This document provides key terms and people related to slavery in America between 1787 and the 1850s. It includes the Northwest Ordinance that banned slavery in the Northwest Territory, important compromises like the Missouri Compromise and Compromise of 1850, influential abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass, and key events that increased sectional tensions, such as the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Bleeding Kansas, and the Dred Scott decision. Violence and conflicts over the issue of slavery intensified during this period and foreshadowed the impending Civil War.

1. Unit 6: Slavery in America Key People & Vocabulary Terms
Name: _____________________________________
1. Northwest Ordinance - The 1787 Northwest Ordinance defined the process by which new states could be
admitted into the Union from the Northwest Territory. He ordinance forbade slavery in the territory
2. Missouri Compromise - Allowed Missouri to enter the union as a slave state, Maine to enter the union as a
free state, prohibited slavery north of latitude 36˚ 30' within the Louisiana Territory (1820)
3. William Lloyd Garrison - most conspicuous and most vilified of the abolitionists, published "The Liberator"
in Boston, helped found the American Anti-Slavery Society;
4. “The Liberator” - Antislavery newspaper published by William Lloyd Garrison, who called for immediate
emancipation of all slaves
5. Nat Turner’s Revolt (1831) - Virginia slave revolt that resulted in the death of sixty whites and raised fears
among white Southerners of further uprisings
6. Mason-Dixon Line - originally drawn by surveyors to resolve the boundaries between Maryland, Delaware,
Pennsylvania, and Virginia in the 1760s, it came to symbolize the North-South divide over slavery
7. Abolitionist Movement - In the 1820 majority of people viewed slavery as a sin, the movement was past to
get rid of slavery in the south. William Garrison was the publisher of the newspaper called the liberator.
8. Frederick Douglass - born a slave but escaped to the North and became a prominent black abolitionist;
gifted orator, writer, and editor; published "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass"
9. Underground Railroad – A network of abolitionists that secretly helped slaves escape to freedom by setting
up hiding places and routes to the North. Harriet Tubman is a key person to its success.
10. New Madrid Earthquakes – A series of earthquakes that took place in 1811 and 1812. The earthquakes
helped Tecumseh create his Native American Alliance. The extensive damage from the quakes altered the
course of the Mississippi River and created Reelfoot Lake in Tennessee.
11. Uncle Tom’s Cabin – Written by Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1853 that highly influenced England's view on the
American Deep South and slavery. a novel promoting abolition. intensified sectional conflict.
12.Compromise of 1850 – package of five bills sent in September 1850. It defused a four-year confrontation
between the southern slave states and the northern Free states following the Mexican American War. Drafted by
Whig Henry Clay and brokered by Democrat Stephen Douglas it temporarily avoided secession or civil war at the
time and it quieted a sectional conflict for 4 years.
13. Fugitive Slave Law – A law making it a crime to help runaway slaves. If caught could face up to 6 months in
prison and a $1000 dollar fine. Commissioners 10 dollars right slave $5 dollars wrong slave.
14. Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 – This Act set up Kansas and Nebraska as states. Each state would use
popular sovereignty to decide what to do about slavery. People who were pro-slavery and antislavery moved to
Kansas, but some antislavery settlers were against the Act. This began guerrilla warfare.
15. John Brown – John Brown was a militant abolitionist that took radical extremes to make his views clear. In
May of 1856, Brown led a group of his followers to Pottawattamie Creek and launched a bloody attack against
pro-slavery men killing five people. This began violent retaliation against Brown and his followers. This violent
attack against slavery helped give Kansas its nick name, "bleeding Kansas".

2. 16. Dred Scott Court Case - A Missouri slave sued for his freedom, claiming that his four year stay in the
northern portion of the Louisiana Territory made free land by the Missouri Compromise had made him a free
man. The U.S, Supreme Court decided he couldn't sue in federal court because he was property, not a citizen.
17. Bleeding Kansas - aka Kansas Border War. Following the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, pro-
slavery forces from Missouri, known as the Border Ruffians, crossed the border into Kansas and terrorized and
murdered antislavery settlers. Antislavery sympathizers from Kansas carried out reprisal attacks, the most
notorious of which was John Brown's 1856 attack on the settlement at Pottawatomie Creek. The war continued
for four years before the antislavery forces won. The violence it generated helped precipitate the Civil War.
18. Lincoln-Douglass Debates - Lincoln challenged Stephen Douglas to a series of 7 debates. Though Douglas
won the senate seat, these debates gave Lincoln fame and helped him to later on win the presidency. These
debates were a foreshadowing of the Civil War.