Key Terms

antebellum

a term meaning “before the war” and used to describe the decades before the American Civil War began in 1861

cash crop

a crop grown to be sold for profit instead of consumption by the farmer’s family

concurrent majority

a majority of a separate region (that would otherwise be in the minority of the nation) with the power to veto or disallow legislation put forward by a hostile majority

cotton boom

the upswing in American cotton production during the nineteenth century

cotton gin

a device, patented by Eli Whitney in 1794, that separated the seeds from raw cotton quickly and easily

domestic slave trade

the trading of enslaved people within the borders of the United States

Ostend Manifesto

the secret diplomatic memo stating that if Spain refused to sell Cuba to the United States, the United States was justified in taking the island as a national security measure

paternalism

the premise that southern White slaveholders acted in the best interests of those they enslaved

polygenism

the idea that Black and White people come from different origins

second middle passage

the internal forced migration of enslaved people to the South and West in the United States