Unit 5: Important Events

Question 1

Pottawatomie

Answer 1

Lead by John Brown reaction to the sacking of Lawrence, Kansas by pro-slavery forcesa band of abolitionist settlers (some of them members of the Pottawatomie Rifles) killed five settlers north of Pottawatomie Creek

Question 2

“Bleeding Kansas”

Answer 2

Bloody violence there between those who wished it to enter the Union as a free state and those who fought for slavery in the territory (“border ruffians”). Henry Beecher selling bibles for Guns.

Question 3

Dred Scott Decision

Answer 3

Slave sued for freedom (brought into free state from slave state). Roger B. Taney (Judge). No right to sue, not a citizen, piece of property. Anyone can take slaves with them even beyond Missouri compromise.

Question 4

Emancipation Proclaimation

Answer 4

1862 - Lincoln freed all slaves in the states that had seceded, after the Northern victory at the Battle of Antietam. Lincoln had no power to enforce the law.

Question 5

Texas v. White

Answer 5

A case which involved the disposition of Civil War bonds used by Texas, which had left the Union. It was held that states in rebellion did not lose their existence or identity. The decision also declared secession unconstitutional.

Question 6

Civil Rights Act

Answer 6

(1866)Protect the rights of blacks, stated that any citizen w/same rights as whites has ability to write contracts, sue, give evidence, and inherit, purchase, lease, sell, hold personal property. (1875) Enforcement/Force Act guaranteed Afr. Amer. equal treatment in public accommodations regardless to any previous condition of servitude.

Question 7

Black Codes

Answer 7

Local laws intended to force African-Americans to continue working as plantation laborers. They imposed prohibitive taxes, harsh vagrancy laws meant to intimidate the freedmen, restrictions on ability to own property.

Question 8

Thirteenth Amend.

Answer 8

Outlaws slavery and non-voluntary servitude

Question 9

Crittenden Compromise

Answer 9

Proposed by John Crittenden in an attempt to preserve the Union. The amendments to bar the federal government from intervening in southern states’ decision of slavery, restore the Missouri Compromise, and guarantee protection of slavery below this line. Repealed personal liberty laws.

Question 10

Fugitive Slave Law

Answer 10

Requires every person to participate in slave catching. Personal liberty laws null & void. Judge decide fate ($10 for slave $5 for free captured person).

Question 11

Freeport Doctrine

Answer 11

Stated that exclusion of slavery in a territory (where it was legal) could be determined by the refusal of the voters to enact any laws that would protect slave property. Stated by Stephen Douglass during the Lincoln-Douglass debates, eventually led to his loss in the 1860 presidential election.

Question 12

Lecompton Constitution

Answer 12

pro-slavery constitution suggested for Kansas’ admission to the union, it was resoundingly rejected. Led to increased sectional tensions

Question 13

Harpers Ferry Raid

Answer 13

1859, conducted by John Brown, an abolitionist to raid the federal arsenal and start a slave uprising. It failed, he was convicted of treason and hanged because he had ties with the northern abolitionists. At his death, southern fear of future slave uprisings increased, cruel treatment slaves.

Question 14

Ostend Manifesto

Answer 14

Suggestion to buy Cuba from Spain or take over for an attempt to get more slave territory. North outraged.

Question 15

Merrimack

Answer 15

Confederate ironclad ship

Question 16

Military Reconstruction Act

Answer 16

Creation of 5 military districts in south which served as acting government for region. Protection of blacks from white supremacist violence.

Question 17

Tenure of Office Act

Answer 17

Federal law intended to restrict power of president to removed office-holders w/o consent of senate.

Question 18

Ex Parte Milligan

Answer 18

U.S. Supreme court case that ruled application of military tribunals to citizen when civilian courts are still operating is unconstitutional.

Question 19

Fourteenth Amend.

Answer 19

Overturns Dred Scott. Gives citizenship to all persons born in states, “due process” clause, “equal protection” clause, deprives states of rep. in congress preventing some citizens of voting.

Question 20

Kansas-Nebraska Act

Answer 20

In 1854, said that Kansas and Nebraska should come into the Union under popular sovereignty.

Question 21

Compromise of 1850

Answer 21

Insured 5 things following Mexican-Amer. war designed by Henry Clay: Decision about free/slave state will be addressed when applied as a free state. California free state (appeal to North). Texas pay 10 Mil. to Mexico for land. End slave trade in D.C. Fugitive Slave law enacted (appeal to South)

Question 22

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

Answer 22

1858 a series of seven debates between Abraham Lincoln, the Republican candidate and Senator Stephen Douglas, the Democratic Party candidate. Douglas faltered when he lost support of the south by proposing the free port doctrine.

Question 23

Monitor

Answer 23

An iron-clad vessel built by Union forces to battle with the Merrimack

Question 24

Force Acts

Answer 24

Limiting activities of the KKK giving the Fed. the power to prosecute offenses including calling federal juries to hear cases.

Question 25

“Seward’s Folly”

Answer 25

“Seward’s Folly”The nickname given to Alaska by Johnson’s Secretary of States’s critics. This added more land and available resources to the U.S.

Question 26

Wade-Davis Bill

Answer 26

Required 50% of Southern electorate to swear allegiance to the Union. Pocket-vetoed by Lincoln.

Question 27

Fifteenth Amend.

Answer 27

Prohibits the states and federal government from suing a citizen’s race, color, or previous status as a slave as a voting qualification. Black suffrage.