Civil War Vocabulary

Term referring to the United States during the 1800’s. Also another word for the North in the Civil War.

• Union

• Confederacy

• South

• Grey

This refers to the Southern states that left the Union during the Civil War. All together there were 11 states: Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia

• Confederacy

• Union

• North

• United States

Leaving a group formally. This refers to the Southern states who left the Union to form the Confederate States of America.

• Secession

• Conscription

• Slave Code

• Fugitive Slave Act

Part of the Compromise of 1850; allowed slave owners to pursue and capture escaped slaves into the North

• Fugitive Slave Act

• Slave Code

• Conscription

• Union

Set of rules in the South that claimed slaves were property, not citizens.

• Slave Codes

• Fugitive Slave Act

• Conscription

• Confederacy

Someone who opposed and fought against slavery. Famous abolitionists include Frederick Douglas, Harriet Tubman, John Brown, and Harriet Beecher Stowe.

• Abolitionist

• Conscription

• Slave Codes

• Union

System of bringing slaves to America. Usually consisted of a “triangle”: enslaved Africans were brought to American in exchange for manufactured goods, then were sold for raw materials like sugar and coffee, and that was then exchanged for manufactured goods.

• Atlantic Slave Trade

• Slave Codes

• Fugitive Slave Acts

• Abolitionist

Given by Lincoln on January 1, 1863. It states all slaves held in the South were now free and able to join the North to fight in the Civil War.

• Emancipation Proclamation

• Gettysburg Address

• Atlantic Slave Trade

• Abolitionist

Also called “the draft” - requires all healthy men over the age of 18 to serve in the military.

• Conscription

• Abolitionist

• Slave Codes

• Union

April 12, 1861 - Southern military fire on the fort which starts the Civil War

• Fort Sumter

• First Battle of Bull Run

• Battle of Gettysburg

• Battle of Antietam