Civil War Vocabulary

The Northern army during the Civil War

• The Yankees

• The Confederacy

• The Alliance

• The Union

The Southern army during the Civil War

• The Empire

• The Redcoats

• The Union

• The Confederacy

Lincoln delivered this famous speech at a funeral for dead soldiers. He argued that the Civil War was needed to protect democracy.

• I Have a Dream

• The Gettysburg Address

• The Emancipation Proclamation

• We Choose to Go to the Moon

This speech freed all the slaves in Confederate states

• Gettysburg Address

• Emancipation Proclamation

• I Have a Dream Speech

• Free the Slaves Speech

A compromise was made in 1820, in which Missouri would be admitted as a slave state and Maine would be admitted as a free state, keeping slave and free states equal.

• Missouri Compromise

• Kansas-Nebraska Act

• Compromise of 1850

• Fugitive Slave Act

A compromise in which California would be admitted as a free state. At the same time, New Mexico and Utah would be allowed to apply as slave states if they wanted.

• Missouri Compromise

• Kansas-Nebraska Act

• Compromise of 1850

• Fugitive Slave Act

A law that stated a person arrested as a runaway slave had almost no legal rights.

• Missouri Compromise

• Kansas-Nebraska Act

• Compromise of 1850

• Fugitive Slave Act

An 1857 Supreme Court case that stated slaves had no legal rights

• Brown v Board of Education

• Plessy v Ferguson

• Dred Scott v Sanford

• Madison v Marbury

A new political party, formed in the late 1850s, that opposed slavery

• Democrats

• Republicans

• Whigs

• Federalists

When states formally break away from a country

• Recession

• Contraction

• Contradiction

• Secession