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U.S. HISTORY 8.9: THE PATH TO CIVIL WAR
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Abolition This reform movement called for the immediate and complete end to slavery in the United States. It started in the colonies
before the Revolution, was addressed at the Constitutional Convention allowing each state to decide, and continued with the
education, temperance, and religious reform movements of the 1800’s.
Early State Constitutions All new states created these, basing their ideals on the Declaration of Independence and the main idea that
all men are naturally entitled to liberty. In 1774 Quakers in Pennsylvania organized the first American anti-slavery society and
passed a law six years later to end slavery. The 1783 court ruling on the Quock Walker case ended slavery in Massachusetts.
Between 1783 and 1804, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, and New Jersey outlawed slavery, but it didn’t end discrimination.
Manumission This term is the freeing of individual enslaved persons, used in a Virginia state law as an increasing number of
slaveholders began freeing slaves they held after the Revolutionary War.
Northwest Ordinance This law marked the United States’ first attempt to stop the spread of slavery in newly acquired territories,
stating, “There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the territory.” This ordinance created a single Northwest
Territory, allowing settlers to petition for statehood once the population reached 60,000.
American Colonization Society This first white Virginian large-scale antislavery effort tried to resettle African Americans in Africa
and the Caribbean by purchasing them from slaveholders and shipping them out of the states. After collecting funds from private
donors, Congress and a few state legislatures, they purchased land in West Africa and settled free African Americans there to
form the nation of Liberia (“Place of Freedom”) in 1847.
William Lloyd Garrison This abolitionist was the first white to publicly call for the “immediate and complete emancipation of all
enslaved people.” He founded his own abolitionist newspaper in Boston in 1831, called the Liberator.
John Quincy Adams After serving as president, this man served in the House of Representatives battling slavery with his proposed
constitutional amendments: 1st – All children born on or after July 4, 1842 shall be free; 2nd – No new slave states shall be
admitted to the union; 3rd – No slavery nor slave trade shall be conducted in Washington D.C. They did not pass.
Frederick Douglas This escaped slave later returned and paid his prior master for his freedom (more as an insult), after teaching
himself how to read and write, as well as becoming one of the most notable African American abolitionists with his
newspaper, the North Star.
Fugitive Slave Act This law was a Federal law written to enforce Article 4, Section 2 of the United States Constitution, which
required the return of runaway slaves. It angered citizens of free states when updated in 1850, fining marshals $1,000 for not
enforcing it and allowing the deputation of citizens in capturing escapees.
Underground Railroad In spite of the penalties dictated by the Fugitive Slave Act, many northern whites and free African
Americans helped runaways from the South escape by a system of safe houses and designated routes called this.
Sectionalism This term describes an exaggerated loyalty to a particular region of a country, highlighting the social and economic
differences between the North and the South, industry vs. agriculture, and freedom vs. slavery.
Missouri Compromise Also called Clay’s Proposal, this agreement allowed Missouri to become a slave state in 1819, only if Maine
was admitted as a free state and slavery was prohibited in the territory of the Louisiana Purchase north of 36’30”N Latitude.
Wilmot Proviso Just months after the war with Mexico, Representative David Wilmot proposed a law that would prohibit slavery in
any lands acquired from Mexico. Senator John C. Calhoun countered with a proposal that no government had authority to ban or
regulate slavery from a territory in any way. Neither proposal passed into law, but they caused bitter debate.
Free-Soil Party Due to neither the Whig candidate nor the Democratic candidate taking a stand for or against slavery in the 1848 election,
anti-slavery Whigs and Democrats formed this political party, calling for “Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor, and Free Men.”
Compromise of 1850 Another of Clay’s proposals that had to be divided into individual proposals by Stephen A Douglas in order to
pass Congress, called for five solutions dealing with new states, slavery, and borders: 1) California would be admitted as a free
state, 2) New Mexico would have no slavery restrictions, 3) the New Mexico-Texas border dispute would favor New Mexico, 4)
the slave trade would be abolished in D.C., and 5) there would be a stronger fugitive slave law. Northern citizens were angry
about advancing slavery and Southerners said it was the only way to preserve the Union.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin This novel, written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, used extensive research of facts and documents to portray the
horrific daily life of slavery, greatly educating people in free parts of the nation about the reality of slavery.
