Frederick Douglass
(1817-1895) American abolitionist and writer, he escaped slavery and became a leading African American spokesman and writer. He published his biography, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, and founded the abolitionist newspaper, the North Star.
Missouri Compromise
Compromise of 1820" over the issue of slavery in Missouri. It was decided Missouri entered as a slave state and Maine entered as a free state and all states North of the 36th parallel were free states and all South were slave states.
Kansas-Nebraska Act
1854 - Created Nebraska and Kansas as states and gave the people in those territories the right to chose to be a free or slave state through popular sovereignty.
Abraham Lincoln
16th President of the United States saved the Union during the Civil War and emancipated the slaves; was assassinated by Booth (1809-1865)
states' rights
the rights and powers held by individual US states rather than by the federal government.
Fort Sumter
Federal fort in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina; the confederate attack on the fort marked the start of the Civil War
Gettysburg
A large battle in the American Civil War, took place in southern Pennsylvania from July 1 to July 3, 1863. The battle is named after the town on the battlefield. Union General George G. Meade led an army of about 90,000 men to victory against General Robert E. Lee's Confederate army of about 75,000. Gettysburg is the war's most famous battle because of its large size, high cost in lives, location in a northern state, and for President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.
Sectionalism
Loyalty to one's own region of the country, rather than to the nation as a whole
Abolitionist
A person who wanted to end slavery
Fugitive Slave Act
A law that made it a crime to help runaway slaves; allowed for the arrest of escaped slaves in areas where slavery was illegal and required their return to slaveholders
Dredd Scott Decision
Determined that slaves were property and could not become free by moving to a free state or territory
John Brown's Raid
Began when he and his men took over the arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in hopes of starting a slave rebellion.
Secession
Formal withdrawal of states or regions from a nation
Jefferson Davis
President of the Confederate States of America
Emancipation Proclamation
Issued by abraham lincoln on september 22, 1862 it declared that all slaves in the confederate states would be free
Appomattox
Famous as the site of the surrender of the Confederate Army under Robert E. Lee to Union commander Ulysses S. Grant
Reconstruction
the period after the Civil War in the United States when the southern states were reorganized and reintegrated into the Union
Freedman's Bureau, 1865
Set up to help freedmen and white refugees after Civil War. Provided food, clothing, medical care, and education. First to establish schools for blacks to learn to read as thousands of teachers from the north came south to help. Lasted from 1865-72. Attacked by KKK and other southerners as "carpetbaggers" Encouraged former plantation owners to rebuild their plantations, urged freed Blacks to gain employment, kept an eye on contracts between labor and management, etc
Black Codes
Laws denying most legal rights to newly freed slaves; passed by southern states following the Civil War
poll tax
A requirement that citizens pay a tax in order to register to vote
Grandfather Clause
A clause in registration laws allowing people who do not meet registration requirements to vote if they or their ancestors had voted before 1867.