Legacy of Slavery Unit Test

sectionalism

Intense interest/devotion to local region, in this case US north and south.

antebellum

The glory days of the south.

emancipation

the fact or process of being set free from legal, social, or political restrictions; liberation.

abolition

a complete end to something

cotton gin

Invented in 1793 by Eli Whitney, this invention made cotton production significantly more efficient and profitable, making it the key agricultural crop of the South, entrenching the South’s dependence on slavery.

Transatlantic slave trade

The forced transportation of millions of Africans to the Americas between roughly 1500 and 1867. European and American traders captured or purchased Africans, shipped them across the Atlantic in brutal conditions known as the Middle Passage, and sold them into slavery. The most were taken from west central africa and the most were brought to the carribean & brazil/ south america

underground railroad

A secret network of people, routes, and safe houses that helped enslaved African Americans escape to freedom (typically from southern states to the north and Canada)

Westward expansion/manifest destiny

• Manifest destiny was the belief that the United States (specifically just the white man) was divinely destined to expand westward across North America

• It brought the issue of slavery to the forefront over and over again, asking whether each new territory would be “slave” or “free”

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, published in 1852 that described the horrors of slavery, created stronger anti-slavery sentiment in the North, and strengthened the abolitionist movement

Secession

The act of formally withdrawing. Southern slaveholding states withdrew from the United States between 1860 and 1861, leading directly to the American Civil War.

Emancipation proclamation

Issued by Abraham Lincoln during the civil war, it declared enslaved people in confederate states to be free, transforming the war's purpose to include ending slavery and allowing Black men to join the Union Army, adding significant moral and military strength to the Union cause, though full national abolition required the 13th Amendment

Total war

Waging war on all fronts. In the context of the civil war, the shift toward unrestrained warfare (roughly post-1862) that mobilized entire populations, destroyed infrastructure, and aimed for complete, unconditional victory

13th amendment

Abolished slavery (unless convicted of a crime)

14th amendment

Granted citizenship if born in the U.S. and gave everyone equal protection under the law

15th amendment

Gave African American men the right to vote

Border States

• Slave-holding states that did not secede from the Union and were situated in between the North & the South, strategically critical, deeply divided in loyalty, and essential to the Union's victory

• DELAWARE, KENTUCKY, MISSOURI, MARYLAND, & WEST VIRGINIA.

Phases of reconstruction: Presidential (Lincoln & Johnson)

• Lincoln had a very lenient + quick Reconstruction plan (10% plan), requiring Southern states to withdraw secession, swear loyalty to the Union, & ratify the 13th amendment

• Johnson takes over after Lincoln’s assassination

• Johnson’s plan was basically the same as Lincoln’s, except he wishes to prevent most high ranking Confederates & wealthy Southern landowners from taking the oath

• Radical republicans hated Lincoln & Johnson’s plans because they failed to address the needs of former slaves (land, voting rights, protection under the law)

Phases of reconstruction: Radical/ Congressional

• Moderate & radical republicans shifted control of the Reconstruction process from the president to the legislature in response to Johnson’s actions

• Radical Republicans aimed for a full interracial democracy + equal rights and protection for African Americans

• Freedman’s Bureau

• Civil Rights Act of 1866

• Military Reconstruction Act of 1867

Phases of reconstruction: Southern “redemption”

• White Southern elites regain control of governments through extreme violence (groups like the KKK), reestablishing white supremacy

• Saw reconstruction as a tragedy to government (because there was a large Black representation in the senates) that must be abolished so the South could return to “home rule” (white supremacy)

• Compromise of 1877 officially ended reconstruction & allowed for Jim Crow laws to take over the South.

10 Percent Plan

• Introduced by Lincoln in 1863, the government would pardon all Confederates (except high ranking Confederate officials + those accused of crimes against prisoners of war) who would swear allegiance to the Union

• After 10% of those on the 1860 voting lists took this oath of allegiance, a Confederate state could form a new state government & gain representation in Congress

Freedman’s Bureau

• Established by Congress (pushed for by Radical Republicans) in 1866, this plan assisted former slaves & poor whites in the South by distributing clothing, food, and money

• Also built >40 hospitals, 4,000 schools, 61 industrial institutes, and 74 teacher training centers

• This plan was meant to make up for weaknesses in Johnson’s plan.

Civil’s Rights Act of 1866

Passed by congress, this gave African Americans citizenship (14th amendment) and forbade states from passing + enforcing black codes that severely restricted African Americans’ lives.

