My Red Cards Flashcards
The Shakers
Led by “Mother” Ann Lee. Known for their ‘shaking’ as they felt the spirit of God pulse through them. Eventually died out due to forbidding of sexual relations.
Transcendentalists
This group embodied the romantic spirit of the US by spurning materialism and embracing self reliance. Lived the lifestyle espoused by Emerson and Thoreau.
The Oneida Commune
Group founded by John Humphrey Noyes. Meant to be the shining example of equality between all members. Controversial from the beginning. Shared spouses, this was viewed as immoral from the outside. The group eventually died out.
Knickerbockers
Group including Washington Irving that started the trend of American fiction by using domestic settings and characters for tales. Tales such as “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”.
Nat Turner’s Rebellion
Uprising led by a Virginia slave in 1831 resulted in the deaths of over 50 million white men, women, and children and the retaliatory killings of hundreds of slaves.
Maine Law
This law completely prohibited the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages in this state. Soon after 12 other states would pass similar laws.
The North Star
This antislavery journal published by Fredrick Douglass chronicled the ugliness of slavery for readers, and argued that the constitution could be used as a weapon against slavery.
Declaration of Sentiments
Document drafted by the feminist leaders who met in Seneca Falls to discuss the plight of women in the US. Closely modeled the Declaration of Independence by declaring that “all men and women are created equal”.
Walden
This book, written by Henry David Thoreau, chronicled his self-initiated experiment where he excused himself from society by living in seclusion in the woods for two years.
On Civil Disobedience
Influential essay written by Thoreau that advocated passive resistance as a form of justifiable protest.
Underground Railroad
Elaborate network that helped fugitive slaves flee the US or at least to reach free states.
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
More commonly known as the Mormon Church, this group was founded by Joseph Smith in 1830
Liberty Party
This organization came about as a splinter from the American Antislavery Society. This group accepted the membership of women.
American Antislavery Society
Organization founded by William Lloyd Garrison strove to combat the proslavery contingent. Claimed the Constitution was a proslavery document.
Seneca Falls
Site of a meeting with feminist leadership including Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B Anthony. Here the Declaration of Sentiments was drafted. “All men and women are created equal”.
Perfectionism
This belief system promoted the idea that humankind could have a life that resembled the life of Jesus. They could obtain this through faith, hard work, education, and temperance.
Cult of Domesticity
Belief based on the fact that in many American homes it was no longer necessary for the women to work both the fields and the home. Women’s roles were defined as homemakers and mothers.
Sam Houston
Led texans in a revolt against Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, the military dictator or Mexico. This man declared Texas as a republic independent of Mexico. This man captured Santa Anna and forced him to sign a decree granting independence of Texas
Bear Flag Republic
The name that California called itself after it had been declared independent following the near end of the Mexican war. John C Fremont was it’s leader.
Wilmot Proviso
Amendment aimed to prohibit slavery in the new land acquired by the war with Mexico. Passed thought the House but failed in the Senate
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
This treaty ended the Mexican War and granted California and most of the southwest to the US. America agreed to pay $15 million to Mexico.
Oregon Trail
This dangerous path was used by thousands in the mid 1840’s. took travelers six months to reach their destination at the end of this path.
Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too!
This slogan was used in the campaign of Harrison and Tyler. The pair won, defeating Van Buren in the 1840 election.
Harriet Beecher Stowe
This woman wrote Uncle Toms Cabin in 1852. The novel gained fast notoriety in the North and scorn from the South. Galvanized northerners to believe slavery was morally wrong and southerners grew in their convictions to protect it.
Apologists
This group spoke of happy lives of southern slaves who were clothed, fed, and housed by benevolent slave owners.
Free-Soil Party
This political party was made up of antislavery advocates from all political parties. “Free soil, free speech, free labor, and free men.” Held some on the same beliefs of the old Whigs but opposed the expansion of slavery.
49ers
Name for the rough group of young men that loved adventure and who moved west following the discovery of gold in 1848
Republican Party
This party was opposed to the expansion of slavery and the Kansas Nebraska Act. Despite the lost of the election of 1856, they still made a show of running Fremont who won 11 of 16 free states in the electoral college.
Border ruffians
Name of the group of proslavery farmers from nearby Missouri who settled small areas along the border in order to vote in the election that would determine the slavery issue for Kansas.
