Go West!
Thousands of people moved to the this state in the 1840s for this reason, forcing it to apply for statehood much faster than anyone expected, which restarted the huge national argument over slavery.
California Gold Rush
This was a way for the federal government to avoid deciding on slavery for the whole country. Instead, the people living in a new territory should get to vote and decide for themselves.
Popular Sovereignty
This was the secret network of safe houses and hidden routes that helped enslaved people escape from the South to freedom in the North or Canada.
Underground Railroad
This was a new political party created for one main reason: to stop the spread of slavery into the Western territories. It was championed by Abraham Lincoln.
Republican Party
This is the formal term for when a state chooses to officially leave the United States. South Carolina was the first to do this right after Lincoln was elected
secession
This group of people moved out West to build their own community. They did this mainly to escape the violence and religious bullying they faced.
Mormons
This group didn't necessarily want to end slavery in the South, but they were determined to keep it out of the West so that white farmers wouldn't have to compete with slave labor.
Free Soilers
This woman was the most goated orchestrator of a secret escape network for slaves. Even though there was a huge reward for her capture, she went back to the South 19 times to lead others to safety.
Harriet Tubman
In this famous court case, the Supreme Court ruled that Black people were not citizens and that Congress had no power to stop slavery in the territories.
Dred Scott
This was the name of the new country formed by the 11 Southern states. They wrote a constitution that made it illegal to ever end slavery in their borders
Confederate States of America
This territory was its own independent country for nine years. The U.S. waited a long time to let them join because they were afraid it would start a war with Mexico and a fight over adding another slave state.
Texas
This deal on slavery delayed the Civil War by a few more years, making the North happy by adding California as a free state, but making the South happy by passing a much stricter Fugitive Slave Law.
Compromise of 1850
This best-selling novel showed Northerners the cruelty of slavery for the first time. It was so powerful that Abraham Lincoln later joked it was the book that "started this great war."
Uncle Tom's Cabin
This radical abolitionist was executed for fighting violently against slavery in Kansas and for planning and organizing a slave rebellion
John Brown
This was an executive order issued by Lincoln that freed enslaved people in the rebelling Southern states. It changed the goal of the war from "saving the Union" to "ending slavery."
Emancipation Proclamation
This was the popular 1840s belief that God wanted Americans to expand their control, power, and culture all the way across the continent to the Pacific Ocean.
Manifest Destiny
This law completely got rid of the old Missouri Compromise line (the 36°30' line) and said that settlers in one Great Plains state could decide on slavery themselves.
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Immigrants from these 2 countries moved to the U.S. in the 1840s. One group came to escape a famine, while the other moved to the Midwest to start farms and businesses.
Ireland & Germany
This was an attempt to start a slave rebellion by capturing a government weapon warehouse in Virginia; it failed, but it terrified and enraged Southerners
Raid at Harper's Ferry
In this very short but famous speech, Lincoln honored fallen soldiers and reminded Americans that the war was a test of whether a "government of the people, by the people, and for the people" could survive
Gettysburg Address
After winning this conflict, the U.S. got a giant chunk of land. This immediately caused trouble because the North and South began to fight over whether that new land would allow slavery or be "free soil."
Mexican-American War
This was a "mini-civil war" where pro-slavery and anti-slavery groups moved into the same area and started fighting and killing each other to try to win the vote on slavery.
Bleeding Kansas
This was a group of "native-born" Americans who were afraid that new immigrants would take their jobs and ruin American culture. They wanted to make it harder for U.S. citizens not born on U.S. soil to vote or hold office.
Nativists
the number of southern states that voted for Abraham Lincoln in the 1860 election
zero
These were violent protests that broke out in one northern city because poor people were angry that they were being forced to fight while the rich could pay $300 to stay home
NYC Draft Riots