Military Reconstruction Act of 1867

Officially did not recognize state governments formed under the Lincoln and Johnson plans (except Tennessee which ratified the 14th amendment and had been readmitted to the Union), instead dividing the South into 10 military districts controlled by Northern troops, aiming to protect African Americans and make sure black codes were not enforced

Ku Klux Klan

• A violent terrorist organization started in Tennessee in 1866, aiming to restore white supremacy in the south

• Its method was to prevent African Americans from exercising their political rights, but the Klan and other groups killed thousands of black people, also burning schools, churches, and property

• Also targeted whites who tried to help African Americans & violently intimidated Republicans to try and influence their votes

• Targeted African Americans economically & socially, beyond just politically

“Lost Cause”

• A distorted version of the Civil War prevalent in the South, framing the Confederate cause as a heroic defense of the Southern way of life (Antebellum)

• Believed slavery was not the root of the Civil War

• Believed that enslaved people were happy being enslaved rather than being freed

• Extremely effective in rewriting history, being pushed by the UDC, using monuments, memorials, textbooks, youth groups, and more

Compromise of 1877

• Removal of federal troops from the South, federal money given to the Democrats to build a railroad from Texas to the West Coast + to improve Southern rivers, harbors, and bridges, and a conservative Southerner appointed to the cabinet

• Officially ended reconstruction and cleared a path for Jim Crow laws to take over & become law in the South.

Harriet Tubman

• A formerly enslaved woman & one of the most important abolitionists in U.S. history

• Conductor on the Underground Railroad and a Civil War spy & nurse

• After escaping slavery, she went back to help >70 more slaves to escape

• She was the only woman in U.S. history to lead a military operation

Frederick Douglass

A freed slave from Maryland who illegally taught himself to read & went on to become one of the most important abolitionists, famous for his public speeches

Harriet Jacobs

• An enslaved African American woman who escaped slavery and became an abolitionist

• Wrote one of the most important slave narratives in U.S. history Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

• Her work is especially significant because it describes slavery from a woman’s perspective, focusing on sexual exploitation, motherhood, and survival

William Lloyd Garrison

• A radical white abolitionist who believed in the immediate emancipation of slaves, the changing of hearts and minds (versus violence) and the equality of all people before God

• Ran a newspaper called the Liberator

John Brown

• A radical abolitionist who believed slavery could only be destroyed through violent action against pro-slavery people

• Led the raid on Harper’s Ferry in 1859, which profoundly shocked the nation and made the Civil War increasingly unavoidable

Stephen Douglas

A powerful U.S. Senator and Democratic politician from Illinois who argued that settlers in each U.S. territory should vote on whether to allow slavery (an idea called popular sovereignty)

Abraham Lincoln

• The central political figure of the Civil war

• His election triggered secession

• Defined the initial goal of the war as preserving the Union, then transformed the goal to abolishing slavery, expanding presidential power

• Opposed slavery for economic reasons, however he never took a stand for moral equality, so he was fairly moderate between the North and the South, making many people angry

• Known for the Emancipation Proclamation

General Ulysses S. Grant

• A pivotal Union General who led the United States to victory in the Civil War, later serving as the 18th U.S. President from 1869 to 1877

• Known for his aggressive, "unconditional surrender" strategy at Vicksburg and in Virginia, he became a national hero, though his presidency was later overshadowed by corruption scandals

General William T. Sherman

• A prominent Union Army general during the American Civil War, renowned for his strategic brilliance and "total war" tactics

• He led the devastating "March to the Sea" through Georgia in 1864, significantly accelerating the Confederacy's collapse

• Later, as Commanding General of the Army (1869–1883), he managed westward expansion

Andrew Johnson

• The 17th U.S. president (1865–1869), was a Southern War Democrat from Tennessee who remained loyal to the Union during the Civil War, becoming military governor of his state

• After succeeding Abraham Lincoln following his assassination in 1865, Johnson's lenient, white-supremacist reconstruction policies clashed with Radical Republicans, leading to his impeachment in 1868

‘Radical Republicans’

A powerful faction of the Republican Party during the Civil War and Reconstruction (circa 1854–1877) dedicated to the immediate emancipation of slaves, punishing the South, and securing equal civil rights for African Americans

Missouri Compromise

1820, a U.S. federal legislation that temporarily eased sectional tensions by admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state, making Missouri an exception to no-slavery-above-the-Mason-Dixon-line

Mexican American War

A conflict sparked by U.S. annexation of Texas and Manifest Destiny, leading to a U.S. victory and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ceded vast Mexican territories (California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and parts of others) to the U.S., significantly expanding the nation westward to the Pacific but intensifying slavery debates that foreshadowed the Civil War  

Compromise of 1850

• A package of five laws passed by Congress to ease growing tensions between free states and slave states over slavery’s expansion after U.S. territorial gains from westward expansion and the Mexican-American War

• 1. California became a free state

• 2. Residents in Utah & New Mexico would vote on whether or not to allow slavery (popular sovereignty)

• 3. Stronger Fugitive Slave Act, which required free states & citizens to assist in the capture of and return of escaped slaves

• 4. Slave trade banned in Washington D.C., but slavery itself not banned (a symbolic action for the abolitionists)

• 5. Texas-New Mexico border settled

• This compromise temporarily preserved the Union, but ultimately intensified the conflict that led to the Civil War

