Vocab.

Definition
Compromise of 1850
A set of laws, passed in the
midst of fierce wrangling
between groups favoring
slavery and groups opposing
it, that attempted to give
something to both sides
Fugitive Slave Act
A law passed as part of the
Compromise of 1850, which
provided southern
slaveholders with legal
weapons to capture slaves
who had escaped to the free
states
Uncle Toms Cabin
an antislavery novel (1852)
by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Popular Sovereignty
the doctrine that sovereign
power is vested in the people
and that those chosen to
govern
Kansas-Nebraska Act
the act of Congress in 1854
annulling the Missouri
Compromise, providing for
the organization of the
territories of Kansas and
Nebraska, and permitting
these territories self-
determination on the
question of slavery
Free-soilers
a member of the Free Soil
party or a supporter of its
principles


Vocab. Definition
Republican Party
one of the two major political
parties in the U.S.
Bleeding Kansas
the term used to described
the period of violence during
the settling of the Kansas
territory
Guerrilla Warfare
the use of hit-and-run tactics
by small, mobile groups of
irregular forces operating in
territory controlled by a
hostile, regular force
Dred Scott Decision
A controversial ruling made
by the Supreme Court in
1857, shortly before the
outbreak of the Civil War: a
slave, sought to be declared
a free man on the basis that
he had lived for a time in a
free territory with his
master
Lecompton Constitution
the second of four proposed
constitutions for the state of
Kansas
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
a series of seven debates
between Abraham Lincoln,
the Republican candidate for
the Senate in Illinois, and
Senator Stephen Douglas,
the Democratic Party
candidate


Vocab. Definition
Secede
withdraw formally from
membership in a federal
union, an alliance, or a
political or religious
organization
Confederate States of America
The group of 11 Southern
states that seceded from the
United States in 186061.
Crittenden Compromise
a series of constitutional
amendments proposed in
Congress in 1860 to serve as
a compromise between
proslavery and antislavery
factions
Cotton Diplomacy
refers to the diplomatic
methods employed by the
Confederacy during the
American Civil War
Embargo
an order of a government
prohibiting the movement of
merchant ships into or out of
its ports
Infantry
Soldiers or military units that
fight on foot, in modern
times typically with rifles,
machine guns, grenades,
mortars, etc., as weapons.
Cavalry
the part of a military force
composed of troops that
serve on horseback


Vocab. Definition
Ironclads
covered or cased with iron
plates, as a ship for naval
warfare; armor-plated
Emancipation
The act to free from
restraint, influence, or the
like
13th Amendment
an amendment to the U.S.
Constitution, ratified in 1865,
abolishing slavery
Black Codes
any code of law that defined
and especially limited the
rights of former slaves after
the Civil War
Ku Klux Klan
a secret organization in the
southern U.S., active for
several years after the Civil
War, which aimed to
suppress the newly acquired
powers of blacks
Civil Rights Act
A federal law that authorized
federal action against
segregation in public
accommodations,
14th Amendment
an amendment to the U.S.
Constitution, ratified in 1868,
defining national citizenship
and forbidding the states to
restrict the basic rights of
citizens or other persons


Vocab. Definition
Reconstruction Acts
U.S. History. the acts of
Congress during the period
from 1865 to 1877 providing
for the reorganization of the
former Confederate states
15th Amendment
An amendment to the U.S.
Constitution, ratified in 1870,
prohibiting the restriction of
voting rights on account of
race, color, or previous
condition of servitude.