APUSH Period 5 Review 1844 - 1877 -1

Manifest Destiny

The 19th-century belief that the expansion of the United States throughout the American continents was both justified and inevitable.

Mexican-American War

Conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848, resulting in significant territorial gains for the U.S.

Oregon Territory

Region claimed by several nations, including the U.S. and Britain, leading to tensions and eventual settlement negotiations.

Wilmot Proviso

Proposed legislation to ban slavery in territory acquired from Mexico, intensifying sectional conflict.

Compromise of 1850

A package of five separate bills passed by the United States Congress that aimed to defuse tensions between slave and free states.

Fugitive Slave Laws

Laws that required escaped slaves to be returned to their masters, heightening tensions between North and South.

Bleeding Kansas

Violent conflicts in the Kansas Territory between anti-slavery and pro-slavery factions, highlighting the sectional conflict over slavery.

Dred Scott v. Sandford

An 1857 Supreme Court case ruling that African American slaves were not citizens and that Congress had no authority to prohibit slavery in the territories.

Emancipation Proclamation

An executive order issued by Abraham Lincoln in 1863 that freed all enslaved people in states in rebellion against the Union.

Reconstruction

The period after the Civil War during which the Southern states were reorganized and reintegrated into the Union.

Thirteenth Amendment

The constitutional amendment that abolished slavery in the United States.

Fourteenth Amendment

The amendment granting citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States, including former slaves.

Fifteenth Amendment

The amendment that prohibits the federal and state governments from denying a citizen the right to vote based on race.

Black Codes

Laws passed in the South restricting the rights and movements of newly freed African Americans.

Sharecropping

A system in which tenant farmers worked land owned by someone else in return for a share of the crops produced.

Radical Republicans

A faction within the Republican Party that advocated for the civil rights of African Americans and harsh policies for the South during Reconstruction.

Confiscation Acts

Laws allowing the Union to seize enemy property, including enslaved people, to weaken the Confederate war effort.

John Brown's Raid

An 1859 raid led by abolitionist John Brown on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, aiming to incite a slave uprising.

Ostend Manifesto

A document that suggested the U.S. should acquire Cuba by any means, including force, which inflamed tensions over slavery.

Know-Nothing Party

A political group that emerged in the 1850s, focused on nativism and opposition to immigration, especially from Catholics.

Panic of 1857

A financial panic in the United States that led to a severe economic depression primarily affecting the North.

Granville Woods

An African American inventor known for his contributions to the railroad and communications industries.