19th Century Events and People in American History

Question 0

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark

Answer 0

Lewis and Clark explored the Louisiana Territory of the western United States. Their expedition started in May, 1804, and followed the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. They arrived near present day Astoria, Oregon in November, 1805 and returned to St. Louis, Missouri in September, 1806. The “Corps of Discovery” was commissioned to map the new territory, assess its natural resources, and make contact with its inhabitants.

Question 1

Louisiana Purchase

Answer 1

Louisiana Purchase
The territory was purchased from France by Thomas Jefferson in 1803. It stretched from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and from New Orleans to Canada.

Question 2

Pierre Charles L’Enfant

Answer 2

Pierre Charles L’Enfant was a French volunteer in the Continental Army, Revolutionary War, who designed the capital city of the new country, the United States, in Washington D.C.

Question 3

John James Audubon

Answer 3

John James Audubon was a prominent wildlife artist whose book, Birds of America (1828-1838) contained portraits of 1,065 individual birds published in four volumes.

Question 4

Industrial Revolution

Answer 4

The Industrial Revolution was the period in the 18005 during which machines instead of hand tools began to be used to produce goods. This ultimately resulted in the factory system which caused a fundamental shift in the way goods were produced. Large portions of the population, formerly employed in agriculture, gathered in urban areas to work in large factories. City populations grew, trade unions were established to protect workers, and the growth of capitalism was made possible because of the Industrial Revolution.

Question 5

Abolitionists

Answer 5

Abolitionists were people who wanted to abolish slavery.

Question 6

Sojourner Truth

Answer 6

A former slave born with the name Isabella Baumfree, Sojourner Truth was one of the earliest and most passionate female abolitionists. She escaped from her owner in 1820 and by 1840 had become a powerful speaker against slavery.

Question 7

Slave Codes

Answer 7

Slave codes were laws in Southern states that spelled out what kind of lives slaves could live and essentially striped slaves from any protection of the law.

Question 8

Underground Railroad

Answer 8

The Underground Railroad was a system of slaves escape routes leading to freedom.
Those who escape were helped by ‘Conductors’ who provided food and shelter along the way. The Underground Railroad reached its peak activity between 1850 and 1860.

Question 9

Harriet Tubman

Answer 9

Born into slavery, Harriet Tubman escaped in .1850. As a conductor on the Underground Railroad, she is believed to have helped approximately 300 people to freedom .

Question 10

Missouri Compromise

Answer 10

The Missouri Compromise of 1820 stated that Missouri would be allowed to join the Union ‘as a slave state, Maine would join as a free staJe, and thereafter states north of an imaginary line of 36° 30’ North (thirty-six degrees, 30 minutes North of the Equator) would be free states and those south of the line would be slave states. The Missouri Compromise was an attempt to keep the Union together.

Question 11

Kansas-Nebraska Act

Answer 11

The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 was a law that repealed the Missouri Co~promise.The new law allowed people in Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves if they would’ ., allow slavery. The Kansas-Nebraska.l.ct infuriated t,hose who opposed ‘slavery but was strongly supporte~ . by those who were in favor of slavery.

Question 12

Abraham Lincoln

Answer 12

Abraham Lincoln was elected the 16th President of the United States in November, 1860 and inaugurated in March, 1861. In April 1861, Confederate troops fired on Union troops at Ft. Sumter, South Carolina. Next, Virginia and 10 other states withdrew from the Union to form the Confederacy and the Civil War began. In 1863, Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, a Presidential Order which freed the slaves in the Confederate States. Also in 1863, Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address, a speech that is considered the best summation on the meaning of and the price of liberty and is considered one of the best speeches of all time. Lincoln was reelected President in 1864 Confederacy surrendered to end the Civil War on April 9, 1865. Lincoln was assassinated and died on April 15, 1865.

Question 13

Clara Barton

Answer 13

Clara Barton served as a nurse to wounded Union soldiers during the Civil War and established the American Red Cross in 1881.

Question 14

Reconstruction

Answer 14

Reconstruction was the time period after the Civil War when the South was rebuilt.

Question 15

13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments

Answer 15

13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments
Amendments to the Constitution known as the “Reconstruction Amendments”. They were passed in the years following the Civil War in order to end slavery and guarantee African Americans the right to vote. [See Domain III, Competency 023 (Government and Citizenship)

Question 16

Florence Nightingale

Answer 16

Florence Nightingale was an English nurse who is considered the founder of modem nursing and a reformer of hospital sanitation methods.

Question 17

Homesteaders

Answer 17

Homesteaders were people who settled on the Great Plains between 1862 and 1890, The Homestead Act of 1862 declared that any citizen could claim 160 acres of surveyed government land outside the original thirteen colonies. Many pioneers filed claims, populated the land, built towns and ultimately opened the West. Several new states were created from land settled by Homesteaders.

Question 18

Railroads

Answer 18

Railroads were an important part of the opening of the West. The transcontinental railroad, linking Omaha, Nebraska with Sacramento, California, was completed in 1869. By 1893 five lines linking the eastern United States with the western United States were completed. The transcontinental railroads aided the opening of the west and the opening of the frontier and fostered great economic development along the routes.