AP US History Unit 4: Civil War and Reconstruction Key Terms

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the key terms, significant figures, legislation, and concepts from AP US History Unit 4 (Slavery, Manifest Destiny, Sectional Crisis, Civil War, and Reconstruction).

Manifest Destiny

A set of ideas used to justify American expansion in the 1840s, weaving together the rhetoric of economic necessity, racial superiority, and national security, implying an inevitability of U.S. continental expansion.

John L. O'Sullivan

Influential editor of the Democratic Review who coined the phrase "manifest destiny" in 1845.

Stephen Austin

Leader of American immigration to Texas in the 1820s who negotiated land grants with Mexico, tried to moderate Texan rebelliousness in the 1830s, and later served as secretary of state for the independent Republic of Texas.

Alamo

Mission and fort that was the site of a siege and battle during the Texas Revolution resulting in the massacre of all its defenders, which galvanized Texas rebels and led to victory at the Battle of San Jacinto.

Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna

Political opportunist and general who served as president of Mexico eleven different times and commanded the Mexican army during the Texas Revolution and the war with the United States.

Sam Houston

Leader of the Texas revolutionaries (1835-1836), first president of the Republic of Texas, later a U.S. Senator from Texas, and a close ally of Andrew Jackson.

James K. Polk

Democratic president from 1845 to 1849 nicknamed "Young Hickory" who pursued an aggressive foreign policy that led to the Mexican War, settlement of the Oregon issue, and acquisition of the Mexican Cession.

Mexican-American War

War between the United States and Mexico (April 1846–February 1848) stemming from the annexation of Texas and a boundary dispute (Nueces River vs. Rio Grande), resulting in the U.S. acquiring over 500,000 square miles of territory.

Winfield Scott

Prominent military figure from the War of 1812 to the Civil War who distinguished himself in the Mexican War, ran unsuccessfully for president in 1852, and briefly commanded Union armies at the start of the Civil War.

Zachary Taylor

Military hero of the Mexican War and the last Whig elected president (1848), whose sudden death in July 1850 enabled the passage of the Compromise of 1850 through Congress.

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848)

Agreement that ended the Mexican War; Mexico yielded claims to Texas north of the Rio Grande and ceded California, Utah, and New Mexico territories to the U.S. for fifteen million dollars.

"slave power"

The belief that a slave-holding oligarchy existed to maintain slavery in the South and spread it nationwide, championing an aristocratic order that undermined northern capitalism and liberty.

Free Soil Party

Third party formed in 1848 from remnants of the Liberty Party under the slogan "free soil, free speech, free labor, and free men" that opposed the expansion of slavery into territories before absorbing into the Republican Party by 1856.

Wilmot Proviso

1846 congressional proposal to prohibit slavery in any territory acquired from the Mexican War; blocked in the Senate, it served as a rallying platform for antislavery forces.

Mexican Cession

Region comprising California and parts of the present-day American Southwest turned over to the United States by Mexico following the Mexican War.

Popular sovereignty

Political process promoted by Lewis Cass and Stephen Douglas where territorial residents voted directly to determine the legal status of slavery within their territory.

Nashville Convention

Summer 1850 meeting of delegates from nine southern states that monitored Compromise of 1850 negotiations, demanded extension of the Missouri Compromise line and a stronger Fugitive Slave law, and laid groundwork for secession.

Compromise of 1850

Henry Clay proposal shepherded by Stephen Douglas that admitted California as a free state, banned the slave trade in D.C., instituted a stricter Fugitive Slave Law, and left slavery in New Mexico and Utah to popular sovereignty.

Ostend Manifesto (1854)

Declaration by American diplomats suggesting the U.S. would be justified in seizing Cuba if Spain refused to sell it; its repudiation fueled fears of an aggressive southern "slave power."

Franklin Pierce

Northern Democratic president (1853-1857) with southern sympathies who prioritized sectional harmony and signed the controversial Kansas-Nebraska Act.

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, an influential antislavery novel that depicted the cruelty of chattel slavery, heightened sectional polarization, and helped provoke the Civil War.

Stephen Douglas

Illinois Democratic senator nicknamed the "Little Giant" who steered the Compromise of 1850 and Kansas-Nebraska Act through Congress and ran unsuccessfully against Lincoln in 1860.

Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)

Legislation authored by Stephen Douglas to organize western territories using popular sovereignty to determine slavery status, aimed at enabling a transcontinental railroad route ending in Chicago.

Know-Nothing Party

Influential 1840s and 1850s political party (officially the American Party) driven by nativism against immigrants and Catholics, advocating temperance, literacy tests, and extended waiting periods for citizenship.

Nativism

An ideology or policy prioritizing the interests of native-born or established inhabitants over immigrants, typically promoting immigration restrictions.

Second Party System

Political era lasting from 1828 to 1852 characterized by intense voter engagement and loyalty to the Whig or Democratic Party, which collapsed due to divisions over slavery.

Republican Party

Political party formed in 1854 in response to the Kansas-Nebraska Act that opposed the territorial expansion of slavery and supported protective tariffs, homesteads, and a transcontinental railroad.

John Fremont

Explorer and military officer who became the first presidential nominee of the Republican Party in 1856, whose radical antislavery views and behavior limited his appeal.

