Antebellum Ante Up
This 1820 agreement, engineered by Henry Clay, admitted Maine as a free state, Missouri as a slave state, and drew a line prohibiting slavery north of the 36 30' parallel
The Missouri Compromise
Fought in September 1862 in Maryland, this confrontation remains the single bloodiest day in American history, giving Abraham Lincoln the momentum needed to issue the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation
Battle of Antietam
General Winfield Scott's overarching Union strategy was designed to blockade Southern ports and split the Confederacy along the Mississippi River
Anaconda Plan
Issued by President Lincoln to take effect on January 1, 1863, this executive decree declared free all enslaved people living in areas actively rebelling against the United States
Emancipation Proclamation?
Restrictive laws passed by Southern state legislatures in 1865 and 1866 under Andrew Johnson's Reconstruction plan designed to limit Black freedom and force freedmen into labor contracts
Black Codes
Strict federal legislation passed as part of the Compromise of 1850 that required Northern citizens to assist in capturing runaway enslaved people, driving many Northern states to pass Personal Liberty Laws
The Fugitive Slave Act
This July 1863 Confederate defeat in Pennsylvania marked the turning point in the Eastern Theater after Pickett's Charge failed to break Union lines
Battle of Gettysburg
Paper currency was authorized by the Union government under the Legal Tender Act of 1862 to help finance the war effort
Greenbacks
The term military commander Benjamin Butler applied to escaped enslaved people seeking refuge behind Union military lines, allowing the military to treat them as seized enemy property
Contraband of war
An agricultural system where tenant farmers worked a landowner's fields in exchange for a portion of the harvested crop, frequently trapping landless farmers in endless cycles of debt
Sharecropping
This political doctrine, championed by Stephen Douglas in the Kansas-Nebraska Act, allowed territorial voters to decide for themselves whether to permit or ban slavery
Popular Sovereignty
The 47-day siege led by Ulysses S. Grant concluded on July 4, 1863, giving the Union full operational control of the Mississippi River
Siege of Vicksburg
The legal provision in the 1862 Confederate Draft Law that exempted men owning twenty or more enslaved people from military conscription
20-Slave Rule
The constitutional amendment ratified in December 1865 that officially and permanently abolished slavery throughout the entire United States
13th Amendment
The Reconstruction Amendment that prohibited federal or state governments from denying any citizen the right to vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude
15th Amendment
In this landmark 1857 case, the Supreme Court ruled that African Americans were not citizens and declared the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional
Dred Scott vs. Sandford
The military strategy executed by General William T. Sherman during his 1864 March to the Sea aimed at destroying enemy infrastructure, economy, and morale
Total War
The constitutional protection against unlawful imprisonment that President Abraham Lincoln suspended during the war to detain anti-war Northern political dissenters
Writ of habeas corpus
The federal agency established in March 1865 to assist newly liberated Black Americans by distributing food, medical supplies, and founding thousands of schools across the South
Freedmen's Bureau
The informal political agreement resolving the disputed 1876 presidential election that granted Rutherford B. Hayes the presidency in exchange for withdrawing all remaining federal troops from the South
Compromise of 1877
The 1858 doctrine articulated by Stephen Douglas stated that territories could effectively bar slavery simply by refusing to pass local police laws protecting slaveholders' property rights
Freeport Doctrine
The 1862 clash off the coast of Virginia between the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia Merrimack marked the world's first battle between these types of vessels
Ironclad warships
The derogatory nickname given by Union loyalists to anti-war Northern Democrats who favored an immediate negotiated peace with the Confederacy
Copperheads
In 1870, this Mississippi educator and minister made history by becoming the very first African American to serve in the United States Senate
Hiram Revels
The voting exemption utilized in the Jim Crow South that exempted individuals from literacy tests or poll taxes if their ancestors were eligible to vote prior to 1867
Grandfather Clause