period 5 review

wilmot proviso

The 1846 proposal by Representative David Wilmot of Pennsylvania to ban slavery in territory acquired from the U.S.-Mexico War 

slave power conspiracy

The political argument, made by abolitionists, free soilers, and Republicans in the pre–Civil War years, that southern slaveholders were using their unfair representative advantage under the three-fifths compromise of the Constitution, as well as their clout within the Democratic Party, to demand extreme federal proslavery policies (such as annexation of Cuba) that the majority of American voters would not support

free soil movement

A political movement that opposed the expansion of slavery. In 1848, the free soilers organized the Free Soil Party, which depicted slavery as a threat to republicanism and to the Jeffersonian ideal of a freeholder society, arguments that won broad support among aspiring white farmers

forty-niners

Foreign people coming to california for gold

foreign miner’s tax

A discriminatory tax, adopted in 1850 in California Territory, that forced Chinese and Latin American immigrant miners to pay high taxes for the right to prospect for gold. The tax effectively drove these miners from the goldfields

compromise of 1850

Laws passed in 1850 that were meant to resolve the dispute over the status of slavery in the territories (near pacific coast like california). Key elements included the admission of California as a free state and a new Fugitive Slave Act 

fugitive slave act of 1850

A federal law that set up special federal courts to facilitate capture of anyone accused of being a runaway slave. These courts could consider a slave owner's sworn affidavit as proof, but defendants could not testify or receive a jury trial. The controversial law led to armed conflict between U.S. marshals and abolitionists

personal liberty laws

Laws enacted in many northern states that guaranteed to all residents, including alleged fugitives, the right to a jury trial

ableman v. booth

declared Fugitive Slave Act as unconstitutional, but was later repealed

gadsden purchase of 1853

president pierce wanted more mexican lands south of the rio grande and settled on the gadsden purchase; allowed for the building of the transcontinental railroad

treaty of kanagawa

An 1854 treaty in which, after a show of military force by the U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry, leaders of Japan agreed to permit American ships to refuel at two Japanese ports

filibustering

Private paramilitary campaigns, mounted particularly by southern proslavery advocates in the 1850s, to seize additional territory in the Caribbean or Latin America in order to establish control by U.S.-born leaders, with an expectation of eventual annexation by the United States 

ostend manifesto

An 1854 manifesto that urged President Franklin Pierce to seize the slave-owning province of Cuba from Spain. Northern Democrats denounced this aggressive initiative, and the plan was scuttled

chain migration

A pattern by which immigrants find housing and work and learn to navigate a new environment, and then assist other immigrants from their family or home area to settle in the same location

nativism

Opposition to immigration and to full citizenship for recent immigrants or to immigrants of a particular ethnic or national background, as expressed, for example, by anti-Irish discrimination in the 1850s and Asian exclusion laws between the 1880s and 1940s

american republic party

sought to limit ability of immigrants in america

know-nothing party

An anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic political party formed in 1851 that arose in response to mass immigration in the 1840s, especially from Ireland and Germany. In 1854, the party gained control of the state governments of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania

kansas-nebraska act

A controversial 1854 law that divided Indian Territory into Kansas and Nebraska, repealed the Missouri Compromise, and left the new territories to decide the issue of slavery on the basis of popular sovereignty. Far from clarifying the status of slavery in the territories, the act led to violent conflict in “Bleeding Kansas.”

republican party

northern democrats, ex-whigs, and free soil supporters; wanted to limit slavery completely; upheld Jefferson’s views of middling classes who work their own manual labor and middle-class values

bleeding kansas

when both slavery and anti-slavery forces turned to violence in kansas

dred scott decision

The 1857 Supreme Court decision that ruled the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional. The Court ruled against slave Dred Scott, who claimed that travels with his master into free states and territories made him and his family free. The decision also denied the federal government the right to exclude slavery from the territories and declared that African Americans were not citizens

habeas corpus

A legal writ forcing government authorities to justify their arrest and detention of an individual. During the Civil War, Lincoln suspended habeas corpus to stop protests against the draft and other anti-Union activities

battle of antietam

known as bloodiest single day in american history; lincoln called emancipation after that

contrabands

Slaves who fled plantations and sought protection behind Union lines during the Civil War

confiscation act

authorized seizure of all property, including slaves, used to support the rebellion

2nd confiscation act

declared that all slaves who managed to reach the union were free

one-tenth tax

A tax adopted by the Confederacy in 1863 that required all farmers to turn over a tenth of their crops and livestock to the government for military use. The tax demonstrated the southern government’s strong use of centralized power; it caused great hardship for poor families

54th Massachusetts infantry

first? african american infantry

union lieber code

Union guidelines for the laws of war, issued in April 1863. The code ruled that soldiers and prisoners must be treated equally without respect to color or race; justified a range of military actions if they were based on “necessity” that would “hasten surrender”; and outlawed use of torture. The code provided a foundation for later international agreements on the laws of war

gettysburg address

Abraham Lincoln’s November 1863 speech dedicating a national cemetery at the Gettysburg battlefield. Lincoln declared the nation’s founding ideal to be that “all men are created equal,” and he urged listeners to dedicate themselves out of the carnage of war to a “new birth of freedom” for the United States

miscegenation

A derogatory word for interracial sexual relationships coined by Democrats in the 1864 election, as they claimed that emancipation would allow African American men to gain sexual access to white women and produce mixed-race children

which amendment abolished slavery

13th

special field order no. 15

An order by General William T. Sherman, later reversed by policymakers, that granted confiscated land to formerly enslaved families in Georgia and South Carolina so they could farm independently

wade-davis bill

A bill proposed by Congress in July 1864 that required an oath of allegiance by a majority of each state’s adult white men, new governments formed only by those who had never taken up arms against the Union, and permanent disenfranchisement of Confederate leaders. The plan was passed but pocket vetoed by President Abraham Lincoln

black codes

designed to force former slaves back to plantation labor

civil rights act of 1866

Legislation passed by Congress that nullified the Black Codes and affirmed that African Americans should have equal benefit of the law

reconstruction act of 1867

An act that divided the conquered South into five military districts, each under the command of a U.S. general. To reenter the Union, former Confederate states had to grant the vote to freedmen and deny it to leading ex-Confederates

minor v. happersett

A Supreme Court decision in 1875 that ruled that suffrage rights were not inherent in citizenship and had not been granted by the Fourteenth Amendment, as some women’s rights advocates argued. Women were citizens, the Court ruled, but state legislatures could deny women the vote if they wished.

sharecropping

freedmen worked as laborers and in return got housing and land for themselves

scalawags

southern whites who supported reconstruction

carpet baggers

northerners who came to the south just to exploit economic means

civil rights act of 1875

A law that required “full and equal” access to jury service and to transportation and public accommodations, irrespective of race

classical liberalism

The political ideology of individual liberty, private property, a competitive market economy, free trade, and limited government. The ideal is a laissez faire or “let alone” policy in which government does the least possible

enforcement laws

Acts passed in Congress in 1870 and signed by President U. S. Grant that were designed to protect freedmen’s rights under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. Authorizing federal prosecutions, military intervention, and martial law to suppress terrorist activity, the Enforcement Laws largely succeeded in shutting down Klan activities

slaughter house cases

a group of decisions begun in 1873 in which the Court began to undercut the power of the Fourteenth Amendment to protect African American rights.

civil rights cases

a series of 1883 Supreme Court decisions that struck down the Civil Rights Act of 1875, rolling back key Reconstruction laws and paving the way for later decisions that sanctioned segregation