APUSH P5

Unit 5 reflects armed American conflict during the Civil War between Northern and Southern states in the US over slavery's acceptance. The wars during this time promoted unity among the different sides and led to American politics growing as the US learned how to deal with conflicts (diplomacy vs war). Overall, this period focused on slavery and how influential leaders such as Harriet Tubman emerged to support abolition.

Key Terms:

• Texas Annexation: In 1845, the US Gov. annexed (took) Texas with Congress support and it was later divided into other parts of new states. The US refrained from doing so in 1837 to avoid a war with Mexico when Texas wasn't a free republic.

• Dred Scott Decision: Dred Scott was a black slave who resided in the Louisiana territory for four years and argued that he was a free man as a result of the Missouri Compromise. The Supreme Court decided that he couldn't sue the state because he was property.

• Sojourner Truth: An American feminist and abolitionist who believed in women's and black rights. She was a former slave who was freed in 1827.

1. Manifest Destiny & Westward Expansion

• Manifest Destiny — Belief that the U.S. was destined to expand across North America (Atlantic → Pacific).

• Annexation of Texas (1845) — U.S. annexed Texas after its independence from Mexico; led to war with Mexico.

• Mexican-American War (1846–1848) — Conflict over Texas and western territories; U.S. won decisively.

• Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) — Ended Mexican-American War; U.S. gained Mexican Cession (California, Southwest).

• Wilmot Proviso (1846) — Proposed ban on slavery in land won from Mexico; failed but increased sectional tension.

• Oregon Trail / Oregon Territory — Migration route to Oregon; U.S. and Britain agreed to divide Oregon (1846).

• California Gold Rush (1849) — Mass migration to California after gold was discovered; rapid statehood.

2. Rising Sectional Conflict

• Compromise of 1850 — Five-part deal:

  • California = free state

  • Stronger Fugitive Slave Law

  • Popular sovereignty in Mexican Cession lands

  • Abolished slave trade in D.C.

  • Texas boundary settled

• Fugitive Slave Act (1850) — Required citizens to return runaway slaves; infuriated Northerners.

• Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) — Novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe exposing slavery’s horrors; boosted abolitionism.

• Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) — Allowed popular sovereignty in Kansas and Nebraska; repealed Missouri Compromise line.

• Bleeding Kansas (1856) — Violent conflict between pro- and anti-slavery settlers in Kansas.

• Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) — Supreme Court ruled African Americans were not citizens; Congress couldn’t ban slavery in territories.s.

• Free Soil Party — Political party opposing expansion of slavery into western territories.

• Republican Party (1854) — Anti-slavery party formed in response to Kansas-Nebraska Act.

3. Road to Civil War

• Lincoln-Douglas Debates (1858) — Illinois Senate debates on slavery expansion; made Lincoln nationally known.

• John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry (1859) — Attempted slave uprising led by abolitionist John Brown; failed but scared South.

• Election of 1860 — Abraham Lincoln (Republican) elected; led Southern states to secede.

• Secession — Southern states left Union, starting with South Carolina (1860).

4. Civil War (1861–1865)

• Fort Sumter (1861) — First shots of Civil War; Confederates fired on Union fort.

• Border States — Slave states that stayed in Union (Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, Delaware).

• Anaconda Plan — Union strategy to blockade South, control Mississippi River, and squeeze Confederacy.

• Emancipation Proclamation (1863) — Lincoln declared slaves in rebelling states free; redefined war as fight against slavery.

• Battle of Gettysburg (1863) — Turning point battle; Union victory stopped Confederate invasion of North.

• Gettysburg Address (1863) — Lincoln’s speech emphasizing equality and preserving Union.

• Sherman’s March to the Sea (1864) — Union army’s destructive march through Georgia to weaken South’s will to fight.

• Appomattox Court House (1865) — General Lee surrendered to Grant; ended Civil War.

5. Reconstruction (1865–1877)

• 13th Amendment (1865) — Abolished slavery.

• 14th Amendment (1868) — Granted citizenship and equal protection to all born in U.S.

• 15th Amendment (1870) — Granted voting rights regardless of race (targeted Black men).

• Freedmen’s Bureau (1865) — Federal agency to help former slaves with education, jobs, housing.

• Black Codes — Southern laws restricting rights of freed African Americans.

• Radical Republicans — Congressmen who wanted harsh punishment of South and protection of freedmen’s rights.

• Reconstruction Acts (1867) — Divided South into military zones; required new constitutions & ratification of 14th Amendment.

• Impeachment of Andrew Johnson (1868) — Johnson clashed with Radical Republicans; impeached but not removed.

• Sharecropping — Farming system trapping freedmen in debt and poverty by renting land for share of crops.

• Carpetbaggers — Northerners who moved South during Reconstruction, often for personal gain.

• Scalawags — Southern whites who supported Reconstruction and Republicans.

• Compromise of 1877 — Ended Reconstruction; Rutherford B. Hayes became president, troops left South → rise of Jim Crow.

6. Key Groups and Movements

• Copperheads — Northern Democrats who opposed Civil War and wanted peace with Confederacy.

• National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) — Led by Susan B. Anthony & Elizabeth Cady Stanton; fought for women’s voting rights (angry that 15th Amendment excluded women).