vocab 7 - Dred Scott-Civil Rights Act of 1866

Dred Scott Case

 He had been held in slavery in Missouri and then taken to the free territory of Wisconsin, where he lived for two years before returning to Missouri. Arguing that his residence on free soil made him a free citizen, he sued for his freedom in Missouri in 1846. A majority of the Supreme Court decided against him being freed for three reasons 1) he had no right to sue, he was black 2) Congress did not have power to deprive any person of property 3) the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional.

Roger Taney

Chief Justice of the supreme court during the Dred Scott Case. A Southern Democrat. 

House Divided Speech

Lincoln's acceptance speech of the Illinois Republicans’ nomination. The speech that won him his fame. He was saying we all had to pick a side. 

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas debating for the Illinois senate seat. 

Freeport Docritine

Slavery could not exist in a community if the local citizens did not pass laws maintaining it. Said by Stephen Douglas in the Lincoln-Douglass Debates.

John Brown - Harpers Ferry

A small band of followers including his four sons and some formerly enslaved people, to attack the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry. The plan was to use guns from the arsenal to arm Virginia's enslaved African Americans whom he expected to rise up and revolt.

Crittenden Compromise

Guarantee the right to hold slaves in all territories south of the old Missouri Compromise line 36°30’.

Fort Sumter

In the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina was cut off by Southern control of the harbor. Rather than giving up the fort or attempting to defend it, Lincoln announced that he was sending provisions of food to the small federal garrison. He thus gave South Carolina the choice of permitting the fort to hold out or opening fire. Official beginning of the Civil War

Anaconda Plan

 Use the US Navy to blockade Southern ports, cutting off essential supplies from reaching the Confederacy. 

War of Attrition

 A war that is fought over a long period and only ends when one side has neither the soldiers and equipment nor the determination left to continue fighting.

Monitor vs. Merrimac

The Union's ironclad ship, engaged the Confederacy’s ironclad, in a five hour duel. The battle ended in a draw, but the Union’s ship prevented the Confederates’ new weapon from breaking the US Naval blockade. Represents a turning point in naval warfare.

Trent Affair

Confederate diplomats James Mason and John Slidell were traveling to England on a British steamer on a mission to gain recognition for their government. A Union warship stopped the British ship, removed Mason and Slidell, and brought them to the US as prisoners of war. Britain threatened war over the incident unless the diplomats were released.

Suspension of Habeas Corpus

Habeas Corpus requires a person under arrest to be brought before a judge unless lawful grounds are shown for their detention. Suspension of this would mean that Union generals could arrest and detain without trial anyone in the area who threatened “public safety.” Persons could be arrested without being informed of the charges against them. During the war 13,000 people were arrested on suspicion of aiding the enemy.

Martial Law

The replacement of civilian government by military rule and the suspension of civilian legal processes for military powers.

Ex Parte Milligan

Supreme court declared that the government had improperly subjected civilians to military trials. Such procedures could be used only when regular civilian courts were unavailable.

Copperheads

Some Democrats, called Peace Democrats, opposed the war and wanted a negotiated peace. a vocal group of Democrats in the Northern United States who opposed the American Civil War, wanting an immediate peace settlement with the Confederates.

Confiscation Acts

Extension of the example of the “contraband”. Two laws 1) passed August 1861, gave the Union army the power to seize enemy property, including enslaved people, used to wage war against the US. Also empowered the president to use those freed in the Union army in any capacity, including in battle. 2) Passed July 1862, freed persons enslaved by any individual in rebellion against the US.

Antietam

Union army intercepts the Confederates. The single bloodiest day of fighting occurs, over 22,000 soldiers killed or injured.

Emancipation Proclamation

Speech in which Lincoln declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free." This enlarged the purpose of the war by adding weight to the Confiscation Acts. Union armies were now fighting against slavery, not just succession.

54th Massachusetts

All-Black unit, won the respect of White Union soldiers for their bravery under fire. Won Battery Wagner, a political and symbolic victory. They helped convince a skeptical public and military that Black men could and would fight bravely.

Gettysburg

Most crucial battle of the war and the bloodiest, with more than 50,000 casualties. Lee’s assault on Union lines proved futile and destroyed part of the Confederate army. Lee’s forces retreated to Virginia, never to regain the offensive.

Vicksburg

Union artillery bombarded this town for for seven weeks before the Confederates finally surrendered the city (and nearly all 29,000 soldiers) on July 4. Federal warships now controlled the full length of the Mississippi, which cut off Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas from the rest of the Confederacy.

