Professional Documents
Culture Documents
L
Lincoln-Douglas debates a series
of debates between Republican
Abraham Lincoln and Democrat
Stephen Douglas during the 1858
U.S. senate campaign in Illinois
D
Dred Scott (1857) a slave whose
court case led to a U.S. Supreme
Court ruling that declared AfricanAmericans were not U.S. Citizens,
that the Missouri Compromises
restriction on slavery was
unconstitutional, and that Congress
did not have the right to ban slavery
in any federal territory
E
emancipation freeing slaves
Emancipation Proclamation (1862)
an order issued by President
Abraham Lincoln freeing the slaves
in areas rebelling against the Union;
took effect January 1, 1863
N
Nat Turners Rebellion (1831) a
rebellion in which Nat Turner led a
group of slaves in Virginia in an
unsuccessful attempt to overthrow
and kill planter families
P
plantation a large farm that usually
specialized in growing one kind of
crop for profit
planter a large scaled farmer who
held more than 20 slaves
popular sovereignty the idea that
political authority belongs to the
people
R
Radical Republicans members of
Congress who felt that southern
states needed to make great social
changes before they could be
readmitted to the Union
Republican Party a political party
formed in the 1850s to stop the
spread of slavery in the West
G
Gettysburg Address (1863) a
speech given by Abraham Lincoln in
which he praised the bravery of
Union soldiers and renewed his
commitment to winning the Civil
War
H
habeas corpus the constitutional
protection against unlawful
imprisonment
T
13th Amendment (1865) a
conditional amendment that
outlawed slavery
U
Uncle Toms Cabin (1852) an antislavery novel written by Harriet
Beecher Stowe that showed
northerners the violent reality of
slavery and drew many people to
the abolitionists cause
Underground Railroad a network of
people who helped thousands of
enslaved people escape to the North
by providing transportation and
hiding places
W
Whig Party a political party formed
in 1834 by opponents of Andrew
Jackson and who supported a strong
legislature
Wilmot Proviso (1846) a proposal
to outlaw slavery in the territory
added to the United States by the
Mexican Cession; passed in the
House of Representatives, but was