The Constitutional Union Party
This political party was concerned that if Lincoln won the election of 1860, that the south would secede and that would mean the end of the union.
Confederate States of America
Just after Lincoln won the election of 1860, SC voted to secede from the union. Within six weeks sex more Deep South states decided to join South Carolina. This “new country” named Jefferson Davis as it’s president.
Gadsden Purchase
This transfer of property was signed by President Franklin Pierce. The terms were that Mesilla Valley in the southernmost region of New Mexico and Arizona was transferred from Mexico to the US.
Fugitive Slave Law
Law designed to reenslave those slaves who had made it to freedom. In addition the law denied legal rights to captured blacks and sentenced whites who harbored fugitives to heavy fines or jail time.
The Compromise of 1850
Series of laws were a method of averting a national crisis as a result of conflicting beliefs between radical southerners and other states. This series of laws would admit California as a free state, divide the Mexican cession into NM and Utah territories with popular sovereignty serving as the basis for determining slave status, ban slave trade in Washington DC, and enact a stricter fugitive slave law
The Kansas Nebraska Act
This law came to the forefront when Douglas proposed to divide the Nebraska territory into two regions. Because both regions lay above the 36 30 line this could theoretically open these lands to slavery.
Lecompton Constitution
This document was drafted by a group of Missourians who traveled across the border to Kansas and organized a proslavery government hoping to create a new state. This document would only allow citizens to vote for the document with or without slavery.
Dred Scott v. Sanford
The Supreme Court made a ruling on this case that said the 36 30 provision of the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional and that all African Americans were not citizens, making them ineligible to sue in federal court. The Missouri compromise was unconstitutional because it stripped slave owners of their rightful property once they moved northward.
Freeport Doctrine
This document written by Douglas stayed that communities would have to pass and enforce laws to protect the institution of slavery for it to exist.
Bleeding Kansas
Name given to the area where fighting broke out among the pro and antislavery factions at the border
Emancipation Proclamation
This declared freedom of all slaves in confederate states. However it only applied to slaves in the confederate states; border states were still legal.
Gettysburg
Union and confederate armies fought in this PA town. This was the deadliest and most important battle of the war. The confederates would not have another victory after this battle.
Anaconda Plan
Plan devised by Winfield Scott to wear down the Confederacy. In the first phase the union navy would blockade all southern ports of entry, cutting the confederates off from supplies and trade.
The Pacific Railway Act of 1862
This act approved the building of a transcontinental railroad that would transform the west by linking the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific
Appomattox Court House
It was at this location that the Confederate army of northern Virginia officially surrendered.
Greenbacks
Currency was used in place of gold during war time
Sojourner Truth
This woman helped fugitive slaves flee slave states or the US through the Underground Railroad
Fredrick Douglass
Published the North Star, an antislavery journal that chronicled the ugliness of slavery for readers, and argued that the constitution could be used as a weapon against slavery.
Ironclads
Naval ships that were first launched in 1862. Examples are CSS Merrimac and the USD Monitor. These replaced wooden ships.
Sarah and Angelina Grimke
These abolitionists voiced their opposition to make dominance, this starting the dialogue about women’s roles and the plight of women in the US.
Joseph Smith
According to Mormon tradition, the angel Moroni visited this man in his bedroom one night in 1823. The angel told him of a sacred text buried by the lost tribe of Israel. By 1830 this man translated the text and organized the Mormon Church.
Brigham Young
This new Mormon leader collected his flock and moved to Utah. Mormons remained outsiders due to their practices and beliefs, notably polygamy. Only after they forbid that practice could Utah become a state
Ralph Waldo Emmerson
Transcendentalist writer traveled across America delivering lectures. Urged Americans to shun wealth and embrace the natural world. A distinctive American culture had begun to bloom under this mans influence.
Henry David Thoreau
Transcendentalist writer spurned materialism and embraced self reliance. Wrote ‘Walden’ and the essay “On Civil Disobedience”.
Nathaniel Hawthorne
This American authors book, the Scarlet Letter, raised questions about religion and society.
American Temperance Society
This organization strove to encourage drinkers to limit their intake of alcohol and then eventually take a vow of abstinence.
