Key Terms:
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Uncle Tom's Cabin
- Written by Harriet Beecher Stowe about the horrors of slavery and it furthered the north's support of abolition and increased conflict.
The Impending Crisis of the South
- Published 5 years after Uncle Tom's Cabin; written by Southerner Hinton R. Helper who claimed that nonslaveholding whites were the ones who suffered the most in a slave economy. He couldn't find a publisher in the south but found one in the north.
New England Emigrant Aid Company
- Created to help facilitate the migration of free laborers to Kansas in order to stop slavery from being established in that territory. Many were carrying Sharps rifles nickname "Beecher's Bibles" after Henry Ward Beecher who had raised money to pay for them.
Lecompton Constitution
- Proposed Kansas Constitution that couldn't be voted for or against as a whole but for it either "with slavery" or "with no slavery." Even if it was voted against one of the remaining provisions would protect the owners of slaves already in Kansas. Stephen A. Douglass fought for fair play and it was later voted down when Congress said that the entire constitution had to be put up for vote.
Bleeding Kansas
- A Civil War in Kansas over slavery in the territory, was merged with the wider national Civil War in 1861. This had effects in Congress too and eventually led to the caning of Charles Sumner.
Dred Scott v. Sandford
- Dred Scott when to court and tried to sue because he had lived on free-soil as a slave for years, so he thought he should be free. The decision ruled that Congress didn't have the power to ban slavery in any territory and slavers were not citizens of the U.S.
panic of 1857
- Broke out about James Buchanan's harassed head. A financial downfall caused by fold-fueled inflation, over speculation, and excess grain production. Tariffs in the north increased and it called for free homesteads on western public land.
Tariff of 1857
- Duties were lowered on imported goods due to pressures from the South and a large Treasury surplus and the panic of 1857.
Lincoln-Douglas debates
- Series of debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas during race in the U.S. senate for Illinois. Douglas won but Lincoln got the Republican nomination in 1860.
Freeport question
- A question raised by Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln-Douglas debates about whether the Court or the people should be the ones to decide the future of slavery in territories.
Freeport Doctrine
- Declared that since slavery needed laws to protect it, state legislatures would have the final say on slavery; was first argued by Stephen Douglas.
Harpers Ferry
- A federal arsenal located in Virginia that was seized by John Brown.
Constitutional Union party
- Consisting of former Whigs and people from the Know-Nothing party who wanted to elect a compromise candidate to try to avoid a sectional crisis.
Confederate States of America
- After 7 southern states seceded they formed the Confederate government. President Buchanan was blamed for not forcing the seceded states to stay in the Union.
Crittenden amendments
- Proposed to try to appease the South by giving federal protection in the Constitution for slavery in all territories located south of the 36 degree 30' that was created in the Missouri Compromise.