Period 5

Manifest Destiny

The 19th-century belief that the U.S. was destined by God to expand westward across North America to the Pacific Ocean.

Impact of Manifest Destiny on Policy

Encouraged westward expansion and justified acquiring territories like Texas

Causes of the Mexican-American War

Texas annexation

Spot Resolution (1847)

Proposed by Abraham Lincoln; questioned President Polk’s justification for war by asking where American blood was first shed.

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848)

Ended the Mexican-American War; Mexico recognized Rio Grande as the border

Effects of the Mexican-American War

Added new territories

Slavery in Southern Society

Formed the foundation of the southern economy and social structure; justified by racism and religion; maintained a rigid racial hierarchy.

Southern Economy and Slavery

Dependent on cotton

Compromise of 1850

California entered as a free state; stricter Fugitive Slave Law; popular sovereignty in Utah and New Mexico; slave trade banned in D.C.

Popular Sovereignty

Allowed settlers of a territory to decide if slavery would be allowed; led to violence in “Bleeding Kansas.”

Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)

Created Kansas and Nebraska territories with popular sovereignty; repealed Missouri Compromise and increased tensions.

Failure of Compromise

Compromises like 1850 and Kansas-Nebraska Act failed because sectional divisions and moral conflicts over slavery deepened.

William Lloyd Garrison

Abolitionist who published The Liberator and demanded immediate emancipation of all enslaved people.

Frederick Douglass

Former enslaved man

Sojourner Truth

Former enslaved woman and abolitionist; delivered “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech supporting racial and gender equality.

Angelina Grimké

Southern-born abolitionist who appealed to Christian morality to condemn slavery.

Harriet Tubman

Conductor of the Underground Railroad; helped hundreds of enslaved people escape to freedom.

Long-Term Causes of the Civil War

Economic and cultural differences between North and South

Fugitive Slave Law (1850)

Required citizens to assist in capturing escaped enslaved people; angered Northern abolitionists.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)

Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel that exposed the cruelty of slavery and increased Northern opposition.

Dred Scott Decision (1857)

Supreme Court case ruling that enslaved people were not citizens and Congress couldn’t ban slavery in the territories.

Election of 1860

Lincoln’s victory led Southern states to secede

Union Strengths

Large population

Union Weaknesses

Less experienced generals early in the war and limited initial public support for abolition.

Confederate Strengths

Skilled military leaders

Confederate Weaknesses

Lacked industry

Anaconda Plan

Union strategy to blockade Southern ports

Battle of Antietam (1862)

Bloodiest single day of the war; Union victory that allowed Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.

Battle of Gettysburg (1863)

Turning point of the Civil War; halted Lee’s invasion of the North.

Emancipation Proclamation (1863)

Freed enslaved people in rebelling states and made abolition a central goal of the war.

Gettysburg Address (1863)

Lincoln’s speech redefining the war as a fight for national unity and equality.

Black Soldiers in the Civil War

Served bravely in the Union Army (e.g.

Women in the Civil War

Served as nurses

Impact on Civilians

Southern civilians faced shortages

Freedmen’s Bureau

Federal agency providing food

Reconstruction Amendments

13th: Abolished slavery; 14th: Granted citizenship and equal protection; 15th: Gave Black men the right to vote.

Black Codes

Laws passed in the South restricting the rights of freedpeople and maintaining white supremacy.

Ku Klux Klan (KKK)

Terrorist group using violence to suppress Black political participation during Reconstruction.

Scalawags and Carpetbaggers

Scalawags were Southern Unionists; Carpetbaggers were Northerners who moved South during Reconstruction

Redeemers

Southern Democrats who regained control from Republicans and ended Reconstruction reforms.

Compromise of 1877

Ended Reconstruction; federal troops withdrew from the South