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AP US History Period 5 (1844-1877) Flashcards

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5859295281Popular SovereigntyNotion that the sovereign people of a given territory should decide whether to allow slavery. Seemingly a compromise, it was largely opposed by Northern abolitionists who feared it would promote the spread of slavery to the territories.0
5859295282Fugitive Slave LawPassed as part of the Compromise of 1850, it set high penalties for anyone who aided escaped slaves and compelled all law enforcement officers to participate in retrieving runaways. Strengthened the antislavery cause in the North.1
5859295283Uncle Tom's CabinHarriet Beecher Stowe's widely read novel that dramatized the horrors of slavery. It heightened Northern support for abolitions and escalated the sectional conflict.2
5859295285Emancipation Proclamation1863. Declared all slaves in rebelling states to be free but did not affect slavery in non-rebelling Border States. The Proclamation closed the door on possible compromise with the South and encouraged thousands of Southern slaves to flee to Union lines.3
5859295287Freedmans' Bureau1865-1872. Created to aid newly emancipated slaves by providing food, clothing, medical care, education, and legal support. Its achievements were never and depended largely on the quality of local administrators.4
5859295288Black Codes1865-1866. Laws passed throughout the South to restrict the rights of emancipated blacks, particularly with respect to negotiating labor contracts. Increased Norhterners' criticisms of President Andrew Johnson's lenient Reconstruction policies.5
5859295290SharecroppingAn agricultural system that emerged after the Civil War in which black and white farmers rented land and residences from a plantation owner in exchange for giving him a certain "share" of each year's crop. Sharecropping was the dominant form of southern agriculture after the Civil War, and landowners manipulated this system to keep tenants in perpetual debt and unable to leave their plantation.6
5859295292Compromise of 1850Admitted California as a free state, opened New Mexico and Utah to popular sovereignty, ended the slave trade (but not slavery itself) in Washington D.C., and introduced a more stringent fugitive slave law. Widely opposed in both the North and South, it did little to settle the escalating dispute over slavery.7
5859295293Kansas-Nebraska Act1854. Proposed that the issue of slavery be decided by popular sovereignty in the Kansas and Nebraska territories, thus revoking the 1820 Missouri Compromise. Introduced by Stephen Douglass in an effort to bring Nebraska into the Union and pave the way for a northern transcontinental railroad.8
5859295294Homestead Act1862. A federal law that gave settlers 160 acres of land for about $30 if they lived on it for five years and improved it by, for instance, building a house on it. The act helped make land accessible to hundreds of thousands of westward-moving settlers, but many people also found disappointment when their land was infertile or they saw speculators grabbing up the best land.9
5859295295Gettysburg Address1863. Abraham Lincoln's oft-quoted speech, delivered at the dedication of the cemetery at Gettysburg battlefield. In the address, Lincoln framed the war as a means to uphold the values of liberty.10
5859295296Appomattox Court HouseSite (city) where Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant in April 1865 after almost a year of brutal fighting throughout Virginia in the "Wilderness Campaign".11
5859295299Radical RepublicansMost liberal part of the Republican Party. Desired political, economic, and social equality for African Americans. Wanted harsh punishment for the South after the Civil War. Became much more powerful after Andrew Johnson's impeachment.12
5859295300Election of LincolnAngered many people in the south who owned slaves because he wanted to end slavery. Won the election of 1860 but did not win the popular vote. South Carolina was happy at the outcome of the election because now it had a reason to secede.11 states in the south seceded and made themselves the Confederacy after the election.13
5859295301Abolitionist MovementThe movement to end the practice of slavery within the entirety of the United States.14
5859295304Wilmot Proviso(1846) Proposal to prohibit slavery in any land acquired in the Mexican War. Never passed by both houses of Congress but helped fan the flame of sectional tension.15
5859295305Free-Soil Party(1848) Political party dedicated to stopping the expansion of slavery into new territories.16
5859295306Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo(1848) The Mexican government gave up the area of Texas and offered to sell the provinces of California and New Mexico as a result of its defeat in the Mexican-American War.17
