AP United States History - Unit 5: 1845-1877 Vocab Sheet

Ported by Ethan Stevens

13th Amendment

Ratified in 1865, abolished slavery throughout the United States except as punishment for a crime. Made emancipation permanent and national, extending beyond the Emancipation Proclamation’s wartime limits.

14th Amendment

Ratified in 1868, established citizenship for people born or naturalized in the United States and guaranteed due process and equal protection. Overturned the citizenship ruling in Dred Scott and expanded federal authority to protect civil rights against state violations.

15th Amendment

Ratified in 1870, prohibited denying voting rights on the basis of race, color, or previous enslavement. Expanded Black male suffrage, but excluded women and was later undermined by discriminatory restrictions and violence.

Annexation of Texas

The United States admitted the formerly independent Republic of Texas as a state in 1845. Annexation intensified sectional conflict over slavery and contributed to war with Mexico, which disputed Texas’s independence and southern boundary.

Battle of Antietam

September 1862 battle in Maryland that halted Robert E. Lee’s first invasion of the North; the bloodiest single day in American history. Although tactically inconclusive, its strategic outcome gave Lincoln the opportunity to announce preliminary emancipation.

Battle of Gettysburg

July 1–3, 1863, Union victory in Pennsylvania that ended Lee’s second invasion of the North. A major turning point that weakened Confederate offensive capabilities and, alongside Vicksburg, shifted momentum toward the Union.

Black Codes

Southern laws passed in 1865–1866 that restricted freedpeople’s rights and sought to maintain a dependent Black labor force. Vagrancy laws and restrictive labor contracts helped recreate conditions resembling slavery.

Bleeding Kansas

Violent conflict between proslavery and antislavery settlers in Kansas during the 1850s, following the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Demonstrated the failure of popular sovereignty to resolve slavery’s expansion peacefully and deepened sectional polarization.

Carpetbaggers

Derogatory Southern term for Northerners who moved South during Reconstruction. Their motives varied, including economic opportunity, political advancement, and assistance to freedpeople; many supported Republican governments.

Compromise of 1850

Sectional agreement admitting California as a free state, organizing Utah and New Mexico under popular sovereignty, settling Texas’s boundary, ending Washington, D.C.’s slave trade, and strengthening fugitive slave enforcement. Temporarily reduced tensions but generated new conflict over slavery.

Compromise of 1877

Informal political settlement associated with the disputed 1876 presidential election, allowing Republican Rutherford B. Hayes to take office. Withdrawal of remaining troops protecting Republican state governments in the South marked the conventional end of Reconstruction.

Copperheads

Northern Peace Democrats who opposed the Civil War and called for a negotiated settlement with the Confederacy. Their criticism of conscription, emancipation, and Lincoln’s wartime powers revealed divisions within the Union.

Credit Mobilier Scandal

Railroad construction company used by Union Pacific insiders to inflate construction charges and enrich themselves during transcontinental railroad building. The scandal, exposed in 1872, implicated members of Congress and symbolized corruption linking business and government.

Dred Scott v. Sandford

Supreme Court ruling that Black Americans were not U.S. citizens under the Constitution and that Congress could not prohibit slavery in federal territories. Invalidated the Missouri Compromise restriction and intensified Northern fears of expanding slaveholder power.

Election of 1860

Four-way presidential contest won by Abraham Lincoln, whose Republican platform opposed slavery’s expansion into the territories. His victory without carrying a slave state convinced many Southern leaders that their political influence was declining and triggered secession.

Emancipation Proclamation

Lincoln’s wartime order, effective January 1, 1863, declaring enslaved people free in areas designated as in rebellion. Excluded loyal slave states and certain Union-controlled areas, but made emancipation a Union war aim and authorized Black military service.

Ex Parte Milligan

1866 Supreme Court decision ruling that civilians could not be tried by military tribunals where civilian courts remained open. Established limits on wartime military authority and affirmed constitutional protections during emergencies.

Fifty-Four Forty or Fight!

Expansionist slogan demanding U.S. control of Oregon Country up to latitude 54°40′, reflecting Manifest Destiny and tensions with Britain. President Polk ultimately accepted the 49th parallel boundary in 1846 to avoid war with Britain.

Fort Sumter

Federal fort in Charleston Harbor attacked by Confederate forces on April 12, 1861, beginning the Civil War. Lincoln’s subsequent call for troops prompted four additional slave states, including Virginia, to secede.

Freedmen’s Bureau

Federal agency established in 1865 to assist formerly enslaved people and impoverished Southerners with food, medical care, education, and labor disputes. Helped establish Black schools but faced limited resources, white resistance, and opposition from President Johnson.

Free Soil Party

Political party formed in 1848 to oppose slavery’s expansion into western territories. Emphasized protecting opportunities for free labor and white settlers rather than demanding immediate abolition where slavery already existed; helped lay groundwork for the Republican Party.

Fugitive Slave Act (1850)

Federal law requiring assistance in capturing escaped enslaved people and denying alleged fugitives jury trials and the right to testify on their own behalf. Its harsh enforcement radicalized Northern opposition and encouraged resistance through personal liberty laws and abolitionist networks.

General Ulysses S. Grant

Union general whose victory at Vicksburg and coordinated campaigns against Confederate armies helped secure Union victory. As president from 1869–1877, supported Reconstruction and federal action against the Klan, though scandals and economic crisis weakened his administration.

