Unit 5: Civil War & Reconstruction

Andrew Jackson

7th president of the US founding member of the Democratic party

Democratic Party

A political party that emerged from the Democratic-Republican party.  Still exists today.

Whigs

Evolved out of opposition to the Democrats.  Supported banking and commerce.  Believed Congress was more important than the presidency

Missouri Compromise

Admitted Missouri as a slave state, Maine as a free state, and established a line at 36 degrees north as the boarder between free and slave states

Compromise of 1850

Admitted California as a free state, allowed New Mexico and Utah territories to make their own decisions about slavery, and adopted the Fugitive Slave Act

Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)

Combined the Kansas and Nebraska territories and allowed community members to determine if slavery would become part of the culture

Nullification Practice

Occurred when Congress passed high tariffs in 1828 and 1832.  Southern politicians, including Vice President John Calhoun, attempted to declare the tariffs unconstitutional

Abolition Movement

Movement to end slavery

Underground Railroad

A network of homes, stations, and people that helped slaves escape from southern states into the north and Canada

Seneca Falls Convention

First Women’s Rights convention held in Seneca, New York in 1848

Declaration of Seneca Falls

1848 document written by Elizabeth Cady Stanton that proposed rights for women

Fugitive Slave Act

A law passed as part of the Compromise of 1850 that required escaped slaves to return to their owners

Harriet Tubman

Slave from Maryland who escaped and became a conductor in the underground railroad

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Abolitionist who was the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Best-selling novel published in 1852 that portrayed slavery as a great moral evil

Dred Scott v. Stanford

Supreme Court case in 1857 that declared slaves were not entitled rights as citizens and any effort by Congress to prohibit the spread of slavery was unconstitutional

Election of 1860

Election in which Lincoln was voted into office and resulted in the first Southern states seceding from the Union

Secession

Formally withdrawing from a government

Fort Sumter

First battle of the Civil War

Appomattox Court House

Location in Virginia where General Lee surrendered to General Grant on April 9, 1865

Election of 1860

Election in which Lincoln was voted into office and resulted in the first Southern states seceding from the Union

Secession

Formally withdrawing from a government

Fort Sumter

First battle of the Civil War