Final

Question 1

Oregon trail

Answer 1

The route west from the Missouri River to the Oregon Territory. By 1860, some 350,000 Americans had made the three- to six-month journey along the trail.

Question 2

Liberty party

Answer 2

Antislavery political party formed in 1840. The Liberty Party, along with the Free-Soil Party, helped place slavery at the center of national political debates.

Question 3

Manifest destiny

Answer 3

Term coined by John L. O’Sullivan in 1845 to describe what he saw as the nation’s God-given right to expand its borders. Throughout the nineteenth century, the concept of manifest destiny was used to justify U.S. expansion.

Question 4

Mexican-american war

Answer 4

1846–1848 war between the United States and Mexico. Ultimately, Mexico ceded approximately one million square miles to the United States, including the present-day states of California, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Texas, in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Debates over the status of slavery in these territories reignited the national debate about the expansion of slavery.

Question 5

California gold rush

Answer 5

The rapid influx of migrants into California after the discovery of gold in 1848. Migrants came from all over the world seeking riches.

Question 6

What caused migration to the West during the mid-nineteenth century?

Answer 6

the promise of economic opportunities, the lure of fertile land for agriculture, and the discovery of valuable resources like gold.

Question 7

What effect did the Mexican-American War have on the Gold Rush?

Answer 7

By ending in 1848 with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. This surrendered California to the United States, leading to a surge in population and the discovery of gold in 1848, triggering the California Gold Rush.

Question 8

Wilmot proviso

Answer 8

1846 proposal by Democratic congressman David Wilmot of Pennsylvania to outlaw slavery in all territory acquired from Mexico. The proposal was defeated, but the fight over its adoption foreshadowed the sectional conflicts of the 1850s.

Question 9

Free soil party

Answer 9

Party founded by political abolitionists in 1848 to expand the appeal of the Liberty Party by focusing less on the moral wrongs of slavery and more on the benefits of providing economic opportunities for northern white people in western territories.

Question 10

Fugitive slave act

Answer 10

Act that ensured the right of slaveholders to capture enslaved people who had fled by mandating that local government seize and return them. However, the act was largely ignored by northerners.

Question 11

Compromise of 1850

Answer 11

Series of acts following California’s application for admission as a free state. Meant to ease sectional tensions over slavery by providing something for all sides, the act ended up fueling more conflicts.

Question 12

Fugitive slave act of 1850

Answer 12

Act strengthening earlier fugitive slave laws, passed as part of the Compromise of 1850. The act provoked widespread anger in the North and intensified sectional tensions.

Question 13

Underground railroad

Answer 13

A series of routes from southern plantation areas to northern free states and Canada along which abolitionist supporters, known as conductors, provided hiding places, transportation, and resources to enslaved people seeking freedom.

Question 14

Uncle toms cabin

Answer 14

1852 novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Meant to publicize the evils of slavery, the novel struck an emotional chord in the North and was an international best seller.

Question 15

Transcontinental railroad

Answer 15

A railroad linking the East and West Coasts of North America. Completed in 1869, the transcontinental railroad facilitated the flow of migrants and the development of economic connections between the West and the East.

Question 16

Kansas-nebraska act

Answer 16

1854 act creating the territories of Kansas and Nebraska out of what was then American Indian land. The act stipulated that the issue of slavery would be settled by a popular referendum in each territory.

Question 17

American party (aka Know-Nothing party)

Answer 17

a political party that arose in the Northeast during the 1840s. The party was anti-Catholic and anti-immigration. It also supported workers’ rights against business owners, who were perceived to support immigration as a way to keep wages low.

Question 18

Republican party

Answer 18

Party formed in 1854 that was committed to stopping the expansion of slavery and advocated economic development and internal improvements. Although their appeal was limited to the North, the Republicans quickly became a major political force.

Question 19

Bleeding kansas

Answer 19

The Kansas Territory during a period of violent conflicts over the fate of slavery in the mid-1850s. This violence intensified the sectional division over slavery.

Question 20

Dred scott case

Answer 20

1857 Supreme Court case centered on the status of Dred Scott and his family. In its ruling, the Court denied the claim that black men had any rights and blocked Congress from excluding slavery from any territory.

