GLOSSARY
The following is a list of terms that will be helpful to readers unfamiliar with the Civil War era. | Abolitionism: A political and social reform movement dedicated to the eradication of slavery. |
| American Anti-Slavery Society: One of the primary national abolitionist organizations in the United States, founded in 1833 by William Lloyd Garrison and Arthur and Lewis Tappan. Its members believed that if informed about the evils of slavery, northern citizens would demand that the government abolish it. |
| Antebellum: Pertaining to the period before the Civil War—for example, antebellum politics. |
| Black Codes: Laws enacted in the South following the Civil War that restricted the freedoms of African Americans. Among the Black Codes were state and local laws and policies that prohibited African Americans from voting, serving as jurors, giving testimony against whites, purchasing or selling property, and exercising their right to refuse to sign year-long labor contracts. |
| Blockade runner: A confederate military or commercial vessel that evaded the Union blockade of Southern ports. |
| Border states: States located on or near the boundary line that separated free and slave states including Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, and West Virginia (after it joined the Union in 1863). Border state residents were divided in their loyalties to the Union and the Confederacy. |
| Conscription Acts: Draft laws of the federal and Confederate governments that enforced the enlistment of men of military age. |
| Contraband: A term used during the Civil War to refer to fugitive slaves who escaped to Union-occupied areas. Most lived in or near Union military encampments. |
| Daughter of the Regiment: An honorary regimental position bestowed on a woman who usually marched and drilled with the enlisted men, encouraged them to fight in battle, and nursed them in camp and on the battlefield, carried the regimental flag. |
| Disunionist: One who believed that the Union must be dissolved. Most disunionists were Confederates, although a radical faction of abolitionists also believed that the Union should not remain intact if the federal government continued to uphold slavery. |
| Emancipation Proclamation: President Abraham Lincoln’s decree of January 1, 1863, which declared freedom for all slaves living in states or regions under the control of the Confederacy. |
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Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com
Publication information:
Book title: Women during the Civil War: An Encyclopedia.
Contributors: Judith E. Harper - Author.
Publisher: Routledge.
Place of publication: New York.
Publication year: 2003.
Page number: 429.
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not be further copied, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means.
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