History exam 3

Emancipation Proclamation

ID: 1863 executive order by Lincoln freeing slaves in Confederate states. Significance: Shifted the war's purpose to ending slavery and kept Europe from helping the South.

13th Amendment

ID: 1865 Constitutional amendment that abolished slavery in the U.S. Significance: Legally and permanently ended the institution of slavery.

14th Amendment

ID: 1868 amendment granting citizenship and 'equal protection' to everyone born in the U.S. Significance: Provided the legal basis for all future civil rights movements.

15th Amendment

ID: 1870 amendment prohibiting voting discrimination based on race or previous servitude. Significance: Granted Black men the right to vote (on paper) for the first time.

Dred Scott Case

ID: 1857 Supreme Court ruling that Black people weren't citizens and slavery couldn't be banned in territories. Significance: Infuriated the North and made the Civil War almost inevitable.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

ID: 1854 law letting 'popular sovereignty' (voting) decide slavery in those territories. Significance: Led to 'Bleeding Kansas' violence and the creation of the Republican Party.

Freedmen’s Bureau

ID: 1865 federal agency created to help former slaves with food, housing, and education. Significance: Represented the first major federal welfare effort in U.S. history.

Compromise of 1877

ID: Political deal that gave Hayes the presidency in exchange for removing federal troops from the South. Significance: Effectively ended Reconstruction and began the Jim Crow era.

Black Codes

ID: Discriminatory laws passed by Southern states (1865-66) to restrict the freedom of former slaves. Significance: Convinced Congress that a harsher 'Radical Reconstruction' was necessary.

Fort Sumter

ID: A federal fort in South Carolina where the first shots of the Civil War were fired in 1861. Significance: Marked the official start of the military conflict between North and South.

Battle of Gettysburg

ID: 1863 battle in Pennsylvania known as the 'high water mark' of the Confederacy. Significance: A massive Union victory that turned the tide of the war against the South.

Anaconda Plan

ID: Union strategy to blockade Southern ports and control the Mississippi River. Significance: Successfully strangled the Southern economy and split the Confederacy in half.

Appomattox

ID: The Virginia town where Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant in 1865. Significance: Effectively ended the Civil War combat and began the reunion process.

Ku Klux Klan

ID: A white supremacist group (1866) that used terror to stop Black people from exercising rights. Significance: Led to federal Enforcement Acts and the eventual collapse of Reconstruction.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

ID: 1852 novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe depicting the cruelty of slavery. Significance: Humanized slaves for Northerners and massively boosted the abolitionist cause.

Ulysses S. Grant

ID: The lead Union General who later became the 18th U.S. President. Significance: His 'total war' strategy won the war; he later fought to protect Reconstruction.

Andrew Johnson

ID: 17th President who took over after Lincoln and favored lenient terms for the South. Significance: His clashes with Congress led to the first-ever presidential impeachment.

Cornerstone Speech

ID: 1861 speech by Confederate VP Alexander Stephens claiming the South was built on white supremacy. Significance: Proved that slavery was the core reason for Southern secession.

Popular Sovereignty

ID: The policy of letting residents of a territory vote on whether to allow slavery. Significance: Instead of keeping peace, it led to violent conflict in the territories.

Manifest Destiny

ID: 19th-century belief that the U.S. was destined to expand across North America. Significance: Justified westward growth but intensified the conflict over spreading slavery.

Secession

ID: The formal withdrawal of 11 Southern states from the Union in 1860-61. Significance: Directly led to the creation of the Confederacy and the start of the Civil War.

Radical Republicans

ID: A wing of the Republican Party that wanted harsh punishment for the South and full rights for Black people. Significance: They controlled Reconstruction and passed the 14th/15th Amendments.

Sharecropping

ID: A system where farmers worked land owned by others in exchange for a share of the crops. Significance: Kept many former slaves in a cycle of debt and poverty similar to slavery.

John Brown

ID: An extreme abolitionist who led a raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859 to start a slave revolt. Significance: He became a martyr in the North and a terrorist figure in the South.

