Exam

James Fennimore Cooper

An American novelist known for his historical novels of frontier and Native American life.

Horace Mann

An educational reformer who promoted public education and the professionalization of teaching.

Frederick Douglass

An escaped slave who became a prominent activist, author, and speaker for abolition.

William Lloyd Garrison

An abolitionist known for his strong advocacy for the immediate emancipation of slaves.

Jefferson Davis

The President of the Confederate States during the American Civil War.

Nicholas Biddle

A financier who served as the president of the Second Bank of the United States.

Nat Turner

An enslaved man who led a revolt against slavery in Virginia, known as Nat Turner's Rebellion.

John Wilkes Booth

The actor who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln.

John Brown

An abolitionist who believed in armed insurrection to end slavery.

Oliver Winchester

The founder of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company.

Andrew Jackson

The seventh President of the United States known for his populist style and policies.

James K. Polk

The 11th President known for his role in territorial expansion of the United States.

Abraham Lincoln

The 16th President who led the U.S. during the Civil War and issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

Ulysses S. Grant

The 18th President and commanding general during the Civil War.

William Henry Harrison

The ninth President known for his brief term and death shortly after taking office.

Andrew Johnson

The 17th President who succeeded Lincoln and faced particularly tough Reconstruction challenges.

Civil Rights Act 1866

Legislation aimed at protecting the civil rights of African Americans post-Civil War.

13th Amendment

Constitutional amendment that abolished slavery in the United States.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

Legislation that allowed settlers in those territories to decide on the issue of slavery.

15th Amendment

Constitutional amendment that granted African American men the right to vote.

Black Codes

Laws enacted in the South to restrict freedom and rights of African Americans.

14th Amendment

Constitutional amendment guaranteeing equal protection under the law.

Tenure of Office Act

Legislation that restricted the president’s power to remove certain officeholders without Senate approval.

Emancipation Proclamation

An executive order by Lincoln that freed slaves in Confederate states.

Second Confiscation Act

Legislation that declared all slaves of rebellious owners to be free.

Wade-Davis Bill

A reconstruction proposal that required a majority of white male citizens to agree to loyalty before a state could return to the Union.

Wilmot Proviso

A proposal to ban slavery in territory acquired from Mexico.

Kitchen Cabinet

An informal group of advisors to President Andrew Jackson.

Telegraph

A communication system that transmitted messages over wires using signals.

Peculiar institution

A euphemism for the system of slavery in the American South.

Underground Railroad

A secret network aiding enslaved African Americans to escape to freedom.

Corrupt Bargain

The alleged agreement that led to John Quincy Adams' election as President over Andrew Jackson.

Bleeding Kansas

Violent political confrontations between anti-slavery and pro-slavery factions in Kansas.

Credit Mobilier

A scandal where Union Pacific Railroad insiders formed a company to rig contracts.

Sanitary Commission

An organization that improved medical care for soldiers during the Civil War.

Crittenden’s Compromise

A failed proposal to avoid Civil War by extending the Missouri Compromise line.

Radical Republicans

A faction within the Republican Party that advocated for harsh Reconstruction policies.

Freedmen’s Bureau

A federal agency designed to aid freed slaves during the Reconstruction era.

Compromise of 1850

A series of laws that attempted to resolve the conflict over slavery in territories.

Fort Sumter

The location of the first shots of the Civil War.

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

The treaty that ended the Mexican-American War and ceded significant territories to the U.S.

Trail of Tears

The forced relocation of Native American nations from southeastern parts of the U.S.

Battle of Antietam

The bloodiest single-day battle in American history during the Civil War.

Compromise of 1877

An informal agreement that resolved the disputed 1876 presidential election.

Manifest Destiny

The 19th-century doctrine that the expansion of the US throughout the American continents was both justified and inevitable.

Nullification

The idea that states could invalidate federal laws they deemed unconstitutional.

Carpetbaggers

Northerners who moved to the South during Reconstruction for political and economic opportunities.

Scalawags

Southern whites who supported Reconstruction and the Republican Party.

Redeemers

Southern Democrats who aimed to regain control of the South after Reconstruction.

Negro Rule

A derogatory term used during Reconstruction describing the political power of African Americans.

Harpers Ferry

Site of John Brown's raid to inspire a slave uprising.

Pottawatomie Massacre

An act of violence led by John Brown against pro-slavery settlers in Kansas.

First Battle of Bull Run

The first major battle of the Civil War, resulting in a Confederate victory.

Lost Cause

A term used by some historians to describe the factors that led to the defeat of the Confederacy.

Romanticism

An artistic movement emphasizing inspiration, subjectivity, and the individual.

Forty-niners

The nickname given to those who flocked to California during the gold rush of 1849.

Know-Nothings

A political party in the 1850s that was anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic.

Erie Canal

A canal in New York that linked Lake Erie to the Hudson River.

Fire-eaters

Radical pro-slavery politicians from the South who pushed for secession.

Transcendentalism

A literary and philosophical movement emphasizing intuition and spirituality over empirical observation.

Bank of the United States

The national bank chartered by Congress to regulate money and credit.