Segregation
The separation of blacks and whites, mostly in the South, in public facilities, transportation, schools, etc.
Cotton Gin
Revolutionary machine developed by Eli Whitney to separate the seed from cotton fiber; it had long and far-reaching effects; greatly increased the need and demand for slave labor, brought prosperity to both the North and South, led to development of factories, and ushered in the American Industrial Revolution., invented by eli whitney in 1793.
Henry Clay
Senator who persuaded Congress to accept the Missouri Compromise, which admitted Maine into the Union as a free state, and Missouri as a slave state.
Daniel Webster
Senator who, originally pro-North, supported the Compromise of 1850 and subsequently lost favor from his constituency. Leader of the Whig party.
John C. Calhoun
The 7th Vice President of the United States and a leading Southern politician from South Carolina during the first half of the 19th century. He was an advocate of slavery, states' rights, limited government, and nullification.
Susan B. Anthony
Social reformer who campaigned for womens rights, the temperance, and was an abolitionist, helped form the National Woman Suffrage Assosiation.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
A pioneer in the women's suffrage movement, she helped organize the first women's rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848. She later helped edit the militant feminist magazine Revolution from 1868 - 1870.
Abraham Lincoln
The 16th President of the United States saved the Union during the Civil War and emancipated the slaves; was assassinated by Booth (1809-1865)
Clara Barton
Nurse during the Civil War; started the American Red Cross
John Brown
United States abolitionist who attempted to lead a slave revolt by capturing Armories in southern territory and giving weapons to slaves, was hung in Harpers Ferry after capturing an Armory.
Horace Mann
Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education, he was a prominent proponent of public school reform, and set the standard for public schools throughout the nation.
Willian Lloyd Garrison
United States abolitionist who published the militant anti-slavery newspaper "The Liberator".
Harriet Tubman
United States abolitionist born a slave on a plantation in Maryland and became a famous conductor on the Underground Railroad leading other slaves to freedom in the North.
Frederick Douglass
United States abolitionist who escaped from slavery and became an influential writer and lecturer in the North.
Nat Turner
Leader of a slave rebellion in 1831 in Virginia. Revolt led to the deaths of 20 whites and 40 blacks and led to the "gag rule' outlawing any discussion of slavery in the House of Representatives.
States Rights Theory
The theory that rights not specifically given to the federal government by the Constitution remain with the states
Popular Sovereignty
This principle of government states that political power rests with the people. This power is expressed by voting and free participation in government.
Ku Klux Klan
White-supremacist group formed by six former Confederate officers after the Civil War. Name is essentially Greek for "Circle of Friends". Group eventually turned to terrorist attacks on blacks in an attempt to keep freed slaves powerless.
Plessy v. Ferguson
An 1896 Supreme Court decision which legalized state ordered segregation so long as the facilities for blacks and whites were equal.
15th Amendment
This amendment provided that no government in the United States shall prevent a citizen from voting based on the citizen's race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
14th Amendment
This amendment declared that all persons born or naturalized in the United States were entitled equal rights regardless of their race, and that their rights were protected at both the state and national levels.
13th Amendment
This amendment freed all slaves without compensation to the slaveowners. It legally forbade slavery in the United States.
Lincoln's Plan
Former Confederate states would be readmitted to the Union if 10% of their citizens took a loyalty oath and the state agreed to ratify the 13th Amendment which outlawed slavery. Wasn't put into effect because Lincoln was assassinated.
Johnson's Plan
Each remaining Confederate state could be readmitted to the Union if they would withdraw its secession, swear allegiance to the Union, annul Confederate war debts, and ratify the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery.
Freedman's Bureau
The bureau's focus was to provide food, medical care, administer justice, manage abandoned and confiscated property, regulate labor, and establish schools.
Black Codes
Laws passed in the southern states during the Reconstruction that greatly limited the freedom and rights of African Americans.
Reconstruction
The period after the Civil War in the United States when the southern states were reorganized and reintegrated into the Union.
54th Massachusetts Regiment
One of the first African American regiments organized in the North, most famous for the failed assault on Fort Wagner.
Habeas Corpus
The protection under the Constitution that requires a cause be given when you are put in jail; suspended during the American Civil War by Lincoln.
Antietam
The first major battle in the American Civil War to take place on Northern soil. It was the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, with almost 23,000 casualties. After this "win" for the North, Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation.
Battle of Gettysburg
The turning point in the Civil War for the North, because Confederate troops were forced to retreat and never invaded the North again.
Emancipation Proclamation
Issued by Abraham Lincoln on September 22, 1862, it declared that all slaves in the rebellious Confederate states would be free
Civil War
The war fought between the Northern and Southern states of the United States from 1861 to 1865 over the issue of slavery.
Gettysburg Address
A speech given by Abraham Lincoln in which he praised the bravery of Union soldiers and renewed his commitment to winning the Civil War.
Sherman's march through Georgia
Union General William Tecmseh Sherman's destructive March through Georgia. An early instance of "Total war", puposely targeting infrastucture and civialian property to diminish moral and undercut the confederate war effort.
monopolies
Exclusive control of a commodity or service in a particular market, or a control that makes possible the manipulation of prices.
