| A | B |
|---|
| abolitionist | a person who favored the abolition (banning) of slavery. |
| Bleeding Kansas | a term used to describe the fighting in 1856 between pro- and anti-slavery groups in Kansas each of which wanted to win popular-sovereignty elections in that territory. |
| Compromise of 1850 | a series of laws that granted California statehood as a free state, provided popular sovereignty for the territories of New Mexico and Utah, banned the sale of slaves in the District of Columbia, and enacted a strict fugitive slave law. |
| dark-horse candidate | a relatively unknown candidate who seems to have little chance of winning election to public office. |
| Dred Scott decision (1857) | a Supreme Court decision, written by Chief Justice Taney which declared that Congress could not ban slavery in U.S. territories and that the Missouri Compromise was, therefore, unconstitutional. |
| Free Soil Party | a political party which opposed the extension of slavery. |
| Fugitive Slave Act (1850) | one of the parts of the Compromise of 1850 which imposed fines or prison terms on those found guilty of helping slaves escape. |
| Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) | a law which reorganized much of the old Louisiana Purchase by creating the Kansas and Nebraska Territories and allowing residents of those territories to decide through popular sovereignty whether the land would be open to slavery. |
| Missouri Compromise (1820) | a law which admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state (thus maintaining the even balance between slave and free states) and which prohibited slavery in parts of the Louisiana Purchase north of 36 degrees, 30 minutes latitude. |
| New England Emigrant Aid Company | an organization which helped antislavery activists move to Kansas with the intention of winning a popular sovereignty vote which would block slavery in that territory. |
| popular sovereignty | a system in the mid-1800s of allowing residents of each territory to decide whether or not they wanted to legalize slavery in their area, also called squatters sovereignty. |
| radical | a person favoring extreme change and willing to use strong, even illegal, methods to bring about that change. |
| Republican Party | a political party formed in 1854. A major goal of which was to block the extension of slavery into the territories. |
| secede | to withdraw from or leave an organization. |
| sectionalism | a sense of loyalty to one's section of the country instead of to the nation as a whole. |
| squatters sovereignty | a system in the mid-1800s of allowing residents of each territory to decide whether or not they wanted to legalize slavery in their area, also called popular sovereignty. |
| "Uncle Tom's Cabin" (1852) | a book written by Harriet Beecher Stowe depicting the harsh treatment of slaves in the South. |
| Wilmot Proviso (1848) | a proposal (never enacted) which would have banned slavery in any territory the U.S. acquired as a result of the Mexican War. |
