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AP US History Period 5 (1844-1877) selected Flashcards

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5896902911Popular 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
5896902914Emancipation 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.1
5896902915Freedmans' 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.2
5896902916Black 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.3
5896902917SharecroppingAn 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.4
5896902918Compromise 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.5
5896902919Kansas-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.6
5896902921Gettysburg 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.7
5896902922Appomattox 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".8
5896902926Wilmot 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.9
5896902928Treaty 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.10
5896902929Bleeding 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.11
5896902931John 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.12
5896902932Election 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.13
5896902933Thirteenth Amendment(1865) The constitutional amendment ratified after the Civil War that forbade slavery and involuntary servitude.14
5896902934Fourteenth Amendment(1868) Provided equal protection of the law to freed slaves. Representation for any state that withheld voting from African Americans would be reduced.15
5896902936Manifest DestinyA notion held by a nineteenth-century Americans that the United States was destined to rule the continent, from the Atlantic the Pacific.16
5896902939Mexican 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.17
5896902940Republican 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.18
5896902943secessionFormal withdrawal of states or regions from a nation19
5896902944sectionalismTerm used to describe the growing differences between the regions of the United States, especially the North and South, leading up to the Civil War.20
5896902945Robert 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.21
5896902950Radical 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.22
5896902954scalawagA 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.23
5896902955Nat 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.24
5896902957Frederick 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.25
5896902960John 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.26
5896902961Henry 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 1850.27
5896902963Charles 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.28
5896902965Jefferson DavisPresident of the Confederate States of America prior to and during the Civil War.29
5896902966Lincoln-Douglas DebatesLincoln challenged Stephen Douglas to debates during the senatorial race of 1858 which became a public referendum on the issue of slavery.30

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