Period 5 Vocab

Manifest Destiny

The 19th-century belief that the United States was divinely destined to expand its dominion and spread democracy and capitalism across North America from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

Oregon Trail

A 2,000-mile wagon route from Independence, Missouri, to the Oregon Territory, heavily used by pioneers from the 1840s to the 1860s.

Mexican American War (1846 - 1848)

A conflict driven by U.S. expansionism and the annexation of Texas. Caused by disputes over the Texas border and American desires for California, the war ended with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ceded a vast territory to the United States, now known as the Mexican Cession.

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

An agreement that ended the Mexican-American War and resulted in Mexico ceding vast territory to the U.S. in exchange for $15 million and the assumption of certain debts. This treaty established the Rio Grande as the southern border of Texas and significantly expanded U.S. territory.

California Gold Rush

A period of mass migration to California triggered by the discovery of gold, which was a pivotal event due to its impact on westward expansion, population growth, and the slavery debate.

Gadsden Purchase

The 1853 U.S. acquisition of southern Arizona and New Mexico from Mexico for $10 million. Its main purpose was to secure land for a southern transcontinental railroad, and it completed the continental U.S. border, but also heightened tensions over slavery in the newly acquired territories.

Bear Flag Revolt

An 1846 uprising by American settlers in Mexican California who created an independent republic to overthrow Mexican rule, resulting in the capture of Sonoma and the creation of the short-lived "Bear Flag Republic".

Fifty-Four Forty or Fight

A slogan used by American expansionists in the 1840s to assert U.S. claims to the entire Oregon Territory, up to the 54°40′ north latitude line. It represented the aggressive spirit of Manifest Destiny and highlighted the dispute with Great Britain over the border.

Texas Annexation (1845)

The incorporation of the Republic of Texas into the United States as its 28th state.

Mormon Trail

The arduous 1,300-mile journey undertaken by thousands of Mormons between 1846 and 1868 to escape persecution and find a new home in the Great Salt Lake Valley, Utah.

Compromise of 1850

A package of five laws passed in 1850 to de-escalate tensions between free and slave states following the Mexican-American War. Key provisions included admitting California as a free state, enacting a stricter Fugitive Slave Act, and applying the principle of popular sovereignty to the Utah and New Mexico territories, allowing settlers there to decide on slavery.

Popular Sovereignty

The idea that residents of a territory should decide whether to permit slavery.

Wilmot Proviso

An 1846 proposal to ban slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico in the Mexican-American War. Although it never became a law, it intensified sectionalism and the growing political divide.

Free-Soil Party

A short-lived but influential political party in the United States from 1848 to 1854 that opposed the expansion of slavery into new territories.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

A 1854 law that created the Kansas and Nebraska territories and applied the principle of popular sovereignty to decide whether slavery would be allowed there. Proposed by Stephen A. Douglas, it repealed the Missouri Compromise, leading to violence known as "Bleeding Kansas" and increasing tensions that ultimately contributed to the Civil War.

Bleeding Kansas

The period of violent, guerrilla warfare between pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions in the Kansas Territory from 1854 to 1859. This conflict was a direct result of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which created the territory and allowed settlers to decide on slavery through popular sovereignty, leading to fraudulent elections and bloody clashes.

Fugitive Slave Act

A series of federal laws, most notably the act of 1850, that required citizens to assist in the capture of runaway slaves and denied accused runaways the right to a jury trial.

Personal Liberty Laws

State statutes passed by Northern states in the mid-19th century to counteract the Fugitive Slave Acts. They were designed to protect the rights of free blacks and escaped slaves by guaranteeing rights such as jury trials, preventing state officials from assisting in the capture of fugitives, and providing legal assistance.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

an 1852 anti-slavery novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe that depicted the brutal realities of slavery, particularly the splitting of families. It dramatized the horrors of the institution, greatly increasing Northern abolitionist sentiment and escalating sectional tensions that contributed to the American Civil War.

Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)

A 1857 Supreme Court ruling that declared African Americans were not citizens and could not sue in federal court. It also ruled that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional, meaning Congress could not prohibit slavery in U.S. territories.

Freeport Doctrine

Stephen A. Douglas's argument that residents of a U.S. territory could exclude slavery by not passing laws to protect it, effectively bypassing the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision. Articulated in 1858 during the Lincoln-Douglas debates, the doctrine upheld the principle of popular sovereignty and caused a major rift in the Democratic Party by alienating Southern supporters.

