Unit 5, 6, and 7 APUSH (American YAWP) 1861-1920!

📘 UNIT 5: THE CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION (1861–1877)

🧭 KEY TOPICS

• Causes of the Civil War (slavery, secession, political breakdown)

• The course and experience of the Civil War (military strategy, emancipation)

• Social impacts: Black Americans, women, soldiers

• Reconstruction (Presidential vs. Radical)

• Rise and collapse of Black civil rights

• Political resistance and white supremacy

⚔ MAJOR EVENTS (Told Like a War Epic)

⚡️The Election of 1860 and Secession

The nation teetered on the edge. When Lincoln, a relatively unknown Illinois lawyer, won with no Southern electoral votes, the South felt overrun by abolitionist mobs and “Yankee tyrants.” South Carolina—like a match to dry leaves—seceded first. Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and others followed. One by one, they renounced the Union and declared their own nation: The Confederate States of America, rooted openly in the preservation of slavery.

Why it matters: Lincoln didn’t even appear on most Southern ballots. The entire political system had failed to resolve the nation’s core moral contradiction—slavery.

💣 Fort Sumter and the War Begins (1861)

Charleston Harbor. April 12. Confederate cannons roared to life, shelling Fort Sumter. The Union soldiers held out for 34 hours, but were forced to surrender. Lincoln responded by calling 75,000 volunteers to suppress the “rebellion.”

Why it matters: The Civil War had begun—not just to save the Union, but to decide the fate of slavery and democracy itself.

🐍 The Anaconda Plan

General Winfield Scott’s plan was a slow, strategic chokehold: blockade the South, control the Mississippi River, and crush the Confederacy like a serpent wrapping tighter and tighter.

🔥 Battle of Bull Run (Manassas, 1861)

Civilians watched with picnic baskets, expecting a quick Union win. But Confederate forces, led by the resolute “Stonewall” Jackson, sent Union troops fleeing. Reality struck: this would not be a short war.

Why it matters: Psychological turning point. Both sides now understood they were in for a long, bloody slog.

⛓ The Role of Slavery and the “Contrabands”

Black men, women, and children began fleeing to Union lines, forcing the North to confront slavery. General Butler classified them as “contraband of war,” and the First Confiscation Act allowed their seizure from the Confederacy.

🏛 The Emancipation Proclamation (1863)

After the bloody but inconclusive Battle of Antietam, Lincoln seized the moment. He issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all slaves in rebelling territories. It didn’t free slaves in border states—but it transformed the war into a moral crusade.

But now? Now it was about freedom and Union.

The Emancipation Proclamation was a complex political and military strategy. By "freeing slaves in rebelling territories," Lincoln meant that the Proclamation only applied to states that had seceded from the Union and were actively fighting against it. It didn't apply to the border states that remained in the Union, even though they still had slavery. This was a strategic decision to avoid alienating those states and pushing them to join the Confederacy. As for how people listened to the order, it's important to remember that Lincoln didn't have direct control over the Confederacy. The Emancipation Proclamation was primarily a military measure. It declared that slaves in Confederate territories were free, and it authorized the Union army to accept formerly enslaved people into

⚔ Turning Point: Battle of Gettysburg (1863)

Imagine thunder crashing over fields soaked in blood. In three days of brutal fighting, 51,000 soldiers fell. Pickett’s Charge—Confederate men storming uphill into Union gunfire—was a doomed, heroic suicide mission. Lee retreated. The North cheered.

Why it matters: Major Confederate loss. Momentum shifted permanently.

🚢 Vicksburg Falls (1863)

Grant captured the fortress city of Vicksburg after a siege that starved the Confederates. This gave the Union full control of the Mississippi River, slicing the Confederacy in two.

⚰ Draft Riots and Racial Tension (1863)

In New York City, Irish immigrants—furious that the war had become about freeing slaves—rioted violently over the draft. They burned down the Colored Orphan Asylum and lynched Black citizens.

Why it matters: Racial and economic divides in the North were explosive. Not all Northerners were anti-slavery.

💥 Grant, Sherman, and Total War (1864–65)

General Grant ground down Lee in the Overland Campaign, while General Sherman burned his way from Atlanta to Savannah. Crops? Burned. Railroads? Torn up. It was psychological warfare.

