Territorial Expansion of the USA
The explorers funded by the government to explore new territories in the West/Northwest
Lewis and Clark
A notion held by nineteenth-century Americans that the United States was destined by God to rule the continent, from the Atlantic the Pacific
Manifest Destiny
This law required that northern states forcibly returned escaped slaves to their owners
Fugitive Slave Law
1865 - Constitutional amendment that freed all slaves, abolished slavery
13th Amendment
Laws denying most legal rights to newly freed slaves; passed by southern states following the Civil War
Black Codes
Trail from Independence, Missouri to Oregon used by many pioneers during the 1840s
Oregon Trail
A period from 1848 to 1856 when thousands of people came to California in order to search for gold
Gold Rush
An effort by an abolitionist in 1859, to initiate a slave revolt in Southern states by taking over the US arsenal at Harpers Ferry, VA
John Brown's Raid
1863 (Gen. Meade and Gen. Lee), July 1-3, 1863, turning point in war, Union victory, deadliest battle
Gettysburg
An 1867 law that threw out the southern state governments that had refused to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment
War between the US and Mexico (1846-1848) stemming from the United States' annexation of Texas in 1845 and from a dispute over whether Texas ended at the Nueces River or the Rio Grande.
Mexican-American War
Agreement with Mexico that gave the US parts of present-day NM & AZ in exchange for $10 million
Gadsen Purchase
1854 law that allowed voters in Kansas and Nebraska to choose whether to allow slavery
Kansas-Nebraska Act
1st real battle, Confederate victory, Washingtonian spectators gather to watch battle, Gen. Jackson stands as Stonewall and turns tide of battle in favor of Confederates, realization that war is not going to be quick and easy for either side
Bull Run
Constitutional amendment that made "all persons born or naturalized in the United States" citizens of the country
14th Amendment
annexed via a joint resolution through Congress, supported by President-elect Polk, and approved in 1845. Land from the Republic of Texas later became parts of NM, CO, OK, KS, and WY
Texas Annexation
(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
Compromise of 1850
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.
Bleeding Kansas
Grant besieged the city from May 18 to July 4, 1863, until it surrendered, yielding command of the Mississippi River to the Union.
Vicksburg
1870 constitutional amendment that guaranteed voting rights regardless of race or previous condition of servitude
15th Amendment
1848 treaty to end the war between the US and Mexico; Mexican Cession of territory ($15 million) - CA, NV, UT, NM, AZ, CO, OK, KS, WY
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
1846 proposal that outlawed slavery in any territory gained from the War with Mexico
Wilmot Proviso
South Carolinians feared Abraham Lincoln's presidency would end slavery. They convened in Columbia, then Charleston, voting overwhelmingly to secede from the Union, signing these resolutions. Their motivation: preserving their slavery-based way of life, citing states' rights as justification for secession.
Ordinances of Secession
A complicated route to capture Richmond that McClellan thought would circumvent the Confederate defenses. The navy would carry his troops down the Potomac to a peninsula east of Richmond, between the York and James Rivers; the army would approach the city from there.
Peninsular Campaign
Act to establish a bureau for to provide food, shelter, clothing, medical services, and land to displaced Southerners, including newly freed African Americans
Freedman's Bureau