APUSH Unit 4: Civil War and Reconstruction (1820-1877) TERMS AND NOTES

Reform Impulse

Part of voluntary groups formed in America in 1820s, Americans were working toward cooperation and not toxic competition.

Reform group tactics in early 1800s

Used suasion, the government, and other persuasive tactics; 2nd Great Awakening

Utopian Communities

ALl wanted to reorganize society on a cooperative basis, restore social harmony, and close the wealth gap. They also wanted to change conventional gender roles and end private property.

Perfectionism

Idea that individuals and society are capable of indefinite improvement; very prevalent during the reform movements in early 1800s

Arguments against reform

Some felt reform was an attack on freedom, sin was inescapable, or that the meddling was annoying

Institutions built in the 1830s and 40s

Asylums, jails, poorhouses, and orphanages; felt perfectionism meant that anything could be “cured”, and reformers wanted a better, self-disciplined body of citizens

Horace Mann’s Common Schools

Common Schools were tax-supported state school systems open to all; Mann hoped they would restore equality by creating common learning and self-discipline

Self-discipline for reformers

Reformers had a vision of freedom to enable the US genuine liberty and allow Americans to be self disciplined with internal self-control

American Colonization Society

Wanted gradual abolition and blacks to settle elsewhere to form US economies; Clay, Marshall, Jackson, and Madison all supported this; Blacs, however, were mostly opposed bc it stopped them from claiming rights as free Americans

1830s abolition movement

Used explosive language, was against deportation, and called for equal rights; William Lloyd Garrison was a writer who used powerful rhetoric for the cause

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Portrayed slaves as sympathetic Christians who were split up as families by slaveholders; piece of antislavery literature

Initial reaction of Northerners to Abolitionists

Thought it would disrupt the Union and overturn white supremacy; mobs disrupted meetings, but people began supporting abolition later

Women in public sphere

Participated before they could vote via petitions, meetings, parades, lectures, and more

Dorothea Dix

School teacher advocating for the mentally insane; helped mental hospitals get built before the civil war

Grimke sisters

Offered lectures to show slaves’ perspectives; used controversy, defended their right to debate, and applied the abolitionist doctrine to rights for Women

Seneca Falls Convention

Gathering for women’s rights and suffrage, created Declaration of Sentiments, and was beginning of fight for women’s suffrage

Abolitionist split in 1840s

Caused by dispute over the role of women in anti-slavery work; greatest achievement was getting rid of the conspiracy of silence/the suppression of public debate over slavery

Slavery and westward expansion

Slavery moved to center stage of US politics due to territorial expansion, and disputes over whether slavery should be allowed in states

California and US expansion

Had working Indians, was linked commercially with the US, and had LOTS of cheap farmland

Texas and US expansion

Americans settled on cheap land from Mexican grant; eventually, Texans revolted against the Mexican government because they stopped further emigration form the US (de Santa Anna)

Election of 1844 and Texas annexation

Letter from Calhoun was leaked; he wanted Texas to be annexed in order to strengthen slavery; Clay and Van Buren rejected annexation publicly, but Van Buren wasn’t nominated and Polk became president

Mexican American War

Fought because Polk wanted California, so he moved into land claimed by both the US and the Mexicans —> Declaration of war; ended in Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, gave US lots of land including Texas and Cali for $15 M

Race and Manifest Destiny

In the 1840s, Anglo superiority meant expanding; Anglos were seen as freedom-loving

California Gold Rush

Non-Indian population rose dramatically, especially men; California needed investments to fund mining, which led to competition between groups; whites expelled foreigners from areas with gold, and gave POC less rights. Indians were also attacked and killed

Commodore Perry

Led US warships into Tokyo Harbor under Millard Fillmore to negotiate trade with Japan, eventually led Japan out of isolationism, helping them to modernize and become a major military power

Mexican American War and Civil War

Raised the issue of whether slavery should expand to the West: Methodists and Baptists divided into Northern and SOuthern branches, the 2-party system dissolved. NO COMPROMISE: no MO compromise-adjacent thing to decide slavery in new territory

Wilmot Proviso

Created sectional divide by wanting to prohibit slavery in territory acquired from Mexico; party lines were less divisive, but it split among the North and South

Free Soil Party

Opposed expansion of slavery, nominated Van Buren for president; showed that anti-slavery went far beyond abolitionist beliefs and impacted politics more and more; appealed in the North

Popular Sovereignty

Ide that settlers in new territories should decide whether or not slavery should be there

Compromise of 1850

Stated that California would enter the Union as free, the slave trade would be abolished in DC, the status of slavery in other territories would be decided with popular sovereignty, the US would pay off Texas’ debt, and a new law would help southerners reclaim runaway slaves