🗳 Election of 1864

Despite exhaustion and death tolls, Lincoln won re-election against George McClellan. Sherman’s success in Atlanta saved his chances. The Union’s cause was reaffirmed.

🤝 Appomattox Court House (April 1865)

Lee, ragged and surrounded, surrendered to Grant. The scene was quiet, respectful—two generals ending a cataclysm. The war was over.

Why it matters: The Union was preserved. But what of the four million freedmen?

🧨 Assassination of Lincoln (April 14, 1865)

At Ford’s Theatre, John Wilkes Booth fired into the back of Lincoln’s head. The war’s greatest martyr fell, just as peace arrived.

🧑‍⚖ RECONSTRUCTION (1865–1877)

🧩 Presidential vs. Radical Reconstruction

• Lincoln’s 10% Plan: Quick, easy reintegration.

• Johnson’s Plan: Lenient toward ex-Confederates, allowed Black Codes.

• Radical Republicans (like Thaddeus Stevens) pushed hard for civil rights.

📜 13th, 14th, 15th Amendments

• 13th: Abolished slavery (except as punishment).

• 14th: Guaranteed citizenship and equal protection.

• 15th: Granted Black men the right to vote.

Why it matters: This was America’s Second Founding—a legal revolution. But it would be challenged immediately.

⚖ Black Codes and Resistance

Southern states passed laws keeping freedpeople in quasi-slavery. Vagrancy laws, labor contracts, violence.

💣 KKK and White Supremacy

Terror campaigns exploded across the South. The Ku Klux Klan lynched and beat freedmen and white allies. The Enforcement Acts tried to stop them—but federal resolve was weak.

🏛 Freedmen in Government

For the first time, Black Americans served in state legislatures and Congress (e.g., Hiram Revels, Blanche K. Bruce). Public schools, welfare, and voting rights expanded.

🧵 The Fall of Reconstruction

• Panic of 1873 weakened Northern focus on the South.

• Democrats regained Southern statehouses (the “Redeemers”).

• The Compromise of 1877 ended Reconstruction in exchange for Republican victory in a disputed election.

Why it matters: The federal government withdrew troops, and Jim Crow segregation took root. Black civil rights were crushed for the next century. - **Panic of 1873**: This economic crisis diverted the North's attention and resources away from Reconstruction efforts in the South. With businesses failing and unemployment rising, Northerners became more focused on economic recovery than on protecting the rights of Black citizens in the South. - **Democrats Regain Southern Statehouses (The “Redeemers”)**: As Northern support for Reconstruction waned, Southern Democrats, often referred to as "Redeemers," gradually regained control of state governments in the South. They employed various tactics, including intimidation and violence, to suppress Black voters and restore white supremacy.

👤 KEY PEOPLE

• Abraham Lincoln: War-time president, issued Emancipation, assassinated.

• Jefferson Davis: Confederate president.

• Ulysses S. Grant: Union general, later president.

• Robert E. Lee: Confederate general, surrendered at Appomattox.

• William Tecumseh Sherman: Burned Georgia, broke Southern morale.

• Frederick Douglass: Abolitionist, urged Black enlistment and rights.

• Thaddeus Stevens: Radical Republican, civil rights crusader.

• Andrew Johnson: Became president after Lincoln. Racist, lenient Reconstruction.

• Hiram Revels / Blanche K. Bruce: First Black U.S. Senators.

🎯 APUSH TAKEAWAYS

• 🟨 The Civil War was fought over slavery, not vague "states' rights."

• 🟥 Emancipation was gradual, messy, and politically strategic.

• 🟩 Reconstruction was a revolutionary attempt to build a multiracial democracy—but it was crushed by white supremacist violence and Northern fatigue.

• 🔥 Know the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments cold.

• 🧠 Understand the political conflict between Presidential and Congressional Reconstruction.

• 💀 Use vivid examples like Gettysburg, Sherman’s March, the KKK, and the Compromise of 1877 to power up DBQs and SAQs.

