APUSH Period 5 Vocab

popular sovereignty

A belief that ultimate power resides in the people.

compromise

an agreement or a settlement of a dispute that is reached by each side making concessions

abolitionist

A person who wanted to end slavery in the United States

sectionalism

Loyalty to one's own region of the country, rather than to the nation as a whole

fugitive

(n.) one who flees or runs away; (adj.) fleeting, lasting a very short time; wandering; difficult to grasp

secede

to withdraw

arsenal

storage place for military equipment

martyr

a person who dies for a cause

Missouri Compromise

A compromise stating that Missouri would be entered as a slave state and Maine as a free state. The 36' 30'' line is drawn.

Wilmot Proviso (1846)

A plan presented by David Wilmot to stop the spread of slavery into the territories won from Mexico. His plan passed the House but failed in the Senate and showed the power of the North.

Free Soil Party (1848)

Political party formed in Buffalo, NY by Northerners to discuss the issue of slavery. First "sectional party" and Martin Van Buren was picked as their first candidate for President

Compromise of 1850

Compromise of 5 parts:


1. California enters as a free state
2. Area from Mexican Cession divided into UT and NM. Slavery was to be decided by popular sovereignty.
3. Ended slave trade in Washington, D.C.
4. Strict Fugitive Slave Law
5. Settled border problems between NM and TX

Fugitive Slave Law

Law that required citizens to catch runaway slaves. If a person did not comply, they were fined up to $1k or in jail for 6 months. Judges received $10 if they returned a slave and $5 if they freed them.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

Novel written by Harriett Beecher Stowe to show the evils of slavery by telling the story of an older slave who was whipped to death by his owner. Changed many Northerners view of slavery, but Southerners believed it was full of lies

Kansas-Nebraska Act

Divides lands into KS and NE, led to violence in the Senate (Preston Brooks and Charles Sumner), pro-slavery and anti-slavery conflict, Northerners believed this act repealed the Missouri Compromise

Pottawatomie Creek Killings (1856)

John Brown and four of his sons murder 5 pro-slavery men. John Brown believed that he was doing what "God has told him to do"

Dred Scott Decision (1857)

Congress could NOT ban slavery in any of the territories; decided that Dred Scott was not a citizen, but property and therefore could not file a lawsuit

Lincoln-Douglass Debate (1858)

Debate between Lincoln and Douglass: Douglass believed in deciding slavery by popular sovereignty, Lincoln believed that slavery should NOT be allowed to spread into the territories and the nation could not survive if the fighting kept tearing the Union apart

Raid on Harper's Ferry (1859)

Led by John Brown - led 5 blacks and 13 whites into Harper's Ferry, where they planed to raid an arsenal and start a slave revolt. This got Brown arrested by Robert E. Lee for murder and treason

Election of 1860

Election between Lincoln and Douglass. Lincoln won despite the Southerner's disliking of him. Led the Southerners to discuss seceding from the Union

Battle of Fort Sumter (April 12, 1861)

Beginning of Civil War; begins at 4:30AM in Charleston Harbor, Confederates open fire when Union troops refuse to surrender. Union finally surrenders on April 13. Leads 4 more states to join the Confederacy (AK, TN, VA, NC)

First Battle of Bull Run/Manassas (July 21, 1861)

First major battle of Civil War; neither side claimed victory

Battle of Shiloh (April 6-7, 1862)

Grant hoped to capture the most important southern railroad junction with the battle of Shiloh.

\-Confederate troops fought well at first but the commanding officer was killed in battle and they got disoriented.

\-The Union captured the railroad and crippled the south.

