Download Civil War Vocabulary

Civil War Vocabulary
Abraham Lincoln
• The 16th president of the
United States known for his
Emancipation Proclamation
Speech
Assassination
• A plot to kill an important
government figure
Battle
• A conflict involving violence
California Gold Rush
• When gold was found in
Sutter’s Mill, settlers moved
westward in search of gold
Casualty
• An injured or dead person
as a result of war
Civil War
• A conflict between people
from the same country or
background
Compromise of 1850
• Decided how slavery would
work in new territories
Confederacy
• The group of Southern
States that seceded from
the United States
Emancipation
•Freedom from a
controlling body
Emancipation Proclamation
• A speech made by
President Lincoln
addressing slavery
Expansionism
• A way of thinking that meant
Americans had the right to
expand where they chose
Free Soil Party
• Mostly Western settlers that
did not agree with Eastern
politics
Fugitive Slave Act
• A law that made it illegal to
not return escaped slaves
General Grant
• Leader of the Union Army
General Lee
• Leader of the Confederate
Army
Harriet Tubman
• A runaway slave that led other
slaves to freedom on the
Underground Railroad
Indentured Servant
• A person working to pay off a
debt
Jefferson Davis
• President of the Confederate
States
Kansas-Nebraska Act
• Allowed new western states to
decide by popular sovereignty
if slavery would be allowed in
that state
Lincoln Douglas Debates
• A series of debates between
Lincoln and Stephen Douglas
during the election of 1858
Missouri Compromise
• Prohibited slavery above the
36’30” line and the Northwest
territory
Nationalism
• A way of thinking that an
individual’s first
responsibility is to one’s
nation
Popular Sovereignty
• When a new state’s citizens
vote whether they want to
have slavery in their state or
not.
Secession
• To leave or separate from
an established country
Sectionalism
• A way of thinking that one
small group or region is most
important
Sharecropping
• When multiple farmers own pieces
of a large plantation
Slavery
• When one man takes away
another man’s basic rights as a
human being
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
• An abolitionist book written by
Harriet Beecher Stowe
addressing slavery issues
Union
• The Northern States that
stayed with the United States
during the Civil War
War
• An elongated, violent conflict
between at least 2 groups of
established militaries.