Southern Culture
The name for the highest class of people in the south who controlled the politics and economy
Planter Elites
Famous battle during the fight for Texan freedom from Mexico. This became the rallying cry for Texan independence in the United States.
Alamo
Name given to the thousands of prospective miners moving west into California during 1848-1850.
Act that repealed the Missouri compromise and allowed two new states into the Union. These states were then allowed to choose whether they would allow slavery or not with popular sovereignty.
Kansas Nebraska Act
A large route that nearly 250,000 Americans took while moving out west. Also a game
Oregon Trail
Roughly 40% of the south's population, these people worked as farm laborers but owned no land for themselves.
Poor Freemen
General of the Mexican Army who fought against the Texans and later fought in the Mexican American War.
Proposed bill that would ban slavery in the territories gained from the Mexican American War. This bill failed, however worsened the sectional debate over slavery.
Wilmot Proviso
A multitude of laws passed between 1849 and 1851 that Included the fugitive slave act, California becoming a new state, and the solution to a border dispute in New Mexico and Texas.
Compromise of 1850
Native American tribe in the rocky mountain region that built a horse dependent economy upon interaction with Westerners. This tribe formed alliances with others in the area to dominate the plains.
Comanches
A Language that originated among slaves that combined African and English words
Gullah Dialect
This person bought 180,000 acres of land in Texas and sold it to newcomers. Member of the "peace party".
Stephen Austin
The name originally given to the Great Plains in1820
Great American Desert
Popular political party that was concerned with stopping the spread of slavery, but not ending slavery. Focused more on the economic impact slavery had on poor farmers and freeholders.
Free soil movement
This animal suffered greatly throughout the 1800s due to its importance to natives and its ability to be sold for profits.
Bison
The largest slave uprising in the nineteenth century, over 200 slaves along the Mississippi River marched towards New Orleans but the attempt failed.
German Coast Uprising
Future president that led American forces in the Mexican American War. Captured Matamoros and Monterrey.
Zachary Taylor
A failed plan to expand the United States and slavery into Cuba, proposed by southern pro slavery democrat and shot down by Whigs, Northern Democrats, and Free soilers
Ostend Manifesto
A deal between the United States and Japan that allowed the US Navy to use two Japanese ports to refuel.
Treaty of Kanagawa
This state ruled the fugitive slave act unconstitutional which angered southern Democrats.
Wisconsin
A popular slave system in South Carolina that required slaves to complete set goals and then have time to themselves
Task System
Secret diplomatic mission by Polk to secure the Rio Grande as Texas's southern border and buy California and New Mexico for $30 million.
Slidell
Massachusetts senator who after calling out South Carolinians for supporting the violence in Kansas was beat with a cane.
Charles Sumner
Slogan used by Polk to win the election of 1844 and calling Americans to annex Oregon.
Fifty-four forty or fight
A series of political duels between the two prospective Illinois Senators in 1858. One side was white supremacy while the other side was abolitionist.
Lincoln-Douglass Debates