History 2111 Final Exam Study Guide
Eaton Affair
"Petticoat Affair". Incident in which Peggy Eaton, the wife of Andrew Jackson's secretary of war, was ostracized because she was the daughter of a Washington tavern keeper, and thus allegedly a woman of ''easy virtue.''
Texas Revolution (1836)
(1836) Texan gov. declared independence from Mexico; American settlers proclaimed Texan independence; Sam Houston won independence (treaty rejected by Mexican legislature); Texans wanted annexation by U.S.; not done b/c opposition from northerners and anti-slavery groups; fear of sectional controversy. Left in the fate of Sam Houston.
John Brown's raid (Harper's Ferry)
(1859) John Brown led. He hoped to start a rebellion against slaveholders by arming enslaved African Americans. Brown was quickly defeated by citizens and federal troops. Brown believed blood had to be shed in order to end slavery.
Wade-Davis Bill
1864 Proposed far more demanding and stringent terms for reconstruction; required that majority of white males swear their allegiance to the Union before a Confederate state could be readmitted. Never became a law, vetoed by Pres. Lincoln bc it was too harsh.
Dred Scott Decision
A Missouri slave sued for his freedom, claiming that his four year stay in the northern portion of the Louisiana Territory made free land by the Missouri Compromise had made him a free man. The U.S, Supreme Court decided he couldn't sue in federal court because he was property, not a citizen.
Freedmen's Bureau
Agency set up to aid former slaves in adjusting themselves to freedom. It furnished food and clothing to needy blacks and helped them get jobs
Compromise of 1850
Agreement designed to ease tensions caused by the expansion of slavery into western territories. Ten month long debate over a series of resolutions intended to reduce the crisis between North and South that had "unhinged" both political parties.
Tariff 1828
A protective tariff passed by the U.S. Congress that came to be known as the "Tariff of Abominations". By taxing the British cloth coming into U.S. markets, the tariff hurt southern cotton growers by reducing British demand for raw cotton from America. Hurt southerns by raising the prices they had to pay for imported products.
"Bleeding Kansas"
A sequence of violent events involving abolitionists and pro-Slavery elements that took place in Kansas-Nebraska Territory. The dispute further strained the relations of the North and South, making civil war imminent. "Sack of Lawrence"
"Trail of Tears"
After President Jackson had left office and Martin Van Buren was president. 17,000 Cherokee were evicted and moved West under military guard. 800 mi forced journey. Thousand died on the journey from Georgia to Oklahoma
Fredrick Douglas
American abolitionist and writer, he escaped slavery and became a leading African American spokesman and writer. He published the autobiography, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, and founded the abolitionist newspaper, the North Star.
Formation of the Republican Party
Began in dispute over the Kansas-Nebraska Act led northern anti-slavery Whigs and some northern anti-slavery Democrats to gravitate toward two new parties. to territories and new states
Maysville Road Bill
Bill passed by Clay and Calhoun. Federal funding for a Kentucky road, vetoed by President Andrew Jackson because it was "purely local matter" being solely in the state of Kentucky.
Wilmot Proviso
By David Wilmot Democratic congressman reignited the debate over the westward extension of slavery. The Missouri Compromise provided a temporary solution by protecting slavery in states where it already existed. Dismissed by President Polk as "mischievous and foolish."
Cherokee Nation v. Georgia
Chief Justice Marshall ruled that the Cherokees had "an unquestionable right" to maintain control of their ancestral lands, but the Court could not render a verdict because of a technicality: the Cherokees had filed suit as a "foreign nation" when Marshall's view they were "domestic dependent nations". If it were true that wrongs have been inflicted," Marshall explained, "this is not the tribunal which can redress the past or prevent the future.
Fort Sumner
Confederate attacked the Union their fort in South Carolina. This was the first actual battle & marked the start of the Civil War. Site of the first open hostilities of the civil war, no casualties
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Created by Stephen A. Douglass senator of Illinois. Nebraska and Kansas as states and gave the people in those territories the right to chose to be a free or slave state through popular sovereignty.
California Gold Rush
Discovered on John A. Sutter property along the south fork of the American River. Mass migration to California following the discovery of gold in 1848. The greatest migration in American history. Many abandoned their families to join this.
Southern Secession, 1860-61
Four days after Lincoln was elected into office, South Carolina legislature called for a special convention. The meeting was held in Charleston and the legislature unanimously voted to secede from the union. Seven states later met in Montgomery, Alabama. They created a government known as the Confederate States of America and elected Jefferson Davis as their president.
Lee's Surrender at Appomattox
General Grant cuts off Lee's supplies and forces Confederate troops to evacuate Petersburg and Richmond; Lee surrenders at Appomattox Court house, Virginia
Second Great Awakening
In 1800 huge wave of religious revival. All denominations grew but Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterians experienced explosive popularity .By 1860 there were over 20,000 Methodist churches far more than any other denomination. Elite New England colleges founded as religious centers of learning and in the backwoods of Tennessee and Kentucky. "salvation is available to anyone who repents and embraces Christ.
"54 40 or fight"
In the election of 1844, Polk used this as a campaign slogan, implying that the he would declare war if Britain did not give the United States all the Oregon territory up to its northern boundary.
Emancipation Proclamation
Issued by Lincoln it warned the confederacy that if it did not stop fighting, all slaves still under Rebel control were to be made "forever free" in exactly 100 days, on January 1, 1863. "A military necessity". He would declare slavery as a "fit and necessary war measure."
Jackson's "Bank War" (Second Bank of the U.S.)
Jackson hated banks through his own prejudice. Called them "vipers and thieves". Distrusted them because of printing too much paper currency causing inflation. This revealed that President Jackson never truly understood the national bank's role or policies, and he continued to let personal animosity drive many of his policy decisions.
