Sectional Divisions and Civil WarTopic 7.2Violence EscalatesKey TermsStephen A. Douglas- ardent supporter of westward expansion and an advocate for popularsovereignty on the question of slavery in new states and territories; helped win passage of theCompromise of 1850 and proposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854Kansas-Nebraska Act- a 1854 law that divided the Nebraska Territory into two territories, giving eachterritory the right to decide whether or not to allow slaveryJohn Brown- American abolitionist best known for leading a raid on the federal arsenal in 1859;remembered by some as a militant extremist and by others as a martyr in the cause against slaveryBleeding Kansas- describe the violence between proslavery and antislavery supporters in Kansasfrom 1854 to 1856Nativists- person who favors persons born in America over immigrantsKnow-Nothings- political party of the mid-1800s, officially known as the American Party, that opposedimmigrationRepublican Party- political party established around an antislavery platform in 1854Dred Scott- African American man born into slavery who sued for freedom on the grounds that he hadlived for a time in a state where slavery was prohibitedRoger B. Taney- Chief Justice of the Supreme Court who wrote that enslaved persons were notentitled to the rights guaranteed by the Constitution and that Congress had no authority to banslavery in the territories, as such laws would deprive slave-owners of their propertyFrederick Douglass- slave in Maryland who escaped to the North in 1838; in 1841, he spontaneouslyshared his experiences as a slave at an antislavery convention and soon became a speaker for the
