Civil War and Reconstruction Terms

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, legislative acts, court decisions, strategies, and amendments from Unit 1: Civil War and Unit 2: Reconstruction.

Sectionalism

Loyalty to one's region of the country over loyalty to the nation as a whole. The differing economies and views on slavery between the North (industrial, anti-slavery) and South (agricultural, pro-slavery) created the sectional divide that led to the Civil War.

States' Rights

The belief that individual states had the authority to make their own decisions on issues like slavery, free from federal interference. Used by Southern states to justify secession from the Union.

Compromise of 1850

Series of laws to ease tensions over slavery: California admitted as a free state; slave trade banned in Washington D.C.; strict Fugitive Slave Act enacted; remaining Mexican Cession territory open to slavery by popular sovereignty.

Fugitive Slave Act (1850)

Required citizens in all states (including free states) to help capture and return escaped enslaved people to their owners. Angered Northerners and increased opposition to slavery.

Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)

Law introduced by Stephen Douglas that repealed the Missouri Compromise and used popular sovereignty to decide slavery in the Kansas and Nebraska territories. Led to violent conflict ('Bleeding Kansas') and the founding of the Republican Party.

Dred Scott Decision (1857)

Supreme Court decision ruling that enslaved people were property-not citizens-and could not sue for their freedom. Also declared the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional, ruling Congress could not ban slavery in territories. Pushed the nation closer to civil war.

Secession

The formal withdrawal of Southern states from the United States beginning after Lincoln's 1860 election. Eleven states formed the Confederate States of America, sparking the Civil War.

Anaconda Plan

Union military strategy designed by General Winfield Scott to defeat the Confederacy by blockading Southern ports, controlling the Mississippi River, and squeezing the South economically.

Emancipation Proclamation (1863)

Executive order by President Lincoln declaring enslaved people in Confederate-held territory to be free. Did NOT free enslaved people in border states loyal to the Union; transformed the war into a fight against slavery.

Battle of Gettysburg (1863)

Three-day July 1863 battle in Pennsylvania that became the turning point of the Civil War. The Union victory ended Confederate invasions of the North and crippled the Confederate army.

Siege of Vicksburg

Six-week Union siege in Mississippi. General Ulysses S. Grant's victory split the Confederacy in two and gave the Union complete control of the Mississippi River. Marked the military turning point of the Civil War.

Gettysburg Address

Brief but powerful speech by Lincoln honoring Union dead at Gettysburg. Redefined the war as a struggle to preserve democracy and fulfill the promise of equality in the Declaration of Independence.

13th Amendment (1865)

Abolished slavery and involuntary servitude throughout the United States. The first of the Reconstruction Amendments.

14th Amendment (1868)

Granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the U.S., including formerly enslaved people. Guaranteed equal protection of the laws and due process. Created largely in response to the Black Codes.

15th Amendment (1870)

Prohibited federal and state governments from denying any citizen the right to vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude. Did not extend voting rights to women.

Freedmen's Bureau

Federal agency (1865-1872) that helped formerly enslaved people transition to freedom by providing food, housing, medical care, education, and assistance with labor contracts.

Ten Percent Plan

Lincoln's lenient Reconstruction plan that would readmit Southern states to the Union when 10% of voters swore loyalty to the U.S. and accepted emancipation.

Radical Republicans

Group of Republicans in Congress who demanded harsh punishment for the South and full political and civil rights for African Americans. Pushed through Congressional Reconstruction and the Civil Rights Act of 1866.

Black Codes

Laws passed by Southern states after the Civil War that severely restricted the rights of newly freed African Americans-preventing them from voting, owning property, serving on juries, or moving freely. Directly led to the 14th Amendment.

Sharecropping

Agricultural system that replaced slavery in the South. Landowners allowed farmers (often formerly enslaved people) to work the land in exchange for a share of the crop. Often kept workers trapped in cycles of debt.

Carpetbaggers

Term used by Southerners to describe Northerners who moved to the South after the Civil War, often seen as opportunists exploiting the South's unstable post-war conditions for political or financial gain.

Scalawags

Southern whites who supported Reconstruction and the Republican Party. Despised by other Southerners who viewed them as traitors to the South.

Ku Klux Klan (KKK)

White supremacist terrorist organization formed after the Civil War. Used violence and intimidation against African Americans and their allies to enforce white supremacy and undermine Reconstruction.

Compromise of 1877

Political deal that resolved the disputed 1876 presidential election: Republican Rutherford B. Hayes became president in exchange for the removal of federal troops from the South, effectively ending Reconstruction.

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

Supreme Court ruling that established the 'separate but equal' doctrine, making racial segregation legal as long as facilities were considered equal. Provided constitutional basis for Jim Crow laws.

Jim Crow Laws

State and local laws passed in the South after Reconstruction that enforced racial segregation in public facilities, schools, transportation, and voting. Created to circumvent the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. Lasted until the 1960s.