United States Civil War Causes Vocabulary

This vocabulary is necessary for complete comprehension of the Causes of the U.S. Civil War and for any assessment.

states' rights

The ideas that states, not federal government, should make final decisions that affect them.

tariff

tax on imported goods

sectionalism

It is the idea that individual communities of people, sharing a set of cultural, economic and geographic realities, create individuated sections and loyalties within a larger polity, and it existed long before and continued long after the Civil War. Sectionalism beliefs continue until World War II when the United States becomes more unified in its culture, economics, and politics.

Harriet Beecher Stowe

an American abolitionist and author who wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), depicting life for African-Americans under slavery; it reached millions as a novel and play, and became influential in the U.S. and Britain.

Civil War

A war between people of the same country.

abolitionist

someone who joined the movement to abolish, or end slavery

Antebellum South

The Pre-Civil War South of the United States

Underground Railroad

series of escape routes and hiding places to bring slaves out of the South

popular sovereignty

the right of people to make political decisions for themselves

secede

To leave or withdraw

Fugitive Slave Law

this law required that northern states forcibly returned escaped slaves to their owners

The Compromise of 1850 (The Great Compromise)

California enters as a a free state

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.

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

1858 Senate Debate, Lincoln forced Douglas to debate issue of slavery, Douglas supported pop-sovereignty, Lincoln asserted that slavery should not spread to territories, Lincoln emerged as strong Republican candidate

Uncle Tom's Cabin

written by harriet beecher stowe in 1853 that highly influenced England's view on the American Deep South and slavery. a novel promoting abolition. intensified sectional conflict.

John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry

was an attempt by the white abolitionist John Brown to start an armed slave revolt in 1859 by seizing a United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia.

Bleeding Kansas

This was a mini-Civil War fought in the Kansas territory between pro-slavery settlers & anti-slavery settlers.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

This law (act) opened the Kansas & Nebraska territories to being possible slave states.

King Cotton

cotton and cotton-growing considered, in the Antebellum South, as a vital commodity, the major factor not only in the economy but also in politics.

assassination

murder of a public figure by surprise attack

Dred Scott

Dred Scott was a slave who served several masters before suing for his freedom. His case made it to the Supreme Court prior to the American Civil War

Dred Scott Decision

A Missouri slave (Dred Scott) sued for his freedom, claiming that his four year stay in the northern portion of the Louisiana Territory made free land by the Missouri Compromise had made him a free man. The U.S, Supreme Court decided in Dred Scot v. Sanford (1857) that he couldn't sue in federal court because he was property, not a citizen. Chief Justice Taney decided: 1. Scott could not bring a case to court because as an enslaved African he was not a US citizen; 2. law considered slaves property and as such owners could move anywhere and still own his property; 3. Missouri Compromise was against the law; Congress did not have the power to decide where slavery could be allowed or not allowed.