APUSH Civil War and Reconstruction

Wilmot Proviso

Proposal to prohibit slavery in land from Mexican war - Southern senators voted it down

Popular Sovereignty

Allowed people of a state to vote for or against slavery - opposed by Northern abolitionists who feared it would promote the spread of slavery to the territories.

Compromise of 1850

Slavery outlawed in Washington D.C., California is admitted as a free state, and Utah and New Mexico - popular sovereignty. Fugitive Slave Law is passed.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

Went against Missouri Compromise and left it to voters in Kansas and Nebraska to determine whether they would be slave or free states through popular sovereignty

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.

Abraham Lincoln

Won the Election of 1860 - election over slavery - resulted in secession of southern sates

Dred Scott Decision

Supreme Court decision - Blacks were not citizens and therefore could not sue in federal courts; Because a slave is their master's property, they can be taken into any territory and held there in slavery; Congress had no power to ban slavery from the territories

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

A series of seven debates. The two argued the important issues of the day like popular sovereignty, the Lecompton Constitution and the Dred Scott decision. One of the two won these debates, but the other's position in these debates helped him win in the 1860 presidential election.

John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry

In 1859, the militant abolitionist John Brown seized the U.S. arsenal at Harper's Ferry. He planned to end slavery by massacring slave owners and freeing their slaves. He was captured and executed.

Election of 1860

Lincoln represented the Republicans. Stephen Douglas represented Northern Democrats, and John Breckinridge represented Southern Democrats. John Bell represented the Constitutional Party who wanted to heal the split between the North and South. It was primarily a sectional election (north v. south). Lincoln received the most popular votes (40%) and won the election with the electoral vote.

Secession

After election of 1860, secession winter was the winter of 1860-1861, when 7 southern states (South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, and Texas) seceded in rapid succession.

Fort Sumter

A fort in SE South Carolina, guarding Charleston Harbour. Its capture by Confederate forces (1861) was the first action of the Civil War.

Robert E. Lee

The General of the Confederate troops; he was prosperous in many battles; was defeated at Antietam in 1862 when he retreated across the Potomac; surrendered to General Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865.

Ulysses S. Grant

A general and political leader of the nineteenth century. He became commanding general of the Union army during the Civil War. He accepted the unconditional surrender of the commanding general of the main Confederate army, Robert E. Lee, at Appomattox Court House. A Republican, he later became president.

Anaconda Plan

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

Antietam

It was fought at a creek in Maryland. It was the turning point of the war, which allowed President Lincoln to sign the Emancipation Proclamation. It was the bloodiest single-day battle in American history Also, it prevented the British and French governments from a diplomatic mediation.

Emancipation Proclamation

After victory of Antietam Lincoln announces on the first of 1863 all slaves in the rebelling states would be free. AIM: injure confederacy, threaten its property, heighten its dread, hurt its morale.

Battle of Gettysburg

(July 1863)Civil War battle in Penn. that ended in Union victory, spelling doom for the Confederacy, which never again managed to invade the North.Site of General George Pickett's daring but doomed charge on the Northern lines.

Gettysburg Address

(1863) Abraham Lincoln's oft-quoted speech, delivered at the dedication of the cemetery at Gettysburg battlefield. In the address, Lincoln framed the war as a means to uphold the values of liberty.

Vicksburg

Grant 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.

Total War

Mobilized all of a society's resources--eco, pol, cultural--in support of the military effort. Armies grew dramatically in size and were composed of civilians rather than professional soldiers. The civilians and industries that supported the war effort increasingly became the object of enemy attack. i.e. Sherman's march through GA

Sherman's March to the Sea

Sherman's march from Atlanta to South Carolina, he and his army applied a total warfare, scorched earth policy that led over a million dollars in damage and crushed the south

Appomattox

in April 1865, the end of the Civil War came suddenly when Northern troops cornered Lee here.

Ten Percent Plan (Lincoln's plan)

Former Confederate states would be readmitted to the Union if 10% of their citizens took a loyalty oath and the state agreed to ratify the 13th Amendment which outlawed slavery. Not put into effect because Lincoln was assassinated.