John Brown

A radical abolitionist known for using violence to end slavery, best remembered for his 1859 raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in an attempt to start a slave uprising.

Harpers Ferry Raid

The 1859 raid by abolitionist John Brown on the federal armory there, with the goal of starting a slave uprising by arming enslaved people. The raid failed but polarized the North and South, making Brown a martyr for many abolitionists.

Lincoln Douglas Debates

A series of seven debates in 1858 between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas for the U.S. Senate seat from Illinois, focusing on the expansion of slavery and its related issues like popular sovereignty and the Dred Scott decision.

Republican Party

A political party founded in the 1850s with the primary goal of opposing the expansion of slavery into the western territories. It was a sectional party, strong in the North, and its emergence was a direct result of the political turmoil surrounding the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which threatened to overturn earlier compromises that had limited slavery's spread.

Know-Nothing Party

A nativist political party that emerged in the United States in the 1850s, primarily opposing immigration and Roman Catholicism.

Ostend Manifesto

A document drafted in 1854 by U.S. diplomats, urging the acquisition of Cuba from Spain, by force if necessary. It fueled sectional controversy, as Northerners viewed it as a Southern attempt to expand slave territory.

Sumner-Brooks Affair

A violent 1856 assault where Congressman Preston Brooks brutally beat Senator Charles Sumner with a cane on the Senate floor after Sumner delivered an anti-slavery speech.

Lecompton Constitution

A pro-slavery constitution drafted in Kansas in 1857, it aimed to admit Kansas as a slave state and was rejected by Congress.

Election of 1860

The presidential election in which Abraham Lincoln became the first Republican candidate to win, significantly contributing to the onset of the Civil War.

Secession

The act of formally withdrawing from an organization or political entity, notably by Southern states from the Union in 1860-1861.

Fort Sumter

The first battle of the Civil War, occurring in April 1861, when Confederate forces fired on the Union garrison at Fort Sumter in South Carolina.

Confederate States of America

The government formed in 1861 by eleven Southern states that seceded from the United States, primarily over the issue of slavery, leading to the American Civil War.

Jefferson Davis

An American politician who served as the president of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War.

Border States

Slave states (Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, and later West Virginia) that remained in the Union during the Civil War, strategically vital for their location, resources, and manpower.

Crittenden Compromise

A December 1860 proposal by Kentucky Senator John J. Crittenden to prevent the Civil War by resolving the slavery debate.

Battle of Antietam

A Civil War battle fought on September 17, 1862, near Sharpsburg, Maryland, resulting in the highest number of casualties in a single day in U.S. history

Battle of Getysburg

A major American Civil War battle fought from July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

Battle of Shiloh

A major Civil War battle that took place on April 6–7, 1862, in southwestern Tennessee.

Battle of Vicksburg

A pivotal Civil War siege from May 18 to July 4, 1863, where Union forces under Ulysses S. Grant captured the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg, Mississippi.

The First Battle of Bull Run

The first major battle of the Civil War, resulting in a Confederate victory and dispelling Northern hopes for a quick war.

Anaconda Plan

Plan for civil war proposed by general-in-chief Winfield Scott, which emphasized the blockade of Southernp ports and called for an advance down the Mississippi River the cut the South in two, the plan would suffocate the South.

Total War

A military strategy that involves mobilizing all of a society's resources, including its economy, people, and infrastructure, to achieve unconditional victory against the enemy. This approach blurs the lines between combatants and civilians

Sherman’s March to the Sea

A Union military campaign led by General William Tecumseh Sherman from November to December 1864, during which his army of 60,000 soldiers marched from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia.

Appomattox Court House

The site in Virginia where Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to Union General Ulysses S. Grant on April 9, 1865, effectively ending the Civil War.

Ulysses S. Grant

The leading Union General who won the Civil War (defeating Lee at Appomattox) and later became the 18th U.S. President, overseeing early Reconstruction,

Robert E. Lee

The brilliant, revered Confederate General commanding the Army of Northern Virginia, known for the defeat in Gettysburg

William Tecumseh Sherman

A key Union General known for pioneering "total war" tactics during the Civil War, especially his devastating "March to the Sea".

Emancipation Proclamation

Lincoln's executive order freeing slaves only in Confederate states, a critical turning point that redefined the Civil War as a fight for freedom, allowed Black men to join the Union Army.

Gettysburg Address

Lincoln's 1863 speech rededicating the cemetery, redefining the Civil War as a fight for human equality and democratic survival, rather than just preserving the Union, linking sacrifice to liberty and linking to the Declaration's promise of equality, inspiring renewed commitment to the Union cause.

