Chapter 4 Flashcards
Secession, Civil War, and Reconstruction
The Civil War was fought between the Union and Confederate states over the issues of slavery, federal power, and preserving the union
Causes of Civil War
Following Lincoln’s election, several southern states left the Union
Secession
Belief that states should have great freedom to govern themselves
States’ Rights
Episode in which South Carolina threatened to invoke the doctrine of nullification.
SC Nullification Crisis
Influential South Carolina senator and one-time vice president to Andrew Jackson and adamant defender of states’ rights
John C. Calhoun
Compromise that meant to maintain the balance of power between slave and free states which declared that Missouri would be admitted to the Union as a slave state and Maine as a free state.
Missouri Compromise
Compromise that allowed California to be admitted as a free state, instituted popular sovereignty in the Utah and New Mexico territories; established the Fugitive Slave Law
Compromise of 1850
The view held by those who believed residents of a particular state or territory should decide for themselves whether or not to permit slavery
Popular Sovereignty
Law attached to the Compromise of 1850 which required that northern states forcibly return escaped slaves to their owners in the South
Fugitive Slave Law
The Supreme Court’s decision in which the court ruled that a man had no right to sue because, as a slave, he was not a citizen. Declared he was property and also struck down the Missouri Compromise
Dred Scott Decision
Radical abolitionist who attacked the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, hoping to seize weapons and give them to slaves who could then rise up in armed rebellion.
John Brown
Reform movement to end slavery throughout the US
Abolitionist Movement
After escaping slavery in Maryland, he educated himself and became the most prominent African American speaker for the abolition of slavery. He even helped John Brown plan (but didn’t participate)
Frederick Douglas
Escaped slave who heroically returned to the South 19 times to help other slaves escape to freedom by way of the Underground Railroad
Harriet Tubman
A network of people, including Harriet Tubman, who helped slaves escape to the northern US and Canada
Underground Railroad
Her 1852 novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, was a fictional account of the horrors faced by a slave family in the South. Though she was white and had never been a slave, her book motivated many people in the North to support the abolition of slavery
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s fictional account of the horrors faced by a slave family in the South which motivated many people in the North to support the abolition of slavery
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Political party formed from a coalition of northern Democrats who opposed slavery, Whigs, and Free Soilers that did not call for the immediate abolition of slavery, but did oppose the extension of slavery into new US territories. Lincoln was the party’s first presidential nominee to be elected
Republican Party
Election in which republican and anti-slavery candidate, Abraham Lincoln, was elected president in large part due to divisions in the Democratic party over the issue of slavery. South Carolina responded by seceding the Union
Election of 1860
“Nation” formed by the states that seceded from the Union
Confederate States of America
Site of the first shots of the Civil War when Confederate troops fired on the Union fort
Fort Sumter, SC
President of the United States during the Civil War
Abraham Lincoln
Union general who finally defeated Robert E. Lee and effectively ended the Civil War
Ulysses S. Grant
Union general whose victory at Atlanta helped Lincoln win re-election and who is most remembered for his “march to sea”
William T. Sherman
First and only president of the Confederate States of American
Jefferson Davis
Brilliant general who commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, won impressive victories at the Second Battle of Run and Chancellorsville, and eventually surrendered to Grant effectively ending the Civil War
Robert E. Lee
Included more railroads, more factories, and a greater population from which to draw soldiers and a labor force. Had an established government
Northern Advantages
Included better military leaders (initially), the need to fight only a war of attrition, and the motivation of fighting for their own independence
Southern Advantages
General Winfield Scott’s plan for Union victory that involved surrounding the Confederacy and cutting off all supply lines, much like an anaconda wraps around its prey and squeezes it. It restricted southern trade, transport, and communications by seizing control of the Mississippi River.
