APUSH Period 5 Vocab

APUSH Period 5 Vocab terms and definitions

Amistad

A Spanish slave ship that was seized by revolting African slaves.

* Led to a dramatic US Supreme Court case that freed the slaves on the ships.

Fugitive Slave Act

(1850) a law that made it a crime to help runaway slaves; allowed for the arrest of escaped slaves in areas where slavery was illegal and required their return to slaveholders.

* Gave the federal government power over runaway slaves

Gold Rush

A period from 1848 to 1856 when thousands of people came to California in order to search for gold.

* prompted California to apply for statehood.

Free Soil Movement

A political party with the main purpose of stopping the expansion of slavery in Western territories.

* Abraham Lincoln was a member of this party.

Gadsden Purchase

An agreement between the US and Mexico in which the US paid Mexico $10 million for a small portion of what became Arizona and New Mexico.

* Provided a route for a trans-continental railroad.

Harper’s Ferry

Abolitionist John Brown attempted to seize weapons from the federal arsenal in order to arm the slaves to start a rebellion.

* One of the immediate causes of the Civil war.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

Created Nebraska and Kansas as states and gave the people in those territories the right to choose to be a free or slave state through popular sovereignty.

* Led to Bleeding Kansas.

Abolitionist

A person who wanted to end slavery in the US.

* Started a significant movement in the US that led to the end of slavery.

American Colonization Society

American Organization dedicated to transporting freeborn black and emancipated slaves to Africa

* established Liberia

Fugitive Slave Law

Set high penalties for anyone who aided escaped slaves and compelled all law enforcement officers to participate in retrieving runaways.

* Strengthened the anti-slavery cause in the North.

Hudson River School

An American Art Movement that portrayed North American nature and landscapes.

* Reflected themes of discovery, exploration, and settlement.

Protestant Revivalism

A revival in protestant beliefs in the late 18th-early 19th century.

* More people believed that each individual could reach salvation.

Seneca Falls Convention

(1848) the first national women’s rights convention at which the Declaration of Sentiments was written.

* argued for the right of women to vote.

Shakers

A religious movement founded by Ann Lee Stanley that had elements of socialism.

* Lived in a shared community with separation of the sexes.

Temperance movement

A social movement against the consumption of alcoholic beverages.

* resulted in the passage of the 18th Amendment, which resulted in Prohibition.

Transcendentalism

A philosophy pioneered by Ralph Waldo Emerson in the 1830s and 1840s, in which each person has direct communication with God and Nature, and there is no need for organized churches.

* Greatly influence literature.

Utopian Societies

A group of small societies that appeared during the 1800s in an effort to reform American society and create a “perfect” environment.

* Wanted to improve life.

Compromise of 1850

Five laws were passed that dealt with the issue of slavery and territorial expansion.

* meant to keep that slave vs free balance in the Senate.

Dread Scott Decision

Declared that African Americans were not citizens of the US and could not sue in federal courts.

* extended federal protection of slavery

Election of 1860

Lincoln was elected because the Democrats were split over the issue of slavery.

* Caused most slave states to secede from the Union.

Manifest Destiny

The belief that America had the “God-given” right to expand from sea to shining sea.

* drove many of the purchases of the US of land

Mexican War

(1846-1848) the war between the US and Mexico in which the US acquired one-half of the Mexican territory.

* The first armed US conflict chiefly fought on foreign soil.

Oregon Trail

Pioneer trail that began in Missouri and crossed the great plains into the Oregon country.

* More than 3,000 migrants used it.

Popular Sovereignty

The notion that the sovereign people of a given territory should decide whether to allow slavery.

* Largely opposed by the North.

Republican Party

The political party that believed in the non-expansion of slavery and consisted of Whigs, norther democrats, and free soilers.

\-Abraham Lincoln represented it.

The Alamo

A fortress in Texas where 400 American volunteers were slain by Santa Anna in 1836.

* One of the most symbolic freedom battles in US history.

Transcontinental Railroad

A railroad connecting the west and east coasts of the continental US. Finished in 1869.

* Made traveling over the country much easier and safer.

Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo

The treaty ended the Mexican War, granting the US control of Texas, New Mexico, and California in exchange for $15 million.

* Mexico ceded 55% of its territory.

Wilmot Proviso

1846 proposal that outlawed slavery in any territory gained from the war with Mexico.

* effectively nullified the Missouri Compromise.

“Young America”

Coined By Ralph Waldo Emerson; a new era of commercial development, technological progress, and territorial expansion led by a progressive new young generation.

Antietam

The first major battle in the American Civil War to take place on Northern soil; it was the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, which almost 23,000 casualties.

