Study Guide for Exam 3 – Slavery, Civil War, Reconstruction & Jim Crow

Vocabulary flashcards covering slavery, abolition, Civil War, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and early 20th-century racial conflict for Exam 3 preparation.

Manifest Destiny

19th-century belief that the United States was divinely ordained to expand across the North American continent.

Issues of Slavery

Political, economic, and moral debates over the continuation, expansion, or abolition of human bondage in the U.S.

Anti-African & Anti-Abolitionist Riots

Violent urban uprisings (1830s–1850s) targeting free Blacks and abolitionists to intimidate and suppress antislavery activity.

Underground Railroad

Secret network of safe houses and guides that helped enslaved people escape to free states and Canada.

Bleeding Kansas

1854-1859 guerrilla war between pro-slavery and antislavery settlers sparked by the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

Raid on Harpers Ferry

1859 assault led by John Brown to seize a federal arsenal and spark a slave rebellion; failed but intensified sectional tensions.

Dred Scott Decision (1857)

Supreme Court ruling denying citizenship to Blacks and declaring Congress lacked power to ban slavery in the territories.

Fugitive Slave Act of 1850

Strict federal law requiring the return of escaped enslaved people and penalizing those who aided runaways.

African Nationalism (Antebellum)

Early Black ideology emphasizing pride in African heritage and advocacy for self-determination or emigration.

Abraham Lincoln’s View of Race

Evolved from limiting slavery’s spread to embracing emancipation; still held paternalistic racial views common to his era.

African Resistance

Forms of opposition by enslaved and free Blacks—including revolts, escape, and intellectual protest—against slavery.

American Colonization Society (ACS)

Organization (1816) promoting the relocation of free Blacks to Liberia in West Africa.

American Anti-Slavery Society

Nationwide abolitionist group founded in 1833 by William Lloyd Garrison and allies.

New England Anti-Slavery Society

Regional abolitionist society (1832) that later merged into the national organization.

Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society

State-based abolitionist group advocating emancipation and equal rights.

Freedom’s Journal

First Black-owned newspaper in the U.S. (1827), published in New York City.

The North Star

Abolitionist newspaper founded by Frederick Douglass in 1847.

The Colored American

African-American weekly (1837-1842) promoting abolition and Black advancement.

Amistad Revolt (1839)

Successful shipboard rebellion by Africans who had been illegally captured; led to a landmark Supreme Court case.

Creole Revolt (1841)

Mutiny on the American slave ship Creole that resulted in freedom for 128 enslaved people in the Bahamas.

Toussaint L’Ouverture

Leader of the Haitian Revolution, inspiring enslaved resistance throughout the Americas.

Gabriel Prosser

Organizer of a planned slave revolt near Richmond, Virginia, in 1800.

Denmark Vesey

Free Black carpenter accused of plotting a large Charleston slave uprising in 1822.

David Walker

Author of the 1829 "Appeal," urging enslaved people to fight for freedom and equality.

John Brown

White abolitionist who advocated armed struggle and led the Harpers Ferry raid.

Nat Turner

Leader of the 1831 Virginia slave rebellion, the deadliest in U.S. history.

Frederick Douglass

Former slave turned leading abolitionist orator, writer, and reformer.

Martin Delany

Black nationalist, physician, and first African-American field officer in the Union Army.

William Lloyd Garrison

White abolitionist editor of The Liberator and co-founder of the AASS.

Civil War Myth

Narrative that the war was only about states’ rights—not slavery—and was bloodless for civilians.

Civil War Reality

Conflict primarily over slavery that caused massive casualties and civilian hardship.

Key Factors Leading to the Civil War

Sectional economic differences, slavery expansion debates, political breakdown, and cultural polarization.

54th Massachusetts Regiment

First officially recognized African-American Union infantry unit; proved Black soldiers’ bravery at Fort Wagner.

Contraband of War

Union designation for escaped enslaved people, allowing them to be sheltered and employed by the army.

Fort Pillow Massacre (1864)

Confederate forces killed surrendering Black Union troops in Tennessee.

Confederate States of America

Breakaway nation of 11 Southern states formed in 1861 to preserve slavery.

Emancipation Proclamation (1863)

Lincoln’s wartime order freeing enslaved people in rebelling states and authorizing Black military service.

Jefferson Davis’s Counter-Proclamation

Confederate president’s declaration condemning the emancipation order and threatening captured Black soldiers.

New York City Draft Riot (1863)

Violent protest against Union conscription that targeted Black residents and abolitionists.

Sherman’s March to the Sea

Union campaign of total war through Georgia (1864) aimed at crippling Confederate morale and resources.

Special Field Order No. 15

Sherman’s directive reserving coastal land in Georgia and South Carolina for freedpeople ("40 acres and a mule").

Reconstruction (Myth)

Lost Cause depiction of federal tyranny and Black misrule in the postwar South.

Reconstruction (Reality)

Complex effort to rebuild the South, extend civil rights, and integrate freedpeople into society, met with fierce resistance.

Freedmen’s Bureau

Federal agency (1865-1872) providing aid, education, and legal help to formerly enslaved people.

13th Amendment

1865 constitutional amendment abolishing slavery nationwide.

14th Amendment

1868 amendment granting citizenship and equal protection under the law.

15th Amendment

1870 amendment prohibiting voting discrimination based on race, color, or previous servitude.

Radical Republicans

Congressional faction advocating full civil rights and harsh Reconstruction policies for the South.

African Americans in Politics (Reconstruction)

Over 2,000 Black officeholders at local, state, and federal levels, including Hiram Revels and Blanche K. Bruce.

Ku Klux Klan

White supremacist terrorist organization founded in 1865 to restore white rule; led early by Nathan Bedford Forrest.

Nathan Bedford Forrest

Confederate general and first Grand Wizard of the KKK.

Election of 1876

Contested presidential race between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel J. Tilden.

Compromise of 1877

Deal awarding Hayes the presidency in exchange for the end of federal Reconstruction troops in the South.

Disfranchisement Strategies

Poll taxes, literacy tests, grandfather clauses, and white primaries used to strip Black voting rights.

Sharecropping

Labor system trapping freedpeople in debt by renting land for a share of the crop.

Jim Crow Segregation

State and local laws enforcing racial separation in public and private facilities.

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

Supreme Court decision upholding "separate but equal" segregation.

Racial Etiquette (Jim Crow)

Strict social rules dictating deferential behavior by Blacks toward whites.

Lynching

Extrajudicial mob killings, primarily of African Americans, to enforce racial hierarchy.

Convict Leasing

System in which Southern states rented prisoners, mostly Black, to private businesses for labor.

Social Darwinism

Misapplication of evolutionary theory to justify racial hierarchy and laissez-faire policies.

Booker T. Washington

Educator who advocated industrial education and economic self-help in the "Atlanta Compromise" speech (1895).

W. E. B. Du Bois

Scholar and activist who demanded immediate civil rights and co-founded the NAACP.

Niagara Movement (1905)

Civil rights group led by Du Bois calling for full political, civil, and social rights for Blacks.

Great Migration

Mass movement of African Americans from the rural South to Northern and Western cities (1915-1970).

Red Summer (1919)

Nationwide wave of race riots, including deadly violence in Chicago and Washington, D.C.

Worst Race Riot (Tulsa 1921)

White mob destroyed Tulsa’s Greenwood District, killing hundreds and razing "Black Wall Street."