U.S. Civil War and Reconstruction Key Concepts and Legislation

Sectionalism

Loyalty to a part of the country rather than the whole; differing political, social, and economic views divided North and South.

Missouri Compromise (1820)

Missouri = slave state; Maine = free state; slavery banned north of the 36°30′ line in Louisiana Territory.

Compromise of 1850

California = free state; Utah & New Mexico use popular sovereignty; stricter Fugitive Slave Law; slavery banned in D.C.; Texas border settled.

Popular Sovereignty

People in a territory vote on slavery; compromise idea, but abolitionists feared it spread slavery.

Fugitive Slave Act

Required states/citizens to help capture escaped slaves; accused had no jury trial; citizens deputized to report runaways.

Personal Liberty Laws

Northern laws to resist the Fugitive Slave Act; protected escaped slaves.

Underground Railroad

Secret network of abolitionists who helped slaves escape to freedom using safe houses & routes to the North.

Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)

Overturned Missouri Compromise; voters decide slavery by popular sovereignty in Kansas & Nebraska.

Bleeding Kansas

Violence between pro-slavery and anti-slavery groups in Kansas after Kansas-Nebraska Act.

Know Nothings

Anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic political party of the 1850s (nativists).

Dred Scott

Slave who sued for freedom; Supreme Court ruled slaves are property, not citizens; Missouri Compromise ruled unconstitutional.

Harpers Ferry (1859)

John Brown's failed raid on federal arsenal to arm slaves and start revolt; deepened sectional tensions.

Confederate States of America

Confederation formed in 1861 by seceding Southern states (SC, TX, MS, FL, AL, GA, LA).

Abraham Lincoln

16th U.S. president; opposed spread of slavery; election triggered Southern secession.

Fort Sumter (1861)

First battle of the Civil War; Confederate attack on Union fort in South Carolina.

Blockade

Union naval effort to strangle Southern economy and cut off 'King Cotton' exports.

Anaconda Plan

Union strategy by Winfield Scott: blockade Southern ports, control Mississippi River, squeeze the Confederacy.

Border States

Slave states that stayed in the Union (Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware).

Contraband

Escaped slaves who reached Union army camps; many earned freedom after the war.

Emancipation Proclamation (1863)

Lincoln's executive order freeing slaves in Confederate states; shifted war goals to ending slavery.

Militia Act (1862)

Allowed African Americans to join the Union army; wealthy men could pay $300 or substitutes to avoid service.

54th Massachusetts Regiment

First official all-Black Union regiment; faced discrimination but proved themselves in battle.

Homestead Act (1862)

Offered settlers 160 acres of land if they lived on and improved it for 5 years.

Conscription (1863)

First U.S. military draft; required men 17-45 to serve; rich could pay $300 to avoid service.

Habeas Corpus

Legal right to be brought before a judge; Lincoln suspended it during the war to jail rebels without trial.

Inflation

Rising prices caused by too much money in circulation; major issue in the Confederacy.

Siege

Military tactic of surrounding and attacking a fortified place until surrender (e.g., Vicksburg).

Gettysburg Address (1863)

Lincoln's speech honoring Union dead; reaffirmed democracy and Union's cause.

Total War

Strategy using all resources and targeting civilian infrastructure to break enemy morale (used by Sherman).

13th Amendment (1865)

Constitutional amendment abolishing slavery in the U.S.

Reconstruction (1865-1877)

Period after Civil War; plans to rebuild South and bring states back into the Union.

Wade-Davis Bill (1864)

Harsh Reconstruction plan requiring majority of white males to swear loyalty; Lincoln pocket-vetoed it.

Freedmen's Bureau

Federal agency helping freed slaves with food, housing, jobs, health care, and education.

Black Codes

Southern laws limiting rights of freed African Americans; tried to maintain white supremacy.

Civil Rights Act of 1866

First U.S. law defining citizenship; granted equal protection of laws to African Americans.

14th Amendment

Granted citizenship to anyone born in the U.S.; equal protection under law; barred Confederate leaders from office.

Impeach

To formally charge a government official with wrongdoing (e.g., Andrew Johnson).

15th Amendment

Granted African American men the right to vote.

Scalawag

White Southerners who supported Reconstruction and Republicans; often seen as traitors.

Carpetbagger

Northerners who moved South after Civil War to gain political/economic advantage.

Segregation

Separation of races; enforced in the South after Reconstruction.

Integration

Mixing of races in schools, society, and public spaces.

Sharecropping

Farming system where freedmen rented land and paid with crops; kept many in poverty and dependence.

Ku Klux Klan (KKK)

White supremacist group formed in 1860s; terrorized Black voters and Republicans.

Enforcement Acts

Laws allowing federal government to prosecute KKK violence and protect Black voting rights.

Redeemers

Southern Democrats who regained political power after Reconstruction; wanted to restore white supremacy.

Compromise of 1877

Resolved election of 1876; Hayes became president in exchange for federal troop removal from South; ended Reconstruction.