Ch.12 Causes of the Civil War

1.       tariff – a tax on imported goods

2.       states’ rights – the idea that states, not the federal government, should make the final decisions

about matter that affect them

3.       sectionalism – loyalty to one part of the country

4.       abolitionist – someone who joined the movement to abolish, or end, slavery

5.       discrimination – the unfair treatment of particular groups

6.       Underground Railroad – a series of escape routes and hiding places to bring slaves out of the  South

7.       slave state – a state that permitted slavery

8.       free state – a state that did not have slavery

9.       Union – another name for the United States

10.   popular sovereignty – an idea that the people who live in a place make decisions for themselves

11.   fugitive – a person who is running away

12.   secession – when a country leaves or breaks off from the rest

13.   Confederacy – the name chosen by the states that left the Union at the time of the Civil War

14.   civil war – a war between two groups or regions within a nation

15.   Slavery grew in the South after the invention of the cotton gin.

16.   Cotton became the South’s most important crop. In the 1840’s and 1850’s, cotton was called “king.”

 

17.   Nat Turner led a rebellion against slave owners in 1831. This led to more laws to control both enslaved and free blacks.

 

18.   The North made their living mainly by manufacturing.

The South made their living mainly by farming.

19.   The North and South disagreed about several things:

a.       slavery

b.      tariffs

c.       states’ rights

20.   John C. Calhoun spoke for the South saying the Constitution did not allow the federal government to create tariffs.

21.   Some leading abolitionists were:

a.       William Lloyd Garrison – printed The Liberator

b.      Frederick Douglass – writer and speaker

c.       Sojourner Truth – speaker

d.      Sarah and Angelina Grimke – speakers

22.   Sojourner Truth and Sarah and Angelina Grimke also fought for women’s rights.

23.   The American Anti-Slavery Society called for the immediate end of slavery.

24.   On the Underground Railroad, hiding places were called “stations” and “conductors” guided runaways on to the next station.

25.   Harriet Tubman was one of the most famous conductors on the Underground Railroad. She helped more than 300 slaves to freedom.

26. The Missouri Compromise:

            a. Maine would join as a free state

            b. Missouri would join as a slave state

            c. After this, states North of 36º30’ would be free

                states South of 36º30’ would be slave

27.   The Compromise of 1850 allowed settlers in some territories to decide whether or not to be free or slave.

28.   In 1854 the Kansas-Nebraska Act gave popular sovereignty to the Kansas and Nebraska territories. Kansas joined the Union as a free state.

29.   The Fugitive Slave Law said that slaves who had escaped to the North had to be returned to slavery. It also ordered citizens to help catch fugitives.

30.   Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a novel about slavery.

31.   Dred Scott asked the courts for his freedom but was denied.

32.   John Brown tried to start a rebellion against slavery in 1859 by attacking a U.S.  Army post at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. He was found guilty and hanged.

33.   A new political party was formed. It was called the Republican Party. It took a strong stand against slavery. Abraham Lincoln was a famous Republican who made speeches against slavery.

34.   Abraham Lincoln became president in 1860.

35.   The Southern states seceded from the Union when Lincoln became president. They called themselves the Confederate States of America. Jefferson Davis was their president.

36.   The Civil War began when Confederate soldiers attacked Union soldiers at Fort Sumter.