Acts/Movements
Fugitive Slave Act
Law that required all citizens to aid in apprehending runaway slaves
Abraham Lincoln
Served as the 16th President of the United States and led the nation through the American Civil War
Annexation of Texas
Entered the United States of America as a slave state in 1845 (increased tensions) and set-off the Mexican-American War
Confederate States of America
Government of 11 southern states that seceded from the United States and fought against the Union in the Civil War
Antebellum
Existing before a war
Anaconda Plan
Northern Civil War strategy to starve the South by blockading (blocking) seaports and controlling the Mississippi River
Andrew Jackson
Served as the 7th President of the United States and opened the west for American settlement through forceful policies
Antietam
1862 Civil War battle in which 23,000 troops were killed or wounded in one day
Fort Sumter, SC
Located in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina and the site of the first shots of the American Civil War
Freedmen's Bureau
Federal agency designed to aid freed slaves and poor white farmers in the South after the American Civil War
Compromise of 1850
Political agreement that allowed California to be admitted as a free state by allowing popular sovereignty in the territories and enacting a stricter fugitive slave law
Frederick Douglass
After escaping from slavery, he became a national leader for the abolitionist movement (orator and writer)
Appomattox Courthouse
April 9, 1865 - final battle, signaled the end of the American Civil War (General Lee - South surrendered to General Grant - North)
Gadsden Purchase
1853 purchase of land (Arizona and New Mexico) from Mexico
Abolition Movement
Sought to end slavery (1800s/19th century)
Compromise of 1877
Agreement by which Rutherford B. Hayes won the 1876 presidential election and in exchange agreed to remove the remaining federal troops from the South
Harriet Tubman
Escaped slavery and rescued dozens of slaves using the Underground Railroad (“Moses of her people”); served as a spy, scout, soldier, and nurse during the American Civil War for the Union Army
Dred Scott v. Sandford
1856 Supreme Court case which resulted in Americans of African descent, whether free or enslaved, not being considered American citizens and deciding they could not sue in federal court; the Supreme Court also ruled that Congress could not ban slavery in U.S. territories
Louisiana Purchase
1803 purchase from France by the United States of the territory between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains
Gettysburg Address
Speech by President Lincoln in which he dedicated a national cemetery at Gettysburg (major American Civil War battle) and reaffirmed the ideas of the Union
Emancipation Proclamation
Decree by President Lincoln that freed enslaved people living in Confederate states still in rebellion
James K. Polk
Served as the 11th President of the United States and oversaw the largest territorial expansion in American history (war with Mexico)
Kansas-Nebraska Act/ "Bleeding Kansas"
1854 law that divided the Nebraska Territory into Kansas and Nebraska giving each territory the right to decide whether or not to allow slavery
Oregon Trail
Trail from Independence, Missouri to Oregon that was used by pioneers in the mid-1800s
Ku Klux Klan
Organization that promotes hatred and discrimination against ethnic and certain religious groups