Battle of Antietam (September 17, 1862)

Bloodiest single day of war in American History (6,000 dead, 16000 wounded)

General McClellan acted upon knowledge of General Lee's battle plans too late

Lasted 12 hours

Victory because British did not intervene for South, and convinced Lincoln that it was time to end slavery

Battle of Perryville (December 8, 1862)

Largest battle fought in Kentucky, most Northern and Western battle on Eastern front

Siege of Vicksburg (May 18-July 4, 1863)

Cut Confederate army into two, Grant's troops foraged for food while trying to capture Jackson

Victory came by putting the town under siege and waiting out the enemy

Battle of Gettysburg (1863)

Largest and bloodiest battle of the American Civil War; Union victory; turning point in war

Irish and German Immigrants

Swathes of people arrive from Ireland due to Potato Famine and religious persecution/failure of several rebellions; they end up being workers who take on the most menial jobs and do the grunt work during America's industrialization period. German immigrants were the largest group to migrate to America from 1840-80 and formed around 30% of the American population, half settle in big cities and other half on Midwest farms.

Know-Nothing Party

also known as the American Party, members strongly opposed immigrants and followers of the Catholic Church; emerged after flow of Irish and German immigrants

Stephen F. Austin

known as the Father of Texas

Manifest Destiny

belief that Americans had the right to spread across North America

Battle of the Alamo/Goliad

Battle where Texans were greatly outnumbered and many were killed by the Mexicans. However, Texans were then inspired to seek revenge

Molly Maguires

Secret organization of Irish miners that campaigned against poor working conditions in the Pennsylvania mines

John L. O'Sullivan

coined the term "Manifest Destiny"

Nativists

Americans who feared that immigrants would take jobs and impose their Roman Catholic beliefs on society

Sam Houston

First president of the Republic of Texas

Tejanos

Mexicans who claimed Texas as their home; mainly lived in Southern Texas

General Santa Anna

Mexican dictator who tried to crush the Texas Rebellion

"54' 40 or fight!"

slogan of those wanting to take all of Oregon; numbers (54 40') was line of latitude where people wanted Oregon border; did not want compromise of 49th parallel, as was done by President Polk.

John Sutter

Owner of the mill where gold was discovered that helped start the California Gold Rush

49ers

People who rushed to California for gold in 1849/took part in the Gold Rush

Bear Flag Revolt

A revolt of American settlers in California against Mexican rule. It ignited the Mexican War and ultimately made California a state.

Mexican-American War

(1846 - 1848) President Polk declared war on Mexico over the dispute of land in Texas. At the end, American ended up with 55% of Mexico's land.

Rio Grande/Nueces River

In the 1840s the United States believed the southern Texas border was the \____________. Mexico believed the border was further north on the \_____________.

James K. Polk

11th U.S. president; wanted to settle Oregon Boundary dispute with Britain, acquire California, and incorporate Texas as a union

Zachary Taylor

12th U.S. president; Whig president who was a Southern slave holder, and war hero (Mexican-American War)

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

Treaty that ended the Mexican-American War, Mexico gave America territory from Texas to Oregon for 18 million in cash and assumed debts

William H. Seward

Secretary of State who purchased Alaska; people called it "Seward's Folly"

Santa Fe Trail

Trail from Independence Missouri to Santa Fe, New Mexico in the mid-1800s

Union Pacific

Railroad company starting from Omaha, Nebraska

Central Pacific

Railroad company that began in Sacramento, California; moved Eastward.

Leland Stanford

Former California Governor and organizer of the Central Pacific Railroad

John C. Fremont

an American military officer, explorer, the first candidate of the Republican Party for the office of President of the United States, and the first presidential candidate of a major party to run on a platform in opposition to slavery.

Antebellum Period

period before the Civil War

free blacks

African Americans who were not slaves; held under very strict limitations

Frederick Douglass

United States abolitionist who escaped from slavery and became an influential writer and lecturer in the North

Sojourner Truth

United States abolitionist and feminist who was freed from slavery and became a leading advocate of the abolition of slavery and for the rights of women (1797-1883); Wrote "Ain't I A Woman?"

Harriet Tubman

Former slave who helped slaves escape on the Underground Railroad

William Lloyd Garrison

Editor of radical abolitionist newspaper "The Liberator", and one of the founders of the American Anti-Slavery Society.

The Liberator

Anti-slavery newspaper published by William Lloyd Garrison, who called for the immediate emancipation of all slaves.

