition on slavery that the use of popular sovereignty in the territories would end slavery. |
| John Brown | Radical abolitionists who led a group of men to the federal arsenal in Harper's Ferry, Virginia to get the weapons and start a slave revolt. Brown was captured, tried, and executed. |
| "John Browns" | Southern slavery owner view that ALL republicans must be crazed abolitionists like John Brown with ideas of slave revolt. |
| Election of 1860 | Abraham Lincoln wins his party's presidential seat after it was determined that William H. Seward made too many political enemies. |
| Constitutional Union Party | Formed to keep slave owners happy, abolitionists happy, and the union intact. In other words, a lost cause. |
| secession | When a state leaves the union. South Carolina is the first southern state to seceed after Lincoln is elected. |
| President James Buchanan | "Lame Duck" president. He believed that he could not force any state that seceeded because the CONSTITUTION did not give him the right to do so. |
| Crittenden Compromise | Last ditch effort to prevent war after seccession. Suggested that an amendment to the constitution to PROTECT SLAVERY below the 36, 30 parallel, allow popular sovereignty to decide in the territories and above the parallel keep all states free. Lincoln rejects the idea as he promised not to allow slavery to expand in the west. . |
| Uncle Tom's Cabin | Written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Accurately described the cruelty of slavery, especially the separation of families. |
| Impact of Uncle Tom's Cabin | More people become abolitionists after reading it and would not support Fugitive Slave Law. French & British governments realized that any help they might give the South during a war would NOT be well received by the US government. |
| Hinton R. Helper | Southern author who wrote THE IMPENDING CRISIS OF THE SOUTH which made the argument that the people who suffered the most from slavery were non slaveholding whites. |
| Kansas Territory | Became part of the struggle between slave and free states. There were already slaves in the territory before the people could use popular sovereignty to vote on it. |
| Bleeding Kansas | Kansas-Nebraska Act stated that the people could vote to allow or disallow slavery in the territory. As a result the territory was flooded with supporters from BOTH sides & they began to violently fight with each other. A pro slavery vote was passed under suspicious circumstances and the Lecompton Constitution quickly passed. |
| Lecompton Constitution | Stated that regardless of the vote, slave owners already in Kansas would be protected and allowed to stay. President James Buchanan urges congress to admit Kansas as a slave state under the Lecompton Constitution. This decision DIVIDES his own party, the Democrats. |
| Caning of Charles Sumner | Sumner, abolitionists and senator, famously gave an impassioned speech before congress denouncing slavery and slave owners, many of which who were senators themselves. Sumner specifically pointed out one senator whose nephew was Preston S. Brooks. The next day Brooks approached Sumner in Congress and proceeded to beat him unconscious with a cane and Sumner suffers brain damage and does not return to Congress for years. Illustrated that the violence over slavery was spreading. |
