| A | B |
|---|
| Social Reform | An organized attempt to improve what is unjust or imperfect in society |
| Second Great Awakening | Religious movement of the early 1800's that stressed free will and taught that individuals could choose by their own actions to save their own souls; this encouraged the growing spirit of reform |
| Dorthea Dix | Social reformer dedicated to improving conditions for the mentally ill. led movement to build new mental hospitals and improve existing ones |
| Temperence Movement | campaign to limit or ban the use of alcoholic beverages |
| slave codes | laws which limited the rights of slaves and gave slave owners total power over them |
| union | An association of workers, formed to bargain for better working conditions and higher wages |
| strike | A stopping of work by workers to force an employer to meet demands |
| Seneca Falls Convention | Gathering of women's rights activists that marked the beginning of the women's movement; took place in upstate New York in 1848 |
| Declaration of Sentiments | a document signed in 1848 at the Seneca Falls Convention, highlighting the demands to gaining the civil, social, political, and religious rights of women |
| abolitionist | A person who wanted to end slavery |
| Underground Railroad | A network of escape routes that provided protection and transportation for slaves fleeing north to freedom |
| Harriet Tubman | An escaped slave nicknamed "the Black Moses" who led over 300 people to freedom through the Underground Railroad |
| Frederick Douglass | A former slave who spoke out against slavery and published an antislavery newspaper, the North Star |
| William Lloyd Garrison | An outspoken, white abolitionist that published an antislavery newspaper called The Liberator, and who felt that slavery was an evil that needed to be ended immediately |
| American Colonization Society | An organization founded in 1816 whose mission was to transport free African Americans to colonies in Africa |
| Big House | a reference to the plantation owner's home, the biggest house on the plantation |
| bounty | a reward for a service rendered, such as the capture of a runaway slave |
| Compromise of 1850 | Congressional agreement that admitted California as a free state, but also provided slave catchers with increased powers to return fugitive slaves back to the South |
| cotton gin | a machine invented by Eli Whitney, which separates cotton seeds from cotton |
| conductor | a person who helped transport freedom seekers along the Underground Railroad |
| free papers | a certificate proving the free status of an African American |
| Fugitive Slave Act | a part of the Compromise of 1850 that provided slave catchers with increased powers to return fugitive slaves to the South. It also required northerners, and their legal officials, to assist in this process. |
| Harriet Beecher Stowe | the abolitionist author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, a best-selling novel based on real events that convinced many northerners that slavery was wrong |
| overseer | the person hired to run the day-to-day operations of a plantation, including discipline |
| plantation | a large farm, normally specializing in the growth of one cash crop, worked by slaves |
| fugitive | the term used to describe runaway slaves; also, a person who has escaped from a place and is hiding |
| reformer | someone who sets out to change an aspect of society that they do not like |
| road pass | a pass needed by slaves (and sometimes by free blacks) if they were traveling throughout the South |
| safe house | homes on the Underground Railroad, which provided food and a safe place for runaway slaves to stay on their way to freedom |
| slave | a person forced to work for someone else, not earning any money or reward for their effort |
