People
Who are Tejano's?
Texas settlers of Spanish or Mexican descent.
What is the compromise of 1850?
A complex compromise devised by Senator Henry Clay that admitted California as a free state, included a stronger fugitive slave law, and delayed the determination of the slave status of the New Mexico and Utah territories.
What is "Bleeding Kansas"?
Violence between pro and anti-slavery settlers in the Kansas territory, 1856.
What is the Slave Power?
The republican and abolitionist term for the proslavery dominance of the southern and national governments.
Who is Commodore Matthew Perry?
U.S. Naval officer who negotiated the Treaty of Kanagawa in 1854
What is the Fugitive Slave Act?
The 1850 law that gave the federal government authority in cases oslving involving runaway slaves aroused considerable opposition in the North
What is "Fort Sunter"?
First Battle of the Civil War, in which the federal fort in Charleston harbor was captured by the Confederates on April 14th, 1861, after two days of shelling.
Who is the Know-Nothing Party?
An anti-Catholic third party was organized in 1854 in reaction to large-scale German and Irish immigration
A program that allowed settlers in a disputed territory to decide the slavery issue for themselves; most closely associated with Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois.
What is the Texas Revolt?
The 1830s rebellion of residents of the territory of Texas.
Who is the Free Soil Party?
It was a short-lived US political party focused on preventing the expansion of slavery into Western territories acquired after the Mexican-American War.
What is the Kansas-Nebraska Act?
The 1854 law sponsored by Illinois senator Stephen A. Douglas to allow settlers in newly organized territories north of the Missouri border to decide the slavery issue for themselves.
The controversial War with Mexico for control of California and New Mexico,
What is the Gadsden Purchase?
Thirty thousand square miles in present-day Arizona and New Mexico were bought by Congress from Mexico in 1853 primarily for the Southern Pacific Railroad transcontinental route.
What is the Wilmot Proviso?
Proposal to prohibit slavery in any land acquired in the Mexican War; defeated by southern senators, led by John C. Calhoun of South Carolina.