EOC Essential Vocabulary: Set 1 Flashcards
Memorize events in American History. (41 cards)
Long-term causes of the civil war
- Sectionalism
- Slavery: Differing economic needs/reliance on slavery in the south.
- Extension of Slavery
- States’ Rights
Compromise of 1850
California admitted as a free state; sale of slaves banned in D.C; Fugitive Act of 1850 enacted: rest of Mexican Cession territory open to slavery based on popular sovereignty (will of the people)
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Divisive act introduced by Stephen Douglas which repealed the Missouri Compromise by applying popular sovereignty to both Kansas and Nebraska territories. The Republican Party (opposing the extension of slavery) was formed in 1854 due to this act.
Dred Scott Decision
Supreme Court decision (1857) stating that Scott did not have the right to sue for his freedom since he was not a U.S. citizen, but property of another person. Decision went further to claim the Missouri Compromise prohibiting slavery in territories was unconstitutional. Congress had no right to take away another person’s property.
Freeport Doctrine
Idea put forth by Stephen Douglas, during a debate with Lincoln, that the residents of a territory could still ban slavery despite what the Supreme Court decided with Dred Scott.
Ostend Manifesto
An attempt to expand U.S. territory; pushed for Spain to sell Cuba to the United States for $120 million dollars in 1854. The document caused uproar because Cuba was already an established slavery territory. It was declared unconstitutional due to the Fugitive Slave Law that was passed as part of the Compromise of 1850; therefore Cuba did not become a U.S. territory.
Emancipation Proclamation
Lincoln’s announcement that all slaves in those states still rebelling would be freed. Did NOT free slaves in border states that were loyal to the union.
Gettysburg
July 1863 battle that was the turning point in the war. The south never advances into the North again.
Gettysburg Address
Short speech given by Lincoln to honor Union losses at Gettysburg.
13th Amendment
Outlaws slavery in all states and all lands governed by the United States.
14th Amendment
Granted full citizenship to African Americans. States citizens cannot be deprived of rights without due process of the law. Guarantees equal protection under the law.
15th Amendment
States that no one can be denied suffrage (right to vote) based on race or color.
Black Codes
- Laws written by Southern states (each state’s was slightly different) that were based on slave codes from the past.
- Prevented freedmen (persons of color) from voting, holding office, serving on juries, etc.
- Helped spur the creation of the 14th Amendment.
Radical Republicans
- Group of Republicans who believed the South should face punishment for the Civil War and that African Americans should be given full political and civil equality.
- Gained power in Congress - was able to push through “Congressional Reconstruction”.
Sharecropping
- System of agriculture used in the South with former slaves.
- Farmers would give a portion of their crops to the landowner in exchange for use of the land.
Debt Peonage
- Also called debt slavery.
- Land or business owner forces a worker to pay off a debt with work - think sharecroppers and tenant farmers.
- Workers are often unable to re-pay the debt, and find themselves in a continuous work-without-pay cycle.
Carpetbagger
Northerners who moved to the South after the Civil War to take advantage of the unstable social, financial, and political climate.
Hiram Rhodes Revels
- First African American in Congress.
- He was appointed by the mississippi state legislature to fill an empty Senate seat.
The Nadir
- Time in the south (end of Reconstruction in 1877 through the early 20th century), when racism in the country was at an all time high.
- African American lost many of the civil rights gains made during Reconstruction. Anti-black violence, lynching, segregation, legal racial discrimination, and expressions of white supremacy increased.
Jim Crow Laws
- Laws passed in the south after Reconstruction that required racial segregation.
- African Americans were relegated to the status o second class citizens as these laws denied then their rights, including suffrage.
- Created to get around the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments.
- Many of these laws lasted into the 1960s.
Ku Klux Klan (KKK)
- Groups that believe in white supremacy.
- Were formed in the South to terrorize African Americans.
- Helped to enforce the Jim Crow laws and keep African Americans “in their place”.
Homestead Act 1862
- Encouraged western migration by promising settlers 160 acers of land for $1.25 an acre after improving it for 6 months of for free of they farmed it for 5 years.
- Ten percent of the U.S. was claimed and settled under this act.
Dawes Act 1887
- Passed by Congress to “Americanize” Native Americans.
- Each adult male was allowed to claim 160 acres of reservation land as his own private property- led to mass sell-off of reservation land.
- Threatened the survival of Native American culture.
Reservation System
- Land set aside for Native American tribes by the government.
- Native Americans were required to stay on their land.
- Usually the land was undesirable and unlike the land the ribe was used to living on.