Fugitive Slave Act

Allowed special federal commissioners to determine the fate of alleged fugitives without a jury trial or testimony, supported capture of fugitives. South supported it, showed how slavery was more important to them than states’-rights consistency

Kansas-Nebraska Act

Stephen Douglas wanted a transcontinental railroad through them, advocated for popular sovreignty → Ruined dem-rep unity, and the party collapsed into DEMOCRATS (south) and REPUBLICANS (North)

Free Labor Ideology

Rested on Free Labor, with a northern society allowing laborers to move up in social status via jobs; slavery, however, was a fixed social order because it left slaves and poor whites stuck in the bottom

Bleeding Kansas

Pro-slavery Missourians crossed the border to cast votes in Kansas elections in 1854-55, pro-slavery legislature was recognized, leading to a civil war in Kansas

Dred Scott v Sandford

Scott went to court against his owner b/c he had been on Free soil; court ruled that Scott had no right to sue because he was a slave, so he remained a slave → Undermines Douglas’ doctrine of popular sovereignty, showed how court supported South

Abraham Lincoln’s Beliefs

Hated slavery, wanted to stop expansion, but willing to compromise with the South to preserve the Union. Supported free labor and black colonization

Harpers Ferry

Armed assault led by abolitionist John Brown on the federal arsenal, Brown lost and was executed

Arguments of Southern Nationalists

Wanted to split the Democratic party and form an independent Southern Confederacy; broke up the Democratic party when they nominated Breckinridge over Douglas in support of slavery

Election of 1860 and sectionalism

demonstrated that there was strong sectional character; Lincoln carried North while Breckinridge got most slave states; showed how powerful Lincoln and the North were

Formation of Confederacy

SC, Georgia, FLorida, Alabama, Miss, Louisiana, and Texas seceded from the union and formed the Confederacy under Jefferson Davis with own government

Crittenden Compromise

Crittenden’s compromise plan of constitutional amendments to guarantee the future of slavery in slave states and extend the Missouri compromise line; failed because Lincoln failed it

Fort Sumter

SPARK; 1861, the South fired the 1st shot in SC, leading to more states joining the South → LIncoln wanted them to so the North would be “defending”

Abolition v Anti-Slavery

Abolitionists made up a tiny % and wanted the immediate end of slavery, and abolition was a reform movement. Anti-Slavery was against the spread of slavery into the West, was the Republican Party, and felt that if slavery stayed in the South, it would die out naturally

Union advantages and disadvantages

Had much larger population, better industry and railroad and finances. However, had to invade and conquer land larger than Western Europe

Confederacy advantages and disadvantages

Were highly motivated to defend their homes and families and were led by Robert E. Lee. However, had to fight off the greater richer North and had much fewer people

Union Military Strategy

Used anaconda plan, wanted to block coast, get Mississippi, then get the Capital, but eventually decided to defeat Southern armies and target slavery

South Military strategy

Had defensive strategy under Robert E. Lee with occasional thrusts into the North because they hoped the North would eventually give up and recognize Southern independence; war of attrition

Crittenden Resolution

Was a resolution in Congress proposed by Crittenden saying the Union had no intention of interfering with slavery; slaves became contraband of war

Lincoln and emancipation

Decided that it was a political and military necessity because of the lack of military success, hoped that emancipated slaves would fight and that Britain wouldn’t recognize the confederacy

Emancipation Proclamation

Didn’t liberate all slaves, and exempted areas firmly under Union control. It also declared the vast majority of SOuthern slaves free, showing a turning point in Lincoln’s thinking

54th Massachusetts Volunteers

Company of free blacks from the North under Shaw who won notoriety, helped disprove doubts about blacks fighting in the war by showing bravery at Fort Wagner in 1863

CIvil War and Second American Revolution

Was a transformation of government and society, especially in terms of black peoples’ status; LIncoln brought together Union under his definition of liberty and his ideals

Constitution and Civil War

Was suspended because the “safety of the nation” became supreme law → many arrested for very small things, and it was up to Lincoln, not the courts

North change during Civil War

Had prosperity, rise of capitalist entrepreneurs, industry boomed. Agriculture also flourished, and immigrants replaced lost labor

West change during Civil war

Western communities became divided into North and SOuth as residents fought, LIncoln took troops from the West and left Indians defenseless, which led to them fighting settlers

Navajo’s Long Walk

Navajos were cities of raids, the Union destroyed their things and force 8k people to move onto a rez; were eventually allowed to return to a small portion of their lands

Civil War and US financial policy

Government made new taxes for production and consumption and the 1st income tax; US borrowed lots of money, creating debt, created a system of national chartered banks with money from Congress. The power and size of the federal government increased

