Unit 5 Flashcards
(28 cards)
Popular sovereignty
The people who settled in a state would vote to decide on if slavery would be allowed in their territory, not Congress
Free soil party
Opposed expansion of slavery to western territories, but not the existence of the institution in the South
Did NOT fight for abolition
Sought to keep the West a land of opportunity for whites so they didn’t have to compete with the labor of slaves or free blacks
Fugitive Slave Law
Must return runaway (fugitive) slaves who had escaped to Northern states to their Southern owners
Captured persons who claimed to be a free black were denied the right of trial by jury
Citizens who attempted to hide a runaway or obstruct enforcement of the law were subject to heavy penalties
Kansas Nebraska Act
Proposed by Stephen Douglas
Divided the Nebraska Territory into two parts — Kansas and Nebraska; slavery was up to popular sovereignty in both territories
Located north of the 36o30’ line → Douglas’ bill gave Southern slaveowners an opportunity to expand slavery, which they previously did not have w/ Missouri Compromise (had ruled that land as free)
Supported by Southern Democrats but not Northern Whigs
Bleeding Kansas
Both sides wanted to win control of the territory in regards to the establishment of slavery there
Antislavery northern farmers settled in Kansas, trying to vote for a free state while Missourians (known as border ruffians) crossed the border to illegally vote for slavery in the fraudulent election
Produced pro slavery legislature (Lecompton Constitution)
John Brown’s Pottawatomie Massacre, violence, bloodshed, attacks on both sides
Popular sovereignty had failed because mass numbers of common people can’t make major decisions
Dred Scott decision (1857)
Dred Scott had been held in slavery in Missouri and then taken to free territory → argued that his residence on free soil made him a free citizen → sued for freedom
Presiding over the court was Chief Justice Roger Taney, a Southern Democrat
The Supreme Court ruled that…
- Scott had no right to sue in a federal court
According to the Constitution, blacks were not citizens of the US - Declared Missouri Compromise unconstitutional
- 5th amendment protection of property meant that Congress did not have the power to deprive any person of property
- thus, since slaves were a form of property, Congress could not exclude slavery from any territory
Election of 1860 significance
Lincoln, the Republican party candidate, won the majority of electoral votes (because of all the free states)
Southern Democrats felt they were being oppressed and they had limited power in the Union compared to the Northern states, who would eventually destroy their traditional way of life (slavery) if they didn’t leave immediately → secession of the Deep South
Created the Confederate States of America; elected president = Jefferson Davis
Causes of Civil War
- Debate over slavery — political legislation
- Dred Scott decision
- Kansas-Nebraska Act → John Brown + Bleeding Kansas
- Election of 1860 + Lincoln’s victory
- Secession of Deep South - Sectionalism due to competing interests
- economic differences over tariffs, banking, internal improvements
- North — industrialization, factories, manufactured goods
- South — cash crop plantations, export economy - Ideological differences
- North = growing moral issue and South = maintenance & expansion
- Uncle Tom’s Cabin
- Radical Republicans, Free Soil Movement
- Abolition movement
Emancipation Proclamation
Executive order by Lincoln that declared the freedom of all slaves under Confederate control
It did not free slaves in the Union border states, because that could anger them and prompt their secession
Encouraged slaves to run away and join Union Army
Reconstruction (definition)
Northern political leaders created plans for governance of South after the Civil War
Goals
- Readmit 11 ex-Confederate states into the Union
- Integrate freed blacks into white society
10 percent plan
A state could be readmitted into the Union when 10% of its population took an oath of loyalty to the Union & pledged to end slavery (Lincoln’s plan)
Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan
A state could be readmitted into the Union when 10% of its population took an oath of loyalty to the Union and ratified the 13th amendment (abolishment of slavery)
Offered a pardon to all white Southerners except Confederate leaders and wealthy planters (although most later received individual presidential pardons → re-enfranchised easily)
Freedmen’s Bureau
Welfare agency created by Congress to provide food, clothing, and jobs to newly freed slaves
Resettlement — had authority to resettle blacks on confiscated Confederate land, although hese efforts were undermined by President Johnson pardoning Confederate landowners and courts returning their land to them
Education — established schools for freed blacks to educate them; taught literacy; found new employment
Black Codes
Adopted by Southern state legislatures to restrict the rights of former slaves (started in Reconstruction)
- prohibited blacks from renting land or borrowing money to buy land
- prohibited blacks from testifying against whites in court
- placed freedmen into semibondage by forcing them to sign contracts where they worked cotton fields for deferred wages
Grandfather Clause
Established in many Southern states that exempted people from voting requirements (EX: literacy tests + poll taxes) if they proved their ancestors had voted before 1867 (fathers/grandfathers)
Inhibited blacks from exercising their voting rights
Ku Klux Klan (KKK)
Secret society founded to intimidate blacks and white reformers
Burned black owned buildings and flogged/murdered freedmen to keep them from exercising their voting rights
Plessy v Ferguson
Ruled that segregation in public accomodations did not violate 14th amendment’s equal protection clause, essentially legalizing it (separate but equal doctrine)
14th Amendment
Declared that all persons born or naturalized in the US were citizens (directly opposed Dred Scott decision)
Obligated the states to provide citizens w/ equal protection under the law
1st time Constitution required states & federal gov’t to uphold the rights of citizens
15th Amendment
Prohibited any state from denying a citizens’ right to vote on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude
This legally awarded African Americans greater political rights before, enabling them to participate in the discussion of Congressional issues and have a say in the bills being passed to govern themselves.
Sharecropping
Form of tenantry; landowners would hire former slaves to work their farms, providing them supplies in return for a portion of the crops they grew
In theory - gave poor freedmen of the rural South economic opportunity
However, sharecroppers usually remained dependent on/indebted to landowners (didn’t own land) → new form of servitude, as tenants were locked into poverty and debt peonage; limited their ability to accumulate generational wealth and achieve economic equality with whites
Reconstruction Acts of 1867
Divided South into 5 military districts controlled by Union army
Southern states were forced to ratify 14th amendment to rejoin Union
Federal troops keep the peace between African Americans + white Southerners, thus protecting them + upholding right guarantees
Compromise of 1877
In return for the acceptance of Hayes as president by Southern Democrats, Republicans promised:
- To remove remaining troops from South
- More federal patronage to southern Democrats
- To provide federal aid for building RR and other internal improvements in the South
When the troops are withdrawn in the Compromise of 1877, Reconstruction ends; shows inability of Republicans to provide protection for black citizens from white persecution
Frederick Jackson Turner’s Frontier Thesis
Free, open territory w/ abundant natural resources (frontier) shaped American values of individualism, inventiveness, expansionism
Broke down class distinctions and fostered democracy by providing opportunity
Homestead Act of 1862
Offered 160 acres of public land free to families who farmed it
Encouraged settlement and farming on the Great Plains
All US citizens were eligible to apply to the federal government for a “homestead” (included women, African Americans, freed slaves, and immigrants)