Anaconda Plan
Battle fought in Maryland as Lee tried to invade the North for the first time. He was turned away after the bloodiest single day of fighting of the war
Antietam
Fought in Pennsylvania, this battle was a key turning point in the war. Without Jackson to assist him, Lee’s forces proved less aggressive than usual and failed to win valuable high ground early in the battle. Union forces under the command of General George Meade defeated Lee’s army and ended any hope the South had of successfully invading the North. With more than $1,000 soldiers killed, wounded, or missing, it was the bloodiest battle of the entire Civil War
Gettysburg
Military movement across Georgia and the Carolinas in which he burned cities and destroyed railways as he attempted to trap General Lee between himself and Grant
March to the Sea
The guarantee that a person cannot be imprisoned without being brought before a judge. It was, at times, suspended by Lincoln during the Civil War
Writs of Habeus Corpus
A policy in which the government selects certain individuals for military service rather than waiting for them to enlist
Draft
Union Democrats who opposed Lincoln
Copperheads
Executive order which freed slaves in the Confederate states
Emancipation Proclamation
African American unit in the Union army which inspired its fellow white troops and won a place in history with its courageous assault on Fort Wagner near Charleston in July 1863
54th Massachusetts
Site of Lee’s surrender to Grant
Appomattox Courthouse
Succeeded Lincoln as president and was the first president in US history ever impeached
Andrew Johnson
Plan for Reconstruction supported by President Andrew Johnson. It was less severe than Radical Reconstruction and only required that southerners swear allegiance to the Union and that states denounce their secession and ratify the Thirteenth Amendment. Once done, Confederate states could re-enter the Union. It allowed power to remain in the hands of many of the same people who had led the Confederacy during the Civil War
Presidential Reconstruction
Republicans in Congress who favored imposing strict conditions and Republican policies on the South during reconstruction
Radical Republicans
Stricter form of Reconstruction backed by the Republican Congress that eventually won out over Presidential Reconstruction. It required southern states to submit to military rule, hold new constitutional conventions, grant African Americans equal right and the right to vote, and ratify the Fourteenth Amendment
Radical Reconstruction Plan
Constitutional amendment that ended slavery thought the United States
13th Amendment
Guaranteed that no person (regardless of race) would be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. It granted blacks the status of citizenship and was ratified in 1868
14th Amendment
Guaranteed that no citizen may be denied the right to vote “by the United States or any state on the account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” The amendment had great impact in the South by guaranteeing African Americans the right to vote
15th Amendment
System in which ex-slaves paid rent to farm land owned by someone else, owned the crops they grew, and were less at the mercy of white landowners than sharecroppers
Tenant Farming
First federal relief agency in US history, it served to provide clothing, medical attention, meals, education, and even some land to freed blacks and some poorer whites
Freedmen’s Bureau
Laws meant to keep African Americans subordinate to whites by restricting the rights of freed slaves
Black Codes
Racist hate group whose numbers grew after WWI as it expanded its focus from simply opposing blacks and integration to attacking Jews, Catholics, and immigrants as well
Ku Klux Klan
Political compromise that made Republican Rutherford B. Hayes president in exchange for an end to Reconstruction
Compromise of 1877
Term refers to the fact that, for nearly a century after Reconstruction, Southerners remained distrustful of the Republican party and “solidly” supported Democratic candidates
Solid South
Laws passed in the South after Reconstruction that required blacks and whites to use separate public facilities
Jim Crow Laws
Requirement used by whites in the South to prevent African Americans from voting; required reading test
Literacy Test
Method which took advantage of the fact that most blacks were poor in order to prevent African Americans from voting
Poll Taxes
Special exemptions in voting laws which stated that one need not pay a poll tax or pass a literacy test if one had voted before or had ancestors who voted. They were meant to allow poor, illiterate whites vote while still excluding African Americans
Grandfather Clause
Separation of people based on race
Segregation
1896 Supreme Court case which sanctioned segregation and established the principle of “separate but equal”
Plessy v. Ferguson
Former slave who founded the Tuskegee Institute. He taught his students that if blacks excelled in teaching, agriculture and blue collar fields (trades requiring manual labor), they would eventually be treated as equal citizens. He was criticized by some African Americans because he saw no problem with segregation
Booker T. Washington
Was the first black Ph.D. graduate from Harvard University, adamantly rejected justifications for segregation. Argued that blacks should pursue occupations in the humanities and in white-collar fields. Unlike some other African American leaders, he believed that blacks must be politically, legally, and socially active in order to obtain true equality. He helped organize a group of black intellectuals known as the Niagara movement and was instrumental in founding the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
W.E.B. Dubois
An influential African American woman. She later campaigned against lynchings, fought for women’s suffrage, and helped organize the NAACP
Ida Wells Barnett
