American Literature from Civil War to World War II

Flashcards covering key historical events, concepts, and figures from 19th-century America.

What event in 1803 doubled the size of the U.S. and enabled westward expansion?

The Louisiana Purchase from France.

What war solidified U.S. sovereignty and ended British influence in North America?

The War of 1812.

What was the Indian Removal Act and Trail of Tears (1830–1838)?

The forced relocation of Native American tribes from their ancestral lands in the Southeast to territories west of the Mississippi River, resulting in thousands of deaths and significant cultural destruction.

What conflict led to the U.S. gaining vast territories in the Southwest, including California and Arizona?

The Mexican-American War (1846–1848).

What were the primary issues in the Civil War (1861–1865)?

Issues including states' rights and slavery.

What did the Emancipation Proclamation (1863) declare?

The freedom of all enslaved people in Confederate-held territory.

What was the goal of the Reconstruction Era (1865–1877)?

Rebuilding the South and integrating formerly enslaved people into society.

What was the impact of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869?

Revolutionized transportation, commerce, and westward expansion.

What characterized the Industrial Revolution and Gilded Age (Late 19th Century)?

Rapid industrialization, urbanization, technological advancements, and the rise of big business, but also significant social and economic inequalities.

What did the Supreme Court's decision in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) uphold?

Racial segregation under the 'separate but equal' doctrine.

What did the Monroe Doctrine proclaim in 1823?

That North America was no longer open to European acquisition and meddling.

What concept, articulated in 1845, proclaimed America’s mission to spread its culture and government across North America?

Manifest Destiny.

What did President James Monroe state in his seventh annual message to Congress on December 2, 1823?

That European powers were obligated to respect the Western Hemisphere as the United States' sphere of interest.

In 1904, what right did President Theodore Roosevelt proclaim?

The right of the United States to exercise an 'international police power' to curb 'chronic wrongdoing' in Latin American countries.

In 1962, what event led to the symbolic invocation of the Monroe Doctrine?

The Soviet Union began to build missile-launching sites in Cuba.

What territories did Mexico cede to the United States in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo?

Alta California and New Mexico.

Around whom was Transcendentalism, an American literary, political, and philosophical movement of the early nineteenth century, centered?

Ralph Waldo Emerson.

What does the painting 'Wanderer above the Sea of Fog' symbolize?

Self-reflection, life's journey, and the sublime beauty of nature.

What issue became a heated debate as territories sought statehood in the 19th century?

Whether the territory would be a slave state or a free state.

What did the Missouri Compromise of 1820 aim to preserve?

The balance between slave and free states.

What reform movements were common in the mid-nineteenth century?

Movements usually by small groups of people indignant at social and political inequalities but unable to make their voices heard effectively in Congress.

Which city was the most important cultural center in New England during the mid-nineteenth century?

Boston.

What did Emerson and Thoreau seek in solitude amidst nature?

Social experiments of Brook Farm, Fruitlands, and Walden; and, by the 1850s in an increasingly urgent critique of American slavery.

From which philosopher was the term Transcendentalism derived?

Kant.

What was Frederic Henry Hedge known for?

Introducing the 'transcendental philosophy' of Kant.

What actions of the United States government became the focus of the transcendentalists' dissatisfaction in the mid-nineteenth century?

the treatment of the Native Americans, the war with Mexico, and, above all, the continuing and expanding practice of slavery.

What event did Emerson call 'a crime that really deprives us as well as the Cherokees of a country'?

The ethnic cleansing of American land east of the Mississippi.

What did the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 require of all citizens?

To assist in returning fugitive slaves to their owners.

What was the focus of thorough's "Resistance to Civil Government"?

Argued that a citizen has no duty to resign his conscience to the state, and may even have a duty to oppose immoral legislation such as that which supports slavery and the Mexican War.