US History Era 9: The Civil War
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Created by:
jreznick on September 22, 2009
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Based on SparkNotes Study Cards. Improved for Reznick's students.
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U.S. History, SAT Subject Test - US History, US History, Reznick AP US History
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34 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Mason and Dixon Line | line that divided free and slave states (originally a surveying line in the 1760s that divided PA & MD) |
| Kansas-Nebraska Act | (1) 1854 law that divided Nebraska territory into two parts and applied popular sovereignty there; (2) the law essentially nullified the Missouri Compromise by allowing the possibility of slavery north of 36°30'; (3) controversy over the law led to the collapse of the Whig Party; (4) the influx of pro- and anti-slavery activists into related territories led to Bleeding KS |
| Great Debate | eight-month controversy in Congress over Henry Clay's proposed compromise omnibus bill; Clay's bill passed but the individual proposals became the Compromise of 1850. |
| Millard Fillmore | VP to Zachary Taylor until Taylor's 1850 death; the last Whig president, he helped push the Compromise of 1850 through Congress. |
| Zachary Taylor | Whig president from 1849 until his death in 1850 (probably a stomach virus); advocate of popular sovereignty, but in 1849 he encouraged California to apply for statehood as a free state, thereby re-igniting the free- vs. slave-state controversy. |
| Popular sovereignty | an idea first espoused by presidential candidate Lewis Cass (D) in 1848 but more famously championed by Stephen A. Douglas; a compromise position suggested that Congress should allow people living in new territories to decide for themselves whether to allow slavery while applying for statehood (but had tremendous unforeseen consequences) |
| Roger B. Taney | Chief Justice of the Supreme Court from 1836 to 1864; supported slavery laws and delivered the majority opinion on Dred Scott v. Sanford. |
| Wilmot Proviso | (1) proposed (and failed) amendment to an 1846 war funding bill suggested that slavery be prohibited in any territory the US gained from Mexico in the Mexican War. (2) the proposal highlighted the increasing sectional divides (it passed in the House w/ support from the North, but failed in the Senate) |
| Bleeding Kansas | violent clashes that began in 1856; included John Brown's massacre at a pro-slavery camp at Pottawatomie Creek and the sack of the free town of Lawrence (a mini-civil war in the territories before the real CW) |
| Abraham Lincoln | 1st Republican president; elected 1860 and re-elected assassinated in 1865; his primary goal during the Civil War was to restore the Union, but he expanded presidential authority when in 1863 he announced an Emancipation Proclamation |
| Franklin Pierce | president (D) 1853 to 1857, the last president until 1932 who won the popular & electoral vote in both the North and South; like Buchanan after him, this "doughfaced" president did little to reduce the increasing sectional tensions |
| John Brown | religious zealot and extreme abolitionist who believed that God had ordained him to end slavery; he led attacks on pro-slavery government officials in Pottawattamie Creek, Kansas, in 1856 and in 1859, he led 21 men in a raid on a federal arsenal in Harper's Ferry, Virginia (a failed attempt to incite a slave rebellion) |
| Battle of Gettysburg | largest battle of the Civil War, July 1-4, 1863, that resulted in an unprecedented 51,000 total casualties; the war's turning point and the high water mark of Lee's attempt to invade the North; the southern PA battle was the Union's 1st major victory in the East. |
| Battle of Antietam | Sept. 17, 1862 battle, the single bloodiest day of the Civil War; Union forces failed to fully defeat Lee but they forced him to retreat from MD, and the "victory" gave Lincoln the confidence to announce the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. |
| Confederate States of America | the country that the seceded states in the South attempted to establish before and during the Civil War |
| Frederick Douglass | escaped slave from MD & the most famous of all abolitionists; he worked closely with William Lloyd Garrison to promote abolitionism in the 1830s and founded The North Star magazine |
| Jefferson Davis | former secretary of war and Mississippi senator and president of the Confederacy; he struggled during the Civil War to unite the CSA states under one central authority |
| Stephen A. Douglas | Speaker of the House and leading Northern Democrat who became prominent when he pushed the Compromise of 1850 through Congress; a supporter of popular sovereignty and the author of the KS-NE Act; he defeated Lincoln for a seat in the Senate in 1858 but lost to him in the presidential election of 1860. |
| Emancipation Proclamation | (1) announcement issued by Lincoln on January 1, 1863: all slaves in rebel territory would be set free at the end of the war (though in reality no slaves were freed when this statement was issued); (2) significance: the war gained a new moral objective; foreign nations would not help the south after this statement |
| Freeport Doctrine | idea proposed by Stephen Douglas during the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858; a desperate-looking attempt to reconcile popular sovereignty with the Dred Scott decision: Douglas argued that territories could forbid slavery simply by not enacting slave codes |
| Fugitive Slave Act | 1793 law strengthened by the Compromise of 1850; the law allowed Southerners to send bounty hunters into the North to retrieve runaway slaves; Northerners resisted this act in the 1850s by aiding escaping slaves and by passing "personal liberty laws" |
| Gettysburg Address | Lincoln's famous "Four score and seven years ago" speech, delivered Nov. 19, 1863, at the dedication of a cemetery for casualties of the Battle of ___; this speech described the war as a historic test of a republic's ability to survive |
| Homestead Act | 1862 law encouraged that encouraged western settlement, a major part of the Republican Party platform; the law gave 160 acres of land to anyone who paid $10, lived on the land for five years, and cultivated/improved it |
| William Lloyd Garrison | most famous white abolitionist of the 1830s & 40s; founder of the abolitionist newspaper The Liberator; he pushed for immediate emancipation without compensation to slave owners & equal legal rights for blacks; considered more radical than other abolitionists |
| Lincoln-Douglas Debates | series of seven debates from Aug 21 and Oct 15, 1858 betwn senatorial candidates Lincoln (R) and Stephen Douglas (D), a free-soil supporter vs. a popular sovereignty supporter; the inconclusive debates crystallized the opinions of Northerners about slavery & propelled Lincoln into the national spotlight. |
| Personal liberty laws | state laws passed by nine northern states to counteract the Fugitive Slave Act: guaranteed alleged fugitives the right to a lawyer & jury trial, and prohibited state jails from holding alleged slaves |
| Sherman's March to the Sea | Union Gen. William T. ___ led his forces during this event from Atlanta to Savannah, GA; he ordered large-scale destruction in an attempt to bring the South "to its knees" |
| Harriet Tubman | former slave who helped establish the Underground Railroad |
| Union | A general term for the United States during the Civil War which also was used to refer to the Northern army. |
| Underground Railroad | A network of safe houses and escorts established by Northern abolitionists to foil enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act. This network helped escaped slaves reach freedom in the North and in Canada. |
| Uncle Tom's Cabin | Harriet Beecher Stowe's 1852 novel that portrayed the evils of slavery & sold 1.2 million copies in 2 years; the book increased sectional tensions: aroused sympathy for runaway slaves & hardened many against the South's defense of slavery |
| Robert E. Lee | commanding general of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia; many historians believe that the CSA held out as long as it did only because of his skill as a military commander |
| James Buchanan | moderate "doughface" president (D, 1857-1861) who had support from both the North and South but who did nothing to stem the sectional conflict or stop the secession that began when he was a lame duck at the end of his presidency |
| Ulysses S. Grant | (1) Commanding general of the western Union forces for much of the Civil War and of all Union forces during the last year of the war; (2) later the 18th president (1869 to 1877), during the decline of Reconstruction; (3) his administration was marred by corruption and beset by partisan and sectional strife |
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