1840-1860 Manifest Destiny-Civil War

Mexican American War

(1846-1848) conflict between the United States and Mexico, sparked by the U.S. annexation of Texas and disputes over the southern border

Manifest Destiny

belief that the United States was destined to expand westward

Treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo

ended the Mexican-American War; Mexico recognized the Rio Grande as the southern border of Texas and ceded a huge amount of land to the U.S (the Mexican Cession)

Mexican Cession 

land Mexico gave to the United States in 1848 after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican American War

Gadsden Purchase

land deal in which the United States bought territory from Mexico to build a southern transcontinental railroad (Santa Anna gets kicked out of Mexico by his own people)

Gold Rush of 1849

mass migration to California after gold was discovered in 1848, but news travelled slow (1849), Chinese immigrants 

Compromise of 1850 (!!!)

• California admitted as a free state.

• Utah and New Mexico Territories → popular sovereignty

• Fugitive Slave Act strengthened (regquired citizens to help return escaped slaves)fugit

• Slave trade banned in Washington, D.C. (but slavery itself still allowed there).

fugitive slave law

required citizens to help capture and return escaped enslaved people to their owners—even if they were found in free states ($5 if they were free; $10 if they were a fugitive)

popular sovereignty (in Comp. of 1850)

idea that the people living in a territory should decide for themselves whether to allow slavery

Republican party

new political party opposed to the expansion of slavery into the western territories; emerged in response to the Kansas-Nebraska Act

Abraham Lincoln

16th president of the United States (1861–1865): led the nation during the Civil War

Stephen Douglas

U.S. senator from Illinois (aka the “Little Giant”); helped Henry Clay present the Compromise to Congress

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

series of seven debates in 1858 between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas during the Illinois Senate race (used mainly on the expansion of slavery into the territories)

Kansas Nebraska Act

law that allowed settlers in the Kansas and Nebraska territories to decide for themselves whether to allow slavery, using popular sovereignty

Bleeding Kansas

violent clashes in the Kansas Territory; caused because of the Kansas-Nebraska Act; John Brown

Preston Brooks

pro-slavery Congressman from South Carolina, most famous for his 1856 attack on Senator Charles Sumner in the U.S. Senate

Charles Sumner

Massachusetts senator and leading abolitionist, famous for being violently attacked in the Senate after giving an anti-slavery speech (by Preston Brooks)

Underground Railroad

secret network of routes and safe houses used by slaves to escape to free states and Canada (Harriet Tubman)

Harriet Beecher Stowe

American author and abolitionist, best known for writing Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852); never experienced slavery

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

anti-slavery novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe that exposed the brutality of slavery and stirred strong emotions across the nation (and France and Britain)

Dred Scott v. Sanford

Supreme Court case that ruled African Americans were not U.S. citizens and that Congress had no authority to ban slavery in the territories

radical abolitionist

activists before the Civil War who demanded the immediate end of slavery.

John Brown

radical abolitionist who believed slavery could only be ended through violent action; Pottawatomie Massacre (1856) and raid on Harpers Ferry (1859)

martyr

someone who suffers or dies for a cause, becoming a powerful symbol that inspires others

election of 1860

Candidates were Lincoln, Douglas, Breckinridge, and Bell; Lincoln won which caused South Carolina to secede

Crittenden Compromise

proposal by Senator John J. Crittenden of Kentucky to prevent Southern secession and avoid Civil War; sought to extend the Missouri Compromise line (36°30′) westward to the Pacific, protecting slavery south of the line and banning it north of the line