Period 5: 1844 - 1877 Flashcards

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1
Q

Manifest Destiny

A

the notion that Americans have the God-given right to have a nation that extends from the Atlantic to Pacific

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2
Q

what were the practical reasons for westward expansion

A
  1. access to mineral and natural resources (gold in cali)
  2. new economic and homesteading opportunities
  3. religious refuge (mormons)
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3
Q

California Gold Rush

A

ppl rushed to Cali to stake their claim and get rich

led more ppl to expand west

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4
Q

Preemption Acts

A

acts passed by Congress during the 1830 and 1840s that made vast tracts of land available for cheap to anyone who wanted to buy it

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5
Q

what was James K. Polk’s view on Manifest Destiny

A

loved it and wanted to add Texas and Oregon to the Union

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6
Q

Battle of San Jacinto

A

1836 retaliation of Texans who lost at the Alamo, led by Sam Houston who declared Texas to be an independent republic

forced Mexican general to sign treaty granting Texas independence which Mexican govt didn’t recognize, caused later problems when Texas applied for statehood

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7
Q

Oregon Territory

A

competing British and US claims
land granted to US after treaty w/ British

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8
Q

definition of annexation

A

possession taken of a piece of land or a country, usually by force or without permission

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9
Q

explain the significance of the Free Soil Party in the Election of 1848

A
  • Free Soil Party = anti-slavery party
  • want no slavery everywhere but settle for no slavery expansion
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10
Q

identify the major issues President Zachary Taylor faced in his short tenure as president

A
  • California’s admission as a free state
  • South threatened cession if California’s admitted as a free state
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11
Q

describe the major issues in 1850 that led to the Compromise of 1850

A
  • unequal balance between free and slave states
  • land dispute: Texas claimed its territory went all the way to Santa Fe
  • DC was home to the largest slave market and many wanted it stopped
  • slavery in new territories from Mexico? yes or no?
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12
Q

explain the Compromise of 1850

A
  • New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah are organized w/o mention of slavery (decide through popular sovereignty)
  • California admitted as a free state
  • Texas relinquished land in dispute
  • slave trade abolished in DC
  • Fugitive Slave Law
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13
Q

analyze the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850

A
  • forced citizens to catch runaway slaves and turn them in
  • harms free blacks b/c white ppl can claim they were a slave and force them into slavery
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14
Q

explain the significance of Uncle Tom’s Cabin on American society

A

revealed the evils of slavery to sway public opinion in the North towards abolition

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15
Q

Mexican American War (1846-1848) causes

A
  • Texas annexation
  • Stationing of US troops at border
  • US wanting to expand into Mexico-owned territories (Cali)
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16
Q

John Slidell

A

diplomat sent by Polk to Mexico City to convince Mexico to sell more land to US, settle/argue the location of the southern border of Mexico

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17
Q

Zachary Taylor

A

US general who stationed troops at the Rio Grande where conflict erupted resulting in the Mexican-American War

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18
Q

Winfield Scott

A

US general who led American troops in conquering and occupying Mexico City

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19
Q

Mexican-American War (1846-1848) effects

A
  • US gained lots of land
  • voter discrimination and educational segregation placed upon ppl who still resided in the territories once owned by Mexico
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20
Q

Treaty of Guadalupehidalgo

A

1848 treaty that ended the Mexican-American War

  • established the Rio Grande as the southern border for Texas
  • Mexican Cession
  • all Mexicans living in now US territory would be granted citizenship (except natives)
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21
Q

Mexican Cession

A

result of Mexican-American War and Treaty of Guadalupehidalgo in which Mexico ceded California and New Mexico the the United States for $15M

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22
Q

Gadsden Purchase

A

1853 purchase of Mexican land that provided the land necessary for a southern transcontinental railroad and attempted to resolve conflicts that lingered after the Mexican-American War.

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23
Q

Wilmot Proviso & its significance

A

amendment that proposed that any lands gained from victory int he Mexican-American war be off limits to the expansion of slavery

was voted down but highlights growing tensions over slavery

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24
Q

free soil

A

acquiring additional land for homesteaders to settle on without competition from the system of slavery

economic rather than moral

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25
Q

Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854

A

senator Stephen Douglass propsed that the territory north of the 36-30 line be divided in 2: Kansas Territory and Nebraska Territory

  • each territory decide by popular sovereignty to allow slavery or not
  • led to Bleeding Kansas
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26
Q

Bleeding Kansas

A

violence that erupted as a result of the Kansas-Nebraska Act

caused fighting between pro-slavery and anti-slavery people

led to the creation of 2 rival state legislatures in Kansas Territory (1 pro-slavery, 1 anti-slavery)

27
Q

Dred Scott Decision of 1857

A

Supreme Court case that ruled:
1. Dred Scott was not a citizen and therefore had no right to sue in federal court
2. Constitution clearly states that Congress cannot deprive any citizen of property (slave owners can take slaves anywhere, even free states, without fear of them being taken away)

28
Q

Battle of Antietam

A

September 1862 battle in Sharpsburg, Maryland. Gave Abraham Lincoln the victory he sought before announcing the Emancipation Proclamation

29
Q

Battle of Bull Run

A

1st major battle of the Civil War @ which Confederate troops defeated Union forces in July 1861

30
Q

Battle of Shiloh

A

April 1862, Union troops were led to the Mississippi valley where Union soldiers saw the horrors of slavery. death toll = 23,000.

