APUSH Unit 5 Key Terms

Texas Annexation

Texas Annexation

Texas joining the United States as the 28th state in the Union on December 29, 1845.

Oregon Treaty of 1846

a treaty between the United Kingdom and the United States that was signed on June 15, 1846, in Washington, D.C. The treaty brought an end to the Oregon boundary dispute by settling competing American and British claims to the Oregon Country, which had been jointly occupied by both Britain and the U.S. since the Treaty of 1818

Mexican American War

a conflict between the United States and Mexico that took place between 1846 and 1848. The war was sparked by a dispute over the annexation of Texas by the United States and a long-standing dispute over the border between Texas and Mexico.a conflict between the United States and Mexico that took place between 1846 and 1848. The war was sparked by a dispute over the annexation of Texas by the United States and a long-standing dispute over the border between Texas and Mexico.

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

a peace treaty between the United States and Mexico that officially ended the Mexican-American War . Under the terms of the treaty, Mexico ceded a large portion of its territory to the United States

Gadsden Purchase

the 1853 treaty in which the United States bought from Mexico parts of what is now southern Arizona and southern New Mexico.

Gold Rush

influx of thousands of miners to Northern California after news reports of the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in January of 1848 had spread around the world by the end of that year. The onslaught of migrants prompted Californians to organize a government and apply for statehood in 1849.

Nativism

the belief that native-born Americans are superior to foreigners- movement based on hostility to immigrants, especially Irish & Catholic ones.

Mexican Cession

The land that Mexico gave to the U.S. Which was land from texas to California that was north of the Rio Grande.

Wilmot Proviso

Bill proposed after the Mexican War that stated that neither slavery no involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any territory gained from Mexico. It was never passed through both houses but it transformed the debate of slavery.

Free Soil Party

A political party with the main purpose of stopping the expansion of slavery in western territories, arguing free men on free soil.

Compromise of 1850

ive laws passed in September of 1850 that dealt with the issue of slavery and territorial expansion. In 1849 California requested permission to enter the Union as a free state, potentially upsetting the balance between the free and slave states in the U.S. Senate.

Fugitive Slave Law (1850)

law that made it a crime to help runaway slaves; allowed for the arrest of escaped slaves in areas where slavery was illegal and required their return to slaveholders; part of the Compromise of 1850.

Underground Railroad

a secret network of antislavery northerners who illegally helped fugitive slaves escape to free states or Canada during the period before the American Civil War.

Kansas Nebraska Act

passed by the U.S. Congress on May 30, 1854, It allowed people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders.

Bleeding Kansas

A sequence of violent events involving abolitionists and pro-Slavery elements that took place in Kansas-Nebraska Territory. The dispute further strained the relations of the North and South, making civil war imminent.

Dred Scott Case

the Supreme Court ruled that: Since slaves are property of their masters, a slave is not automatically granted his freedom when his master moves him to a free state or territory. Slaves are not citizens and therefore have no legal right to sue.

Abolitionists

followers of the movement in opposition to slavery, often demanding immediate, uncompensated emancipation of all slaves

Republican Party

founded in the Northern United States by forces opposed to the expansion of slavery, ex-Whigs, and ex-Free Soilers.

Fort Sumter

South Carolina location where Confederate forces fired the first shots of the Civil War in April of 1861, after Union forces attempted to provision the fort. Significance: South ignited the fighting of the Civil War, provoked North to assemble army.

Election of 1860

Abraham Lincoln (Republican) won the presidential __________ in a four-way contest. Although Lincoln received less than 40% of the popular vote, he easily won the Electoral College vote over Stephen Douglas (Democrat), John Breckenridge (Southern Democrat), and John Bell (Constitutional Union).

Second Party System

a name for the political party system in the United States during the 1800s. It is a phrase used by historians and political scientists to describe the time period between 1828 and 1854. People quickly became more interested in voting starting in 1828.