Kansas-Nebraska Act

• A major piece of U.S. legislation passed in 1854 that allowed settlers in the Kansas & Nebraska territories to decide by popular vote whether to allow slavery (popular sovereignty)

• Instead of easing tensions, it dramatically intensified sectional conflict and pushed the nation closer to the Civil War

Formation of the Republican Party

• 1854

• A direct response to the expansion of slavery (especially the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act)

• It quickly became the major anti-slavery political party in the North, and within six years, would elect Abraham Lincoln, triggering Southern secession & the Civil War

Bleeding Kansas

• A period of violent conflict in the Kansas territory (1854-1859), when pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers fought, often brutally, over whether Kansas would enter the Union as a slave state or a free state

• Became a preview of the Civil War

Dred Scott Supreme Court Case

• One of the most controversial rulings in U.S. history

• A slave that was moved by his slave owner from a slave state to a free state argued that he should be freed since he now lives in a free state

• The Supreme Court rules that African Americans were not citizens, whether free or enslaved, so his case was worthless

• Also ruled that Congress could not ban slavery in the territories (invalidated the Missouri Compromise) and that enslaved people, legally, were property

John Brown’s Raid on Harpers’ Ferry

• (October 1859), An armed abolitionist raid on a U.S. federal armory, intended to spark a widespread enslaved uprising against slavery

• People thought John brown was crazy, so he could not attain enough followers to successfully raid the armory & was quickly stopped

• Although it failed militarily, it had an enormous political impact and helped make the Civil War increasingly inevitable

1860 Election of Abraham Lincoln

A pivotal event, securing the presidency with less than 40% of the popular vote due to a split Democratic Party, leading to deep Southern fears about slavery's future and the secession of seven Southern states before his inauguration, ultimately sparking the Civil War

Battle of Fort Sumter

• The first military engagement of the Civil War

• Took place on April12-13, 1861, in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina

• Marked the moment when political crisis turned into open war

Battle of Antietam

• Fought on September 17, 1862, near Sharpsburg, Maryland

• The deadliest single-day battle in U.S. history, with roughly 23,000 casualties

• Union General McClellan's army halted Confederate General Lee's first invasion of the North, forcing a retreat and providing Lincoln the victory needed to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. 

Battle of Gettysburg

• The bloodiest battle of the Civil War, resulting in over 50,000 casualties

• Served as a major turning point, causing the South to permanently stop pushing Northward

Gettysburg Address

• Redefined the Civil War as a struggle for equality, not just union, honoring fallen soldiers at the new national cemetery

• Lincoln urged citizens to ensure democracy ("government of the people, by the people, for the people") would survive

• It was about honoring sacrifice, recommitting to equality, and preserving democracy

Vicksburg

• A major Civil War campaign in 1863 that gave the Union control of the Mississippi River

• General Ulysses S. Grant led Union forces against the Confederate city of Vicksburg, Mississippi, which was heavily fortified

• After months of fighting and a long siege, the city ran out of food and supplies and finally surrendered

• This victory split the Confederacy in two and cut off its western states from the rest, weakening the Confederacy, making it a major turning point in the war

Sherman’s March to the Sea

• A Union military campaign in late 1864 led by General William T. Sherman

• After capturing Atlanta, Sherman marched his army from Georgia to Savannah, deliberately destroying railroads, farms, and supplies along the way

• The goal wasn’t just to defeat Confederate armies, but to break the South’s ability and will to keep fighting by damaging its economy and infrastructure

• Sherman’s troops lived off the land and targeted resources that supported the Confederate war effort

• It showed “total war,” weakened the Confederacy, and helped bring the Civil War to an end

Free Soilers

• A political movement that opposed the expansion of slavery into new territories because it would undercut opportunities for free laboring settlers/ poor white men and concentrate wealth in slave-owning elite

• Motto: “Free soil, free labor, free men”

Fugitive Slave Act

• A U.S. federal law that required the return of escaped enslaved people to their enslavers, even if they were captured in free states

• Became one of the most controversial & hated laws of the 19th century, playing a major role in pushing the nation toward the Civil War

Secession

• The act of withdrawing from a group

• Southern slave-holding states withdrew from the United States between 1860 and 1861, leading directly to the Civil War

Harriet Beecher Stowe

• Author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin (the most important anti-slavery novel)

• Framed slavery as a moral crisis & profoundly influenced the view of people in the North

Pottawatomie Creek Massacre

• A violent abolitionist attack that took place in 1856 in Kansas Territory, during Bleeding Kansas

• Carried out by John Brown & a small group of followers

• Pulled pro-slavery settlers out of their homes & murdered them

1858 Lincoln-Douglas Debates

• A series of 7 public debates in 1858 between Abraham Lincoln & Stephen Douglas, held across Illinois during a U.S. Senate race

• Focused on slavery’s expansion, democracy, and the future of the Union

• Became one of the most important political events leading up to the Civil War