Slavery
the forced labor system that enslaved Africans in the Americas.
What is slavery?
This man was elected president in 1860.
Who is Abraham Lincoln?
This legislation allowed settlers in Kansas and Nebraska to vote on whether to allow slavery, leading to violent conflict.
What is the Kansas-Nebraska Act?
This Southern state was the first to secede from the Union in December 1860.
What is South Carolina?
Southern states argued they had this right to leave the Union if they disagreed with federal policies.
What is secession?
This type of economy in the South depended heavily on slavery, leading to divisions between the North and South.
What is agriculture?
This issue divided the country during the 1860 election
What is slavery?
This line, established in 1820, divided free and slave territories in the Louisiana Purchase.
What is the Missouri Compromise line?
This group of 11 Southern states formed their own government after seceding from the Union.
What is the Confederate States of America?
The belief in states’ rights was rooted in this idea, which holds that states have power over the federal government in certain areas.
What is sovereignty?
This legal decision by the Supreme Court, which denied freedom to an enslaved man, was a major issue leading up to the election.
What is the Dred Scott decision?
The Southern states were upset about Lincoln’s election because they thought he would stop this.
What is slavery?
This region, gained after the Mexican-American War, sparked debates over whether slavery would expand westward.
What is the Mexican Cession?
This president refused to recognize secession, declaring it illegal and pledging to preserve the Union.
Who is Abraham Lincoln?
This argument, used by Southern leaders, claimed that states voluntarily joined the Union and could therefore leave it.
What is the compact theory?
This 19th-century network helped enslaved people escape to freedom in the North or Canada.
What is the Underground Railroad?
This political party, led by Abraham Lincoln, won the election of 1860.
What is the Republican Party?
This act organized the western territories of the United States but left the question of slavery up to popular sovereignty.
What is the Compromise of 1850?
This event at a federal fort in Charleston Harbor marked the beginning of open conflict between the Union and the Confederacy.
What is the attack on Fort Sumter?
This Northern law, passed during the Civil War, expanded federal power by requiring military service, angering those who supported states' rights.
What is the Conscription Act (draft)?
This 1850 law required that escaped enslaved people be returned to their enslavers, even if they reached free states.
What is the Fugitive Slave Act?
After Lincoln was elected, this state was the first to leave the Union.
What is South Carolina?
This failed attempt to outlaw slavery in all land acquired from Mexico heightened tensions between North and South.
What is the Wilmot Proviso?
This justification for secession claimed that states had the right to leave the Union if the federal government violated their sovereignty.
What is states’ rights?
This Southern leader frequently argued that the Confederacy was defending the principles of states' rights, even though centralizing policies were later adopted.
Who is Jefferson Davis?