🏙 UNIT 6: THE GILDED AGE (1877–1900)

🧭 KEY TOPICS

• Rapid industrialization and monopolies

• Labor struggles and union movements

• Immigration and urban growth

• Westward expansion and Native displacement

• Corruption and political machines

• Rise of populism and economic inequality

⚙ MAJOR EVENTS & MOVEMENTS

🏭 The Second Industrial Revolution

Picture America ablaze with steel and sparks. After the Civil War, industry exploded: railroads stitched the nation together like iron veins, and factories churned out goods in staggering quantities. Cities like Chicago, Pittsburgh, and New York rose like steel titans.

• Steel (Bessemer process)

• Oil (Rockefeller’s Standard Oil)

• Railroads (Vanderbilt, transcontinental link in 1869)

• Electricity and telegraphs: Edison's light bulb, Bell’s telephone

Why it matters: The U.S. became the world’s industrial superpower—but wealth concentrated in the hands of a few "captains of industry" (or “robber barons,” depending who you ask).

💰 Monopolies and Robber Barons

• The rise of monopolies led to significant economic disparities, as a handful of individuals controlled vast resources and wealth.

• Figures such as John D. Rockefeller in oil and Andrew Carnegie in steel exemplified how these industrialists dominated their respective sectors, often at the expense of fair competition.

• Andrew Carnegie (Steel, “Gospel of Wealth”): He believed rich men should give away their fortunes.

• John D. Rockefeller (Oil): Ruthlessly crushed competitors through horizontal integration.

• J.P. Morgan (Banking): Bought Carnegie Steel and turned it into U.S. Steel.

These men used trusts, holding companies, and vertical/horizontal integration to control prices and crush competition.

👷 Labor Unrest and Class Struggles

The factory floors were brutal—long hours, child labor, meager pay. Workers began to organize:

• Knights of Labor: Wanted broad reforms—open to all workers.

• American Federation of Labor (AFL): More conservative, skilled workers only.

• Strikes & Protests:

  • Haymarket Riot (1886): Bombing in Chicago blamed on anarchists, ruined the Knights of Labor.

  • Homestead Strike (1892): Steelworkers vs. Carnegie’s guards—violence and defeat.

  • Pullman Strike (1894): Railroad strike crushed by federal troops under Eugene V. Debs.

Why it matters: The government sided with business over labor—showing the power imbalance in the Gilded Age.

🏙 Urbanization and Immigration

Cities exploded—immigrants poured in from southern and eastern Europe (Italy, Russia, Poland). Tenements stacked families in airless cubes. Disease and crime festered in overcrowded slums.

• Ellis Island (NYC) and Angel Island (SF): Immigrant processing centers

• Nativism: Native-born Americans feared the “New Immigrants”

  • Chinese Exclusion Act (1882): First federal immigration restriction

💼 Political Corruption and Machines

Behind smoky taverns and behind-the-scenes deals stood the political machines, like Tammany Hall in NYC, led by Boss Tweed. In exchange for votes, they gave immigrants food, jobs, and help—then looted city treasuries.

Why it matters: Corruption flourished because local governments didn’t meet the needs of rapidly growing cities. Reform was slow and hard-fought.

🚂 Westward Expansion & Native Displacement

While factories boomed in the East, the federal government opened the West for business—at great cost to Native peoples.

• Homestead Act (1862): Free land for settlers

• Transcontinental Railroad (1869): Finished at Promontory Point, Utah

• Reservation System: Natives were forced into smaller and smaller areas

• Wars and Resistance:

  • Battle of Little Bighorn (1876): Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse defeated Custer

  • Wounded Knee Massacre (1890): Hundreds of Lakota Sioux slaughtered—final blow to armed Native resistance

🌽 The Populist Revolt

Farmers were crushed under debt, railroad rates, and falling prices. They fought back through the Grange Movement, then the Farmers’ Alliances, then the Populist Party.

• Demanded:

  • Free silver (to inflate currency)

  • Graduated income tax

  • Railroad regulation

  • Direct election of senators

Their fiery voice: William Jennings Bryan, whose “Cross of Gold” speech electrified audiences in 1896.

🥈 Why Did the Populists Demand Free Silver?

"Free silver" meant allowing unlimited coinage of silver at a fixed ratio to gold (usually 16:1). At the time, the U.S. was on the gold standard, which meant every dollar was backed by a set amount of gold. This kept the money supply limited and favored bankers and big business.

💰 What the Populists Wanted:

Populists—mainly farmers and working-class Americans—wanted the government to mint more silver coins alongside gold, increasing the money supply.

