Unit 4: American Civil War: 1844-1877

Popular Sovereignty

People of a territory should themselves decide the issue of slavery

Compromise of 1850

Henry Clay introduced a series of resolutions in an attempt to seek a compromise and avert a crisis between North and South, this included that the Fugitive Slave Act was amended, the slave trade in Washington, D.C. was abolished, California entered the Union as a free state, a territorial government was created in Utah, and an act was passed settling a boundary dispute between Texas and New Mexico that also established a territorial government in New Mexico

Thirteenth Amendment

Freed all slaves and abolished slavery and involuntary servitude in the United States

Kansas-Nebraska Act

Passed by the U.S. Congress on May 30, 1854. It allowed people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders. The Act served to repeal the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which prohibited slavery north of latitude 36°30´

Secession

When a state attempts to secede from, or leave, the nation it was once a part of

Union

Northern half of the country, a group of states that were generally anti-slavery

Manifest Destiny

19th century belief that Americans had the God given right to spread across the whole continent

Fifteenth Amendment

Granted African American men voting rights

Fourteenth Amendment

Granted African Americans citizenship and equal protection under the law

Fugitive Slave Act

Required that slaves be returned to their owners, even if they were in a free state

Confederacy

Southern half of the country, a group of states trying to separate over the issue of slavery

Sectionalism

Loyalty or support of a particular region or section of the nation, rather than the United States as a whole

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

Border States

Slave states that did not secede from the Union. They were Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, and after 1863, the new state of West Virginia.

Bleeding Kansas

The period of repeated outbreaks of violent guerrilla warfare between pro-slavery and anti-slavery force

Battle of Fort Sumter

The first battle that marked the beginning of the Civil War (Charleston, SC)

Wilmington (NC) Coup

By force, a white mob seized the reins of government in the port city and, in so doing, destroyed the local black-owned newspaper office and terrorized the African American community

Emancipation Proclamation

Issued by Lincoln to free all of the slaves in the Confederate states. The slaves in border states loyal to the Union, however, remained enslaved, it only applied to Confederate states in rebellion. (3rd)

Mexican-American War

Sparked by a dispute over the annexation of Texas by the United States and a long-standing dispute over the southern border (1st)

Appomattox Court House

Where the surrender of the Confederate Army under Robert E. Lee To Ulysses S. Grant took place on April 9, 1865 (4th)

Dred Scott Decision

Since slaves are property of their masters, a slave is not automatically granted his freedom when his master moves him to a free state or territory (2nd)

Lincoln Assassination

John Wilkes Booth shot this leader in the head at Ford Theater, just days after the Civil War ended (5th)

Reconstruction

Period after the Civil War during which Northern political leaders created plans for the governance of the South and a procedure for former Southern states to rejoin the Union (6th)