Kansas-Nebraska Act With the goal of opening the West with a transcontinental railroad, Stephen A. Douglas proposed this act to
create the territories of Kansas and Nebraska. The new territories were above 36’60” and would have been free, according to the
Missouri Compromise; so the plan repealed the old compromise to get southern support, giving those who settled in Kansas and
Nebraska the right to choose free or slave.
Bleeding Kansas Soon after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, proslavery groups rushed into Kansas to vote for a proslavery
government, including armed proslavery groups from Missouri, called border ruffians, who crossed the border and illegally
voted in the Kansas polls just to tilt the vote towards slavery. John Brown (self-appointed by God to end slavery) and his four
sons led raids on slavery supporters, killing five; this and the ensuing violence became known as this!
Brooks-Sumner Incident As the Bleeding Kansas incident spilled over to the halls of the U.S. Congress, Charles Sumner lashed out
against proslavery senators, especially Andrew Butler of South Carolina, in a criticizing speech called, “The Crime Against
Kansas.” Butler’s distant cousin, Representative Preston Brooks, walked into the Senate chamber and beat Sumner unconscious
with a cane.
New Republicans The antislavery members of the Whigs and the Democrats joined forces with the Free-Soilers and formed this new
party, who quickly won control of the House of Representatives and several state governments. The Democrats now became the
party of the South and the slave states. The political split on slavery was now almost completely North vs. South.
Dred Scott Decision This Supreme Court decision by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney stated that property, such as the slave Dred Scott,
could not sue for freedom because he was not a citizen and had no rights. Furthermore, Taney wrote that Congress had no power
to prohibit slavery in any territory on the basis of the Fifth Amendment that protects a person’s right to property. Taney’s
decision meant that the Constitution protected slavery anywhere in the U.S.
Lincoln-Douglas Debates Little known lawyer from Illinois, Abraham Lincoln, challenged the long seated Illinois Senator, Stephen
A. Douglas, for his seat and to a series of debates, known as this, over the issue of slavery and the continued existence of the
Union. Even though Lincoln lost the race for the Senate seat, he gained political notoriety promoting the belief that slavery was
wrong.
Harpers Ferry Financed by a group of abolitionists, John Brown led 18 whites and African Americans on a raid of the arsenal at this
location in Virginia, with the hopes of starting a nation-wide revolt against slavery. The raid ended in failure as then Colonel
Robert E. Lee captured Brown, who was later executed, leading to anger in the North and fear of more revolts in the South.
Election of 1860 The Republican candidate, Abraham Lincoln, won the presidency against Stephen A. Douglas in this election on the
platform that slavery should be left undisturbed where it existed, but excluded from new territories. The moderate stance on
slavery was smart for attracting both anti and pro slavery voters in the border states (Upper South) who just wanted to avoid the
secession of the Southern states. Lincoln’s name did not even appear on the ballots of most Southern states, and ironically they
began to secede before Lincoln he was sworn-in as president.
The Confederacy Following the lead of South Carolina, the other states of the Deep South seceded and sent representatives to
Montgomery, Alabama to form this, or formally called the Confederate States of America, with Jefferson Davis, Senator from
Mississippi, as their president.
States’ Rights Doctrine Southerners justified their secession from the Union with this theory, arguing that states voluntarily chose to
enter the Union with the understanding that the federal government would protect the rights afforded to citizens by individual
states or territories, specifically centering on their right to own slaves.
Fort Sumter Most U.S. military forts in the southern states were immediately taken over by the CSA, except for this fort that was
attacked by order of Confederate President Jefferson Davis as Lincoln tried to send in an unarmed expedition with supplies.
Lincoln never considered Southern secession to be legitimate and stated that he would not start a war; Southern hostilities against
this fort started the Civil War.