Total War

ID: A military strategy of destroying an enemy’s resources and will to fight, not just their army. Significance: Used by Sherman in his 'March to the Sea' to break the South’s spirit.

Abraham Lincoln

ID: 16th U.S. President who led the Union during the Civil War. Significance: He preserved the Union, issued the Emancipation Proclamation, and was assassinated in 1865.

Robert E. Lee

ID: The lead General of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. Significance: His tactical brilliance kept the South in the war much longer than expected.

Antietam

ID: 1862 battle in Maryland; the bloodiest single day in American history. Significance: Provided the 'victory' Lincoln needed to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.

Jim Crow Laws

ID: State and local laws in the South that enforced racial segregation. Significance: Denied Black Americans their 14th/15th Amendment rights for nearly a century.

Plessy v. Ferguson

ID: 1896 Supreme Court case that ruled 'separate but equal' was constitutional. Significance: Legally sanctioned racial segregation across the United States.

Carpetbaggers

ID: A derogatory term for Northerners who moved South during Reconstruction for profit or politics. Significance: Represented the Southern resentment toward Northern influence during Reconstruction.

Scalawags

ID: A derogatory term for Southern whites who supported Reconstruction and the Republican Party. Significance: They were seen as traitors to the South but were key to local Reconstruction govts.

Jefferson Davis

ID: The first and only President of the Confederate States of America. Significance: He struggled to manage the Southern economy and unify the states during the war.

Harpers Ferry

ID: The site of John Brown's 1859 raid on a federal armory. Significance: Increased Southern fears of slave rebellions and Northern interference.

Gettysburg Address

ID: A short, famous speech given by Lincoln in 1863 to dedicate a cemetery. Significance: Redefined the war as a struggle for 'a new birth of freedom' and equality.

Sherman’s March

ID: 1864 Union campaign through Georgia that used total war tactics to destroy everything in its path. Significance: Broke the Confederacy's economic ability and will to continue the war.

Vicksburg

ID: 1863 Union victory that gave the North control of the Mississippi River. Significance: Split the Confederacy in two and was a major turning point in the West.

Reconstruction

ID: The period (1865–1877) after the Civil War dedicated to rebuilding the South and reuniting the nation. Significance: Saw major constitutional changes but ultimately failed to secure long-term racial equality.

Civil Rights Act of 1866

ID: The first federal law to define citizenship and affirm that all citizens are equally protected by the law. Significance: It was the precursor to the 14th Amendment.

10% Plan

ID: Lincoln's lenient plan for Reconstruction that required 10% of voters to swear loyalty to the Union. Significance: Showed Lincoln’s desire for a quick and peaceful reunion rather than punishment.

Wade-Davis Bill

ID: A harsh Reconstruction plan proposed by Radical Republicans requiring 50% loyalty. Significance: Showed the deep divide between the President and Congress over how to handle the South.

Compromise of 1850

ID: A series of laws that admitted California as a free state but included a harsh Fugitive Slave Act. Significance: Temporarily delayed the Civil War but deepened sectional tensions.

Fugitive Slave Act

ID: A law that required Northerners to help capture runaway slaves. Significance: It turned many neutral Northerners into abolitionists and increased hostility toward the South.

Missouri Compromise

ID: 1820 deal that kept the balance of power by admitting Missouri as slave and Maine as free. Significance: Established the 36°30' line as the boundary for slavery for decades.

Bleeding Kansas

ID: A period of guerrilla warfare between pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers in Kansas territory. Significance: Served as a small-scale 'preview' of the coming Civil War.

Election of 1860

ID: Presidential election won by Abraham Lincoln without a single Southern electoral vote. Significance: Served as the immediate trigger for Southern secession.

The Confederacy

ID: The government formed by the 11 Southern states that seceded from the Union. Significance: Its existence challenged the survival of the United States as a single nation.

Ironclads

ID: Steam-propelled warships protected by iron or steel armor plates. Significance: Revolutionized naval warfare during the Civil War (e.g., Monitor vs. Merrimack).