Manifest Destiny
The Mexican-American War
Attempts to resolve conflicts over the spread of slavery
The election of 1860 and Southern secession
The Civil War
Reconstruction
1850 Compromise of 1850
🟢 1852 Uncle Tom's Cabin
🔵 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act
🔵 1858 Lincoln-Douglas Debates
🔵 1859 John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry
1860 Lincoln Elected
⭐ 1860 South Carolina Secedes
⭐ 1863 Emancipation Proclamation
⭐ 1861-1865 Civil War
1865 13th Amendment
⭐ 1867 Radical Reconstruction
1868 14th Amendment
1870 15th Amendment
1876 Election of President Hayes (End of Reconstruction)
Harriet Beecher Stowe
🟢 Fredrick Douglass
⭐ Abolitionist
🔵 Gag Rule
William Lloyd Garrison
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Compromise of 1850
Gold Rush
🔵 Wilmot Proviso
🔵 Free Soil Party
🟢 Fugitive Slave Act
Kansas-Nebraska Act
🟢 Popular Sovereignty
Bleeding Kansas
🟢 Know-Nothing Party
⭐ Dred Scott v. Sanford
🟢 John Brown and Harper's Ferry
⭐ Emancipation Proclamation
Battle of Antietam
Battle of Gettysburg
🟢 Freedman's Bureau
🔵 Black Codes
⭐ 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments
Bargain of 1877
Compromise of 1850: A group of five laws passed in September. These laws made concessions to both free and slave states in an attempt to placate both sides of the slavery debate and preserve the union.
Uncle Tom's Cabin: An anti-slavery novel written by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. The novel tells the story of Uncle Tom, a kind and faithful slave, and his struggle to survive and maintain his dignity int he face of the cruelty and injustice of the American slave system.
Kansas-Nebraska Act: Law that allowed for popular sovereignty (people living in an area could decide if slavery would be allowed or not) in the Kansas Nebraska territories. Kansas would be slave and Nebraska would be free.
Lincoln-Douglas Debates: A series of seven debates. The two argued the important issues of the day like popular sovereignty, the Lecompton Constitution, and the Dred Scott decision. Douglas won these debates, but Lincoln's position in these debates helped him beat Douglas in the election.
John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry: An effort by abolitionist John Brown to initiate a slave revolt in Southern states by taking over the United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia.
Lincoln Elected: Election where slavery was the central issue, Abraham Lincoln (Republican) won over John Breckinridge (Democrat), and John Bell (Constitutional Union Party). Lincoln won 40% of popular vote, but won a large majority of electoral votes. Lincoln's victory leads the South to secede.
South Carolina Secedes: When a state attempts to secede from, or leave, the nation it was once a part of. This process was started by South Carolina before the Civil War. Confederate States of America. The new nation made up of the states that seceded from the Union.
Emancipation Proclamation: President Abraham Lincoln's proclamation that legally abolished slavery in all states that remained out of the Union. While the Emancipation Proclamation did not immediately free a single slave, it signaled an end to the institution of slavery.
Civil War: Known as "The War Between the States". The war divided the country between the North (the United States of America) and the South (the Confederate States of America).
13th Amendment: Constitutional amendment prohibiting all forms of slavery and involuntary servitude. Former Confederate States were required to ratify the amendment prior to gaining reentry into the union.
Radical Reconstruction: Refers to the period after Civil War when Congress implemented a series of laws and policies aimed at rebuilding and transforming the South, with a focus on granting civil rights and political power to former slaves.
14th Amendment: Granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the U.S., including former slaved, and guaranteed all citizens "equal protections of the laws".
15th Amendment: Prohibited nay government in the U.S. from denying a citizen the right to vote based on "race, color, or previous condition of servitude".
Election of President Hayes (End of Reconstruction): Electoral votes were contested in 4 states, most corrupt election in the United States history. Northern troops pulled out of South and led to the end of reconstruction.
