Abraham Lincoln Illinois lawyer and politician who argued against popular sovereignty in debates with Stephen Douglas in 1858; he lost the senatorial election to Douglas but was elected president in 1860

agrarian capitalism system of agriculture based on the efficient, specialized production of crops intended to generate profits rather than subsistence






battery army artillery unit, usually supplied with heavy guns






censure to issue an official rebuke, as by a legislature to one of its members

Charles Sumner Massachusetts senator who was brutally beaten by a southern congressman in 1856 after delivering a speech attacking the South

chattel slavery bondage of people who are considered to be the movable personal property of their owners

Compromise of 1850 plan intended to reconcile North and South on the issue of slavery; it recognized the principle of popular sovereignty and included a strong fugitive slave law

Confederate States of America political entity formed by the seceding states of South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana in February 1861; Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina joined later

conscience Whigs members of the Whig Party who supported moderate abolitionism, as opposed to Cotton Whigs, who opposed abolitionism

Constitutional Union Party political party that organized on the eve of the Civil War with no platform other than preservation of the Constitution, the Union, and the law

Cyrus McCormick Virginia inventor and manufacturer who developed and mass-produced the McCormick reaper, a machine that harvested grain






Deep South region of the South farthest from the North; usually said to comprise the states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina

Dred Scott slave who sued for his liberty in the Missouri courts, arguing that four years on free soil had made him free; the Supreme Court’s 1857 ruling against him negated the Missouri Compromise






Elizabeth Cady Stanton pioneering woman suffrage leader, co-organizers of the first Women’s Rights Convention, held in 1848 in Seneca Falls, NY






Fort Sumter fort at the mouth of the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina; it was the scene of the opening engagement of the Civil War in April 1861

Franklin Pierce New Hampshire lawyer and Democrat politician nominated as a compromise candidate and elected president in 1852

Freeport Doctrine Stephen Douglas’s belief that a territory could exclude slavery by writing local laws or regulations that made slavery impossible to enforce

fugitive slave law law providing for the return of escaped slaves to their owners






Gadsden Purchase strip of land in present-day Arizona and New Mexico that the US bought from Mexico in 1853 to secure a southern route for a transcontinental railroad

grain elevator building equipped with mechanical lifting devices and used for storing grain






Harpers Ferry site of the US arsenal that John Brown briefly seized in 1859

Harriet Beecher Stowe American novelist and abolitionist whose novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin fanned antislavery sentiment in the North






James Buchanan Pennsylvania senator who was elected president in 1856 after gaining the Democratic nomination as a compromise candidate

Jefferson Davis Franklin Pierce’s secretary of war; later became president of the Confederacy

John Brown abolitionist who fought proslavery settlers in Kansas in 1855; he was hanged for treason after seizing the US arsenal at Harper’s Ferry as part of an effort to liberate southern slaves

John Deere American industrialist who pioneered the manufacture of steel plows especially suited for working hard-packed prairie soil

John J. Crittenden Kentucky senator who made an unsuccessful attempt to prevent the Civil War by proposing a series of constitutional amendments protecting slavery south of the Missouri Compromise line






Kansas-Nebraska Act 1854 law that allowed residents of Kansas and Nebraska territories to decide whether to allow slavery within their borders

Know-Nothings members of anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant organizations who eventually formed themselves into a national political party






Lecompton constitution 1857 constitution written for Kansas at a convention dominated by proslavery forces; it would have allowed slavery, but Kansas voters rejected it

Lucretia Mott Quaker minister who founded the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society (1833) and co-organized the 1848 Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention






martial law temporary rule by military authorities imposed on a civilian population in time of war or when civil authority has broken down






nativist favoring native-born inhabitants over immigrants

noncompliance failure or refusal to obey a law or request






omnibus including or covering many things; an omnibus bill is a piece of legislation with many parts

Ostend Manifesto 1854 declaration that if Spain refused to sell Cuba, the US might be justified in taking it by force






plank one of the articles of a political platform

popular sovereignty political principle of leaving public policy decisions up to the voters of a state

posse group of people usually summoned by a sheriff to aid local law enforcement

Preamble an introductory paragraph in a formal document setting out its underlying justification and purpose






rail gauge distance between rail tracks

regionalism loyalty to the interests of a particular region of the country

Republican Party political party that arose in the 1850s and opposed the extension of slavery into the western territories

requisition to demand for military use

Richmond Virginia port city already the state capital; it became the capital of the Confederacy

Robert E. Lee A Virginian with a distinguished army career who resigned to assume command of the Confederate army in Virginia when the Civil War began






secession withdrawal from the United States

Stephen A. Douglas Illinois senator who tried to reconcile northern and southern differences over slavery through the Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas-Nebraska Act






Underground Railroad the secret network of northerners who helped fugitive slaves escape to Canada or to safe areas in free states

Unionist loyal to the United States of America






wage slavery bondage of workers who, though legally free, are underpaid, trapped in debt, and living in extreme poverty






xenophobic fearful or hateful toward foreigners or those seen as being different