HIST 1301- Unit 4 Exam Study Guide

Manifest Destiny

the belief that the U.S. should extend all the way to the pacific ocean, and possibly into Mexico and Canada

Underground Railroad

a system of secret routes used by escaping slaves to reach freedom in the North or in Canada

James K. Polk

11th President from 1845-1849; big believer in Manifest Destiny; settled Oregon boundary dispute with the Oregon Treaty at forty-ninth parallel rather than fifty-four forty; Led the US into the Mexican War

Wilmot Proviso

Proposed that slavery could not exist in any territory that might be acquired from Mexico; passed in the US House of Representatives several times, but was defeated on each occasion in the Senate because the South had greater power

Popular Sovereignty

Doctrine under which the status of slavery in the territories was to be determined by the settlers themselves; doctrine proposed by Lewis Cass

Free Soil Party

A political party dedicated to stopping the expansion of slavery into new territories

Stephen Douglas

A moderate, who introduced the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 and popularized the idea of popular sovereignty; participated in debates against Abraham Lincoln during a senate campaign in 1858

Fugitive Slave Act of 1850

allowed government officials to arrest any person accused of being a runaway slave; all that was needed to take away someone's freedoms was word of a white person; northerners required to help capture runaways if requested, suspects had no right to trial

Know-Nothing Party

Political party of the 1850s that was anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant; promoted nativism (opposition to immigration) the name of the movement came from its roots in secrecy; members were supposed to answer that they did not know about the organization if asked by outsiders

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Author of Uncle Tom's Cabin; it turned many toward active opposition to slavery

Ostend Manifesto (1854)

suggested that the United States should take Cuba from Spain by force if Spain refused to sell. Abolitionists saw this as a plot to extend slavery.

Southerners supported the manifesto, as they had feared Cuba would be a free "black republic"

Walt Whitman

Northern Romantic Era Poet who celebrated the importance of individualism and is considered the poet of American democracy

Dred Scott vs. Sandford

1857 Supreme Court decision that stated that slaves were not citizens; that living in a free state or territory, even for many years, did not free slaves; and declared the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional

Lecompton Constitution (1857)

Proposed Kansas state constitution; protected the rights of slaveholders already in Kansas and provided referedum in which voters could vote for the "Constitution with Slavery" or the "Constitution with no Slavery"; supported by President Buchanan but rejected by the House of Representatives.

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

1858 Senate Debate, Lincoln forced Douglas to debate issue of slavery, Douglas supported pop-sovereignty, Lincoln asserted that slavery should not spread to territories, Lincoln emerged as strong Republican candidate

John Brown

Abolitionist who was hanged after leading an unsuccessful raid at Harper's Ferry, Virginia (1800-1858)

Secession

Formal withdrawal of states or regions from a nation

Anaconda Plan

Union war plan by Winfield Scott, called for blockade of southern coast, capture of Richmond, capture Mississippi River, and to take an army through heart of south

Emancipation Proclamation

Proclamation issued by Lincoln, effective January 1, 1963; freeing all slaves in areas still at war with the Union.

Freedmen's Bureau

Organization run by the army to care for and protect southern Blacks after the Civil War; provided food, clothing, and education for freed slaves but failed to establish the free slaves as landowners

Black Codes

Laws denying most legal rights to newly freed slaves; passed by southern states following the Civil War

Carpetbaggers

A derogatory term applied to Northerners who migrated south during the Reconstruction to take advantage of opportunities to advance their own fortunes by buying up land from desperate Southerners and by manipulating new black voters to obtain lucrative government contracts.; name came from the cloth bags of possessions many of them used to travel South

Scalawags

A derogatory term for white Southerners who supported Reconstruction following the Civil War.

Mexican-American War

(1846-1848) The war between the United States and Mexico in which the United States acquired one half of the Mexican territory.

Zachary Taylor

(1849-1850), Whig president who was a Southern slave holder, and war hero (Mexican-American War). Won the 1848 election and died during his term.

Henry Clay

A northern American politician. He developed the American System as well as negotiated numerous compromises.

Mexican Cession

1848. Awarded as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo after the Mexican American War. U.S. paid $15 million for 525,000 square miles.

Frederick Douglass

(1817-1895) American abolitionist and writer, he escaped slavery and became a leading African American spokesman and writer. He published his biography, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, and founded the abolitionist newspaper, the North Star.

Civil Rights Act of 1866

Passed by Congress on 9th April 1866 over the veto of President Andrew Johnson. The act declared that all persons born in the United States were now citizens, without regard to race, color, or previous condition.

