Unit 5: 1844-1877

Flashcards about the Civil War and Reconstruction Era

Whig Party

Cared more about internal improvements during the Election of 1844.

Democrats

Mostly expansionists who believed newly acquired land should remain in private ownership, without government interference.

Tyler

Proposed the annexation of Texas, south of the Missouri Compromise line.

Oregon Treaty

An agreement with Great Britain in 1846 that annexed Oregon.

Spot Resolution

A resolution by Whigs, abolitionists, and anti-imperialists demanding the Democratic president reveal the exact spot where American soldiers were killed by Mexicans.

Slave Power

Rich southern plantation owners who controlled the government.

Free Soil Party

Opposed slavery because they didn't want white settlers to compete with slave labor in new territories.

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848)

Mexico handed over most of the modern southwest to the U.S.

Gadsden Purchase

Acquired for $10 million to facilitate a transcontinental railroad along a southern route.

Popular Sovereignty

The concept that territories should decide for themselves whether to be slave or free states.

Compromise of 1850

Admitted California as a free state, enacted a stronger fugitive slave law, allowed Utah and New Mexico to decide based on popular sovereignty, and abolished the slave trade (but not slavery itself).

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Evoked public sympathy against slavery in 1852, similar to 'Common Sense'.

Dred Scott vs. Sandford

Stated that Congress could not regulate slavery, repealing the Northwest Ordinance, Missouri Compromise, and Kansas-Nebraska Act.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

Allowed people in Kansas and Nebraska to decide whether slavery would be allowed.

Personal Liberty Laws

Passed by anti-slavery states to demand trial by jury for all fugitives and guaranteed the right to a lawyer, weakening the Fugitive Slave Law.

Republicans

Anti-slavery Whigs, northern Democrats, and Free-Soilers dedicated to keeping slavery out of territories, developing a national road, liberal land distribution in the West, and increasing protective tariffs.

Know-Nothing Party

A party characterized by hatred of foreigners (nativism) and anti-Irish, anti-German, and anti-Catholic sentiments.

Border Ruffians

Violent pro-slavery Missourians who stayed in Kansas to sway the vote towards slavery.

John Brown

Radical abolitionist involved in the events of Bleeding Kansas and Harpers Ferry.

Dred Scott Decision

Ruled that slaves were property, not citizens, and that the federal government could not limit where slavery existed, essentially revoking the Missouri Compromise.

Jefferson Davis

Confederate States of America's leader

Battle of Antietam (1862)

The first win of the Union that gave Lincoln the platform to announce the Emancipation Proclamation.

The Battle of Gettysburg

The northernmost point the Confederacy army reached where Lee’s army suffered great casualties and retreated.

Gettysburg Address

Redefined the Civil War as not only a struggle to preserve the Union but also a struggle for human equality.

Writ of Habeas Corpus

Traditional protection against improper imprisonment, suspended in the South when people opposed increased central control.

Conscription

A military draft passed by the Confederacy in 1862, forcing many small farmers to serve in the army.

Greenbacks

Printing of national currency initiated by Lincoln.

Confiscation Act (1861)

Allowed the government to liberate any enslaved person owned by someone who supported the rebellion, though Lincoln refused to enforce it.

Emancipation Proclamation

Freed no enslaved people, but declared that on January 1st, 1863, the government would liberate all slaves residing in states still in rebellion.

13th Amendment

Prohibited slavery, passed in 1865.

Copperheads

A faction of the Democratic party in the Union who opposed the American Civil War and wanted an immediate end to the war.

Freedmen's Bureau

Established in Spring 1865 to help newly liberated Black people establish a place in postwar society.

Sherman’s March

Union army's march from Atlanta to the sea in the fall of 1864; burned everything to destroy Confederate morale.

Ten Percent Plan (1863)

Lincoln's plan to have 10 percent of 1860 voters swear allegiance to the Union and accept emancipation to reorganize state governments.

Wade-Davis Bill (1864)

Required former Confederate states to be ruled by military governments and 50% of the electorate to swear an oath to the U.S.

Black Codes

Limited the rights of freedmen to assemble and travel, instituted curfews, and required black people to carry special passes.

Special Field Order

Land seized from the Confederates was to be redistributed among the new freedmen, but Johnson rescinded Sherman’s order.

Fourteenth Amendment

Birthright citizenship, prohibited states from depriving any citizen of equality and liberty, gave states the right to either give freedmen the right to vote or stop counting them as voting population, barred previous Confederates from holding office, and excused Confederate war debt.