Unit 5 APUSH Vocab

Manifest Destiny

Refers to the belief that the inhabitants of the USA were destined to expand west across North America.

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

Refers to the treaty that ended the Mexican- American War, it resulted in Mexico giving up nearly half of its territory to the US, in exchange the US paid 15 million and assumed 3.25 million in debts owed by Mexico to US citizens.

Liberty Party

Refers to a political party that advocated for the abolition of slavery.

Wilmot Proviso

Refers to a proposed amendment to a bill that in any territory from Mexico following the Mexican-American War would have banned slavery.

Free Soil Party

Refers to a political party formed that opposed the expansion of slavery into western territories.

Compromise of 1850

Refers to a series of laws that aimed to resolve the tensions over slavery in new acquired territories preceding the Mexican American War.

Fugitive Slave Act

Refers to a law that required citizens to assist in the capture and return of slaves that would runaway, even in free states.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Refers to an antislavery novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe, it showed the harsh realities of slavery in the South.

Bleeding Kansas

Refers to a violent conflict in the Kansas Territory that argued whether Kansas would enter the Union as a free or slave state, preceding the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

Dred Scott decision

A supreme court ruling that denied Dred Scott, an enslaved african american, his freedom. The court ruled that african americans, either free or enslaved, were not considered US citizens and had no right to sue in federal court.

Harper’s Ferry

Refers to the Harper’s Ferry Raid, when John Brown (abolitionist) led an attempt to take control of the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry in order to arm enslaved people for a rebellion, the attempt failed.

Crittenden’s Compromise

Refers to a failed compromise to prevent the Civil War. The compromise suggested to extend the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific, protecting slavery in the south territories, and granting amendments to safeguard slavery, it ultimately however was rejected by congress.

Fort Sumter

Refers to the site of the first battle of the Civil War. It happened from April 12 to 13 in 1861 in Charleston South Carolina. Occuring after SC seceded from the union in 1860, they demanded that federal troops abandoned he fort. Union Major Robert Anderson refused, confederate forces began bombarding the fort.

Anaconda Plan

Refers to the Union strategy that included to make a naval blockade of southern ports, take control of the mississippi river, and gain a general advance on Confederate territory.

Copperheads

Refers to Northern Democrats who opposed the Civil War, they rather wanted peace with the Confederates.

Confiscation Acts (First and Second)

Refers to laws passed Congress during the Civil War to weaken the Confederacy and free enslaved people. The first confiscation act allowed the Union to seize property, including the enslaved who were used by the confederates to support the rebellion. The second confiscation act declared that all enslaved people who escaped to Union lines or were freed by the hands of the Union were to be free.

Emancipation Proclamation

Refers to the declaration issued by Lincoln in 1863 declaring that all enslaved people in Confederate held territories were to be set free.

Enrollment Act

Refers to a US Federal law that created the national draft during the Civil War.

New York City Draft Riots

Refers to the riots occuring in July of 1863 in response to the Enrollment Act. These riots were sparked by resentment towards the acts, especially by the fact that wealthy men could avoid the draft by paying.

Battle of Bull Run

Refer to the first major battle of the civil war. At first the Union was having success, but confederate counter attacked which caused the retreat of Union soldiers. This became a Confederate victory, and it shattered the North’s hope for a quick victory.

Battle of Antietam

1862, was the bloodiest single day battle in American history. It was a strategic Union win because it stopped the Confederate Army’s invasion of the North. Thi battle gave Lincoln the confidence to pass the emancipation proclamation.

Battle of Gettysburg

Refers to a crucial Union victory. It marked a turning point in the war as it halted General Lee’s invasion of the North. After intense fighting for three days with the failed Pickett’s Charge, the Confederates were forced to retreat. It boosted Union morale, and it was a shift it the wars momentum in favor of the North. The battle was most fmously followed by the Gettysburg Adress by Abraham Lincoln.

Battle of Vicksburg

R'efers to a Union victory that marked the completion of the Union’s campaign to gain control of the Missispi River. Led by Ulysses S. Grant, the Union gained control of the Mississppi River whihc split the Confederacy into two. This victory, alongside the Unions victory in Gettsyburg marked turning points in the war and increaed Grant’s repuation leading to his promotion to General-in-Chief

Overland Campaign

Refers to a series of brutal battles during the Civil War in Virginia between Union General Grant and Confedrate General Lee. Grant aimed to waer down Lee’s army through continuous engaement, rather than looking for decisive victories. Grant resfusal to retreat marked a shift in strategy which lead to the siege of Petersburg and the fall of the Confederacy.

March to the Sea

Refers to a military campaign during the Civil War led by General William Tecumseh Sherman. It aimed to break the Confederacy’s will to fight by waging “total war” on sothern infrastructure, which included its economy and supply lines.

Appomattox Court House

Refers to the site of surrender of General Robert E. Lee with the Confederacy to Union General Ulysses S. Grant and it marked the end of the Civil War.

Thirteenth Amendment

Refers to the amendment that abolished slavery and involunatry servitude in the US. Only except in terms of punishment as a crime.

Fourteenth Amendment

granted citizenship to anyone born or naturalized in the US including former slaves.

Fifteenth Amendment

Granted African American men the right to vote. It prohibited states from denying voting rights based on race, color, or preious condition of servitude.

Radical Republicans

were a faction from the Republican party who sought to punish the south for secession and to secure equal rights for freedom.

Black Codes

Refers to laws passed in the South after the Civil War that aimed to rstricitng freedoms of African Americans and ensuring a stable labor force.

Scalawags

were southern whites who supported reconstruction and were aligned wth the republican party. This also included Unionists or those who sought to rebuild the southern economy post war.

Carpetbaggers

were northern-born republicans who moved to the south afte the civil war, most likely with the intention of seeking political or economic opportunities.

Enforcement Acts

Refers to a series of laws passed by Congress with the goal of protecting african americans from violence and discrimination in the south, for example from groups like the KKK.

Sharecropping

A system of agricultural labor that came from the south, it involved landowners allowing free african americans and poor white farmers to work the land in exchange fr a share of th crops produced, rather than a fixed amount of money.

Redeemers

Refers to southern democrats who sought to restore white rule and undo reconstruction reforms.

Compromise of 1877

Refers to an informal agreement that ended the presidential election of 1876, and marked the end of reconstruction in the South.