Sharecropping

A system used on southern farms after the Civil War in which farmers worked land owned by someone else in return for a small portion of the crops.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

1854 - Created Nebraska and Kansas as states and gave the people in those territories the right to chose to be a free or slave state through popular sovereignty.

14th Amendment

Declares that all persons born in the U.S. are citizens and are guaranteed equal protection of the laws (Equal Protection Clause)

Compromise of 1850

(1) California admitted as free state, (2) territorial status and popular sovereignty of Utah and New Mexico, (3) resolution of Texas-New Mexico boundaries, (4) federal assumption of Texas debt, (5) slave trade abolished in DC, and (6) new fugitive slave law; advocated by Henry Clay and Stephen A. Douglas

Republic of Texas (1836-1845)

Created March, 1836 but not recognized until the next month after the battle of San Jacinto. Its second president attempted to establish a sound government and develop relations with England and France. However, rapidly rising public debt, internal conflicts and renewed threats from Mexico led Texas to join the U.S. in 1845.

Battle of Gettysburg

Turning point of the War that made it clear the North would win. 50,000 people died, and the South lost its chance to invade the North.

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

Treaty that ended the Mexican War, granting the U.S. control of Texas, New Mexico, and California in exchange for $15 million

Gadsden Purchase

Agreement w/ Mexico that gave the US parts of present-day New Mexico & Arizona in exchange for $10 million; all but completed the continental expansion envisioned by those who believed in Manifest Destiny.

Force Acts of 1870 and 1871

Laws designed to stamp out KKK terrorism in the South

Andrew Johnson

17th President of the United States, 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. He violated the Tenure of Office Act (which he believed to be unconstitutional) by dismissing Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. This resulted in his impeachment.

Tenure of Office Act

Prohibited the president from removing a federal official or military commander without the approval of the Senate

Republican Party (1854)

organized in 1854 by antislavery Whigs, Democrats, and Free Soilers in response to the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act; nominated John C. Frémont for president in 1856 and Abraham Lincoln in 1860; opposed the further extension of slavery into the territories

Bleeding Kansas (1856)

a series of violent fights between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces in Kansas who had moved to Kansas to try to influence the decision of whether or not Kansas would a slave state or a free state.

Ulysses S. Grant

an American general and the eighteenth President of the United States (1869-1877). He achieved international fame as the leading Union general in the American Civil War.

Robert E. Lee

Confederate general who had opposed secession but did not believe the Union should be held together by force

Oregon Trail

Trail from independence, Missouri to Oregon used by many pioneers during the 1840s

13th Amendment (1865)

Abolishes and prohibits slavery

14th Amendment (1868)

Declares that all persons born in the U.S. are citizens and are guaranteed equal protection of the laws (Equal Protection Clause). The 14th amendment has been the vehicle for the expansion of civil rights, women's rights, and other movements.

15th Amendment (1870)

Prohibited voting restrictions based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude (slavery)

Poll Tax

A requirement that citizens pay a tax in order to register to vote

Rutherford B. Hayes

19th President of the United States (1877-1881), oversaw the end of Reconstruction, began the efforts that led to civil service reform, and attempted to reconcile the divisions left over from the Civil War.

Ku Klux Klan

A secret society created by white southerners in 1866 that used terror and violence to keep African Americans from obtaining their civil rights.

Compromise of 1877

Ended Reconstruction. Republicans promise 1) Remove military from South, 2) Appoint Democrat to cabinet (David Key postmaster general), 3) Federal money for railroad construction and levees on Mississippi river in return for Hayes becoming president.

Jefferson Davis

President of the Confederate States of America

Monitor vs. Merrimack (1862)

to fight the blockade by the Union the Confederates reconstructed the Merrimack and destroyed Union ships in the Chesapeake Bay. The Union sent in the Monitor to fight back neither side could claim a victory.

Sherman's March to the Sea (1864)

Name commonly given to William Tecumseh Sherman's campaign from the captured city of Atlanta to the port city of Savannah; Union victory.

Inflicted significant damage - particularly to industry and infrastructure - as well as to civilian property; destroyed much of the South's physical and psychological capacity to wage war.

Appomattox Court House

Famous as the site of the surrender of the Confederate Army under Robert E. Lee to Union commander Ulysses S. Grant

Sumner-Brooks Incident

Sumner was an MA senator and unyielding foe of slavery. He was physically attacked by Senator Brooks of SC in retaliation for a two-day speech made denouncing the proslavery Missourians who had crossed into Kansas and Brook's pro-slavery uncle who supported the Missourians- showed the split of the government