✅ Why? Because:

1. Inflation would rise → More money in circulation = higher prices for crops = farmers could make more profit.

2. Debts would be easier to pay → If money was worth slightly less, farmers could pay back their loans with cheaper dollars.

3. Combat deflation → Prices were falling in the late 1800s, which crushed farmers. Free silver would reverse that trend.

🏛 Landmark Laws & Reforms

• Interstate Commerce Act (1887): Regulated railroads

• Sherman Antitrust Act (1890): First attempt to break up monopolies (used more against labor!)

👤 KEY PEOPLE

• Andrew Carnegie: Steel tycoon, rags-to-riches, philanthropist

• John D. Rockefeller: Ruthless oil monopolist

• Eugene V. Debs: Socialist labor leader

• William Jennings Bryan: Populist orator, Cross of Gold speech

• Boss Tweed: Corrupt political machine boss

• Jacob Riis: Photographer, author of How the Other Half Lives

• Sitting Bull / Crazy Horse: Defiant Native leaders

• Helen Hunt Jackson: A Century of Dishonor, criticized U.S. treatment of Natives

🎯 APUSH TAKEAWAYS

• 💵 The Gilded Age was a time of great economic growth and widening inequality.

• ⚙ Industrialization revolutionized the economy but exploited workers.

• 🚷 Government protected big business, not workers, in most major conflicts.

• 🧳 Massive immigration led to cultural tension, urban sprawl, and nativism.

• 🌽 The Populist movement showed rising class consciousness—but failed at the national level.

• 🛑 Native Americans faced systematic destruction, displacement, and broken treaties.

• 📜 Know key legislation: Homestead Act, Interstate Commerce Act, Sherman Antitrust Act.

🏛 UNIT 7: THE PROGRESSIVE ERA, IMPERIALISM, & WORLD WAR I (1900–1920)

🧭 KEY TOPICS

• The Progressive movement: reforming capitalism and government

• Expansion of U.S. empire overseas (imperialism)

• The First World War and its domestic effects

• Women’s suffrage and civil rights activism

• The Red Scare and postwar reactions

🔧 MAJOR EVENTS & MOVEMENTS

🌆 The Progressive Era (1900–1920)

Imagine a storm of change sweeping across the nation—activists, journalists, and politicians determined to fix the evils of the Gilded Age: child labor, corruption, monopolies, unsafe food, and urban poverty.

Key reform goals:

• Government regulation of industry

• Safer working conditions

• Clean food and drugs

• Direct democracy

• Anti-corruption

• Women’s suffrage

💥 Muckrakers

These were journalists with a vengeance, exposing injustice with their pens like swords:

• Upton Sinclair, The Jungle: Exposed the meatpacking industry

• Ida Tarbell: Took down Rockefeller’s Standard Oil monopoly

• Lincoln Steffens, The Shame of the Cities: Unmasked urban political corruption

• Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives: Showed slum life in haunting photos

🏛 Progressive Presidents

1. Theodore Roosevelt (1901–1909) – 🐻 The Rough Rider

   • “Square Deal” for workers, consumers, and businesses

   • Trust-busting: Broke up monopolies

   • Pure Food and Drug Act, Meat Inspection Act (thanks to The Jungle)

   • Conservationist: Created national parks, forests, wildlife refuges

2. William Howard Taft (1909–1913) – 🐘 The Cautious Conservative

   • Busted even more trusts than TR, but angered Progressives

   • Split with TR → led to a Republican party fracture

3. Woodrow Wilson (1913–1921) – 🎓 The Academic President

   • “New Freedom” reforms:

     • Federal Reserve Act: Created central banking system

     • Clayton Antitrust Act: Strengthened antitrust laws

     • Federal Trade Commission: Regulated unfair business practices

🗳 Political Reforms

• 17th Amendment: Direct election of senators

• Initiative, referendum, recall: Let people propose laws, vote on them, and remove corrupt officials

• City managers & commissions: Cleaner, more efficient government

♀ Women’s Suffrage Movement

Fueled by decades of protest:

• National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA): Led by Carrie Chapman Catt

• National Woman’s Party: Radical arm led by Alice Paul

  • Hunger strikes, White House pickets, jail time

🔥 19th Amendment (1920): Women got the vote after over 70 years of activism!