Battle of Little Big Horn
1876 battle in which the Sioux and Cheyenne wiped out an entire force of US troops led by George A. Custer. Last big Indian win.
Transcontinental Railroad
The railroad which linked the east to the west. It allowed many settlers to travel west and allowed the goods they produced to travel back east. It ran through farmland and plains and had a negative effect on the buffalo population.
Secession
The withdrawal of eleven Southern states from the Union in 1860 which precipitated the American Civil War.
Dred Scott
A black slave, had lived with his master for 5 years in Illinois and Wisconsin Territory. Backed by interested abolitionists, he sued for freedom on the basis of his long residence on free soil. The ruling on the case was that He was a black slave and not a citizen, so he had no rights.
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Created Nebraska and Kansas as states and gave the people in those territories the right to chose to be a free or slave state through popular sovereignty.
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe about a slave who's ordered to be beaten to death by two other slaves. Showed northerners the horrors of slavery while southerners attack it as an exaggeration, it was also a cause of the Civil War.
Balance of Power in the Senate
The need for an equal number from all political parties so that one party could not have its way in all of the issues of the nation.
Fugitive Slave Act
A law that made it a crime to help runaway slaves; allowed for the arrest of escaped slaves in areas where slavery was illegal and required their return to slaveholders.
Compromise of 1850
Called for the admission of California as a free state, organizing Utah and New Mexico with out restrictions on slavery, adjustment of the Texas/New Mexico border, abolition of slave trade in District of Columbia, and tougher fugitive slave laws. Its passage was hailed as a solution to the threat of national division.
Missouri Compromise
Allowed Missouri to enter the union as a slave state, Maine to enter the union as a free state, prohibited slavery north of latitude 36˚ 30' within the Louisiana Territory (1820)
Northwest Ordinance of 1787
Created the Northwest Territory (area north of the Ohio River and west of Pennsylvania), established conditions for self-government and statehood, included a Bill of Rights, and permanently prohibited slavery.
Annexation of Texas
Texas seceded from Mexico and declared independence in response to Mexican abolition of slavery. US adopts/annexes Texas because Southern states support Texas slavery. The North feared expansion of slavery and war with Mexico.
Westward Expansion
A movement westward for jobs, land, hope, the gold rush, adventure, a new beginning and the transcontinental railroad. It lasted from 1850 - 1890.
Homestead Act
Passed in 1862, it gave 160 acres of public land to any settler who would farm the land for five years. The settler would only have to pay a registration fee of $25.
Mexican American War
1846 - 1848 - President Polk declared war on Mexico because of a dispute over land in Texas. In the end, America ended up with 55% of Mexico's land.
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Treaty that ended the Mexican War, granting the U.S. control of Texas, New Mexico, and California in exchange for $15 million
Louis and Clark Expedition
Jefferson commissioned Louis and Clarky to explore Louisiana Territory. They located several passages through the Rockies, established friendly relationships with the natives, and aquired a wealth of geographical and biological knowledge about the land.
Louisiana Purchase
The U.S., under Jefferson, bought the Louisiana territory from France, under the rule of Napoleon, in 1803. The U.S. paid $15 million for the Louisiana Purchase, and Napoleon gave up his empire in North America. The U.S. gained control of Mississippi trade route and doubled its size.
Gadsden Purchase
Strip of land in present-day Arizona and New Mexico that was acquired by the U.S. in 1853 for $10 million.
Manifest Destiny
This expression was popular in the 1840s. Many people believed that the U.S. was destined to secure territory from "sea to sea," from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. This rationale drove the acquisition of territory.
Temperance
Reform movement originating in the 1820s that sought to eliminate the consumption of alcohol
Transcendentalism
A nineteenth-century movement in the Romantic tradition, which held that every individual can reach ultimate truths through spiritual intuition, which transcends reason and sensory experience.
Education reform
1830ish. Followed temperance movement and set up public schools and minimum requirements. Horace Mann was main component in movement.
Suffrage movement
The drive for voting rights for women that took place in the United States from 1890 to 1920.
Seneca Falls Convention
Took place in upperstate New York in 1848. Women of all ages and even some men went to discuss the rights and conditions of women. There, they wrote the Declaration of Sentiments, which among other things, tried to get women the right to vote.
Abolitionism
The militant effort to do away with slavery. It began in the north in the 1700's. Becoming a major issue in the 1830's, it dominated politics by the 1840's. Congress became a battle ground between the pro and anti slavery forces
Underground Railroad
A system that helped enslaved African Americans follow a network of escape routes out of the South to freedom in the North.
nativism
An anti-foreign feeling that arose in the 1840's and 1850's in response to the influx of Irish and German Catholics.
slave rebellions
Instances where slaves took up arms against their masters, burning buildings and crop fields and engaging whites in bloody warfare.
Cotton Gin
A machine invented by Eli Whitney in 1793 to remove seeds from short-staple cotton; revolutionized the cotton industry.