Conflict Intensifies
Name for gold seekers during the gold rush of 1849.
49er's
The idea that people living in a territory had the right to decide by voting whether to allow slavery or not.
Popular Sovereignty
The first state to secede from the Union.
South Carolina
Book written by Harriet Beecher Stowe which caused many Northerners to look more unfavorably on slavery.
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Act which was passed to placate Southerners who were worried about runaway slaves, but enraged Northerners.
Fugitive Slave Act
Fort located in Charleston Harbor which was bombarded by the Confederacy and taken from the Union.
Fort Sumter
Secret organization which helped escaped slaves make their way to the free Northern states or Canada.
The Underground Railroad
The election of this individual as president was the final straw that sparked the secession of the Southern states.
Abraham Lincoln
Two of the four border states.
Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri
Phrase used to describe the violence and fighting happening in Kansas between ant-slavery and pro-slavery factions.
Bleeding Kansas
Supreme Court ruling which stated that African Americans could not be American citizens.
Dred Scott Decision
Abolitionist who launched an unsuccessful raid on the arsenal at Harper's Ferry.
John Brown
Representative who brutally beat senator Charles Sumner with a cane.
Preston Brooks
Compromise passed to stop some southern states seceding from the Union during the admission of California as a state.
Compromise of 1860
President of the Confederacy.
Jefferson Davis