U.S History Unit 3 Terms

Manifest Destiny

The belief that the U.S. was destined to expand west across North America.

Oregon Trail

A 2,000-mile route settlers used to travel west to Oregon during the 1840s and 1850s.

Santa Fe Trail

A trade route connecting Missouri to Santa Fe, New Mexico, opened in 1821.

Treaty of Fort Laramie

An 1851 agreement between the U.S. and Native American tribes to establish peace and recognize tribal territories.

Mormons

Members of a religious group who moved west to Utah in 1847 to escape persecution.

Joseph Smith

Founded the Mormon Church in 1830; killed in 1844.

Brigham Young

Led Mormon settlers to Utah in 1847 after Joseph Smith's death.

Fifty-Four Forty or Fight!

A slogan demanding U.S. control of all Oregon Country up to latitude 54°40′.

Oregon Treaty

An 1846 agreement with Britain that established the U.S.-British boundary at the 49th parallel.

Annexation

Adding territory to a country; Texas was annexed by the U.S. in 1845.

James K. Polk

President from 1845-1849 who supported westward expansion and led the U.S. during the Mexican-American War.

Mexican-American War

The 1846-1848 war between the U.S. and Mexico that resulted in major U.S. land gains.

Rio Grande

The river the U.S. claimed as Texas's southern border, causing conflict with Mexico.

Nueces River

The river Mexico claimed was Texas's border before the Mexican-American War.

Zachary Taylor

U.S. general who fought Mexico in 1846; later became president.

Stephen Kearny

U.S. general who led troops into New Mexico during the Mexican-American War in 1846.

Republic of California

The short-lived republic declared by American settlers rebelling against Mexican rule in 1846.

Winfield Scott

U.S. general who captured Mexico City in 1847.

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

The 1848 treaty that ended the Mexican-American War and gave the U.S. extensive western territory.

Gadsden Purchase

The U.S. bought land in present-day southern Arizona and New Mexico from Mexico for $10 million in 1853.

Abolition

The movement to end slavery.

William Lloyd Garrison

Abolitionist who demanded slavery's immediate end and founded The Liberator in 1831.

The Liberator

An antislavery newspaper founded by William Lloyd Garrison in 1831.

Emancipation

The act of freeing enslaved people; Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation took effect in 1863.

David Walker

Black abolitionist who published an antislavery appeal in 1829 demanding equality and freedom.

Frederick Douglass

Formerly enslaved man who became a famous abolitionist speaker and writer.

Nat Turner

Enslaved preacher who led a slave rebellion in Virginia in 1831.

Antebellum

The period before the Civil War, especially the early and mid-1800s.

Gag Rule

A House rule adopted in 1836 that blocked discussion of antislavery petitions; repealed in 1844.

American Anti-Slavery Society

An organization founded in 1833 to fight slavery and promote immediate emancipation.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Women's rights activist who helped organize the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848.

Lucretia Mott

Quaker abolitionist and women's rights activist who helped organize the Seneca Falls Convention.

Cult of Domesticity

The belief that women should focus on home, marriage, and children rather than public life.

Sarah Grimké

Abolitionist and women's rights activist who spoke against slavery and gender inequality.

Angelina Grimké

Abolitionist and women's rights activist who publicly opposed slavery and discrimination against women.

Temperance Movement

A movement that sought to reduce or eliminate alcohol consumption.

Seneca Falls Convention

The first major women's rights convention, held in New York in July 1848.

Declaration of Sentiments

An 1848 document demanding equality for women, including the right to vote.

Women's Suffrage

Women's right to vote; the 19th Amendment protected this right in 1920.

Sojourner Truth

Formerly enslaved woman who became a famous abolitionist and women's rights activist.

Sectionalism

Loyalty to one's region over the country as a whole; increased tensions between North and South.

Compromise of 1850

A series of laws that admitted California as a free state and strengthened the Fugitive Slave Act.

Popular Sovereignty

The idea that settlers in a territory should vote on whether to allow slavery.

Fugitive Slave Act

An 1850 law requiring escaped enslaved people to be returned to their enslavers, even from free states.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

An 1854 law allowing settlers in Kansas and Nebraska to vote on slavery.

Bleeding Kansas

Violent conflict between proslavery and antislavery settlers in Kansas during the 1850s.

Republican Party

Founded in 1854; opposed the expansion of slavery into western territories.

Dred Scott Decision

The 1857 Supreme Court ruling that denied Black Americans federal citizenship and limited Congress's power to restrict slavery in territories.

John Brown

Radical abolitionist who raided Harpers Ferry in 1859 to try to start a revolt against slavery.

Secession

Withdrawal from the United States; South Carolina became the first state to secede in December 1860.