-
Period: to
Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was a series of safehouses that enslaved people would use to escape the south and find safe passage to the north. Tens of thousands of people used this passage to find freedom and to travel to Canada where they would be free from the institution of slavery. -
Texas Revolution
Mexico had two requirements for American Immigrants living in their borders, those being conversion to Roman Catholicism and slavery being outlawed. When they began to enforce these laws, Texans revolted under the leadership of Sam Houston and declared Texas to be an independent republic in 1836. Mexico won the battle at the Alamo, but Houston later forced the general to sign a treaty recognizing Texas independence, which led to later complications. -
Period: to
Manifest Destiny
The name "Manifest Destiny" was created by John O'Sulivan in 1845. It is defined as possessing the entire continent from sea to shining sea. Americans believed that it was their God given right to have a nation that extended from the Atlantic to Pacific Oceans and used Manifest Destiny as a justification for westward expansion. -
Wilmot Proviso
The Wilmot Proviso was created by congressman David Wilmot and was an amendment to an appropriations bill working its way through Congress. It proposed that any land gained from victory in the Mexican-American War was off limits for the expansion of slavery. It was ultimately voted down, but it highlighted the tensions over slavery and is credited with being the first fight leading to the Civil War. -
Oregon Treaty
America and Britain had competing claims to the Oregon Territory with Britain wanting to continue trading furs and America just wanting it. Polk wanted the territories of Texas, California, and Oregon, so he ran on an annexation platform. He and his people eventually created the Oregon Treaty with the British, which divided the territory at the 49th parallel. -
Period: to
Mexican-American War
Mexico was not happy about losing the Texas territory and was not ready to concede defeat. Texas wanted to be annexed from the United States, which Mexico was not happy about either. President Polk wanted a war due to the deaths of American soldiers and it was declared on May 13, 1846. The war ended with America claiming California and New Mexico and gaining more land through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. -
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
This treaty was between the US and Mexico in 1848. It established the Rio Grande as the southern border of Texas, outlined the Mexican Session in which Mexico would cede California and New Mexico to the US for 15 million dollars, and it led to the Gadsden Purchase in 1853. -
Period: to
Free Soil Party
Northern Democrats and Whigs wanted slavery to be banned in the new territories because they wanted the lands to be lands of "white opportunity." They were largely in support of the Wilmot Proviso. They also were not interested in abolition, but were against the expansion of slavery into the new territories. -
Fugitive Slave Law
After the Compromise of 1850, a stricter fugitive slave law was passed. This calmed some tensions, but later caused more as it required northerners to arrest enslaved people who had run away from plantations and required them to return the slaves to slavery. -
Compromise of 1850
Henry Clay came up with this compromise. It states that the Mexican Cession would be divided into Utah and New Mexico. The new territories would practice popular sovereignty, California would be a free state, salve trade was banned in Washington DC, and a stricter fugitive slave law would be passed. -
Gadsden Purchase
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo led to the Gadsden Purchase in 1853 in the south of Arizona. In this purchase Mexico lost half of its territory to the United States. -
Kansas Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act was to resolve the issue of the land in the northern section of the Louisiana Purchase was above the 36 30 parallel, so it should have been free states. Stephen Douglas proposed that the territory be split into two states and the issue of slavery would be decided by popular sovereignty. By passing this, Congress overturned the Compromise of 1820. -
Republican Party
The Republican Party was created in 1854 and was a mix of many other political parties. They did not advocate for the abolition of slavery, but they argued that slavery should not be allowed to expand into the new territories. -
Period: to
Bleeding Kansas
After the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed, violence erupted in the territories as there was a divide between pro and anti-slavery parties. Violence continued for seven years and the solution to the problem was to establish two rival legislators in Kansas. -
Dred Scott v. Stanford
Dred Scott was an enslaved man that lived in Missouri, but he moved with his master to Illinois and Wisconsin, which are both free states. He sued his master for freedom in the Supreme Court arguing that he was free when living in a free territory. It was deemed that Scott was not a citizen and had no right to sue as he was property and masters had the right to bring their property where they pleased. This is one of the many defining factors that sparked the civil war. -
Harper's Ferry
John Brown was an abolitionist who believed only an uprising would deliver people from slavery in America. He planned to raid the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia in 1859 in order to incite an armed rebellion, but he and his men were caught and hung for their crimes. -
Election of 1860
Democrats nominated Stephen Douglas and Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln, who ran on a free soil platform. Lincoln had no intention of abolishing slavery, but wanted to curb the spread into new territories. Lincoln won 40% of the popular vote and carried the electoral vote. He won the presidency without a single electoral vote cast by a southerner, which did not fare well with the south. Before Lincoln was inaugurated South Carolina seceded, then other states followed weeks later. -
Fort Sumter
The Fort was possessed by the Union, but was located in the Confederate state of South Carolina. Confederates in South Carolina cut off supplies to the Fort that were arriving from the north. The official start of the Civil War was when South Carolina decided to attack the Fort. -
Gettysburg Address
The address was given on November 19, 1863 in the Gettysburg Cemetery. It was meant to unify the nation and portray the struggles against slavery as the fulfillment of America's founding democratic ideals. Lincoln was not the main speaker, as Edward Everett gave a speech that lasted two hours, but Lincoln only spoke ten sentences in four minutes. -
Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation changed the scope of the war, as it was no longer about saving the Union, but about ending slavery. The proclamation achieved two things, those being that it freed all enslaved people in the confederafcy, which used it as an incentive to escape plantations and it closed the door on British involvement in the south. -
Sherman's March
After Grant captured Vicksburg, he sent General William Tecumseh Sherman to capture Atlanta. Instead of capturing the city, he burned it to the ground. When he departed Atlanta, he marched to Savannah and destroyed railroads along with burning crops so that the south would not be able to recover its strength in the near future. -
Thirteenth Amendment
During Lincoln's 10% plan, the state legislator would have to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment. What this amendment would do is abolish slavery. -
Period: to
Freedman's Bureau
This was an agency that was set up to help formerly enslaved peoples. They provided food, clothing, shelter, medical services, and land to displaced southerners, including newly freed African Americans. The bureau also helped reunite families separated by slavery and arrange for their education and social welfare. -
Period: to
Black Codes
Many states passed a series of restrictive laws known as Black Codes, which restricted the freedom of southern African Americans and forced them to work for low wages. -
Period: to
Sharecropping
The South needed people to work in fields as agriculture was the major industry that the region centered itself around. Without Slavery, they had no form of labor, so they developed the sharecropping system in which they were bound to the plantation and plantation owners had the right to extract unlimited labor from them. -
Period: to
Ku Klux Klan
This was founded in 1867 on the wrongful principle that the white race was superior to other races, mainly African Americans. They spread their message by burning buildings, intimidation, and through lynching. -
Reconstruction Acts of 1867
These acts being passed was a sign of the failure of the Reconstruction. All of the laws being passed would be enforced in the south, which was divided into five military districts under military occupation with federal troops. -
Fourteenth Amendment
This amendment states that all people born in the United States, or naturalized in the United States, were citizens and every citizen can enjoy equal protection of the laws on the state level. -
Fifteenth Amendment
The Fifteenth amendment was passed in 1870. While the 13th amendment abolished slavery and the 14th granted citizenship, the 15th Amendment granted voting rights to newly freed African Americans of the South. -
Compromise of 1877
In the Election of 1867, both Republicans and Democrats claimed victory. In order to solve this problem, a special electoral commission was held, which was made of primarily Republicans who declared that Hayes won. This outraged the Democrats, which resulted in the Compromise. Democrats agreed to concede the election to Hayes if all federal troops left the South, which did occur.