Women in the Civil War

Participated by taking jobs and finding a place in the workplace. Also, they helped with the US sanitary commission, were brought into the public sphere

Jefferson Davis and the Confederacy struggles

Struggled to rally public support, couldn’t explain the war’s significance to regular civilians, and had no political counterpart so support for Lincoln’s administration went up

King Cotton Diplomacy

South struggled to utilize cotton as a major economic resource, banned cotton exports, urged farmers to grow more food, and tried to get GB onto their side → other nations made their own cotton, prices went down, and farmers became impoverished

Sea Islands as a rehearsal for Reconstruction

Was an experiment in which northerners established schools and more to try and integrate free blacks into society; by the end, Blacks were working for wages, getting educating, getting better, clothes, and getting better diets

10% Plan for Reconstruction

Brought up by Lincoln to give full rights to southerners in LA if they took an oath to be loyal to the union and support emancipation; once 10% took the oath, the state would elect a new gov and abolish slavery

Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia

Lee realized further resistance was futile because he continued to be surrounded by Union troops, end of Civil War

1st Bull Run

Confederate VIctory, federal forces retreated to DC, 1861

2nd Bull Run

Confederate Victory, Union withdrew, Opened the way for South’s 1st invitation of the North; 1862

Antietam

Union victory, ended the Confederate army of the North, was Virginia’s 1st invitation into the North in 1862 → preliminary emancipation proclamation

Gettysburg

Union victory, in which Lee confronted Union forces, was the “high tide” of confed. and Lee’s greatest blunder, Lee never went to the North again; 1863

Vicksburg

Union Victory; Confederacy tried to defend Vicksburg, failed and surrendered, put Mississippi in Union hands, Southern morale decreased; 1863

Sherman’s March to the Sea

1864, Union victory, won in Atlanta, got Savannah and gave it to Lincoln, burned and pillaged through SC to Charleston

Freedom for blacks

Escaping slavery

Freedom for families

Looking for loved ones after the war, forcing the government to acknowledge black deaths, women and men in separate spheres

Freedom for churches

The rise of independent black churches; church was central for black communities

Freedom for school

Education was liberty, more blacks sought education; 1st black universities were founded

Freedom for politics

The right to vote, free blacks claimed a place in the public sphere and demanded the right to vote

Freedom for land

Land ownership was seen as freedom; independent communities, emancipated slaves claimed or seized land for their labor

Freedom for Masters without slaves

Saw it as demoralizing, lost money, didn’t view slaves as having the same rights as themselves still

Freedom for republicans

“free Labor”, felt free slaves would work harder and the South would become like the North

Freedmen’s Bureau

Had the goal of establishing a working Free Labor system; established by Congress. They helped finance activities for black education and exposed medical care for all in the South. However, blacks into the South were still mostly poor.

Sharecropping

Type of farm tenancy that developed after the Civil war, landless workers farmed land in exchange for farming supplies and a share of the crop; let black families rent parts of plantations, but locked them into a cycle of debt

Johnson’s plan for reconstruction

Wanted to offer a pardon to restore rights to white southerners who took an oath, excluding certain wealthy fold and leaders. Appointed provincial governors to establish loyal governments in the South, and gave them a free hand in managing local affairs

Black Codes

Laws passed by new southern governments to regulate lives of emancipated slaves by denying blacks many rights

Reconstruction Act

Overrode Johnson’s veto to divide the South into 5 military districts with new state governments and black male suffrage; beginning of Radical Reconstruction

Results of laws and amendments of Reconstruction

Newly empowered national state and the idea of national citizenry + equal rights before the law; changed the idea of white citizenship, linked civil liberties to state autonomy; amendments helped the constitution and minorities in their claims to freedom.

Results of Radical Reconstruction in the south

Inspired political organization among former slaves, with blacks registering to vote and holding public office

Carpetbaggers vs Scalawags

Northern Reconstruction officials in Southern governments who took advantage of positions in public office in the South, and white republicans born in the South who were considered traitors because they were non-slaveholding white farmers

Opposition to Reconstruction

Traditional southern leaders, including merchants, planters, democratic politicians, and more because they felt it was black supremacy; white southerners couldn’t accept the idea of former slaves voting or holding office → KKK caused terror against Republican leaders and blacks

Enforcement Acts

Adopted by Congress in 1870-71, outlawing terrorist societies; expanded national authority, helped to arrest KKK people an restore peace

Civil Rights Act of 1875

Outlawed racial discrimination in public accommodation places, SCOTUS weakened it by rejecting claims to the right to pursue a livelihood and said that rights of citizens were under state control

Bargain of 1877

Ended Reconstruction, was a deal made by a republican and democratic special Congress. commission to resolve the presidential election of 1876 in exchange for withdrawal of federal troops from involvement in politics