Antebellum Vocabulary 8-4

Sectionalism  Intense focus on local or regional issues or needs.

Abolitionist  A person or political movement that argues for ending slavery.

Nat Turner Rebellion was the leader of a violent slave rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia, in Nat Turner, born into slavery on October 2, 1800, on a Southampton County plantation, became a preacher who claimed he had been chosen by God to lead slaves from bondage.

Denmark Vesey Plot  Denmark Vesey probably was born into slavery in St. Thomas but had been a free black for over 20 years before being accused and hanged in 1822 as the ringleader of "the rising," a major potential Charleston, South Carolina slave revolt.

Antebellum  A period that comes before a major war, Civil War is an example.

Nationalism  A patriotism for one’s country; the belief that the needs of the whole nation come 1 st.

Plantation System  a large-scale agricultural operation on which slaves were put to work systematically producing marketable crops such as rice, tobacco, sugar, and cotton.

Force Bill  "An Act further to provide for the collection of duties on imports", 4 Stat. 632 (1833), refers to legislation enacted by the 22nd U.S. Congress on March 2, 1833 during the Nullification Crisis.

Nullification Crisis  was a sectional crisis in 1832–33, during the presidency of Andrew Jackson, which involved a confrontation between South Carolina and the federal government. The South Carolina passed an ordinance of nullification on November 24, 1832, and threatened to secede if the federal government attempted to collect those tariff duties.

Protective Tariff  Tax on imports. Done to encourage US products over foreign products. The south protested all tariffs because it hurt their plantation economy.

Manifest Destiny  The belief that it was the God- given right of the US to control all of the land from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

Emancipate  To set free

Free States  States that would enter the union that did not allow slavery.

Underground RR  System developed by Harriet Tubman to free slaves from the south using RR terms to hide the operation.

Westward Expansion  The period in the 1800’s when the US moved west.

Unionists  Southern Unionists were whites living in the Confederate States of America, opposed to secession, and against the Civil War

Bleeding Kansas  Bleeding Kansas, Bloody Kansas or the Border War was a series of violent political confrontations involving anti- slavery Free-Staters and pro-slavery ``Border Ruffian'' elements, that took place in the Kansas Territory and the neighboring towns of the state of Missouri between 1854 and 1861.

Secede  to go your own way, breaking off ties. Usually, this refers to one part of a country that wants to become independent, like the South during the U.S. Civil War. (Seccession)

Cooperationists  Believed that the slave states should secede as a unit as opposed to individually. Had they succeeded, secession would have been delayed until a southern convention agreed on the matter.

Temperance  Complete avoidance of alcoholic beverages

Spoils System  a practice in which a political party, after winning an election, gives government jobs to its supporters, friends and relatives as a reward for working toward victory, and as an incentive to keep working for the party—(To the victor belongs the spoils) Andrew Jackson

Dred Scott Decision  that a slave (Dred Scott) who had resided in a free state and territory (where slavery was prohibited) was not thereby entitled to his freedom; that African Americans were not and could never be citizens of the United States;slaveryAfrican Americans