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Mexican Cession
Land that the US acquired during the Mexican-American War(1846-1848). These lands were California present-day Arizona and New Mexico and parts of Utah, Nevada, and Colorado.
"slave power" conspiracy
An argument by abolitionists, free soilers, and Republicans pre-Civil War, saying that southern slaveholders used their unfair representative advantage under the 3/5 Compromise of the Constitution, as well as clout within the Democratic Party, to demand extreme federal proslavery policies that the majority of US voters would not support (ex. annexation of Cuba). In similar term an idea by anti-slavery people that a small group of wealthy slave holders had taken control of the gov. and were trying to expand slavery to the North and West.
Popular Sovereignty
The principle that ultimate power lies in the hands of the electorate. Was initially called "squatter sovereignty" , then revised to its current name Stephen Douglas, under which settlers in each territory to determine its status as a free or slave state.
Fugitive Slave Act of 1850
A federal law setting up special federal courts facilitating the capture of anyone accused of being a runaway slave. Courts could consider a slaveowner's affidavit as proof, but defendants could not testify or receive jury trial. Controversial law led to armed conflicts between US marshals and abolitionists
Treaty of Kanagawa
1854 treaty in between the U.S and Japan after a show of military force by U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry, leaders of Japan agreed to permit American ships to refuel at two Japanese ports.
Ostend Manifesto
An 1854 manifesto urging President Franklin Pierce to seize the slave-owning province of Cuba from Spain. Northern Democrats denounced this aggressive initiative: plan was scuttled.
nativism
Opposition to immigration and to full citizenship of recent immigrants or to immigrants of a particular ethnic or national background. (Ex: anti-Irish discrimination in 1850s/ Asian exclusion laws between 1880s-1940s)
Dread Scott Decision
1857 Supreme Court decision ruling Missouri Compromise unconstitutional. Court ruled against slave Dread Scott, who claimed travels with his master into free states/territories made him and his family free. This decision also denied the federal govt. the right to exclude slavery from the territories and declared that African Americans were not citizens.
Harriet Beecher Stowe
An abolitionist who was the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) which conveyed the moral principles of abolitionism through personal situations.
Abraham Lincoln
The 16th President of the U.S.; Started off as a farm boy from Kentucky, eventually building himself up for success. Eventually became an Illinois senator, then becoming president. Was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth.
Wilmot Proviso
A ban on slavery proposed in 1846 banning slavery in any territories gain from the Mexican-American War.
free soil movement
Political movement opposing the expansion of slavery. Led to organization of Free Soil Party in 1848, depicting slavery as threat to republicanism and Jeffersonian ideal of freeholder society. Won wide support among white farmers.
Compromise of 1850
A law passed in 1850 meant to resolve the status of slavery in territories acquired by the US-Mexico War. Included admission of California as a free state and a new Fugitive Slave Act.
personal liberty laws
Laws enacted in many northern states guaranteeing to all residents. even alleged fugitives, the right to a jury trial.
filibustering
Private paramilitary campaigns, mounted specifically by southern proslavery advocates in the 1850s, to seize additional territory in the Caribbean or Latin America in order to establish control by U.S.-born leaders, with exception of eventual annexation by the U.S.
chain migration
Pattern by which immigrants find housing and work, learning to navigate a new environment, afterwards assisting other immigrants from their family, or home area to settle in the same location.
American/Know-Nothing Party
An anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic political party formed in 1851 rising from mass immigration in the 1840s, especially from Ireland/ Germany. In 1854, it gained control of the state governments of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.
Stephen Douglas
A Democratic senator from Illinois believing in popular sovereignty. Ran against Abraham Lincoln for president, ended up losing.
John Brown
An abolitionist commanding a free-state-militia in Kansas who attempted to start a slave rebellion, burning the town of Lawrence to the ground and starting an all out guerilla war that spread throughout the state of Kansas.
King Cotton
The Confederates' belief during the Civil War that cotton was so important to the British and French's economics that their governments would recognize the South as an independent nation and help to supply it with loans/arms.
"contrabands"
Slaves who fled plantations and sought protection behind Union lines during the Civil War.