Copperheads

Northern Democrats during the Civil War who opposed the war effort, advocated for immediate peace with the Confederacy.

Conscription/Draft

The compulsory enrollment of individuals into military service, a system first implemented nationally by the Union during the Civil War.

New York Draft Riots

Violent, race-fueled uprisings by working-class, largely Irish immigrants against the Union's first federal conscription, fueled by resentment over the draft's unfairness (wealthy could pay $300 to avoid it) and fear Black workers would take jobs, leading to brutal attacks on African Americans and significant destruction, showcasing deep social divisions during the Civil War.

Habeas Corpus Suspension

Temporarily halting the right for a judge to review if someone's imprisonment is lawful, allowing indefinite detention.

Contraband

Enslaved people who escaped to Union lines during the Civil War and were classified as "contraband of war" by Union forces.

54th Massachusetts Regiment

A historic Union Army regiment of African American soldiers during the Civil War, formed after the Emancipation Proclamation, famously led by Colonel Robert Gould Shaw.

Reconstruction

The post-Civil War era when the U.S. government tried to rebuild the South, readmit Confederate states, and integrate 4 million newly freed African Americans into society.

Presidential Reconstruction

The early phase of post-Civil War Reconstruction (1865–1867) where Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson sought to rapidly readmit Southern states into the Union with lenient terms, mainly requiring the ratification of the 13th Amendment.

Radical Reconstruction

The Radical Republicans in Congress took control of Reconstruction from the President, imposing strict terms on the South and focusing on civil rights for newly freed slaves.

Radical Republicans

A faction within the U.S. Republican Party during and after the Civil War, known for their strong push for civil rights, Black suffrage, and harsher Reconstruction policies for the South, aiming to protect freed slaves and reshape Southern society to ensure racial equality.

Wade-Davis Bill

A Congressional Reconstruction plan by Radical Republicans (Wade & Davis) that offered a harsher path for Confederate states to re-enter the Union than Lincoln's lenient plan, requiring 50% of a state's white males to take an "Ironclad Oath" of loyalty.

Freedmen’s Bureau

A U.S. federal agency established after the Civil War to help formerly enslaved African Americans and poor whites in the South transition to freedom.

Black Codes

Discriminatory laws passed by Southern states after the Civil War to control newly freed African Americans, restricting their labor, movement, and rights.

Thirteenth Amendment

Abolished slavery and involuntary servitude throughout the United States, except as a punishment for a crime for which a person has been duly convicted.

Fourteenth Amendment

It granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the U.S., guaranteed Due Process, and established the Equal Protection Clause, requiring states to provide equal treatment under the law.

Fifteenth Amendment

The U.S. government and states cannot deny or limit a citizen's right to vote because of their race, skin color, or if they were once enslaved.

Reconstruction Acts of 1867

Laws passed by Radical Republicans in Congress that divided the South into five military districts, placed it under military rule, and required former Confederate states to ratify the 14th Amendment and guarantee Black male suffrage to be readmitted to the Union.

Impeachment of Andrew Johnson

A political process in 1868 where the House of Representatives charged President Johnson with high crimes and misdemeanors, primarily for violating the Tenure of Office Act by firing Secretary of War Edwin Stanton.

Tenure of Office Act (1867)

A radical Republican law limiting President Andrew Johnson's power, requiring Senate approval to remove officials previously confirmed by the Senate, leading directly to Johnson's impeachment for firing Secretary of War Edwin Stanton.

Civil Rights Act of 1866

A landmark Reconstruction legislation that defined U.S. citizenship, granted full rights to African Americans, and challenged discriminatory Black Codes, becoming the first major bill to pass Congress over a presidential veto,

Carpetbaggers

Northerners who moved to the South after the Civil War during Reconstruction.

Scalawags

White Southerners who supported the Republican Party and Reconstruction after the Civil War.

Sharecropping

A post-Civil War agricultural system where landowners let poor whites and freed Black people farm their land in exchange for a large share (often half) of the crops.

Ku Klux Klan

A white supremacist hate group with a history of promoting racism, anti-Semitism, and xenophobia through violence and intimidation.

Compromise of 1877

An informal deal resolving the disputed 1876 U.S. Presidential election, where Southern Democrats agreed to let Republican Rutherford B. Hayes win the presidency in exchange for the withdrawal of all remaining federal troops from the South.