Civil War Causes Flashcards

Grade 5 · Social Studies · Flashcards

Key vocabulary and events that explain why the United States went to war with itself in 1861.

Flashcards

Secession: The act of a state breaking away from the nation; eleven Southern states seceded to form the Confederacy in 1860–1861.
Confederate States of America (Confederacy): The government formed by eleven Southern states that seceded from the Union, with Jefferson Davis as president.
Union: The Northern states that remained part of the United States and fought to preserve the nation during the Civil War.
Slavery: The practice of owning people as property and forcing them to work; the central issue that caused the Civil War.
States' rights: The belief that individual states have the right to govern themselves and can override or leave the federal government.
Abolitionist: A person who believed slavery was wrong and fought to end it completely.
Missouri Compromise (1820): Agreement allowing Missouri (slave) and Maine (free) to enter together, temporarily balancing slave and free states.
Dred Scott Decision (1857): A Supreme Court ruling that enslaved people were property, not citizens, with no rights — it outraged Northerners.
Fort Sumter: A Union fort in Charleston, South Carolina, where Confederate forces fired the first shots of the Civil War in April 1861.
Abraham Lincoln: The 16th U.S. President, elected in 1860; his election prompted Southern secession; he led the Union during the Civil War.