US I Final Exam Study Guide Flashcards

Vocabulary terms encompassing the major eras of US History I, including the Union in Peril, Civil War, Reconstruction, Gilded Age, Progressive Era, and WWI.

Wilmot Proviso

A proposal during the 'Union in Peril' era aimed at banishing slavery in territory acquired from the Mexican-American War.

Compromise of 1850

A set of five separate bills passed by the United States Congress that defused a political confrontation between slave and free states.

Fugitive Slave Act

A law that was part of the Compromise of 1850 which required that all escaped slaves, upon capture, be returned to their masters.

Underground Railroad

A network of secret routes and safe houses used by enslaved African Americans to escape into free states and Canada with the help of Harriet Tubman and other abolitionists.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

An anti-slavery novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe that had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in the U.S.

Dred Scott Case

A landmark Supreme Court decision that ruled African Americans, whether enslaved or free, could not be American citizens and therefore had no standing to sue in federal court.

Election of 1860

The presidential election in which Abraham Lincoln was elected, serving as a primary catalyst for the outbreak of the American Civil War.

Anaconda Plan

The Union's strategic plan to defeat the Confederacy by blockading Southern ports and controlling the Mississippi River.

Emancipation Proclamation

An executive order issued by Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, freeing all enslaved people in Confederate-held territory.

13th Amendment

The constitutional amendment that abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime.

Radical Republicans

A faction of American politicians within the Republican Party during Reconstruction who advocated for the civil rights of formerly enslaved people and harsh terms for the former Confederate states.

Freedmen’s Bureau

An agency established by Congress in 1865 to provide food, clothing, hospitals, legal protection, and education for formerly enslaved people and poor whites in the South.

Black Codes

Restrictive laws designed to limit the freedom of African Americans and ensure their availability as a cheap labor force after slavery was abolished.

14th Amendment

The constitutional amendment that granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States and guaranteed equal protection under the laws.

15th Amendment

The constitutional amendment that prohibited the federal government and each state from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Sharecropping

A system of agriculture in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on their portion of land.

Laissez-Faire

The economic policy of letting owners of industry and business set working conditions without interference from the government.

Social Darwinism

The Gilded Age theory that individuals, groups, and peoples are subject to the same Darwinian laws of natural selection as plants and animals.

Robber Barons

A derogatory term applied to powerful Gilded Age wealthy and powerful American businessmen like Andrew Carnegie, Jay Gould, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and John D. Rockefeller.

Nativism

The political policy of promoting or protecting the interests of native-born or established inhabitants against those of immigrants.

Political Machine

A political organization, such as Tammany Hall, in which an authoritative boss or small group commands the support of a corps of supporters and businesses who receive rewards for getting out the vote.

Muckrakers

Reform-minded American journalists like Ida Tarbell during the Progressive Era who exposed established institutions and leaders as corrupt.

Yellow Journalism

Journalism that is based upon sensationalism and crude exaggeration, which played a role in the Spanish-American War.

14 Points

Woodrow Wilson's statement of principles for peace that was to be used for peace negotiations in order to end World War I.

Treaty of Versailles

The most important of the peace treaties that brought World War I to an end.