Unit 4 Flashcards
(50 cards)
The Peculiar Institution
The peculiar institution is slavery. Started with European settlement and ended with civil war. Existed in both north and south and at times in equal measures.
Amistad
Two Spanish plantations owners purchased 53 African Americans and put them abroad the Cuban to ship them to a Caribbean plantations. In 1839 the Africans seized the ship, killed the Captain and ordered the two spanish plantation owners to sail to Africa.
Nat Turner
30 year old virginia slave who led a bloody rebellion that resulted in the death of fifty-five whites.
Denmark Vessey
slave from South Carolina who bought his freedom with money that he won in a lottery. In 1822, he planned to lead a group of slaves in attacking Charlestown and stealing arms, plan was betrayed by other slaves resulting in hanging of Vessey and his followers.
Gadsden Purchase
Americans negotiated the Gadsden Purchase with Mexico. In the treaty americans agreed to pay 10 million for about 30,000 miles of land south of the Gila River. This treaty provided the land necessary for the southern transcontinental railroad.
Election of 1844
Polk defeated Whig Henry Clay in a close contest turning on the controversial issues of slavery and the annexation of the Republic of Texas. This is the only election where both major party nominees served as Speaker of the House at one point, and the first where neither candidate held elected office at the time.
The Alamo
Site of Texan defeat during the texan revolution. The 2 weeks Santa Anna spent in San Antonio gave Texas time to organize a government and an army. The defeat made Texas even more determined to win the war.
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Signed on Feb 2, 1848, that was a peace treaty between the U.S. and Mexico that officially ended the Mexican-American war. Under the terms of treaty, Mexico ceded a large portion of its territory to the U.S.
Fifty-Four, Fourty, or Fight
agressive slogan adopted in Oregon boundary dispute over where the border between Canada and Oregon should be drawn. This slogan led Polk to victory.
Compromise of 1850
Consists of 5 laws passed in September of 1850, that dealt with the issue of slavery and territorial expansion. Happened when California requested permission to enter the union as a free state, upsetting the balance between slave and free states in the senate. In exchange for California’s free status, federal government agreed to place no restriction on slavery in New Mexico and Utah instead they would be ruled by popular sovereignty.
Wilmot Proviso
Unsuccessful addition to a bill to fund the U.S. army during the war. Argued for complete ban of slavery in captured territories, which didn’t go through
Popular Sovereignty
Doctrine stating that the sovereign people of a territory should themselves determine the status of slavery within that territory.
Ostend Manifesto
Secret meeting in Ostend, Belgium. It was a scheme for U.S. to purchase Cuba from Spain for 120 million. This document written in 1854 implied that U.S. should declare war if Spain refused. Cuba’s annexation had long been a goal of U.S. slaveholding expansionist.
Kansas Nebraska Act
Law that allowed for popular sovereignty in the Kansas and Nebraska territories. Kansas would be slave and Nebraska would be free. in 1854.
john Brown’s Raid
(1859) an attempt to start an armed slave revolt by seizing a U.S. arsenal at Harper Ferry in Virginia in 1859. Brown’s raid was defeated by a detachment of U.S. marines led by Col Robert E. Lee.Although the raid on Harpers Ferry was denounced by a majority of Northerners, it electrified the South—already fearful of slave rebellions—and convinced slaveholders that abolitionists would stop at nothing to eradicate slavery.
Dred Scott vs. Stanford
in this ruling, the U.S. supreme court stated that enslaved people were not citizens of the U.S. and therefore could not expect any protection from the federal government. Also said congress had no rights in banning slavery from a federal territory.
Fugitive Slave Act
Passed in 1850 by congress the fugitive slave act of 1850 was part of the compromise of 1850. The act required that slaves be returned to their owners, even if they were in a free state. The act also made federal government responsible for finding, returning, and trying escaped slaves. It angered the north.
Election of 1860
Abraham Lincoln won the presidential election of 1860, although he received 40% of popular vote he easily won the electoral college vote over. It marked the end of slavery and marked a time of unprecedented violence.
robert E. Lee
Robert E. Lee commanded the Army of Northern Virginia, the most successful of the Southern armies during the American Civil War, and ultimately commanded all the Confederate armies. As the military leader of the defeated Confederacy, Lee became a symbol of the American South.
jefferson Davis
Jefferson Davis was a celebrated veteran of the Mexican War, a U.S. senator from Mississippi, secretary of war under U.S. president Franklin Pierce, and the only president of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War
merrimac/ Monitor
Monitor and the Merrimack during the American Civil War and was history’s first naval battle between ironclad warships. Part of confederate effort to break the union blockade of southern ports.
Antietam
Bloodiest day in American history, hope for freedom. Ended the confederate army of Northern Virginia’s first invasion to the north and led Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.
Border States
border states were slave states that did not secede from the union. They were Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri. After 1863, they did not support Lincoln but believed in a strong federal union. They were vital economic forces and transportation links.
Anaconda Plan
Union General Winfield Scott proposed a plan to achieve a Northern victory. it would strangle the Confederacy by cutting it off from external markets and sources of material. It included blockading Southern coasts and securing control of the Mississippi River.