5859295310Bleeding Kansas(1856-1861) A sequence of violent events involving abolitionists and pro-Slavery elements that took place in Kansas-Nebraska Territory. The dispute further strained the relations of the North and South, making civil war imminent.18
5859295311Dred Scott v. Sanford(1857) Supreme Court case that decided US Congress did not have the power to prohibit slavery in federal territories and slaves, as private property, could not be taken away without due process. Invalidated the Missouri Compromise.19
5859295312John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry(1859) John Brown led a raid on Harper's Ferry. He hoped to start a rebellion against slaveholders by arming enslaved African Americans. Brown was quickly defeated by citizens and federal troops. Brown became a villain to southerners who now thought northerners would use violence to end slavery as well as a martyr to some northerners who saw Brown as someone who sacrificed himself for the ideal of freedom for all.20
5859295313Election of 1860(1860) The United States presidential election of 1860 set the stage for the American Civil War. Hardly more than a month following Lincoln's victory came declarations of secession by South Carolina and other states, which were rejected as illegal by outgoing President James Buchanan and President-elect Lincoln.21
5859295316Thirteenth Amendment(1865) The constitutional amendment ratified after the Civil War that forbade slavery and involuntary servitude.22
5859295317Fourteenth Amendment(1868) Provided equal protection of the law to freed slaves. Representation for any state that withheld voting from African Americans would be reduced.23
5859295318Fifteenth Amendment(1870) Prohibited any state from denying citizens the right to vote on the grounds of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.24
5859295320Manifest DestinyA notion held by a nineteenth-century Americans that the United States was destined to rule the continent, from the Atlantic the Pacific.25
5859295322Texas Annexation1845. Originally refused in 1837, as the U.S. Government believed that the annexation would lead to war with Mexico. Texas remained a sovereign nation. Annexed via a joint resolution through Congress, supported by President-elect Polk, and approved in 1845. Land from the Republic of Texas later became parts of NM, CO, OK, KS, and WY.26
5859295326California Gold Rush1849. Gold discovered in California attracted a rush of people all over the country and world to San Francisco; arrival of the Chinese; increased pressure on federal government to establish a stable government27
5859295327Mexican American War1846 - 1848. President Polk declared war on Mexico over the dispute of land in Texas. At the end, American ended up with 55% of Mexico's land, called the Mexican Cession.28
5859295328Republican Party1854. Established by anti-slavery Whigs and Democrats, "free-soilers" and reformers from the Northwest met and formed party in order to keep slavery out of the territories.29
5859295329Stephen A. DouglasSenator from Illinois who ran for president against Abraham Lincoln and was a leading voice in the debates over slavery and its expansion before the Civil War. Wrote the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Freeport Doctrine.30
5859295331Abraham Lincoln16th President of the United States saved the Union during the Civil War and emancipated the slaves; was assassinated by Booth (1809-1865)31
5859295332secessionFormal withdrawal of states or regions from a nation32
5859295334sectionalismTerm used to describe the growing differences between the regions of the United States, especially the North and South, leading up to the Civil War.33
5859295335Robert E. LeeConfederate general who had opposed secession but did not believe the Union should be held together by force. Military genius whose aggressiveness made him a fearsome opponent throughout the Civil War.34
5859295336Fort SumterFederal fort in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina; the confederate attack on the fort marked the start of the Civil War.35
5859295337Battle of AntietamA battle near a sluggish little creek, it proved to be the bloodiest single day battle in American History with over 26,000 lives lost in that single day. Prevented an Confederate invasion of Maryland.36
5859295339Battle of GettysburgA large battle in the American Civil War, took place in southern Pennsylvania from July 1 to July 3, 1863. Union General George G. Meade led an army of about 90,000 men to victory against General Robert E. Lee's Confederate army of about 75,000. Proved to be a significant turning point in the war because of the loss of about 1/3 of Lee's army.37
5859295340Ulysses S. GrantAn American general and the eighteenth President of the United States (1869-1877). He achieved international fame as the leading Union general in the American Civil War.38