🧼 Social Reform

• Settlement houses like Jane Addams’ Hull House helped immigrants adjust to American life

• Temperance movement: Crusade to ban alcohol (later becomes Prohibition with 18th Amendment in 1919)

🌍 AMERICAN IMPERIALISM (1890s–1917)

With industry booming, America wanted markets, resources, and power. That meant expansion beyond our shores.

🚢 Spanish-American War (1898)

• Caused by:

  • U.S. support for Cuban independence

  • Yellow journalism (Hearst & Pulitzer)

  • Sinking of the USS Maine in Havana harbor

• Key battles:

  • Battle of Manila Bay (Philippines)

  • San Juan Hill charge by Roosevelt’s Rough Riders

Result:

• Treaty of Paris (1898): U.S. gains Puerto Rico, Guam, Philippines, and control over Cuba (via Platt Amendment)

• Begins U.S. imperial age

🌐 Other Imperialist Moves

• Annexation of Hawaii (1898)

• Open Door Policy in China: Equal trade access

• Panama Canal (1904–1914): Engineered by Roosevelt after aiding Panama's independence

• Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine: U.S. will police Latin America

💣 WORLD WAR I (1914–1918)

🌍 Causes of the War

• European alliance systems, nationalism, militarism

• Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand

• U.S. neutral at first…

But then:

• Unrestricted submarine warfare by Germany (U-boats)

• Sinking of the Lusitania (1915): 128 Americans killed

• Zimmermann Telegram (1917): Germany promised Mexico land in exchange for war with U.S.

🇺🇸 U.S. Enters the War (1917)

• Wilson declares war: “The world must be made safe for democracy.”

• Selective Service Act: Drafts 4 million men

• War Industries Board & rationing: Controlled economy

• Committee on Public Information: Propaganda machine

🧠 Life at Home

• Women enter workforce

• Great Migration: African Americans move north for jobs

• Espionage Act (1917) & Sedition Act (1918): Limited free speech

• Schenck v. U.S. (1919): Upheld these laws, said speech can be limited during wartime

🕊 War Ends (1918)

• U.S. troops help win major battles (e.g., Meuse-Argonne)

• Armistice signed on November 11, 1918

✍ Wilson’s 14 Points & Treaty of Versailles (1919)

• Wilson’s 14 Points: Idealistic peace plan (free trade, self-determination, League of Nations)

• European allies wanted revenge

• Treaty of Versailles: Harsh on Germany (war guilt clause, reparations)

League of Nations formed—but U.S. Senate rejected it. Led by isolationist Henry Cabot Lodge.

☭ Red Scare & Palmer Raids (1919–1920)

• Fear of communism after Russian Revolution

• Bombings → Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer launched raids, arrested suspected radicals without trial

• Massive civil rights violations

👤 KEY PEOPLE

• Theodore Roosevelt: Progressive president, conservationist, trustbuster

• Woodrow Wilson: WWI president, 14 Points, progressive reforms

• Alice Paul: Suffragette radical

• Upton Sinclair: Exposed meatpacking horrors

• Booker T. Washington: Vocational education, accommodationist

• W.E.B. Du Bois: Demanded civil rights and immediate equality

• Eugene V. Debs: Socialist leader, jailed under Espionage Act

• John Muir: Naturalist and conservationist

🎯 APUSH TAKEAWAYS

• ⚖ Progressives weren’t radicals—they wanted to reform capitalism, not overthrow it.

• 🐘 Know your Progressive Presidents and their signature reforms.

• 🌎 Imperialism shows how industrial power led to foreign expansion—look for moral vs. economic motives.

• 🕊 U.S. entered WWI reluctantly but played a major role in ending it.

• 🧠 Wilson’s idealism vs. postwar isolationism = a key tension.

• ⚠ Red Scare and Palmer Raids reflect wartime nationalism gone too far.

• 🗳 Women’s suffrage and Prohibition = major Progressive victories, but both reveal the power of moral reform movements.

📚 FINAL REMINDER FOR APUSH EXAM:

Memorize the amendments:

• 16th: Income tax

• 17th: Direct election of senators

• 18th: Prohibition

• 19th: Women’s suffrage