Definition: (1811-1896) American author and daughter of Lyman Beecher, she was an abolitionist and author of the famous antislavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin.
Significance: Made the political issues of the 1850s regarding slavery tangible to millions, energizing anti-slavery forced in the American North.
Definition: (1817-1895) American abolitionist and writer, he escaped slavery and became a leading African American spokesman and writer. He published his biography, The Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass, and founded the abolitionist newspaper, the North Star.
Significance: He became the most important leader of the movement for African American civil rights in the 19th century.
Definition: A person who wanted to end slavery in the United States
Significance: Helped pave the way for the eventual emancipation of enslaved individuals in the United States during the Civil War.
Definition: Prevented anti-slavery discussions in Congress by tabling all abolitionist petitions.
Significance: Southern members of Congress were concerned about the increasing opposition to slavery.
Definition: A Northern abolitionist who created "The Liberator" an abolitionist newspaper made to unify and amplify the abolitionist movement.
Significance: The Liberator denounced all people and acts that would prolong slavery including the United States Constitution.
Definition: A member of the women's right's movement in 1840. She was a mother of seven, and she shocked other feminists by advocating suffrage for women at the first Women's Right's Convention in Seneca, New York 1848. Stanton read a "Declaration of Sentiments" which declared "all men and women are created equal."
Significance: Stanton forever changed to social and political landscape of the United States of America by succeeding in her work to guarantee rights for women and slaves.
Definition: Agreement designed to ease tensions caused by the expansion of slavery in Western territories.
Significance: Admitted California as a free state and established the territories of New Mexico and Utah as territories open to slavery.
Definition: A period from 1848 to 1856 when thousands of people came to California in order to search for gold.
Significance: Led to California's statehood and is one of the most important events tied to American's Manifest Destiny and how it shaped the United States.
Definition: 1846 proposal that outlawed slavery in any territory gained from the War with Mexico.
Significance: It was never passed through both houses but it transformed the debate of slavery.
Definition: A political party dedicated to stopping the expansion of slavery.
Significance: Foreshadowed the emergence of the Republican party.
Definition: A law that made it a crime to help runaway slaves; allowed for the arrest of escaped slaves in areas where slavery was illegal and required their return to slaveholders.
Significance: Many Northerners saw this act as an infringement on their individual rights and liberties and a violation of the principles of justice and fairness.
Definition: Created Nebraska and Kansas as states and gave the people in those territories the right to chose to be a free or slave state through popular sovereignty.
Significance: Produced the violent uprising known as "Bleeding Kansas", as proslavery and antislavery activists flooded into the territories to sway the votes.
Definition: A government in which the people rule by their own consent.
Significance: Was the doctrine that stated that the sovereign people of a territory should themselves determine the status of slavery.
Definition: A sequence of violent events involving abolitionists and pro-slavery elements that took place in Kansas-Nebraska territory. The dispute further strained the relations of the North and South, making Civil War imminent.
Significance: Shaped American politics and contributed to the coming of the Civil War.
Definition: Political party of the 1850s that was anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant.
Significance: Intended to prevent Catholics and immigrant from being elected to political offices.
Definition: Supreme Court case that decided US Congress did not have the power to prohibit slavery in federal territories and slaves, as private property, could not be taken away without due process - basically slaves would remain slaves in non-slave states and slaves could not sue because they were not citizens.
Significance: The United States Supreme Court upheld slavery in United States territories, denied the legality of black citizenship in America, and declared the Missouri Compromise to be unconstitutional.
Definition: He wanted to start a slave rebellion that swept though the South. In 1859 Brown, 13 whites, and 5 blacks took over the arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia. Brow was caught and hanged. The North though of him as Jesus-like. The South thought of him as the devil. This further separated the North and the South.
Significance: His actions likely hastened the coming of war, as they emboldened Northern abolitionists and convinced those with an interest in slavery that if republicans took control of the government then slavery in the South would be ended.
