APUSH Unit 5 Key Concepts

Key concepts for AP US History Unit 5.

expansionism

A policy of territorial or economic expansion.

Manifest Destiny

The 19th-century doctrine that the expansion of the U.S. across the American continents was both justified and inevitable.

Mexican–American War

A conflict from 1846 to 1848 between the United States and Mexico, leading to significant territorial gains for the U.S.

nativism

A political policy favoring the interests of established inhabitants over those of immigrants.

Emancipation Proclamation

An executive order by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 that freed the slaves only in the Confederate states, but not the border states.

Gettysburg Address

A speech by Abraham Lincoln dedicating the cemetery at Gettysburg battlefield; emphasized equality and national purpose.

Reconstruction Era

The period following the Civil War during which the South was rebuilt and integrated back into the Union.

13th Amendment

The amendment that abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime in the United States.

14th Amendment

The amendment that granted citizenship and equal protection under the laws to all persons born or naturalized in the U.S.

15th Amendment

The amendment that granted African American men the right to vote.

Ten Percent Plan

A Reconstruction plan proposed by President Abraham Lincoln that allowed Southern states to rejoin the Union if 10% of their voters swore allegiance to the Union.

Wade-Davis Bill

A Reconstruction proposal that required a majority of white male citizens in a Southern state to take a loyalty oath and permanent disenfranchisement of Confederate leaders before rejoining the Union.

Black Codes

Laws passed in Southern states after the Civil War to restrict the rights of freedmen and maintain white supremacy.

These laws included restrictions on voting, labor contracts, and property ownership.

Freedmen’s Bureau

A federal agency established in 1865 to assist freed slaves in the South by providing food, housing, education, and medical care.

Civil Rights Act of 1866

Legislation that granted citizenship and equal rights to all persons born in the United States, including former slaves, and aimed to combat Black Codes.

Radical Republicans

Republicans who bitterly opposed slavery and South slave owners since the mid-1850s. They began to use wartime legislation to destroy slavery during Reconstruction.

Reconstruction Act of 1867

Legislation that divided the South into 5 military districts and required states to create new constitutions guaranteeing African American men the right to vote.

Tenure of Office Act

A federal law enacted in March 1867 that restricted the president's power to remove certain officeholders without the Senate's approval.

American Woman Suffrage Association

An organization founded in 1869 that advocated for women's right to vote, promoting a peaceful approach to achieving suffrage. They supported the 15th Amendment.

National Woman Suffrage Association

An organization founded in 1869 that advocated for women's right to vote and opposed the 15th Amendment for not including suffrage for women.

sharecropping

A system of agriculture where a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in exchange for a share of the crops produced, often leading to cycles of debt and poverty.

crop-lien laws

19th century laws that enforced lenders’ rights to a portion of harvested crops as repayment for debts. These laws left sharecroppers trapped in debt.

convict leasing

A system in the post-Civil War South where prisoners were leased to private companies for labor, often under brutal conditions and with little oversight.

Civil Rights Act of 1875

A federal law that required “full and equal” access to jury service, transportation, and public accommodations irrespective of race.

Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company

A financial institution established in 1865 to provide savings accounts for African American families and support their economic independence after the Civil War. Failed in June 1874.

classical liberalism

An ideology emphasizing individual liberty, limited government, and free markets, rooted in Enlightenment principles.

Whiskey Ring

A political scandal during Ulysses S. Grant's presidency involving a conspiracy among government officials and whiskey distillers to defraud the federal government of tax revenues.

Credit Mobilier

A political scandal during Ulysses S. Grant's presidency involving the Union Pacific Railroad and the manipulation of contracts to siphon off profits from government contracts.

Ku Klux Klan

A white supremacist organization founded in the aftermath of the Civil War, known for its use of terror and violence against African Americans and their allies to maintain white dominance and resist Reconstruction efforts.

Enforcement Laws

Legislation passed to combat the violence and intimidation tactics of the Ku Klux Klan during the Reconstruction era, aimed at protecting the civil rights of African Americans. Largely succeeded in shutting down KKK activity.

Civil Rights Cases

A series of Supreme Court decisions in 1883 that limited the effectiveness of the Civil Rights Act of 1875, ruling that the Fourteenth Amendment did not prohibit private discrimination.

Compromise of 1877

An informal agreement that resolved the disputed 1876 presidential election (giving Republicans the presidential candidate), resulting in the withdrawal of federal troops from the South and effectively ending Reconstruction.

Compromise of 1850

A series of legislative measures aimed at addressing the territorial and slavery disputes following the Mexican-American War, including the admission of California as a free state and the implementation of the Fugitive Slave Act.

The Homestead Act

A law passed in 1862 that granted 160 acres of public land to settlers for a small fee, provided they improved the land by building a dwelling and cultivating crops.

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

The 1848 treaty that ended the Mexican-American War, resulting in Mexico ceding significant territory to the United States, including present-day California, Arizona, New Mexico, and parts of Colorado, Utah, and Nevada.

The Missouri Compromise

An 1820 agreement that admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state, establishing a line to limit the spread of slavery in the western territories.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

A 1854 law that created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, allowing settlers to determine whether to permit slavery through popular sovereignty, leading to violent conflicts known as "Bleeding Kansas."

Dred Scott Cases

A series of Supreme Court cases involving enslaved African American Dred Scott, which ruled that African Americans were not citizens and that Congress could not prohibit slavery in the territories.

The Battle of Antietam

A significant Civil War battle fought in 1862, known for being the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, which led to a strategic Union victory and prompted President Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.

The Battle of Vicksburg

A major Civil War battle fought from May to July 1863, resulting in a decisive Union victory that gave the North control of the Mississippi River, effectively splitting the Confederacy in two.

Wilmot Proviso

A proposal made in 1846 by Representative David Wilmot of Pennsylvania to ban slavery in territory acquired from the US-Mexico War.

“slave power” conspiracy

A political argument, made by abolitions, free soilers, and Republicans in the pre-Civil War years, that southern slaveholders were using their unfair representative advantage under the 3/5ths compromise of the Constitution to demand extreme federal proslavery policies that the majority of American voters would not support.

popular sovereignty

The principle that ultimate power lies in the hands of the electorate, first promoted by Democratic candidate Senator Lewis Cass and revised by Stephen Douglas, under which Congress would allow settlers in each territory to determine its status as free or slave.

Fugitive Slave Act of 1850

A federal law that set up special federal courts to facilitate capture of anyone accused of being a runaway slave.

Led to armed conflict between US marshals and abolitionists.

Treaty of Kanagawa

An 1854 treaty in which, after a show of military force by US Commodore Matthew Perry, leaders of Japan agreed to permit American ships to refuel at two Japanese ports.

Stephen Douglas

A Democratic senator of Illinois that renamed popular sovereignty and linked it to Republican ideology, placing ultimate power in the hands of voters.