Key Figures
What 1852 novel did Harriet Beecher Stowe write that influenced anti-slavery sentiment?
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
How did Southern states respond to Nat Turner’s Rebellion?
By passing stricter slave laws and increasing repression of enslaved people.
What was the main issue caused by rapid westward expansion?
Whether new territories would allow slavery or be free states.
What did the Missouri Compromise of 1820 accomplish regarding slavery and statehood?
It admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state, maintaining the balance in the Senate.
Which political party opposed the spread of slavery into new territories?
Republican Party
Which president was known for the Indian Removal Act and the Trail of Tears?
Andrew Jackson
What was the Pottawatomie Massacre, and what state did it occur in?
A violent attack where John Brown and his followers killed pro-slavery settlers in Kansas.
Why did the admission of Texas as a state cause controversy?
Because it was a large slave state, which threatened to upset the balance between free and slave states.
Name 3 of 5 components of the Compromise of 1850
- Admission of California as a free state
- Territorial status and popular sovereignty for Utah and New Mexico (letting residents decide on slavery)
- Fugitive Slave Act strengthened (requiring the return of escaped enslaved people)
- Abolition of the slave trade (but not slavery itself) in Washington, D.C.
- Settlement of Texas-New Mexico boundary dispute (Texas gave up land claims in exchange for federal payment of debt)
What was the Underground Railroad?
A secret network that helped enslaved people escape to free states and Canada.
Who led the U.S. during the Mexican-American War and strongly supported Manifest Destiny?
James K. Polk
What did the Supreme Court decide in Dred Scott v. Sandford regarding slavery and citizenship?
It ruled that enslaved people were not citizens and that Congress couldn’t ban slavery in the territories.
What choice did the Kansas-Nebraska Act give settlers about slavery, and what violent conflict did this decision spark?
It allowed settlers to decide whether to allow slavery through popular sovereignty, which led to Bleeding Kansas.
What treaty ended the Mexican-American War in 1848?
Bonus:
What treaty ended the Texas Revolution in 1836?
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Bonus: Treaty of Velasco
What political change is Jacksonian Democracy known for promoting?
Greater participation of the “common man” in government.
Who were the Border Ruffians during the 1850s, and what was their main goal regarding slavery in Kansas?
Pro-slavery activists from Missouri who crossed into Kansas to influence elections.
To ensure Kansas would become a slave state by intimidating anti-slavery settlers.
What was the “Corrupt Bargain” in the election of 1824?
Andrew Jackson had the most popular and electoral votes, but he didn’t have more than half the electoral votes (a majority), so the House of Representatives chose the president (John Quincey Adams.
What action by the United States in 1845 angered Mexico and increased tensions before the Mexican-American War, and what was the war fought over?
Texas Annexation, border disputes
What were Personal Liberty Laws, and why did Northern states pass Personal Liberty Laws?
Laws passed by Northern states to protect escaped slaves and free Black people from being captured and returned to slavery.
To counteract the Fugitive Slave Act and resist the enforcement of slavery laws.
Why did Andrew Jackson defend the spoils system?
He believed it democratized government by rotating officials and preventing corruption.
What was Stephen Douglas’s response to how slavery could be controlled in territories during the Lincoln-Douglas debates? (Freeport Doctrine)
He argued that local settlers had the power to decide by legislative action, not just by Supreme Court rulings.
What was the Nullification Crisis (1832-1833) primarily about?
A dispute over whether states could nullify, or reject, federal tariffs they believed were unfair.
Note: Jackson did not believe that states had the right to nullify federal laws
How did the Cherokee try to protect their ancestral lands from removal by the U.S. government?
By using legal battles and appealing to the U.S. Constitution to assert their sovereignty.
Which constitutional principle was reinforced by the McCulloch v. Maryland Supreme Court decision?
Federal supremacy over state laws.
What issue was at the heart of the slogan “54° 40' or fight” (Polk)?
The U.S. claim to the Oregon Territory’s northern boundary.