Freedmen's Bureau

1865, Congress created the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands; acted as an early welfare agency of sorts, providing food, shelter, and medical aid for those made destitute by the war, both blacks and homeless whites; led by General Oliver O. Howard

13th Amendment

This amendment freed all slaves without compensation to the slave owners. It legally forbade slavery in the United States.

Andrew Johnson

A Southerner form Tennessee, as V.P. when Lincoln was killed, he became president. He opposed radical Republicans who passed Reconstruction Acts over his veto. The first U.S. president to be impeached, he survived the Senate removal by only one vote. He was a very weak president.

Civil Rights Act (1866)

This act pronounced all African Americans to be US citizens (repudiated the Dred Scott decision), and also attempted to provide a legal shield against the operation of the southern states' Black Codes.

Radical Republicans

small group of people in 1865 who supported black suffrage and believed the South should be harshly punished. They supported the abolition of slavery and a demanding reconstruction policy during the war and after.

Reconstruction Act (1867)

divided the Confederate states except Tennessee into five military districts. Military commanders in the districts were appointed to oversee constitutional conventions in the districts and the creation of state constitutions. This military occupation would last until the states created new constitutions that included black suffrage, the permanent disfranchisement of Confederate leaders, and ratification of the 14th Amendment.

14th Amendment

1) Citizenship for African Americans, 2) Repeal of 3/5 Compromise, 3) Denial of former confederate officials from holding national or state office, 4) Repudiate (reject) confederate debts

Black Codes

Laws or "codes" passed in the southern states during Reconstruction that greatly limited the freedom of former slaves.

Sharecropping

a system of work for freedmen who were employed in the cotton industry. This system traded a freedmen's labor for the use of a house, land, and sometimes further accommodations. They would usually give half or more of their grown crop to their landlords.

Ku Klux Klan

a group of mostly Southerners who were extremely racist against African Americans, and disliked all other cultures and races

Enforcement Acts

Prohibited radical anti-black groups and protected the voting rights of African Americans

15th Amendment

1870Suffrage given to black males.Congress has the power to enforce this via legislation.

Plessy v Ferguson

supreme court ruled that segregation public places facilities were legal as long as the facilites were equal

Carpet Baggers

displaced veterans who quickly becoming a drag on society. They carried around everything they owned in cheap suitcases called carpetbags. They were union army vets who were skilled.

Scalawags

ex-confederates who supported reconstruction. They were also former slaves, whigs, and democrats, who liked republicanism.

Compromise of 1877

END OF RECONSTRUCTION This settled the election of 1876, troops were removed from Louisiana and South Carolina and concessions for building a southern transcontinental railroad made

Johnson's Reconstruction plan

The Confederate states would be required to uphold the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery; swear loyalty to the Union; and pay off their war deb

Uncle Tom's Cabin

a novel published by harriet beecher stowe in 1852 which portrayed slavery as brutal and immoral. Enraged the North and furthered tensions

Manifest Destiny

United States was destined to rule the continent, from the Atlantic the Pacific.

Mexican-American War

First US war on foreign soil; US received Texas, California, and New Mexico. Increased land size

Free Soil Movement

Opposed the expansion of slavery and depicted it as a threat to republicanism and to the Jeffersonian ideal of a freeholder society, arguments that won broad support among aspiring white farmers.

Border States

Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware and West Virginia - big significance - To keep states in the Union, Abraham Lincoln insisted that the war was not about abolishing slavery but rather protecting the Union

Sectionalism

Loyalty to one's own region of the country, rather than to the nation as a whole

Ku Klux Clan Act

to end violence and empower the president to use military force to protect African Americans

Northern Advantages in the Civil War

more supplies, more people, railroads, factories, powerful navy

Southern Advantages in the Civil War

better military leaders, they were fighting on their own terrain/land (knowledge of the land)

Causes of Westward Expansion

Lots of cheap, free land - promising opportunities in West

Caning of Sumner

In May 1856 Charles Sumner gave a speech openly attacking Andrew Butler of South Carolina. Preston Brooks, the nephew of Butler attacked Sumner with a cane two days later while Sumner was working at his desk. Northeners were horrified. Southeners rejoiced.