Legislative Battle
This 1820 agreement kept the balance of power equal in the Senate by admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state.
Missouri Compromise
This political party was formed in 1854 with the single goal of stopping the spread of slavery into new territories.
Republican Party
Abraham Lincoln won this election because the "populous North" outvoted the South, despite his name not being on most Southern ballots.
Election of 1860
This term means to officially withdraw or leave the Union.
Secession
This term describes an exaggerated loyalty to one’s own region rather than the country as a whole.
Sectionalism
In this landmark case, Chief Justice Taney ruled that African Americans were not citizens and had no rights.
Dred Scott v. Sandford
Southerners used this theory to justify leaving the Union, arguing the Constitution was a voluntary contract.
States' Rights
A storage site for weapons and ammunition, like the one at Harpers Ferry.
Arsenal
This proposal sought to ban slavery in any lands acquired from the war with Mexico, though it ultimately failed in the Senate.
Wilmot Proviso
This concept, proposed by Stephen A. Douglas, suggested that territories could exclude slavery simply by refusing to pass laws to protect it.
Freeport Doctrine
This man was chosen as the president of the Confederate States of America in February 1861.
Jefferson Davis
Lincoln used this word to describe the Union, meaning it lasts forever.
Perpetual
This 1850 law required all citizens to help catch runaway enslaved people, but it backfired by making many Northerners even more anti-slavery.
Fugitive Slave Act
This abolitionist attacked the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry and became a martyr to the North and a "terrorist" to the South.
John Brown
These were the first shots of the Civil War, fired after Lincoln sent an unarmed expedition with supplies.
Fort Sumter
To choose not to vote, a tactic used during the voting for the Compromise of 1850.
Abstain
This act replaced the 36°30’ line with popular sovereignty, allowing settlers to vote on the issue of slavery themselves.
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Supreme Court ruled the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional because it claimed Congress had no power to ban slavery, as enslaved people were considered this.
Property
This "final straw" attempt to save the Union proposed protecting slavery south of the 36°30’ line forever, but it was rejected by both sides.
Crittenden Compromise
The nickname given to the pro-slavery activists from Missouri who crossed into Kansas to vote illegally.
Border Ruffians