Key Terms of the Civil War Era

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Abolitionist

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A person who advocated for the immediate end of slavery in the United States. Abolitionists fought for the rights and freedom of enslaved people and sought to influence public opinion and policy to end the practice of slavery.

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Slavery

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A system in which people are owned as property and forced to work without pay. In the United States, slavery primarily involved the forced labor of African Americans in the South, especially on plantations.

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Confederacy

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The group of 11 Southern states that seceded from the Union during the Civil War, forming their own government, the Confederate States of America (CSA), in support of maintaining slavery and states' rights.

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Union

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Refers to the United States as a whole during the Civil War, especially the Northern states that remained loyal to the federal government.

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Secession

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The act of formally withdrawing from an organization, union, or political entity. In the context of the Civil War, it refers to the Southern states leaving the United States to form the Confederacy.

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State's Rights/Nullification

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The belief that states have the right to govern themselves without interference from the federal government, and the right to nullify federal laws they believe are unconstitutional.

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Fugitive Slave Act

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A law passed in 1850 that required all citizens to assist in the capture and return of runaway slaves to their owners, even in states where slavery was illegal.

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Missouri Compromise

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A law passed in 1820 that allowed Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state while maintaining a balance of power between free and slave states.

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Compromise of 1850

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A series of laws aimed at resolving the tensions between free and slave states.

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Dred Scott Decision

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A landmark Supreme Court ruling in 1857 in which the Court declared that African Americans could not be U.S. citizens and therefore had no standing to sue in federal court.