History Test 4

Compromise of 1850

(1) California admitted as free state, (2) territorial status and popular sovereignty of Utah and New Mexico, (3) resolution of Texas-New Mexico boundaries, (4) federal assumption of Texas debt, (5) slave trade abolished in DC, and (6) new fugitive slave law; advocated by Henry Clay and Stephen A. Douglas

Frederick Douglass

(1817-1895) American abolitionist and writer, he escaped slavery and became a leading African American spokesman and writer. He published his biography, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, and founded the abolitionist newspaper, the North Star.

Seneca Falls Convention

(1848) the first national women's rights convention at which the Declaration of Sentiments was written

South's advantages and disadvantages in the Civil War

-The South's greatest strength lay in the fact that it was fighting on the defensive in its own territory. Familiar with the landscape, Southerners could harass Northern invaders. The military and political objectives of the Union were much more difficult to accomplish. -One of the main weaknesses was their economy. They did not have factories like those in the North. They could not quickly make guns and other supplies that were needed. The South's lack of a railroad system was another weakness.

Colored Regiments

180,000 African Americans serve in the Union armies

Wilmot Proviso

1846 proposal that outlawed slavery in any territory gained from the War with Mexico

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

1858 Senate Debate, Lincoln forced Douglas to debate issue of slavery, Douglas supported pop-sovereignty, Lincoln asserted that slavery should not spread to territories, Lincoln emerged as strong Republican candidate

Battle of Gettysburg

1863, this three day battle was the bloodiest of the entire Civil War, ended in a Union victory, and is considered the turning point of the war

Number of slaves in the South in 1860

4 million

Popular Sovereignty

A belief that ultimate power resides in the people.

George McClellan

A general for northern command of the Army of the Potomac in 1861; nicknamed "Tardy George" because of his failure to move troops to Richmond; lost battle vs. General Lee near the Chesapeake Bay; Lincoln fired him twice.

Republican Party platform

A group of former Whigs convened and decided to form a new political party. The Republican Party was founded in 1854 by opponents of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Eventually, Whigs and members of fringe parties, like the Free Soilers and Know-Nothings, would become Republicans. Republicans differed among themselves in regards to the major issues of the day; for instance, some opposed slavery's extension but not its existence. Meanwhile, others supported complete abolition of slavery. The one thing all Republicans stood for was progress. This meant the party supported urbanization, new technologies, and free homesteads for farmers.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

A member of the women's right's movement in 1840. She was a mother of seven, and she shocked other feminists by advocating suffrage for women at the first Women's Right's Convention in Seneca, New York 1848. Stanton read a "Declaration of Sentiments" which declared "all men and women are created equal."

Transcendentalism

A philosophy pioneered by Ralph Waldo Emerson in the 1830's and 1840's, in which each person has direct communication with God and Nature, and there is no need for organized churches. It incorporated the ideas that mind goes beyond matter, intuition is valuable, that each soul is part of the Great Spirit, and each person is part of a reality where only the invisible is truly real. Promoted individualism, self-reliance, and freedom from social constraints, and emphasized emotions.

Secession crisis

After Lincoln was elected President and threatened to abolish slavery, the Southern states secceeded from the North; 7 originally seceded, but 4 soon followed.

Walt Whitman

American poet and transcendentalist who was famous for his beliefs on nature, as demonstrated in his book, Leaves of Grass. He was therefore an important part for the buildup of American literature and breaking the traditional rhyme method in writing poetry.

John Brown

An 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

Urbanization

An increase in the percentage and in the number of people living in urban settlements.

Temperance Movement

An organized campaign to eliminate alcohol consumption

Appomattox Courthouse

April 1865., the Virginia town where Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant in 1865, ending the Civil War

Battle of Antietam

Battle of Antietam, also called Battle of Sharpsburg, (September 17, 1862), in the American Civil War (1861-65), a decisive engagement that halted the Confederate invasion of Maryland, an advance that was regarded as one of the greatest Confederate threats to Washington, D.C.

Battle of Shiloh

Confederate forces surprised union troops & drove them across the Tennessee river; union got backup and won the battle but it was one of the most bloody battles in the civil war

Fort Sumter

Federal fort in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina; the confederate attack on the fort marked the start of the Civil War

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

Free Soilers

Northern antislavery politicians, like Abraham Lincoln, who rejected radical abolitionism but sought to prohibit the expansion of slavery in the western territories

Emancipation Proclamation

President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free."

Horace Mann

Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education; "Father of the public school system"; a prominent proponent of public school reform, & set the standard for public schools throughout the nation; lengthened academic year; pro training & higher salaries to teachers

Border states

States bordering the North: Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri. They were slave states, but did not secede.

Dred Scott v. Sanford

Supreme Court case that decided US Congress did not have the power to prohibit slavery in federal territories and slaves, as private property, could not be taken away without due process - basically slaves would remain slaves in non-slave states and slaves could not sue because they were not citizens

American Colonization Society

The American Colonization Society (ACS) was formed in 1817 to send free African-Americans to Africa as an alternative to emancipation in the United States. In 1822, the society established on the west coast of Africa a colony that in 1847 became the independent nation of Liberia.

Battle of Bull Run

The First Battle of Bull Run, also known as the Battle of First Manassas, was the first major battle of the American Civil War. The battle was fought on July 21, 1861, in Prince William County, Virginia, just north of the city of Manassas and about 30 miles west-southwest of Washington, D.C. First major battle of civil war. Big confidence boost for south after win here

Battle of Chancellorsville

The Union was defeated again with the Confederacy being led by Robert E. Lee. General Thomas Stonewall Jackson was accidentally wounded here by one of his own men.

Mechanization of Agriculture

The development of engine-driven machines, like the combine, which helped to dramatically increase the productivity of land in the 1870s and 1880s. This process contributed to the consolidation of agricultural business that drove many family farms out of existence.

Moby Dick

The great but commercially unsuccessful novel about Captain Ahab's obsessive pursuit of a white whale. The whale was a symbol of slavery

Republican motherhood

The idea that American women had a special responsibility to cultivate "civic virtue" in their children

Internal slave trade

The slave trade conducted from within the US, but did not include importation or exportation of slaves from or to foreign countries

Dorthea Dix

Tireless reformer, who worked mightily to improve the treatment of the mentally ill. Appointed superintendant of women nurses for the Union forces.

William Tecumseh Sherman

Union General who destroyed South during "march to the sea" from Atlanta to Savannah, example of total war

Sojourner Truth

United States abolitionist and feminist who was freed from slavery and became a leading advocate of the abolition of slavery and for the rights of women (1797-1883)

King Cotton

cotton and cotton-growing considered, in the pre-Civil War South, as a vital commodity, the major factor not only in the economy but also in politics.

Presidential Election of 1860

the presidential election of 1860 was won by Abraham Lincoln, the Republican candidate. He won no southern states, which angered the South sparking states to succeed from the Union.