Question 21

Lincoln-douglas debates

Answer 21

Series of debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas during the 1859 Illinois Senate race that mainly focused on the expansion of slavery.

Question 22

John Browns Raid

Answer 22

1859 attack on the Federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, led by John Brown, who hoped to inspire a slave uprising and arm enslaved African Americans with the weapons taken from the arsenal. No uprising happened and Brown was captured and eventually executed for treason.

Question 23

Confederate States of America

Answer 23

Name of the government that seceded from the Union after the election of President Lincoln in 1860.

Question 24

Election of 1860

Answer 24

A crucial U.S. presidential election in which Abraham Lincoln, a Republican, won, leading to Southern states’ secession and eventually the Civil War due to disputes over slavery.

Question 25

Crittenden plan

Answer 25

A political compromise over slavery, which failed after seven southern states seceded from the Union in early 1861. It would have protected slavery from federal interference where it already existed and extended the Missouri Compromise line to California.

Question 26

Fort Sumter

Answer 26

Union fort that guarded the harbor in Charleston, South Carolina. The Confederacy’s decision to fire on the fort and block resupply in April 1861 marked the beginning of the Civil War.

Question 27

Battle of bull run

Answer 27

First major battle of the Civil War at which Confederate troops defeated Union forces in July 1861.

Question 28

Contraband

Answer 28

Term first used by Union general Benjamin Butler in May 1861 to describe enslaved people who had fled to Union lines to obtain freedom. By designating enslaved people as property forfeited by the act of rebellion, the Union was able to strike at slavery without proclaiming a general emancipation.

Question 29

Confiscation acts

Answer 29

Laws passed by Congress during the Civil War that authorized the confiscation of Confederate property. Under the confiscation acts, any enslaved people who were forced to work for the Confederate army would no longer be bound to slaveholders.

Question 30

Battle of Antietam

Answer 30

September 1862 battle in Sharpsburg, Maryland. While it remains the bloodiest single day in U.S. military history, it gave Abraham Lincoln the victory he sought before announcing the Emancipation Proclamation.

Question 31

Emancipation proclamation

Answer 31

January 1, 1863 proclamation that declared all enslaved people in areas still in rebellion “forever free.” While stopping short of abolishing slavery outright, the Emancipation Proclamation was, nonetheless, seen by both black people and white abolitionists as a great victory.

Question 32

Enrollment act

Answer 32

March 1863 Union draft law that provided for draftees to be selected by an impartial lottery. A loophole in the law allowing wealthy Americans to escape service by paying $300 or hiring a substitute created widespread resentment.

Question 33

Martial law

Answer 33

A suspension of standard law in which the military takes over the normal operation of the government.

Question 34

Copperheads

Answer 34

Northern Democrats who did not support the Union war effort. Such Democrats enjoyed considerable support in eastern cities and parts of the Midwest.

Question 35

Battle of Gettysburg

Answer 35

July 1863 battle that helped turn the tide for the Union in the Civil War. The Union victory at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, combined with a victory at Vicksburg, Mississippi the same month, eliminated the threat of European intervention in the war and positioned the Union to push farther into the South.

Question 36

Siege of vicksburg

Answer 36

After a prolonged siege, Union troops forced Confederate forces to surrender at Vicksburg, Mississippi, leading to Union control of the rich Mississippi River valley.

Question 37

Gettysburg address

Answer 37

A speech given by President Lincoln to inaugurate the federal cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in November 1863. In this speech, Lincoln expressed his belief that the war was a struggle for a “new birth of freedom.”

Question 38

Total war

Answer 38

The strategy promoted by General Ulysses S. Grant in which Union forces destroyed civilian crops, livestock, fields, and property to undermine Confederate morale and supply chains.

Question 39

Shermans March to the sea

Answer 39

Total war tactics employed by General William Tecumseh Sherman to capture Atlanta and huge swaths of Georgia and the Carolinas, devastating this crucial region of the Confederacy in 1864.

Question 40

Sand creek Massacre

Answer 40

November 1864 massacre of nearly 200 Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians by the Third Colorado Cavalry of the U.S. army.

Question 41

Thirteenth Amendment

Answer 41

Amendment to the Constitution abolishing slavery, passed in January 1865 and sent to the states for ratification.