Dred Scott decision (1857)

Supreme Court ruling by Chief Justice Roger Taney declaring that African Americans were not citizens, the Fifth Amendment protected slavery in all territories, and the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional.

John Breckinridge

Vice president under James Buchanan and 1860 Southern Democratic presidential nominee who ran on a proslavery platform, dividing the party's vote, and later served as Confederate secretary of war.

John Brown

Radical abolitionist who led violent strikes against slaveholders in Kansas and Missouri and directed the 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry to trigger a slave uprising, resulting in his execution.

James Buchanan

Fifteenth U.S. president (1857-1861) widely rated by historians as a failure due to his indecisive handling of secession and the formation of the Confederacy.

Election of 1860

Presidential race in which Republican Abraham Lincoln defeated John C. Breckinridge, Stephen A. Douglas, and John Bell, immediately prompting seven Southern states led by South Carolina to secede.

Secession

The formal withdrawal of one or more states from the Union, initiated by South Carolina in December 1860 following Lincoln's election.

Abraham Lincoln

Sixteenth U.S. president (1861-1865) who preserved the Union during the Civil War, issued the Emancipation Proclamation, and was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865.

Ulysses S. Grant

Leading Union general whose relentless campaign forced Robert E. Lee's surrender in April 1865; he was elected president in 1868 and served two controversy-plagued terms.

Jefferson Davis

President of the Confederate States of America (1861-1865), former Mississippi senator, and U.S. secretary of war who advocated for the unrestricted expansion of slavery into federal territories.

Robert E. Lee

Confederate general and commander of the Army of Northern Virginia who surrendered his forces to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865.

Border States

Slave states that remained loyal to the Union during the Civil War (Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, and Missouri), pivotal to Lincoln's military and political calculations.

Cotton Diplomacy

Failed Confederate strategy to embargo cotton shipments to Great Britain to compel British diplomatic recognition and military intervention.

Emancipation Proclamation

Executive order issued by Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, freeing all enslaved people in states in open rebellion as a wartime military measure; it exempted the Border States.

Gettysburg Address

Lincoln’s brief speech delivered November 19, 1863, invoking the Declaration of Independence's equality principles and calling for a "new birth of freedom" to preserve self-government.

Copperheads

Northern Democrats opposed to the Civil War who sympathized with the South and pushed for an immediate negotiated peace, prominent in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.

George McClellan

Union general known for extreme organizational caution and reluctance to engage Lee; Lincoln removed him from command twice, and he later ran for president in 1864 on an antiwar platform.

William Seward

Lincoln’s secretary of state and primary 1860 nomination rival, known for his "irrepressible conflict" doctrine, who later orchestrated the purchase of Alaska from Russia.

Reconstruction

The post-Civil War era (1865-1877) focused on addressing the inequities and legacy of slavery and determining the political terms under which eleven seceded states rejoined the Union.

Ten-percent plan

Lenient Reconstruction blueprint by Lincoln and Johnson requiring 10 percent of a state's 1860 voters to pledge Union allegiance, renounce secession, and endorse the 13th Amendment before reestablishing government.

Wade-Davis Bill (1864)

Congressional Reconstruction measure requiring a majority of white male citizens to take an oath of allegiance and state constitutions to abolish slavery before readmission; killed by Lincoln's pocket veto.

Ku Klux Klan

Terrorist organization established during Reconstruction that used armed violence and intimidation to maintain white supremacy and prevent freedmen from exercising their constitutional rights.

Carpetbaggers

Pejorative term applied by white southerners to describe northern migrants who moved south during Reconstruction to participate in politics, business, or education.

Scalawags

Derogatory term used by southern opponents for white southerners who supported Reconstruction policies and cooperated with the Republican Party.

Andrew Johnson

Seventeenth U.S. president who clashed intensely with Radical Republicans over Reconstruction, leading to his 1868 impeachment, where he avoided removal by a single vote.

Radical Republicans

Congressional Republican faction that demanded uncompromised emancipation, extended civil and voting rights to freed slaves, and advocated sweeping transformations in the postwar South.

Charles Sumner

Radical Republican senator from Massachusetts assaulted on the Senate floor in 1856 who championed racial equality and authored the Civil Rights Act of 1875.

Thaddeus Stevens

Radical Republican leader in the House of Representatives who fought for equal rights, confiscation of Confederate land for freedmen, and the impeachment of Andrew Johnson.

Thirteenth Amendment (1865)

Constitutional amendment that permanently abolished slavery and involuntary servitude across all United States jurisdictions.

Fourteenth Amendment (1868)

Constitutional amendment guaranteeing citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the U.S., protecting equal protection and due process against state infringement, and nullifying the Dred Scott ruling.

Fifteenth Amendment (1870)

Constitutional amendment prohibiting governments from denying citizens the right to vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Freedmen’s Bureau

Federal agency created to support formerly enslaved individuals during Reconstruction, offering food, medical aid, legal support, and establishing over 4,000 schools throughout the South.

Tenure of Office Act (1867)

Statute intended to curb executive power by preventing the president from removing civil officials without Senate consent; Johnson's violation led to his 1868 impeachment.

Compromise of 1877

Informal agreement resolving the contested 1876 election by awarding Rutherford B. Hayes the presidency in exchange for withdrawing federal troops from the South, ending Reconstruction.