APUSH time period 5

Manifest Destiny

The belief that the expansion of the U.S. across the American continent was justified and inevitable.

Compromise of 1850

A series of laws intended to settle disputes regarding slavery in newly acquired territories, including the admission of California as a free state.

Civil War

A conflict from 1861 to 1865 between the Northern states (Union) and Southern states (Confederacy) primarily over the issues of slavery and states' rights.

Emancipation Proclamation

An executive order by President Lincoln in 1863 that declared the freedom of all enslaved people in Confederate-held territory.

13th Amendment

Ratified in 1865, it abolished slavery in the United States.

Black Codes

Laws passed in Southern states after the Civil War that restricted the rights of African Americans and aimed to maintain a labor force.

Fugitive Slave Law

Part of the Compromise of 1850, it required that escaped slaves be returned to their enslavers and penalized individuals who aided their escape.

Dred Scott v. Sandford

An 1857 Supreme Court case ruling that African Americans could not be U.S. citizens and that Congress had no authority to prohibit slavery in the territories.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

A 1854 law that allowed territories to decide on the legality of slavery through popular sovereignty, leading to violent conflict known as Bleeding Kansas.

Reconstruction

The period following the Civil War focused on rebuilding the South and integrating formerly enslaved individuals into society.

Secession

The act of Southern states withdrawing from the Union after Lincoln's election in 1860, leading to the formation of the Confederacy.

Gettysburg Address

A speech by Lincoln that emphasized the principles of human equality and the purpose of the Civil War as a battle for liberty and democracy.

Radical Republicans

A faction within the Republican Party that advocated for the abolition of slavery and equal civil rights for African Americans during Reconstruction.

Anaconda Plan

A Union strategy during the Civil War that aimed to blockade Southern ports and capture the Mississippi River to squeeze the Confederacy.

General Sherman

Union General known for his 'March to the Sea,' which aimed to destroy Southern infrastructure and morale.

Sharecropping

An economic system post-Civil War where landowners allowed tenants to farm their land in exchange for a share of the crops, often leading to cycles of debt.

Forty-Niners

Prospectors who moved to California in 1849 during the Gold Rush, seeking wealth from mining.

Habeas Corpus

A legal principle that protects against unlawful detention, which Lincoln suspended during the Civil War.

Wilmot Proviso

Proposed legislation in 1846 that aimed to ban slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico, intensifying sectional tensions.

Appomattox Court House

The site of General Lee's surrender to General Grant in April 1865, marking the end of the Civil War.

Juneteenth

June 19, 1865, the day when Union General Gordon Granger announced in Texas that all slaves were free, symbolizing the end of slavery.

Morrill Land Grant Act

Legislation that provided federal lands to states for the establishment of colleges focusing on agriculture and mechanical arts.