* Afterward, Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation.

Appomattox Court House

The site of the surrender of the Confederate Army under Robert E. Lee to Union commander Ulysses S. Grant.

* The end of the Civil War.

Bull Run

First major battle of the Civil War and a victory for the South.

* Dispelled Northern Illusions of a swift victory

Emancipation Proclamation

Declared all slaves in rebellion states to be free, but did not affect slavery in non-rebelling border states.

\-Closed the door on a possible compromise with the South.

Fort Sumter

South Carolina locations where Confederate forces fired the first shots of the Civil War in April of 1861 after Union forces attempted to provision the fort.

* started the Civil War.

Battle of Gettysburg

1863, this three-day battle was the bloodiest of the entire Civil War, ended in a Union Victory, and is considered the turning point of the war.

* The South never again managed to invade the North.

Gettysburg Address

A 3-minute address by Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War at the dedication of a national cemetery on the site of the Battle of Gettysburg,

\-Reflected Lincoln’s belief that this was a fight for freedom and equality for all.

Greenbacks

Paper money issued by the government during the Civil War.

\-intended to help finance the Civil war.

Homestead Act

the 1862 act that gave 160 acres of free western land to any applicant who occupied and improved the property.

* led to the rapid development of the American west.

March to the Sea

The campaign of total war waged by General William Tecumseh Sherman following the capture and burning of Atlanta; was intended to cripple the Confederacy.

* They destroyed anything of any importance to the war effort.

Morrill Land Grant Act

Set aside federal lands to create colleges to benefit the agricultural and mechanical arts.

* was intended to give people of color access to education.

Atlanta Compromise

A speech made by Booker T. Washington which outlined the philosophy that black should focus on economic gains, go to school, learn skills, and work their way up the social ladder.

Black Codes

Laws passes throughout the south to restrict the rights of emancipated backs, particularly with respect to negotiating labor contracts.

* increased northern criticism of president Jackson’s lenient reconstruction policies

Carpetbaggers

Northerners who moved south after the war during reconstruction.

\-Thought to be exploiting the locals for their own financial/political/social gain.

Compromise of 1877

Rutherford B. Hayes was awarded the presidency in exchange for removing federal troops from the south.

* Settled the disputed 1876 presidential election.

Crop-Lien System

Farmers used harvested crops to pay back their loans.

* allowed farmers to get more credit.

Enforcement Acts

Prohibited states from discriminating against young voters on the basis of race and gave the federal government the power to supersede the state courts and prosecute violations of the law.

* Intended to protect African Americans with federal power.

Reconstruction Amendments (13th, 14th, 15th)

abolished slavery, gave citizenship to all people born in the US, and gave Black Americans the right to vote

* they weren't enforced for a while

Freedmen’s Bureau

Created to aid newly emancipated slaves by providing food, clothing, medical care, education, and legal support.

* had a major impact on the education field.

Jim Crow Laws

State or local laws that enforced/legalized social segregation.

* intended to keep African Americans from assimilating into white culture.

Ku Klux Klan

a secret society created by white southerners in 1866 that used terror and violence to keep African Americans from obtaining their civil rights

* tried to keep African Americans from using their new freedoms

New South

A vision of a south that wouldn’t be dependent on slavery or cotton, but rather an industrialized, integrated part of the nation’s economy.

* agriculture continued to be the primary economic activity

Panic of 1873

a world wide depression that began in the United States when one of the nation's largest banks declared bankruptcy, leading to the collapse of thousands of banks and businesses

* triggered the first "great depression" in the US

Plessy v. Ferguson

upheld the constitutionality of segregation laws, saying that as long as blacks were provided with "separate but equal" facilities, these laws did not violate the 14th amendment

* prevented constitutional challenges to racial segregation for more than 50 years.

Radical Republicans

congressional group that wished to punish the south for its secession from the Union

* pushed for measures that gave economic and political rights to newly freed blacks in the south and made it difficult for former confederate states to rejoin the Union

Reconstruction Act of 1867

Outlined the terms for the readmission and representation of Rebel states. divided the south into five military districts, disenfranchised former confederates, and required that southern states ratify the 14th amendment and write state constitutions granting freedmen rights

* outlined the terms for readmission to the Union

Scalawags

derogatory term for pro-Union southerners whom southern democrats accused of plundering the resources of the south in collaboration with republican governments after the civil war

* joined with reconstruction, freedmen, and carpetbaggers

Sharecropping

an 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

* pushed poor farmers far into debt

Wade-Davis Bill

A proposal that declared the reconstruction of the south was a legislative, not executive matter.

* An attempt to weaken the power of President Lincoln.