Abraham Lincoln

16 president of the United States, he promoted equal rights for African Americans in the famed Lincoln- Douglas debates, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation and set in motion the Civil War, but he was determined to preserve the Union, was assassinated by Booth in 1865

Union

the portion of the country that remained loyal to the Federal government during the Civil War.

Confederacy

comprised eleven U.S. states that declared secession and warred against the United States during the American Civil War. The states were South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina.

Gettysburg Address

a speech given by Abraham Lincoln after the Battle of Gettysburg, in which he praised the bravery of Union soldiers and renewed his commitment to winning the Civil War; supported the ideals of self-government and human rights.

Emancipation Proclamation

freed slaves in the rebellious and border states. The Union created African American units in the Army and Navy. Because it was believed that slaves were helping the Confederates, Lincoln issued the _______________________ to free the slaves.

Battle of Vicksburg

took place when General Grant led the Union forces. He defeated two Confederate armies and destroyed the city, this was across the river near Vicksburg, Mississippi. Five days later they had complete control of the Mississippi.

Sherman’s March to Atlanta

A sixty-mile-wide swath of destruction across Georgia to deprive the Confederate army of war materials and railroad communications and break the will of the Southern people by burning towns and plantations. This led to the surrender of Savannah. Confederate States of America.

Appomattox Court House

sets the stage of the end of the Civil War because it is where General Lee surrenders to Grant.

Copperheads

a vocal group of Democrats in the Northern United States who opposed the American Civil War, wanting an immediate peace settlement with the Confederates.

Lincoln’s 10% Plan

Lincoln's plan on bringing states back into the Union. His plan would restore states to the Union after at least ten percent of the population swore an oath of loyalty.

Black Codes

imposed harsh labor contracts on African American workers, limited their mobility, and denied them access to many public facilities.

Civil Rights Act of 1866

the first United States federal law to define US citizenship and affirmed that all citizens were equally protected by the law. It was mainly intended to protect the civil rights of African-Americans, in the wake of the American Civil War.

Radical Republicans

Senators and congressmen who, strictly identifying the Civil War with the abolitionist cause, sought swift emancipation of the slaves, punishment of the rebels, and tight controls over the former Confederate states after the war.

Impeachment of Andrew Johnson

for the charge of High Crimes and Misdemeanors on February 24, 1868 of which one of the articles of impeachment was violating the Tenure of Office Act. He had removed Edwin M. Stanton, the Secretary of War, from office and replaced him with Adjutant General Lorenzo Thomas.

Reconstruction Amendments

13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, they were the first enacted right after the Civil War and because all addressed questions related to the legal and political status of the African Americans.

13th Amendment

Constitutional amendment prohibiting all forms of slavery and involuntary servitude.

14th Amendment

granted African Americans citizenship and equal protection under the law

15th Amendment

granted African American men voting rights.

Sharecropping

A system of agriculture where a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crop produced on land.

Carpetbaggers

Northerners who moved South after the war, sometimes with all their possessions in a carpetbag, during Reconstruction

Grandfather Clause

A clause in registration laws allowing people who do not meet registration requirements to vote if they or their ancestors had voted before 1867.

Literacy Test

A test administered as a precondition for voting, often used to prevent African Americans from exercising their right to vote.

Poll Tax

a tax of a fixed amount per person and payable as a requirement for the right to vote

Compromise of 1877

an informal, unwritten deal that settled the disputed 1876 U.S. Presidential election; through it Republican Rutherford B. Hayes was awarded the White House on the understanding that he would remove the federal troops from South Carolina, Florida and Louisiana.

Plessy v. Ferguson 

U.S. Supreme Court decision supporting the legality of Jim Crow laws that permitted or required separate but equal facilities for blacks and whites

Separate but Equal

Supreme Court doctrine established in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson. Allowed state-required racial segregation in places of public accommodation as long as the facilities were equal.

Segregation

The separation or isolation of a race, class, or group.