PERIOD 5 APUSH VOCAB

Period 5 (1844-1877)

Seneca Falls Convention

First women's rights meeting (1848).

California Gold Rush

Mass migration to California seeking gold.

Wilmot Proviso

Proposal to ban slavery in Mexican Cession (failed).

Underground Railroad

Secret network helping enslaved people escape.

Harriet Tubman

Key conductor of the Underground Railroad.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

Anti-slavery novel that increased Northern support.

Compromise of 1850 / Fugitive Slave Act

CA free; stricter laws to capture escaped slaves.

Popular Sovereignty

Residents vote on whether to allow slavery in territories.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

Reopened slavery debate; led to violence.

Bleeding Kansas

Violent conflict over slavery in Kansas.

Collapse of Whigs → Republican Party

Republicans formed to oppose slavery expansion.

Republicans vs. Democrats

Anti-slavery expansion vs. divided pro-/anti-slavery.

Dred Scott v. Sanford

Ruled enslaved people not citizens; Congress cannot ban slavery.

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

Debates on slavery's expansion in new territories.

Election of 1860

Lincoln elected; Southern states secede.

Free Soil Ideology

Opposed expansion of slavery into new territories.

Emancipation Proclamation

Freed slaves in Confederate-controlled areas.

Gettysburg Address

Speech redefining the war around equality and national unity.

Reconstruction Amendments

• 13th - Abolished slavery

• 14th - Citizenship and equal protection

• 15th - Voting rights for Black men

Freedmen's Bureau

Helped freed slaves with food, jobs, and schools.

Black Codes

Southern laws restricting freedmen's rights.

Redeemer Governments

Attempted to restore white control in the South.

Ku Klux Klan (1st Wave)

Terror group targeting Black people and Republicans.

Radical Republicans

Advocated strict Reconstruction and Black rights.

Andrew Johnson

President opposing strong Reconstruction; clashed with Congress.

Carpetbaggers & Scalawags

Northern migrants and Southern Republicans during Reconstruction.

Sharecropping

System trapping Black workers in debt and dependence.

Jim Crow Laws

Legalized racial segregation in the South.

Homestead Act

Granted western land to settlers.

Transcontinental Railroad

Connected East and West coasts.

Sand Creek Massacre

U.S. troops killed Native women and children.