Civil War Vocabulary

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Free-soil Party

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A political party dedicated to stopping the expansion of slavery

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Missouri Compromise 1820

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a series of laws enacted in 1820 to maintain the balance of power between slave states and free states

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Compromise 1850

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a series of congressional laws intended to settle the major disagreements between free states and slave states

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Kansas-Nebraska Act 1854

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an 1954 law that established the territories of Kansas and Nebraska and gave their residents the right to decide weather to allow slavery

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Henry Clay*

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an American lawyer, politician, and skilled orator who represented Kentucky in both the United States Senate and House of Representatives

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John Brown*

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John Brown was a white American abolitionist who believed armed insurrection was the only way to overthrow the institution of slavery in the United States

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Daniel Webster*

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Daniel Webster was a leading American senator from Massachusetts during the period leading up to the Civil War. He first rose to regional prominence through his defense of New England shipping interests.

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Robert E. Lee*

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Robert Edward Lee was an American career military officer and education administrator who is best known for having commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War.

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Fort Sumter

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a federal fort located in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina; the southern attack of Fort Sumter marked the beginning of the Civil War

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Border states

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a slave state that bordered states which slavery was illegal

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King cotton

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cotton was called king because because cotton was important to the world market, and the South grew most of the cotton from Europe's mills

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Blockade

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when armed forces prevented the transportation of goods or people into or out of an area

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Anaconda Plan

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a strategy by which the Union proposed to defeat the Confederacy in the Civil War

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Cavalry

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soldiers on horseback

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Minie ball

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bullett with a hollow base

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Ulysses S. Grant*

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was the 18th President of the United States (1869–1877) following his success as military commander in the American Civil War.

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Uncle Tom’s Cabin

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Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly, is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War", according to Will Kaufman

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Harriet Beecher Stowe*

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was an American abolitionist and author. Her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) was a depiction of life for African Americans under slavery; it reached millions as a novel and play, and became influential in the United States and United Kingdom.

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Fugitive Slave Act

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in 1850 law to help slaveholders recapture runaway slaves.

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Dred Scott v. Sanford

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was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court held that African Americans, whether slave or free, could not be American citizens and therefore had no standing to sue in federal court,[

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Harpers Ferry

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a federal arsenal in Virginia that was captured in 1859 during a slave revolt

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Secede

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to withdraw

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Confederate States of America

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the confederation formed in 1861 by the Sothern states after the secession from the union

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Jefferson Davis*

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Jefferson Finis Davis was an American soldier and statesman, and was the President of the Confederate States of America during the entire Civil War, 1861 to 1865

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Abraham Lincoln*

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Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865