Oral Exam

Mexican Cession

The land acquired from Mexico after the Mexican-American War in 1848, raising issues over the expansion of slavery.

Compromise of 1850

A series of laws aimed at resolving the conflict over the status of slavery in newly acquired territories, which included the Fugitive Slave Act.

Bleeding Kansas

A series of violent events involving anti-slavery and pro-slavery settlers in Kansas, resulting from the Kansas-Nebraska Act and popular sovereignty.

Dred Scott v. Sandford

A Supreme Court case in 1857 declaring that African Americans were not citizens and Congress could not prohibit slavery in territories.

Election of Abraham Lincoln

The 1860 presidential election, seen by the South as a direct threat to slavery, leading to secession.

States' Rights

The principle that states have the right to govern themselves and challenge federal government actions they view as unconstitutional.

Military Reconstruction Act of 1867

Legislation that divided the former Confederacy into five military districts and established conditions for re-entry into the Union.

Ku Klux Klan

A white supremacist group that used violence to intimidate African Americans and suppress their voting rights during Reconstruction.

Freedmen's Bureau

A federal agency established to aid freed slaves and poor whites after the Civil War, providing education and legal assistance.

Jim Crow laws

State and local laws that enforced racial segregation and discrimination against African Americans in the post-Reconstruction South.

13th Amendment

An amendment to the U.S. Constitution that abolished slavery in the United States.

14th Amendment

An amendment granting citizenship and equal protection under the law to all persons born or naturalized in the U.S.

15th Amendment

An amendment prohibiting the denial of the right to vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Total War Strategy

A military strategy used by Union generals Grant and Sherman that involved attacking not only enemy troops but also the economic resources supporting the war.

Anaconda Plan

The Union's strategic plan aimed at suffocating the Confederate economy through a naval blockade and controlling the Mississippi River.

Reconstruction

The period following the Civil War during which the U.S. tried to reintegrate Southern states and address the rights of freed slaves.