Chapter 14, Lesson 3

Chapter 14, Slavery Divides the Nation

King Cotton and the Spread of Slavery Speaking Out Against Slavery Heading Toward War

To secede means that a state leaves the Union. The Southern states wanted to leave the Union because they could not gain control of political power.

People who spoke out against slavery were called abolitionists.

Dredd Scott was a slave who asked the Court for his freedome because he lived with his owner in a free territory. The Supreme Court ruled against him.

When southern states seceded from the Union they created a new country called the Confederate States of America, or the Confederacy.

Some people, mostly from the south, believed that each state should be allowed to make their own decision about most issues, such as slavery.

In 1857 the Supreme Court issued a decision which denied Dred Scott the right to be a free person. It held that slaves were property, even if they were moved to a free state.

The Fugitive Slave Law was passed in 1850, it required police in free states to help capture escaping African Americans.

Prejudice is a negative opinion formed without proof. Many people were prejudiced against other races.

The Kansas - Nebraska Act allowed the Kansas and Nebraska territories to decide for themselves whether to allow slavery. This made many people made because the territories were north of the Missouri Compromise Line.

On July 19, 1848 over 240 people attended the Seneca Falls Convention. They passed a "Declaration of Rights and Sentiments" that called for equal rights for women, including suffrage, the right to vote, to own property if married and to an education.

The Underground Railroad was a system of secret routes that escaping slaves followed to freedom. The slaves were called passengers and the people who helped them were called conductors.

John Brown was an abolitionist who led an uprising in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. He was arrested, found guilty and hanged.

In 1820 Congress tried to end the slavery quarrels by passing the Missouri Compromise. It created an imaginary line through the Louisiana Territory. Northern states would be free, and States would allow slavery. It worked until 1850 when California asked to become a state.