The compromise that brought Missouri into the Union as a slave state and Maine as free state; it established a demarcation line for slavery.

A multipart compromise where California joined the Union as a free state, Utah and New Mexico Territories could decide on slavery by popular sovereignty, and a Fugitive Slave Act.

Proposed legislation, which was never passed, that would prohibit slavery in any new territory acquired from the Mexican-American War.

An act designed to ensure southern slaveholders that they could reclaim slaves who escaped to free states.

Passed during the Civil War to set up a military draft.

During the Civil War this allowed the Union army to confiscate the property of those who supported the Confederacy.

A tactic where an army tries to capture a fort or town by surrounding it and preventing supplies from reaching it.

The use of naval forces to isolate a seaport and prevent ships from entering or leaving it.

Union strategy to squeeze the confederate states into submission by controlling the Mississippi River and isolating forces west of the river, AKA split the confederacy in two.

Withdraw formally from membership in a federal union, an alliance, or a political or religious organization.

The union formed, April 1861, of 7 (eventually 11) that seceded from the United States of America after the election of President Lincoln.

The principle that the rights of individual states should prevail over the rights of the federal government.

The ability of the people of an area to decide an issue, such as whether to allow slavery, for themselves.

The thinking of northerners and southerners and southerners that their own part of the country was fundamentally different from the other, primarily based on slavery.

Making an unfair profit on essential goods during emergency times. Ex. Hiking up gas prices after a hurricane.

A bitter herb whose root was ground to serve as a replacement for coffee during the Civil War.

The murder of a prominent person, usually for political reasons.