Definition: Issued by Abraham Lincoln on September 22, 1862. It declared that all slaves in the confederate states would be free.
Significance: Broadened the goals of the Union war effort; it made the eradication of slavery into an explicit Union goal, in addition to the reuniting of the country.
Definition: Civil War battle in which the North succeeded in halting Lee's Confederate forces in Maryland.
Significance: Was the bloodiest battle of the war resulting in 25,000 casualties.
Definition: 1836, this three day battle was the bloodiest battle of the entire Civil War, ended in a Union victory.
Significance: Is considered the turning point of the war.
Definition: Set up to help freedmen and white refugees after Civil War. Provided food, clothing, medical care, and education. First to establish schools for blacks and learn to read as thousands of teachers from the North came South to help. Lasted from 1865-1872. Attacked by KKK.
Significance: Southerners as "carpetbaggers" encouraged former plantation owners to rebuild their plantations, urged freed Blacks to gain employment, kept as eye on contracts between labor and management, etc.
Definition: Laws passed in the South just after the Civil War aimed at controlling freedmen and enabling plantation owners to exploit African American workers.
Significance: Enabled plantation owners to exploit African American workers.
Definition: 13th- Officially abolished slavery, prohibits involuntary servitude. 14th- Ensured rights of free slaved, granted citizenship to freedmen, due process of law and right to vote. 15th- Voting rights to all citizens except women.
Significance: Called the Reconstruction Amendments.
Definition: Deal made by a Republican and Democratic special congressional commission to resolve the disputed presidential election of 1876; Republican Rutherford B. Hayes, who had lost the popular vote, was declared the winner in exchange for the withdrawal of federal troops from involvement in politics in the South.
Significance: This marked the end of Reconstruction.
Made concessions to both free and slave states in an attempt to compromise with both sides.
Anti-slavery novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe that tells a story about a slave and his struggle to survive.
Allowed for popular sovereignty in those territories
Both argued important debates and Douglas won the debates but Lincoln's position helped him beat Douglas in the election.
John Brown initiated a slave revolt.
Lincoln's victory leads the South to secede.
Began the Confederate States of America which was made up of the sates that seceded from the Union.
Legally abolished slavery in all states still in the Union.
Divided the country between the North and South.
Prohibited all forms of slavery and involuntary servitude.
The period after the Civil War where they rebuilt and transformed the South.
Granted citizenship to everyone born in the U.S..
Everyone had the right to vote besides women.
Most corrupt election. Northern troops left the South.
Wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin.
Wrote a biography about escaping slavery.
A person who wants to end slavery.
Prevented anti-slavery discussions in Congress.
Northern abolitionist who created "The Liberator".
Advocated for woman's suffrage at the Seneca Falls Convention and read a "Declaration of Sentiments".
Agreement designed to ease tension caused by the expansion of slavery in the West.
Led to California's statehood and is important to the Manifest Destiny.
Outlawed slavery in any territory gained from the Mexican-American War.
Dedicated to stopping the expansion of slavery.
Made it a crime to help runaway slaves but the North saw it as an infringement on their individual rights.
Allowed for Kansas and Nebraska to vote on whether they want to be slave states or free.
A government that the people rule by their own consent.
Violent events between abolitionists and pro-slavery which led to the Civil War.
Was anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant.
Decided that U.S. Congress did not have the power to prohibit slavery in federal territories.
Wanted to start a slave rebellion but it further separated the North and South.
Issued by Lincoln and declared all slaves in the confederate states would be free.
North succeeded in halting Lee's Confederate forces and it was the bloodiest battle of the war.
Considered the turning point of the war.
Provided food, clothing, medical care, and education for freedmen and white refugees after the Civil War.
Laws that aimed at controlling freedmen and allowed plantation owners to exploit African American workers.
Called the Reconstruction Amendments.
Deal made by Hayes who was declared the winner for the withdrawal of federal troops from involvement in politics in the South.