abolish: to completely do away with something.
abolitionist: someone who believed that slavery should be abolished, or ended.
abruptly: all of a sudden.
ambitious: having a strong desire to become successful.
amendment: a correction, addition, or change to the U.S. Constitution.
appeal: a legal procedure in which a case is brought before a higher court in order for it to review the decision made by a lower court.
arsenal: a place where weapons and military equipment are stored.
auction: a public sale of property to the highest bidder.
auction block: the platform from which an auctioneer sells goods to a crowd of buyers.
bluff: a high, steep bank.
bondage: another word for slavery.
Border States: the slave states of Delaware, Maryland, Missouri, and Kentucky that bordered the North and refused to secede during the Civil War.
boycott: to stop buying a product or using a service as a way to protest something.
broadside: an advertisement or public notice printed on a large piece of paper and displayed for public viewing.
catalyst: an event that causes a change.
cede: to give up power over a territory to another country.
chasm: a major separation between two groups.
civil disobedience: nonviolent protest, refusing to obey a law because it violates one’s moral beliefs.
civilization: a community of people that is advanced in art, science, and government.
civil rights: the rights of citizens to have political, social, and economic equality.
coffle: a line of slaves fastened together.
collaborators: people who work together in order to achieve a goal.
colony: an area that is controlled by or belongs to another country.
commissioner: an official in charge of a government department.
compile: to organize together into a single publication.
congregation: the people who regularly attend a church.
conscience: a person’s beliefs about what is morally right.
consent: to agree.
constitution: the basic principles and laws of a nation.
contagion: the spreading of a disease.
contraband: something that it is forbidden to possess.
conversion rate: a number used to calculate what value money from an earlier time in history has in today’s economy.
convert: to change.
creditor: someone who is owed money.
cutlass: a short sword with a curved blade.
Deep South: a region of the Southeastern United States that includes the states of Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, and South Carolina.
defiance: bold disobedience.
delegate: a person sent to a meeting as a representative of a larger group of people or a specific area of the country.
descendant: a person related to someone who lived in the past.
distinct: clearly different.
document: to record.
documentation: a written record of something.
eavesdrop: to listen in on someone else’s conversation.
emancipate: to legally free someone.
embed: to put something firmly inside of something else.
enslave: to make someone a slave.
equivocate: to conceal your true opinion.
expedition: a journey with a specific purpose.
extradite: to hand over a person accused of a crime to the country or state where the crime was committed.
fanatic: a person who is wildly enthusiastic or obsessed about only one thing.
fatigue: being very tired.
flog: to beat or whip someone.
free soilers: people who opposed the spread of slavery into Western territories because they did not want small farmers to have to compete with richer farmers who could afford the free labor of slaves.
freelance: a person who hires out his services independently without working under the control of one boss.
fugitive: someone who runs away to avoid being captured.
gag rule: a law that prevents people from talking about a specific subject.
gourd: a plant with a hard shell that is related to cucumbers and melons, but is not edible.
grassroots: an organization made up of many ordinary people.
hallucination: seeing, hearing, or smelling something that seems real but is usually caused by illness or a drug.
haven: a place where a person is protected from danger.
heroine: a woman admired for bravery.
hijack: to steal or kidnap.
hostility: great anger or strong dislike.
human trafficker: a person who illegally buys and sells people for the purpose of forcing them to work or to sexually abuse them.
ideal: a standard or belief that people strive to achieve.
illiterate: being unable to read or write.
immigrant: a person who settles in a new country.
immortalize: to be remembered forever.
imposter: a person pretending to be someone else.
incentive: something that encourages someone to do something.
indentured servant: a person bound by contract to work a certain number of years without pay.
influential: having power to make changes.
infusion: to introduce a new quality or custom into something.
inherited trait: a characteristic passed down from parent to child.
justify: to prove or show evidence that something is right.
Ku Klux Klan: a terrorist group formed after the Civil War that believed white Christians should hold the power in society.
legend: a story from the past that cannot be proved true.
literacy: the ability to read and write.
loophole: an error in a law that makes it possible for some people to legally disobey it.
metaphor: a figure of speech in which a word is used to symbolize another word.
Middle Passage: the forced voyage of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas.
migrate: to move from one area to another.
minority: less than half of the population of a country.
monitor: to watch or keep track of something or someone.
morally: from the point of view of right and wrong action or good and bad character.
navigate: to find a way to get to a place when you are traveling.
network: a group of people who work together for a common cause.
oppression: an unjust or cruel use of authority and power.
orally: spoken.
overseer: a person who supervises workers.
patrol: people who systematically checked different areas in search of runaway slaves.
patroller: a person who walks around an area to make sure rules are being obeyed.
plague: to cause serious problems or irritation.
plantation: a large farm where one kind of crop is grown for export.
posse: a group gathered together by the sheriff to pursue a criminal.
poverty: to be poor.
predictable: to know what will happen next.
prostitution: to have sex in exchange for money.
province: a division of a country, similar to a state.
race: a group of people that shares distinct physical qualities, such as skin color.
racism: negative opinions or treatment of people based on race.
radical: someone who wants major change in social, political, or economic systems.
ransack: to search for something in a way that messes up or damages the place being searched.
ratify: to give official approval of something, such as a constitutional amendment.
rations: the food allowance for one day.
rebel: to resist authority.
rebellion: violent resistance to authority.
Reconstruction: the period of time after the Civil War when the United States was reorganized and reunited.
resistance: to fight to prevent something from happening.
reunite: to bring people together again after they have been apart for a long time.
revival: when something becomes popular after a long time of not being popular.
schooner: a sailing ship with two masts.
secede: to formally withdraw from a country.
segregate: to separate people based on race, religion, ethnicity, or some other category.
sinfulness: evil.
skiff: a shallow, flat-bottomed, open boat.
skimp: to give someone a very small amount of something.
slavery: when slaves are used as workers. A slave is a person owned by another person and forced to work, without pay, against their will.
slum: a crowded area of a city where poor people live and buildings are in bad condition.
sparse: few and scattered thinly over a wide area.
status: the position or rank of one group in society compared to another group.
stronghold: an area where most people have the same beliefs and values.
tarred and feathered: a form of mob punishment where pine tar, a thick, sticky substance, is heated and poured over a person, after which the individual is covered in feathers.
technology: tools, methods, and systems used to solve a problem or do work.
transatlantic slave trade: the buying and selling of enslaved Africans to buyers in Europe and the Americas that lasted from the fifteenth through the nineteenth centuries.
treason: the crime of betraying one’s country.
trek: to walk for a long distance.
Triangular Trade: a transatlantic trade network in which slaves and manufactured goods were exchanged between Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, and the American colonies.
Underground Railroad: a system of cooperation among people who believed slavery was wrong that secretly helped fugitive slaves reach the Northern states and Canada.
unscrupulous: dishonest.
urgency: needing immediate attention.
verdict: a legal decision made by a judge or jury.
vocational: related to skills or training needed for a specific job.
warrant: a document issued by a court that gives the police the power to do something, such as search a building or arrest a person.
white supremacy: the racist belief that white people are superior to those of all other races, especially the black race, and should therefore dominate society.
with a vengeance: to an excessive or surprising degree.