Gettysburg Address

Lincoln’s November 1863 speech connecting the Civil War to the Declaration of Independence’s principle of equality. Framed Union victory as necessary for a “new birth of freedom” and the survival of democratic government.

Greenbacks

Paper currency issued by the federal government during the Civil War that was not redeemable in gold or silver at the time. Helped finance the Union war effort and expanded federal monetary authority, while contributing to inflation and later currency debates.

Homestead Act

1862 law offering eligible settlers 160 acres of federal land if they lived on and improved it for five years. Encouraged western settlement and free-labor farming while accelerating Native American dispossession.

Jefferson Davis

President of the Confederate States of America, 1861–1865, who sought to secure Southern independence and preserve slavery. His efforts to centralize wartime authority often conflicted with Confederate commitments to states’ rights.

Jim Crow

System of laws and practices enforcing racial segregation and white supremacy, especially in the South after Reconstruction. Combined segregated public facilities with disfranchisement and racial violence, undermining the promises of the Reconstruction amendments.

John Brown’s Raid on Harper’s Ferry

1859 attack on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, intended to obtain weapons for an uprising against slavery. Its failure and Brown’s execution made him a martyr to some Northerners and intensified Southern fears of abolitionist violence.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

1854 law championed by Stephen Douglas that organized Kansas and Nebraska under popular sovereignty. Repealed the Missouri Compromise’s restriction on slavery, sparked Bleeding Kansas, and helped cause the Whig Party’s collapse and Republican Party’s rise.

King Cotton Diplomacy

Confederate strategy based on the belief that British and French dependence on Southern cotton would secure diplomatic recognition or intervention. Failed as European countries found alternative cotton supplies and faced political obstacles to supporting a slaveholding Confederacy.

Ku Klux Klan

White supremacist terrorist organization founded during Reconstruction that used intimidation and murder against Black Americans and white Republicans. Sought to suppress Black voting, restore white Democratic control, and overturn Reconstruction governments.

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

Series of 1858 Illinois Senate campaign debates focused on slavery’s expansion. Lincoln opposed expansion, while Douglas defended popular sovereignty; Douglas’s Freeport Doctrine alienated Southern Democrats, and the debates elevated Lincoln’s national profile.

Manifest Destiny

Belief that the United States was destined to expand across North America, spreading its institutions and culture. Justified territorial acquisition and settlement while intensifying conflict over slavery and the displacement of Native Americans and Mexicans.

Mexican-American War

1846–1848 war arising from Texas annexation, a disputed border, and U.S. expansionist ambitions. U.S. victory produced vast territorial gains but renewed the sectional struggle over whether slavery would expand into the West.

Popular Sovereignty

Policy allowing settlers in a territory to decide whether to permit slavery. Promoted as a democratic compromise, but competing interpretations and violence—especially in Kansas—showed its inability to resolve sectional conflict.

President Abraham Lincoln

President from 1865–1869 who favored rapid restoration of Southern states with limited federal protections for freedpeople. Clashed with congressional Republicans, vetoed civil rights legislation, and was impeached in 1868 but acquitted by one Senate vote.

President Andrew Johnson

Expansionist Democratic president from 1845–1849 who pursued Manifest Destiny. Oversaw the Oregon boundary settlement and Mexican–American War, greatly enlarging U.S. territory while intensifying disputes over slavery’s expansion.

President James K. Polk

Supreme Court decision striking down a Pennsylvania law that interfered with the recovery of alleged fugitive slaves and affirming federal authority over rendition. Also held that states could not be compelled to enforce federal fugitive slave law, encouraging Northern noncooperation.

Radical Republicans

Republican faction seeking stronger federal protection of freedpeople’s rights and stricter conditions for Southern readmission. Leaders such as Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner supported Black male suffrage and challenged Johnson’s lenient Reconstruction policies.

Reconstruction Acts of 1867

Congressional laws dividing ten former Confederate states into five military districts. Required new state constitutions providing Black male suffrage and ratification of the 14th Amendment as conditions for restoring congressional representation.

Republican Party

Party formed in the 1850s around opposition to slavery’s expansion and support for free labor. United former Whigs, Free Soilers, and antislavery Democrats; backed economic modernization and became the dominant Northern party during the Civil War.

Robert E. Lee

Commander of the Confederacy’s Army of Northern Virginia, known for major victories despite limited resources. His surrender to Grant at Appomattox Court House in April 1865 signaled the effective collapse of the Confederate war effort.

Scalawags

Derogatory term used by opponents for white Southerners who supported the Republican Party and Reconstruction. Included Unionists, small farmers, and others seeking political or economic change; often targeted for intimidation and violence.

Sharecropping

Agricultural system in which landowners provided land and often supplies in exchange for a portion of a tenant’s crop. Gave freedpeople some independence from direct supervision, but crop liens and high-interest credit frequently trapped Black and white farmers in debt.

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

1848 treaty ending the Mexican-American War; Mexico recognized the Rio Grande as Texas’s boundary and ceded California and much of the Southwest for $15 million, with the United States assuming certain claims. The Mexican Cession reignited conflict over slavery’s expansion.

Wilmot Proviso

1846 proposal to prohibit slavery in territory acquired from Mexico. Passed the House but failed in the Senate; exposed sectional divisions and helped push slavery’s expansion to the center of national politics.