Gettysburg Address

Lincoln rallied Americans to the idea that their nation was “dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” Lincoln was probably alluding to the Emancipation Proclamation when he spoke of the war bringing a new “birth of freedom.” His words advanced the cause of democratic government in the US and inspired democracy around the world. It reminded people that the US was founded on liberty and equality. 

Pacific Railway Act

Starts building the transcontinental railroad. Authorized the building of a transcontinental railroad over a northern route in order to link the economies of California and the Western territories with the Eastern states.

Homestead Act

160 acres if settled for 5 years. Promoted settlement of the Great Plains by offering parcels of 160 acres of public land free to any person or family that farmed the land for at least five years. Like the headright system, and the sale of land in the Northwestern Territory, this act helped many White settlers, but very few African Americans.

Morrill Land Grant Act

Teach people agriculture. Northwestern University came from this. Encouraged states to use the sale of federal land grants to found and maintain agricultural and technical colleges. These schools not only educated farmers, engineers, and scientists, but they also became centers of research and innovation. 

Morrill Tariff

Higher tariff. Raised tariff rates to increase revenue and protect American manufacturers. Its passage initiated a Republican program of high protective tariffs to help industrialists. 

National Banking System

Starts the system. Turns into the Federal Reserve. A United States federal law that established a system of national charters for banks. It encouraged development of a national currency based on bank holdings of U.S. Treasury securities. This was to establish a national security holding body for the existence of the monetary policy of the state.

Sherman’s March

Started in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on a campaign of deliberate destruction that went across the state of Georgia and then swept north into South Carolina. Marching through Georgia, his troops destroyed everything, burning cotton fields, barns and houses-everything the enemy might use to survive. Marched into Savannah in December and completed his campaign in February by setting fire to Columbia, capital of South Carolina and cradle of succession. The intended effect: to break the spirit of the Confederacy and destroy its will to fight.

Appomattox

Town where Lee and his men surrendered. Lee was cut off from escaping to the mountains, and forced to surrender to Grant at the Appomattox Court House, Virginia, on April 9, 1865. The Union general treated Lee and his men with respect and let them return to their homes with their horses.

Freedmen’s Bureau

Acted as a welfare agency, providing food, shelter, and medical aid for both Black and White Americans left destitute by the war. At first they had the authority to resettle freedpeople on confiscated farmlands in the South. Their greatest success was in education. It established nearly 3,000 schools for freedpeople, including several colleges. Before federal funding was stopped in 1870, the bureau’s schools taught an estimated 200,000 African Americans how to read.

13th Amendment

"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." Abolishes slavery except in use of punishment. Formerly enslaved people who had no rights could claim protection by the US Constitution and had open-ended possibilities of freedom.

Wade-Davis Bill

Required 50% of the voters of a state to take a loyalty oath and permitted only non-Confederates to vote for a new state constitution. Lincoln pocket-vetoed the bill after Congress adjourned.

Moderate Republican

Chiefly concerned with economic gains for the White middle class.

Radical Republican

Championed civil rights for Black Citizens. Some Republicans became radical in 1866 out of fear that a now reunified Democratic Party might again become dominant. 

John Wilkes Booth

Embittered American stage actor and Confederate sympathizer, shot and killed Lincoln in Ford’s Theater in Washington. 

Andrew Johnson

Lincoln’s running mate in the Election of 1864. Became president after Lincoln was assassinated. Attempted to carry out Lincoln’s plan for the political Reconstruction of the former Confederacy states. Championed poor Whites In Tennessee, before his career took off. Self-taught tailor. 

Pardons

A government decision to allow a person to be relieved of some or all of the legal consequences resulting from a criminal conviction.

Black Codes

Restricted the rights and movement of African Americans. 1) Could not rent land or nor borrow money to buy land, 2) they could not testify against Whites in court, and 3) they had to sign work agreement or they could be arrested for vagrancy. Under this contract-labor system, African Amercians worked cotton fields under White supervision for deferred wages. 

Charles Sumner

Leading Radical Republican in the Senate. Fought to provide equal civil and voting rights for freedmen on the grounds that "consent of the governed" was a basic principle of American republicanism.

Thaddeus Stevens

 Hoped to revolutionize Southern society through a period of military rule in which African Americans could exercise their civil rights, attend schools operated by the federal government, and take ownership of the lands confiscated from the planters. 

Freedmen’s Bureau Act

An Act to establish a Bureau for the Relief of Freedmen and Refugees” to provide food, shelter, clothing, medical services, and land to displaced Southerners, including newly freed African Americans.

Civil Rights Act 1866

Pronounced that all African Americans were US citizens and attempted to provide a legal shield against the operation of the Southern states’ Black Codes. Nullified the decision in the Dred Scott case.