Term
| When was the Missouri Compromise passed? |
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Definition
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Term
| What was the Missouri Compromise? |
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Definition
A set of laws passed by Congress that had to do with the issue of slavery in new states and territories. You see, it happened that Congress was split - half of it was people from slave states and half of it was people from free states, and both sides wanted to maintain this balance. New states entering the country threatened to upset this balance, so the Missouri Compromise said two things:
1. States would enter the country two at a time (like Noah's Ark). In this case, Missouri entered as a slave state and Maine entered as a free state.
2. A line was drawn along Missouri's southern border. New states north of that line would be free, while south of that line would be slave. |
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Term
| What was Compromise of 1850? |
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Definition
This was the second attempt to deal with the issue of slavery in new states and territories. It had three parts:
1. California admitted (let in) to the Union (country) as a free state.
2. New Mexico (including Arizona) is let in and allowed to vote if they would be a free or slave TERRITORY and they voted slave.
3. The Fugitive Slave Act |
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Term
| What is the Fugitive Slave Act? |
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Definition
| The southern slave states were mad because when their slaves escaped and went north, people in the north didn't do anything about it. The south wanted their escaped slaves returned! So the Fugitive Slave Act said there would be strict punishments for people who knew there were escaped slaves around and didn't do anything about it. |
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Term
| Who was John C. Calhoun and why was he important? |
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Definition
| He was a senator from the south before the Civil War and vice president to Andrew Jackson. He was the person who best expressed, in writing and speeches, the south's growing feeling that it was being bullied by the northern states. He died before the Civil War started. |
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Term
| What year was the Kansas-Nebraska Act passed? |
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Definition
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Term
| What was the Kansas-Nebraska Act? |
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Definition
| It was the third attempt to deal with the issue of slavery in new states and territories. Remember in the Missouri Compromise how Congress told Missouri it would be a slave state? Remember how in the Compromise of 1850, Congress told California what it would be, but then let New Mexico vote? Well, in the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the people of both states got to vote if they'd be slave or free. |
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Term
| What does the term BLEEDING KANSAS refer to? |
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Definition
| The period after the Kansas-Nebraska Act when abolitionists and proslavery people moved to Kansas to vote on the slavery thing, and while they waited for the vote, they fought. Many died. Kansas and Nebraska both voted to be free. |
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Term
| What is POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY? |
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Definition
| The idea that the people should vote for themselves on issues, such as slavery. |
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