Government & Politics
Who has the power to declare war in the U.S. government?
Congress.
Who wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin?
Harriet Beecher Stowe
What two states entered the Union in the Missouri Compromise?
Missouri (slave) and Maine (free).
What law, part of the Compromise of 1850, required northerners to help capture runaway slaves?
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.
What invention by Eli Whitney helped cotton production thrive?
The Cotton Gin.
How many senators are in the U.S. Senate?
100
What was the nickname Southerners gave to slavery?
The “Peculiar Institution.”
What 1846 proposal attempted to ban slavery in the Mexican Cession?
The Wilmot Proviso
What act repealed the Missouri Compromise and allowed slavery to be decided in Kansas and Nebraska?
The Kansas-Nebraska Act.
What crop was the South’s most important cash crop?
cotton
Which political party in the 1830s supported high tariffs and government intervention?
whigs
What 1793 law gave slaveholders the right to recover runaway slaves?
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793
What doctrine, argued by John C. Calhoun, stated that Congress had no right to ban slavery in the territories?
The Calhoun Doctrine.
What violent event in 1856 involved John Brown killing pro-slavery settlers?
The Pottawatomie Massacre (Bleeding Kansas).
Why did Britain’s demand for cotton strengthen slavery in the South?
Cotton was traded to Britain for textiles, making it economically essential.
What new political party replaced the American Party (Know Nothings) as the main competitor to Democrats in the 1850s?
The Republican Party.
What abolitionist was murdered for his anti-slavery views in Illinois?
Elijah Lovejoy.
What compromise allowed settlers themselves to vote on whether slavery would be allowed in new territories?
Popular Sovereignty.
What constitution in Kansas was denounced by Stephen Douglas but supported by President Buchanan?
The Lecompton Constitution.
What phrase described how the South’s economy depended almost entirely on cotton?
“King Cotton.”
What did the “Slave Power Conspiracy” refer to?
The belief that southern slaveholders were plotting to expand slavery across the U.S.
What was the radical abolitionist newspaper founded by William Lloyd Garrison?
The Liberator.
What treaty ended the Mexican War and gave the U.S. the Mexican Cession?
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
What 1856 event saw Senator Charles Sumner beaten with a cane by Representative Preston Brooks?
Bleeding Sumner.
Why did Southerners see abolition as a threat to their way of life?
Because slavery was directly tied to their economic survival and profits.