*led to the increased enlistment of African Americans

31
Q

Copperheads

A

Northern Democrats who didn’t support the Union war effort. Such Dems enjoyed considerable support in Eastern cities and parts of the Midwest

32
Q

Emancipation Proclamation

A

January 1, 1863 proclamation that declared all enslaved ppl 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

33
Q

Enrollment Act

A

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.

34
Q

Fort Sumter

A

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

35
Q

Battle of Gettysburg

A

July 1863 battle that helped turn the tide for the Union in the Civil War. This victory @ Gettysburg, PA, combined w/ a victory @ Vicksburg, MI the same month, eliminated the threat of European intervention in the war & positioned the Union to push farther into the South.

36
Q

13th Amendment

A

abolished slavery in January 1865

37
Q

Gettysburg Address

A

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

38
Q

Sand Creek Massacre

A

November 1864 massacre of nearly 200 Cheyenne & Araphno Indians by the Third Colorado cavalry of the US Army

39
Q

Sherman’s March to the Sea

A

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

40
Q

black codes

A

radical laws passed by southern legislatures in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War that aimed to keep freedpeople in a condition as close to slavery as possible

41
Q

14th Amendment

A

defined citizenship and protected idividual civil and political rights from abridgment by the states, overturned the Dred-Scott decision

42
Q

15 Amendment

A

prohibited the abridgment of a citizen’s right to vote on the basis on “race, color, or previous condition of servitude”, southern states devised numerous strategies to circumvent this Amendment

43
Q

Freedman’s Bureau

A

federal agency created in 1865 to provide freedpeople w/ economic and legal resources, the Freedman’s Bureau played an active role in shaping black life in the postwar South

44
Q

Military Reconstruction Acts

A

1867 acts dividing Southern states into military districts and requiring those states to grant black male suffrage

45
Q

National Women’s Suffrage Association

A

founders: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony

opposed ratification of 15th Amendment

46
Q

radical republicans

A

republican politicians who actively supported abolition prior the Civil War and sought tighter controls over the South in the aftermath of the war

47
Q

Reconstruction

A

period from 1865 to 1877, during which the 11 ex-confederate states were subject to federal legislative and constitutional efforts to remake their societies as they were readmitted to the Union

48
Q

Wade-Davis Bill

A

1864 - established much higher barriers for readmission to the Union than Lincoln plan

49
Q

American (Know-Nothing) Party

A

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

50
Q

Crittenden Compromise/Plan

A

a political compromise over slavery, which failed after 7 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

51
Q

raid on Harper’s Ferry

A

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

52
Q

Liberty Party

A

anti-slavery political party formed in 1840

53
Q

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

A

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

54
Q

Oregon Trail

A

the route west from the Missouri River to the Oregon Territory

people traveled to find better economic opportunities

55
Q

Ostend Manifesto

A

1854 letter for US ambassadors and the Secretary of State to President Franklin Pierce urging him to conquer Cuba. When it leaked Northerners voiced outrage @ what they thought was a plot to expand slavery in new territories

56
Q

Transcontinental Railroad

A

railroad linking the East and West coasts of North America completed in 1869, it facilitated the flow of migrants and the development of economic connections between the West and East

57
Q

describe the Election of 1852

A

Franklin Pierce = Dem vs Winfield Scott = Whig

Pierce won b/c he supported the Compromise of 1850 and Fugitive Slave Law

58
Q

describe the Election of 1856

A

Charles Freemont, James Buchannan (winner), Millard FIllmore

none of them addressed slavery in this campaign

59
Q

why did Abraham Lincoln win the election of 1860

A

4 people ran for president
and the democratic vote was split

60
Q

carpetbaggers

A

derogatory term for white Northerners who moved to the South in the years following the Civil War. Many white Southerners believed much migrants were intent on exploiting their suffering.

61
Q

Redeemers

A

white conservative Democrats who challenged and overthrew Republican rule in the South during Reconstruction

62
Q

sharecropping

A

a system that emerged as the dominant mode of agricultural production in the South in the years after the Civil War. Under the sharecropping system, sharecroppers received tools and supplies from landowners in exchange for a share of the eventual harvest.

63
Q

Panic of 1873

A

economic collapse caused by the crash of the European stock market which led to European investors selling their bonds in US railroad

this caused the Freedman’s Bank to fail and panic ensued

64
Q

Jefferson Davis

A

president of the Confederate States of America