Denmark Vesey

United States freed slave and insurrectionist in South Carolina who was involved in planning an uprising of slaves and was hanged (1767-1822)

Nat Turner Rebellion

Rebellion in which Nat Turner led a group of slaves through Virginia in an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow and kill planter families

American Colonization Society

Society formed in 1817 that purchased a tract of land in Liberia and returned free Blacks to Africa.

Amistad (1839)

Spanish slave ship seized off the coast of Cuba by the enslaved Africans on it, driven ashore in Long Island and slaves were put on trial

Underground Railroad

a system of secret routes used by escaping slaves to reach freedom in the North or in Canada

Gag Rule

1835 law passed by Southern Congress which made it illegal to debate of abolition or anti-slavery arguments in Congress

slave codes

laws to control slaves

house slaves

consisted of slaves who lived close to master and family

field slaves

worked from sunrise to sunset planting, cultivating, and picking cotton and other crops

Emancipation

the act of setting free; liberation

Fugitive Slave Act

Law that provided for harsh treatment for escaped slaves and for those who helped them

Millard Fillmore

13th President

James Buchanan

15th US president; tried to maintain a balance between proslavery and antislavery factions

Charles Sumner

Radical Republican against the slave power who insults Andrew Butler and subsequently gets caned by Preston Brooks

Henry Clay

A northern American politician; developed the American System as well as negotiated numerous compromises such as the Missouri Compromise

Franklin Pierce

14th President

"Young America"

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

Ostend Manifesto

Secret proposal from the Franklin Pierce administration to take Cuba from Spain. It was leaked, leading to vehement opposition from the North

Gadshen Purchase

Purchase of additional land from Mexico for $10 million to get more space to build a southern transcontinental railroad

Stephen A. Douglas

introduced the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 and popularized the idea of popular sovereignty

Republican Party

Antislavery political party that formed in the 1850's.

Bleeding Kansas

Kansas war over the issue of slavery in the territory, eventually merged with the Civil War

Death of the Whigs

split over slavery, leaders died (Daniel Webster and Henry Clay), and didn't field a presidential candidate in 1856, but the Republicans were emerging in their place

Sumner-Brooks Affair

Charles Sumner gave a two day speech on the Senate floor. He denounced the South for crimes against Kansas and singled out Senator Andrew Brooks of South Carolina for extra abuse. Brooks beat Sumner over the head with his cane, severely crippling him.

John Brown

Abolitionist who was hanged after leading an unsuccessful raid at Harper's Ferry, Virginia

slave power conspiracy

the idea that the government promoted the extension of slavery

Dred Scott Decision

Supreme Court ruling that declared slaves were not viewed as citizens but as property

Lecompton Constitution

supported the existence of slavery in the proposed state and protected rights of slaveholders. It was rejected by Kansas, making Kansas an eventual free state.

Panic of 1857

Economic downturn caused by overspeculation of western lands, railroads, gold in California, grain. Mostly affected northerners, who called for higher tariffs and free homesteads

Abraham Lincoln

16th President of the United States; saved the Union during the Civil War and emancipated the slaves; was assassinated by Booth (1809-1865)

Crittenden Compromise

Senator Crittenden; offered a Constitutional amendment recognizing slavery in the territories south of the 36º30' line, noninterference by Congress with existing slavery, and compensation to the owners of fugitive slaves; defeated by Republicans

CSA

Confederate States of America

Jefferson Davis

President of the Confederacy

Anaconda Plan

Northern Civil War strategy to starve the South by blockading seaports and controlling the Mississippi River

African American troops

Segregated and rarely allowed to fight

General McClellan

Lincoln's first choice for commander of the Union force, but demoted because he prepared the men well, but he would never attack

Ulysses S. Grant

18th President of the United States and the leading Union general in the American Civil War

Robert E. Lee

Commander of the Confederate Army

William T. Sherman

general whose "march to sea" caused destruction to the south

Clara Barton

Nurse during the Civil War; founder of the American Red Cross