APUSH Period 5

John Tyler

10th president; annexed Texas; opposed many Whig policies; first VP to become president due to predecessor's death.

Zachary Taylor

12th president; Mexican-American War hero; died in office; had no strong position on slavery.

James K. Polk

11th president; "Manifest Destiny" president; oversaw Mexican-American War, Oregon acquisition, and California/Mexican Cession.

John C. Fremont

"Pathfinder"; led American forces in California during the Mexican-American War; first Republican presidential candidate.

Manifest Destiny

Belief that the US was destined to expand across the North American continent.

Tariff of 1842

Protective tariff that raised import duties to support American industry.

Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo

Ended the Mexican-American War; US gained California, New Mexico, and Southwest territories.

Wilmot Proviso

Proposed banning slavery in lands gained from Mexico; failed in Congress.

Mexican Cession

Land ceded by Mexico after Mexican-American War (California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico).

William Henry Harrison (1841)

9th president; died one month into office; gave longest inaugural address.

54°40' or Fight

Slogan demanding U.S. control of Oregon Territory up to latitude 54°40′; resolved peacefully with Britain.

Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna

Mexican general and president; led Mexico during Texas Revolution and Mexican-American War.

Election of 1848

Zachary Taylor (Whig) elected; Free Soil Party opposed expansion of slavery.

Stephen A. Douglas

Senator; promoted popular sovereignty; key in passing the Kansas-Nebraska Act; debated Lincoln in 1858.

Daniel Webster

Senator and statesman; supported Union; helped negotiate compromises on slavery.

Harriet Tubman

Led slaves to freedom via Underground Railroad; Union spy.

Underground Railroad

Network of passages/ safehouses helping escaped slaves reach freedom in North/Canada.

Popular sovereignty

Idea that the residents of a territory should vote to decide on slavery.

Free Soil Party

Opposed expansion of slavery to ensure opportunities for white settlers rather than slave laborers

Fugitive Slave Law

Required return of escaped slaves to owners; increased Northern resistance.

Beecher's Bibles

Rifles sent to anti-slavery settlers in Kansas before Civil War.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

Allowed popular sovereignty in Kansas and Nebraska; led to "Bleeding Kansas."

Gadsden Purchase (1853)

Bought land from Mexico for Transcontinental railroad construction in southern Arizona and New Mexico.

Republican Party (1854)

Formed to oppose spread of slavery; included former Whigs, Free Soilers.

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, which inflamed anti-slavery sentiment.

Compromise of 1850

Defuse tensions between free and slave states

• Admitted California as a free state

• Est popular sovereignty in Utah and New Mexico territories

• Settled the Texas boundary

• Abolished the slave trade (but not slavery) in D.C.

• Stricter Fugitive Slave Act

John Brown

Radical abolitionist; led Pottawatomie Massacre and Harpers Ferry raid.

Sectionalism

Loyalty to one's region rather than the nation as a whole.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

Novel exposing the brutality of slavery; heightened sectional tensions.

Bleeding Kansas

After Kansas-Nebraska Act, both pro- and anti-slavery activists flooded into Kansas to influence the upcoming vote, leading to violence between the groups

Dred Scott decision

Ruled that people of African descent were not U.S. citizens and couldn't sue in federal court, and Congress had no power to ban slavery in U.S. territories b/c slaves are property, and people have the right to their property (thus invalidating Missouri Compromise)

Panic of 1857

Financial crisis caused by overexpansion and speculation; hit North hardest.

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

Senate debates over slavery; Lincoln gained national attention.

Harper's Ferry raid

John Brown's failed attempt to start a slave rebellion by seizing the federal arsenal and arming enslaved people.

Fort Sumter

First battle of the Civil War; Confederate attack on Union fort in South Carolina.

Habeas corpus

Right of a person to demand a valid legal reason their arrest; suspended by Lincoln during Civil War.

New York Draft Riots

Violent protest over the civil war draft among poor, working-class New Yorkers (esp Irish immigrants). Fueled by the law's "$300 exemption" that allowed the wealthy to buy their way out

Tensions escalated due to fears that emancipated Black people would take their jobs,

Homestead Act

Granted 160 acres to settlers willing to farm land for five years to promote westward expansion

Jefferson Davis

President of the Confederate States of America.

Clara Barton

Nurse during the Civil War; founder of the American Red Cross.

Emancipation Proclamation

Declared freedom for slaves in Confederate states.

• Prevented international alliances w/ Confederacy

• Encouraged slaves from South to escape and enlist in Union army

13th Amendment

Abolished slavery in the US.

Gettysburg Address

Lincoln’s speech to show that emancipation fulfilled American ideals. US was conceived in Liberty—all men are created equal. The civil war was the nation’s greatest test to prove that democracy could endure.

Copperheads

Northern Democrats opposing the Civil War; wanted peace with Confederacy.

Appomattox Courthouse

Site of Confederate surrender, ending the Civil War.

Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson

Confederate general; known for leadership in Shenandoah Valley and at Bull Run.

George B. McClellan

Union general; cautious; ran against Lincoln in 1864 election.

Robert E. Lee

Confederate general; led Army of Northern Virginia.

George Pickett

Confederate general; led Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg.

Ulysses S. Grant

Union general; led major victories in West and Virginia; later became 18th president.

William Tecumseh Sherman

Union general; led "March to the Sea" destroying Southern infrastructure.

John Wilkes Booth

Assassin of Abraham Lincoln.

Freedmen's Bureau

Agency to assist freed slaves with education, jobs, and legal support.

Ten Percent Plan

Lincoln's Reconstruction plan; 10% of a state's voters swore loyalty to rejoin Union.

Wade-Davis Bill

Radical Republican Reconstruction plan; required majority loyalty oath; pocket-vetoed by Lincoln.

Black Codes

Laws in Southern states restricting rights of freedmen.

14th Amendment

Granted citizenship and equal protection under the law to all born in the US.

Reconstruction Act

Divided South into military districts; required states to ratify 14th Amendment for readmission.

15th Amendment

Prohibited denying the right to vote based on race or previous condition of servitude.

Redeemers

Southern Democrats aiming to restore pre-war social order after Reconstruction.

Scalawags

Southern whites who supported Reconstruction and Republicans.

Carpetbaggers

Northerners who moved South during Reconstruction to profit politically or economically.

Tenure of Office Act

Restricted president from removing certain officeholders without Senate approval; led to Andrew Johnson's impeachment.