Vocabulary
What is the Compromise of 1850
A set of laws meant to ease tensions between free and slave states, including admitting California as a free state and creating a stricter Fugitive Slave Law.
Why were the Southern states so concerned with maintaining an equal number of slave states and free states?
The South wanted an equal number of slave and free states to protect their political power in the Senate and to defend slavery from being outlawed by the North.
Which state was the first to secede from the Union?
South Carolina
What were the THREE main components of the Missouri Compromise?
Missouri admitted as a slave state
Maine admitted not as a free state
Slavery banned north of the 36°30′ latitude line
What was Uncle Tom’s Cabin and how did it affect our country in the 1850s?
Uncle Tom’s Cabin was an anti-slavery novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, and it made many people in the North realize how cruel slavery was, increasing tensions between the North and South in the 1850s.
What is the Dred Scott Decision
A Supreme Court ruling (1857) that said enslaved people were property, not citizens, and Congress couldn’t ban slavery in U.S. territories.
Who was Nat Turner? List 3 facts about him that are important to this unit:
He believed he was chosen by God to lead enslaved people to freedom.
In 1831, he led a violent uprising that killed around 60 white people in Virginia.
The rebellion caused stricter slave laws and made the South even more determined to control enslaved people and defend slavery.
What event is considered the start of the Civil War?
Confederate attack on Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina.
Why was it called the “Missouri Compromise” even though Missouri was not the only state involved in the Compromise?
It’s named after Missouri because Missouri’s admission as a slave state was the main issue that triggered the debate, even though Maine and the 36°30′ line were also part of the compromise.
What was the purpose of the Underground Railroad?
The purpose of the Underground Railroad was to help enslaved people escape to freedom in the North or Canada using a secret network of routes and safe houses.
What are the Lincoln-Douglas debates
A series of 1858 debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas over slavery’s expansion in new territories.
What challenges arose with the Fugitive Slave law?
The Fugitive Slave Law caused conflict because it forced Northerners to support slavery and put free Black people at risk of being enslaved.
Use the “Emancipator-Extra” primary source image in Section 3 to describe 3-5 cruel realities of slavery.
Family separation. One panel shows a mother being forced to sell her child, highlighting that enslaved families could be torn apart at any time.
Brutal physical punishment. Multiple panels show whipping and beatings, demonstrating the violence enslaved people endured.
Forced labor, even for children. Children are shown working in the fields, showing that enslavement affected all ages.
What is a common misunderstanding/myth about the Underground Railroad?
It was NOT a Railroad underground. It was a tunnel and along the way there were stations/safe houses.
What is the Missouri Compromise
An 1820 law admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state, while banning slavery north of latitude 36°30′.
A house divided against itself cannot stand.' I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved; I do not expect the house to fall; but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other.”
Who said this, when, and what does it mean?
In 1858, Lincoln meant that the country couldn’t last if it stayed split over slavery it had to unite as one.
Name the FOUR components of the Compromise of 1850.
California was admitted as a free state.
New Mexico and Utah territories could decide on slavery by popular sovereignty.
The Fugitive Slave Law was strengthened.
The slave trade (but not slavery itself) was banned in Washington, D.C.
Describe 3-5 facts about the Underground Railroad and how it worked:
The Underground Railroad was a network of secret routes and safe houses used by enslaved people.
There were many passages in the Underground Railroad and most of them led North to free states or Canada.
They only usually escape on a clear night in fall on Saturday’s
Agent comes
Talks to enslaved person and gives day/time
Before going must change cloths
Leave on a Saturday clear night in fall
Go to the station
Keep heading to free states or Canada
What is a Union
The United States, especially the northern states that stayed together during the Civil War.
List 3 facts about the Election of 1860.
Abraham Lincoln won the Election of 1860 as the Republican candidate.
The Democratic Party split over slavery, weakening their votes.
Lincoln’s victory led Southern states to secede from the Union.
What was the Kansas-Nebraska Act? What happened in Kansas after this Act?
The Kansas-Nebraska Act allowed settlers to decide on slavery for themselves, and it led to violent fighting in Kansas known as “Bleeding Kansas.”
If a kindergartner asked you to explain to them who Harriet Tubman was… what would you tell them in 3-5 sentences?
Harriet Tubman was a brave woman who escaped from slavery and became a hero. After gaining her own freedom, she secretly returned many times to lead other enslaved people to safety using a secret route called the Underground Railroad.Harriet Tubman is remembered as an enslaved African American woman who was an abolitionist