Seneca Falls Convention
July 1848 the first national women's rights convention at which the Declaration of Sentiments was written.
Election of 1860
Lincoln, the Republican candidate, won because the Democratic party was split over slavery. As a result, the South no longer felt like it has a voice in politics and a number of states seceded from the Union.
Charles G. Finney
Most successful evangelist in the burned-over district was a former attorney who turned into a Presbyterian. Appealed to his audience's sense of emotion rather than their reason. His "fire and brimstone" sermons became commonplace in upstate New York, where listeners were instilled with the fear of Satan and an eternity in Hell. He insisted that parishioners could save themselves through good works and a steadfast faith in God.
class system of the antebellum South
Planters: smallest group (about 3% of the white population), but also the wealthiest and most powerful Yeomen: the most numerous group; small landowning farmers, also artisans/mechanics Poor whites: owned little or no property, worked for others on farms or as unskilled laborers
Lincoln's Ten Percent Plan
President Lincoln issued a Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, under which any Confederate state could re-create a Union government once a number equal to 10 percent of those who had voted in 1860 swore allegiance to the Constitution and the Union.
Brooks-Sumner Incident
SC Congressman Brooks(Pro slavery) confronted MA Senator (abolitionist) Sumner as he sat at his Senate desk and shouted saying that Sumner had slandered Butler and the state of South Carolina, then began beating on his head until the cane splintered. Sumner nearly died and would not return to the Senate for almost four years.
Assassination of President Lincoln
Shortly after his reelection and the end of the war, Lincoln was shot and killed by John Wilkes Booth.
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Signed Feb. 2, treaty that ended the Mexican War, granting the U.S. control of Texas, New Mexico, and California in exchange for $15 million. Ratified Mar. 10, 1848
Thirteenth Amendment
The constitutional amendment ratified after the Civil War that forbade slavery and involuntary servitude.
Dorothea Dix
The most important figure in boosting awareness of the plight of the mentally ill. Did a two year investigation of jails and almshouses in Massachusetts. She helped transform social attitudes toward mental illness.
Battle of Gettysburg
Turning point of the War that made it clear the North would win. 50,000 people died, and the South lost its chance to invade the North.
Mexican War(causes and outcome)
U.S. finally annexed Texas in 1845 President Polk sought to acquire Cali and New Mexico. Mexican troops crossed the Rio Grande and Polk urges that Congress declare war. American forces eventually won despite high causalities.
Sherman's March
Union General William Tecumseh Sherman's destructive march through Georgia. An early instance of "total war," purposely targeting infrastructure and civilian property to diminish morale and undercut the Confederate war effort.
William Lloyd Garrison
United States abolitionist who published an anti-slavery journal (1805-1879). He dreamed of true equality in all spheres of America life, including the status of women.
Underground Railroad
a vast informational network of guides, secret routes, and "safe houses", where free blacks and white abolitionist called "conductors" concealed runaway slaves in basements, attics, barns, and wagons before helping the fleeing "passengers" to the next "station" and eventually to freedom, often over the Canadian border.
Fugitive Slave Act of 1850
allowed slave catchers to recover slaves who had already escaped. Enabled slave traders to kidnap free blacks in northern "free states", claiming that they were runaway slaves. Denied them a jury trial and also forced citizens to help locate and capture runaways.
South Carolina tariff nullification(1832)
a convention was held in South Carolina to disavow the "unconstitutional" federal tariffs 1828 and 1832. If federal authorities tried to use force South Carolina would secede from the Union. Senator Robert Hayne became governor and Calhoun replaced him has U.S. senator. December Calhoun resigned as vice president to defend his nullification theory in Congress and oppose Jackson's "tyrannical" actions.
Uncle Tom's Cabin
a novel published by Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1852 which revealed slavery as brutal and immoral. Within two days the first printing had sold out. Slave owners were upset. One slave owner sent her a severed ear of a disobedient slave.
Worcester v. Georgia
case arose when Georgia officials arrested a group of white Christian missionaries who were living among the Cherokees in violation of state law forbidding such interaction. Supreme court ruled in favor of Cherokees. President Jackson refused to enforce court's decision and gave the Indians two options: either abide by the discriminatory new state laws or relocate.
Manifest Destiny
concept that assumed that the United States had a God-given mission to extend its Christian republic and capitalist civilization from the Atlantic to the Pacific and beyond. This widely embraced "self evident" offered moral justification for territorial expansion and the expansion of slavery.
South Carolina Exposition and Protest
lengthy pamphlet written by John C. Calhoun. against the "Tariff of Abominations," claimed it favored the interests of New England textile manufacturing over southern agriculture. Argued that a state could "nullify" or veto a federal law it deemed unconstitutional.
Force Bill
president requested from Congress the authority to use the U.S. Army to "force" compliance with federal law in South Carolina. Calhoun exploded on the Senate floor explaining how constitutional rights are being threatened.
Morrill Land Grant Act (1862)
provided states with 30,000 acres of federal land to establish public universities that would teach "agriculture and mechanic arts" and the National Banking Act, which created national banks that could issue paper money that would be accepted across the country.
Siege of Vicksburg
the Union army's six-week blockade of Vicksburg that led the city to surrender during the Civil War
Homestead Act of 1862
this allowed a settler to acquire 160 acres by living on it for five years. To help farmers become more productive Congress created a new federal agency, the Department of Agriculture.
paper currency in the Civil War
to meet the war's expenses , Congress needed money fast and lots of it. It focused on three options: raising taxes, printing paper money, and selling government bonds to investors. The taxes came chiefly in the form of the Morrill Tariff on imports and a 3 percent tax on manufactures and most professions.
