Slavery
A person who wanted to eliminate or "abolish" slavery.
Abolitionist
A term meaning "before war". It was often used to describe the United States before the Civil War.
Antebellum
The rebuilding of war torn southern states so they could be readmitted into the Union after the Civil War.
Reconstruction
A nickname for northerners who were against the Civil War.
Copperhead
Large caliber firearms like cannons and mortars.
Artillery
A large farm in the southern United States. Before the Civil War many of the workers on HERE were slaves.
Plantation
When the southern states chose to leave the United States and to no longer be a part of the country.
Secede
A northerner who moved to the South during the reconstruction in order to become rich.
Carpetbagger
A nickname for the South.
Dixie
A long blade or knife attached to the end of a musket. Soldiers would use it like a spear in close combat.
Bayonet
A boundary or border that split the free states from the slave states. It went between Pennsylvania to the north and Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware to the south.
Mason-Dixon Line
Putting the local interests and customs ahead of the entire country.
Sectionalism
When a person is murdered for political reasons.
Assassination
A term used to describe people who supported the Union.
Federal
A soldier that is wounded or killed during battle.
Casualty
A law passed by Congress in 1850 that said escaped slaves in free states had to be returned to their owners.
Fugitive Slave Law
Another name for the Confederate States of America or the South. This group of states that left the United States to form their own country.
Confederacy
Who was President during the American Civil War?
President Abraham Lincoln
A nickname given to people in the South supporting the Confederate States.
Rebel
Soldiers that fight and travel by foot.
Infantry
A decision made by the Supreme Court that said Congress could not outlaw slavery and that people of African descent were not necessarily U.S. citizens.
Dred Scott decision
An executive order from President Abraham Lincoln stating that slaves in the Confederate states were to be set free.
Emancipation Proclamation
Who became President after President Lincoln's assassination?
President Andrew Johnson
A nickname for people from the North as well as Union soldiers.
Yankee
A long gun with a smooth bore that soldiers shot from the shoulder.
Musket