5859295345Radical ReconstructionName given to the period when Congress, which was controlled by Republicans, took over Reconstruction efforts. When southerners balked at some of the more moderate reforms proposed, more radical republicans started to gain more power and pass more legislation.39
5859295347Freedmen's Bureau1865. Organization (turned government agency) run by the army to care for and protect southern Blacks after the Civil War, sometimes including settling them on confiscated confederate lands.40
5859295348Election of 1876Ended reconstruction because neither candidate had an electoral majority. The Democrat Sam Tilden loses the election to Rutherford B Hayes, Republican, was elected, and then ended reconstruction as he secretly promised.41
5859295349carpetbaggerA northerner who went to the South immediately after the Civil War; especially one who tried to gain political advantage or other advantages from the disorganized situation in southern states (as viewed from the southern perspective).42
5859295350scalawagA derogatory term for southerners who were working with the North to buy up land from desperate southerners; sometimes used in a general way by southerners criticizing other southerners who had northern sympathies.43
5859295351Nat TurnerA black preacher who in 1831 led a slave revolt Virginia that killed 60 whites. 100+ blacks were executed as a result. The rebellion was significant as it worried southern whites that larger slave rebellions were possible and therefore stricter rules were needed.44
5859295352Sojourner TruthA freed black woman who became a leader in the fight for black emancipation and women's rights.45
5859295353Frederick DouglassAn escaped slave who spoke publicly for the abolitionist cause. He wrote his autobiography, depicting the harsh realities of Southern slavery. He also looked to politics to help abolish slavery.46
5859295356American Colonization SocietyCreated in 1817 and supported by some blacks and whites, its purpose was to transport African Americans back to Africa once they had been freed from slavery. Idea was based on the idea that whites and blacks could not live as equals in America, even if slavery were abolished.47
5859295357James K. PolkDemocratic president after John Tyler who was best known for policies that promoted Manifest Destiny and expansionism.48
5859295361John C. CalhounSenator who argued for states' rights for the South. He asked for slavery to be left alone, slaves to be returned to the South, and state balance to be kept intact.49
5859295363Henry ClayKnown as the "Great Compromiser"; senator who pushed for compromise between the North and South and worked with Stephen Douglas; major figure in the passing of both the Missouri Compromise (1820) and Compromise of 1850.50
5859295364Underground RailroadSecret system of safe houses along a route that led many slaves to freedom in the North and eventually Canada.51
5859295366Charles SumnerSenator who spoke out for black freedom and racial equality post-Civil War. Publicly beaten by Preston Brooks for speaking out against the violence in Kansas, an event that marked increasing tensions between the North and South prior to the Civil War.52
5859295367Roger TaneyChief Justice of the Supreme Court who wrote an opinion in the 1857 Dred Scott case that declared the Missouri compromise unconstitutional, thereby legally preventing Congress from prohibiting slavery in new territories (and made Popular Sovereignty illegal).53
5859295368Jefferson DavisPresident of the Confederate States of America prior to and during the Civil War.54
5859295372Lincoln-Douglas DebatesLincoln challenged Stephen Douglas to debates during the senatorial race of 1858 which became a public referendum on the issue of slavery.55
5859295374Border StatesSouthern states that never chose secession and joined the Confederacy during the Civil War (Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Deleware).56
5859295375Andrew Johnson17th President of the United States, A Southerner form Tennessee, as V.P. when Lincoln was killed, he became president. He opposed radical Republicans who passed Reconstruction Acts over his veto. The first U.S. president to be impeached, he survived the Senate removal by only one vote.57
5859295385Civil Rights Act (1866)A Reconstruction bill which gave which granted citizenship to African Americans and weakened the poliferation of Black Codes in the South.58
5859295388"Seward's Folly"Refers to the United States' Secretary of State William Seward's decision to purchase the Alaskan territory from Russia in 1867. At the time, Seward's decision to buy the land was regarded as a terrible one by many critics in the United States.59

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