definition
Missouri Compromise
Passed in 1820.
Missouri entered as a slave state and Maine as a free state.
Drew a line across U.S. territory to limit the spread of slavery.
Antietetam
Battle fought in Maryland in 1862.
Bloodiest single day in American history.
Union victory gave Lincoln the chance to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe.
Showed the cruelty of slavery.
Increased anti-slavery feelings in the North.
Fugitive Slave Law
Part of the Compromise of 1850.
Required escaped enslaved people to be returned to their owners.
Angered many Northerners.
First Battle of Bull Run
First major battle of the Civil War in 1861.
Confederate victory.
Showed both sides that the war would be long and difficult.
Dred Scott
Enslaved man who sued for his freedom.
Supreme Court ruled against him in 1857.
Court said African Americans were not citizens and Congress could not ban slavery in territories.
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Passed in 1854.
Allowed settlers in Kansas and Nebraska to decide about slavery by popular sovereignty.
Led to violence in Kansas.
Fort Sumter
Confederate forces attacked the fort in South Carolina on April 12, 1861.
Marked the beginning of the Civil War.
Election of Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860.
He opposed the spread of slavery into new territories.
His election led several Southern states to secede.
Bleeding Kansas
Violent conflict between pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers in Kansas.
Caused by the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
Gettysburg and Importance
Major battle fought in Pennsylvania from July 1–3, 1863.
Union victory stopped Lee's invasion of the North.
Considered the turning point of the Civil War.
John Brown's Raid
1859 attack on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry.
John Brown hoped to start a slave rebellion.
Increased tensions between North and South
Reactions to the Emancipation Proclamation
Enslaved people celebrated and hoped for freedom.
Many Northerners supported it.
Southerners opposed it and continued fighting
Vicksburg and Importance
Union victory on July 4, 1863.
Gave the Union control of the Mississippi River.
Split the Confederacy in two and was a major turning point in the war.
Sherman's March
General William Tecumseh Sherman led Union troops through Georgia in 1864.
They destroyed railroads, farms, and supplies to weaken the South.
This strategy was called "Total War."