Emancipation Proclamation
President Abraham Lincoln's proclamation issued January 1, 1863, legally abolishing slavery in all states remaining out of the Union. While it did not immediately free slaves, it signaled the end of the institution of slavery.
draft (conscription)
The system of selecting individuals for conscription, or compulsory military service, first implemented during the Civil War.
draft riots (in general and specific)
Violent protests against military conscription in the North led by working-class men who could not buy the exemption of the draft; occurred most dramatically in New York City.
U.S. Sanitary Commission
Organization that supported Union war effort through professional and volunteer medical aid.
scorched-earth campaign
A campaign in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia by Union general Philip H. Sheridan's troops. The troops destroyed grain, barns, and other useful resources to punish farmers who had aided Confederate raiders.
"hard war"
Philosophy and tactics used by Union general William Tecumseh Sherman, by which he treated civilians in combat.
Sherman's March to the Sea
1864
*General William Tecumseh Sherman led Union troops through Georgia
*Sherman and Union Commander, Ulysses S. Grant, believed in a "total war" that would break the South's psychological capacity to fight; Sherman's army sought to eliminate civilian support of Southern troops
*Sherman captured and burned Atlanta in September of 1864
*The purpose of destroying Atlanta was to lower Southern morale and diminish supplies
*Sherman led troops to Savannah, then on to South and North Carolina
Jefferson Davis
An American statesman and politician who served as President of the Confederate States of America for its entire history from 1861 to 1865
Ulysses S. Grant
an American general and the eighteenth President of the United States (1869-1877). He achieved international fame as the leading Union general in the American Civil War.
Ft. Sumter
April 12th, 1861- Confederate soldiers firing on this fort initiated the Civil War.
women in the war (p 433)
Women who helped throughout the Civil War by committing themselves to jobs on both sides of the war. Some in the North ended up starting the Women's Loyal National League. Jobs greatly varied depending on where one was: Battlefield: nurses, spies, scouts. Home front: farming, clerks, factory operatives, etc.
13th Amendment (1865)
Abolition of slavery w/o compensation for slave-owners
Habeas Corpus
A legal writ forcing govt. authorities to justify their arrest and detention of individuals. Lincoln suspended this during the Civil War to stop protests against drafts and other anti-Union activities.
Radical Republicans
Members of the Republican Party who were bitterly opposed to slavery and southern slave owners since the mid-1850s. Used the Confiscation Act of 1861 to use wartime legislation to destroy slavery.
greenbacks
Paper money issued by the U.S. Treasury during the Civil War to finance the war effort.
Twenty-Negro Rule
Law adopted by the Confederate Congress exempting one man from military conscription for every twenty slaves owned by a family. Law showed how dependence on coerced slave labor could be a military disadvantage, and it exacerbated class resentments among nonslaveholding whites that were required to serve in the army.
Lieber Code
Union guidelines for laws of war, issued in April, 1863. Code ruled that soldiers and prisoners must be treated equally without respect to color or race; justified a range of military actions if they were based on "necessity" that would "hasten surrender"; outlawed use of torture. Provided a foundation for later international agreements on the laws of war.
Gettysburg Address
Lincoln's November 1863 speech dedicating a national cemetery at the Gettysburg battlefield. Declared nation's founding ideal that "all men are created equal". Urged listeners to dedicate themselves out of the carnage of war to a "new birth of freedom" for the U.S.
Miscegenation
Derogatory term for interracial sexual relationships coined by Democrats in the 1864 election. They claimed that emancipation would allow African American men to gain sexual access to white women and produce mixed-race children.
Special Field Order No. 15
An order by General William T. Sherman, later reversed by policymakers, granting confiscated land to formerly enslaved families in Georgia and South Carolina so they could farm independently.
George McClellan
A general for northern command of the Army of the Potomac in 1861; nicknamed "Tardy George" because of his failure to move troops to Richmond; lost battle vs. General Lee near the Chesapeake Bay; Lincoln fired him twice.
Robert E. Lee
Confederate general who had opposed secession but did not believe the Union should be held together by force
casualty of war
Someone who is:
- Dead
- Wounded
- Unable to keep fighting
- Prisoner of war
secession
the formal withdrawal of a state from the Union
Black Troops
Black troops were initially not allowed to fight. However, once they were allowed to fight, it proved a good idea. The African Americans were more motivated and courageous to win the war for the Union as it had more immediate benefits for them. However, military service did not end racial discrimination. CULTURAL.
