APUSH Period 5 Vocabulary

abolitionist

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

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 ship

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 centuries

- 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 1830's and 1840's, in which each person has direct communication with God and Nature, and there is no need for organized churches

- greatly influenced 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 passed that dealt with the issue of slavery and territorial expansion

- meant to keep that slave vs free balance in the Senate

dred scott decision

declared that African Americans were not citizens of the United States 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

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

- Abe Lincoln was a member of this party

Gadsden Purchase

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

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 United States and Mexico in which the United States 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

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

- largely opposed by the North

republican party

political party that believed in the non-expansion of slavery and consisted of whigs, northern democrats, and free-soilers

- Abe Lincoln represented it

the Alamo

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

- is 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 guadalipe-hidalgo

treaty that 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; new era of commercial development, technological progress, and territorial expansion led by progressive new young generation

- celebrated America's unique strengths and virtues

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, with almost 23,000 casualties

- afterwards, 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 rebelling 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 location 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 (November 19, 1963) 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 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 that outlined the philosophy that blacks should focus on economic gains, go to school, learn skills, and work their way up the social ladder

- also argued that the southern whites should help them

black codes

laws passed throughout the south to restrict the rights of emancipated blacks, particularly with respect to negotiating labor contracts

- increased northerner's criticisms of president Andrew Jackson's lenient reconstruction policies

carpetbaggers

northerners who moved south after the war during reconstruction

- they were 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 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

freedmens 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 racial 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 bills

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