Manifest Destiny
Beginning in 1848 after the discovery at Sutter’s Mill, this event drew hundreds of thousands of “forty-niners” seeking fortune. It spurred rapid population growth, statehood for California, displacement of Native peoples, and intensified debates over the expansion of slavery.
What is the California Gold Rush?
Signed in 1848, this treaty ended the Mexican-American War, recognized the Rio Grande as the southern border of Texas, and ceded vast territories—including California and the Southwest—to the United States. It reignited debates over slavery’s expansion into the newly acquired lands.
What is the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo?
This Kentucky statesman served as Speaker of the House, senator, and Secretary of State. Known for crafting the Missouri Compromise, the Compromise Tariff of 1833, and the Compromise of 1850, he promoted the American System and earned the nickname “The Great Compromiser.”
Who is Henry Clay?
This secret network of routes and safe houses helped enslaved people escape to freedom in the North and Canada. Guided by conductors like Harriet Tubman, it symbolized both the courage of fugitives and the growing Northern defiance of the Fugitive Slave Law.
What is the Underground Railroad?
Formed in the mid-1850s by former Whigs, Free Soilers, and anti-slavery Democrats, this party opposed the expansion of slavery into the territories. Its platform of “free labor” and western opportunity appealed to Northern voters and helped elect Abraham Lincoln in 1860.
What is the Republican Party?
Located in Charleston Harbor, this federal fort was attacked by Confederate forces on April 12, 1861, after Lincoln’s decision to resupply it. Its fall marked the official start of the Civil War and prompted four more slave states to secede from the Union.
What is Fort Sumter?
These were advantages of the Union.
Included a larger population, greater industrial capacity, an extensive railroad network, and superior naval power.
Issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, this executive order declared enslaved people in Confederate-held territory free. It shifted the war’s focus to ending slavery, prevented European intervention, and allowed Black men to enlist in the Union Army.
What is the Emancipation Proclamation?
Established by Congress in 1867, this plan divided the former Confederacy (except Tennessee) into five military districts under Union control. It required Southern states to ratify the 14th Amendment and guarantee Black male suffrage before readmission to the Union.
What is Military Reconstruction?
Founded in 1866 by former Confederate soldiers, this secret organization used terror, violence, and intimidation to suppress Black political participation and restore white supremacy in the South during Reconstruction.
What is the Ku Klux Klan?
Settled in the late 1840s by Mormon pioneers seeking religious freedom, this territory became a refuge for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints under Brigham Young. Its path to statehood was delayed for decades due to conflicts with the federal government over polygamy and church authority.
What is Utah?
Elected in 1844 on an expansionist platform, this president oversaw the annexation of Texas, the settlement of the Oregon boundary, and victory in the Mexican-American War—fulfilling much of Manifest Destiny during his single term.
Who is James K. Polk?
This 19th-century doctrine proposed that the residents of a territory should determine whether to allow slavery, rather than Congress. Promoted by Stephen Douglas, it was intended as a democratic solution but instead ignited violence in “Bleeding Kansas” and deepened the sectional divide.
What is popular sovereignty?
Officially called the American Party, this mid-1850s political movement arose in response to rising immigration from Ireland and Germany. Its members opposed Catholics and immigrants, promoted “native” Protestant values, and briefly gained power before collapsing over the slavery issue.
What is the Know-Nothing Party?
In this 1857 case, Chief Justice Roger Taney ruled that enslaved people were not citizens and had no right to sue in federal court, and that Congress had no power to ban slavery in the territories. The decision nullified the Missouri Compromise and inflamed sectional tensions before the Civil War.
What is Dredd Scott v. Sanford?
These were 3 parts of the Republican Party's platform in the 1860 election.
It opposed the expansion of slavery into the territories (free soil) supported free homesteads in the west, protective tariffs, immigrant rights, and internal improvements like the transcontinental railroad.
These were the advantages of the Confederacy.
Included experienced military leadership, a strong fighting spirit, knowledge of home terrain, and the defensive goal of outlasting the North’s will to fight
Delivered by Abraham Lincoln in November 1863 at the dedication of a national cemetery, this brief but powerful speech redefined the Civil War as a struggle for liberty and equality, declaring that government “of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
What is the Gettysburg Address?
Collectively referred to as the Reconstruction Amendments, the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments did these things respectively.
What is abolished slavery, granted citizenship and equal protection under the law, and secured voting rights for African American men.
This agricultural system emerged in the South after the Civil War, where freedmen and poor whites farmed land owned by others in exchange for a share of the crop. It often trapped laborers in cycles of debt and dependency, creating a new form of economic control after slavery.
What is sharecropping?
Claimed by both Britain and the United States, this Pacific Northwest region was peacefully divided along the 49th parallel in 1846. Its settlement, encouraged by the slogan “Fifty-Four Forty or Fight,” reflected Manifest Destiny and the lure of fertile farmland.
What is the Oregon Territory?
Completed in 1853 under President Franklin Pierce, this land acquisition from Mexico secured territory in present-day southern Arizona and New Mexico. Intended to facilitate a southern transcontinental railroad, it marked the final major expansion of the continental United States.
What is the Gadsen Purchase?
Strengthened as part of the Compromise of 1850, this law required citizens to assist in the capture of escaped enslaved people and denied alleged fugitives the right to a jury trial. It outraged Northern abolitionists and deepened resistance through the Underground Railroad and personal liberty laws.
What is the Fugitive Slave Law?
Published in 1852 by Harriet Beecher Stowe, this novel depicted the brutality of slavery and stirred Northern opposition to the Fugitive Slave Law. Denounced in the South as propaganda, it became one of the most influential works in fueling sectional tensions before the Civil War.
What is Uncle Tom's Cabin?
Proposed by Stephen Douglas in 1854, this act repealed the Missouri Compromise by allowing settlers in two new territories to decide the issue of slavery through popular sovereignty. Its passage led to violent conflict in “Bleeding Kansas” and the rise of the Republican Party.
What is the Kansas-Nebraska Act?
Held during the 1858 Illinois Senate race, these seven debates centered on slavery’s expansion and popular sovereignty. One candidate defended majority rule in the territories, while the other argued that slavery’s spread must be limited—propelling him to national prominence despite losing the election.
What are the Lincoln-Douglas Debates?
This 1864 campaign saw Union General William Tecumseh Sherman lead his troops from Atlanta to Savannah, destroying railroads, crops, and infrastructure along the way to break the South’s will to fight and hasten Confederate surrender.
What is Sherman's March to the Sea?
Before making emancipation a central aim, President Abraham Lincoln stated that his chief objective in the Civil War was this.
What is preserve the Union or to keep the nation together, even if it meant allowing slavery to continue where it already existed.
Passed over President Andrew Johnson’s veto, this law granted citizenship and equal protection under the law to all persons born in the United States (except Native Americans), aiming to protect the rights of formerly enslaved people after the Civil War.
What is the Civil Rights Act of 1866?
Created by Congress in 1865, this federal agency provided food, education, medical care, and legal assistance to formerly enslaved people and poor whites in the South. Though it made major gains in literacy and schooling, it faced resistance and was short-lived.
What is the Freedmen's Bureau?
This journalist coined the phrase “Manifest Destiny” in 1845 to justify U.S. expansion across the continent, claiming it was America’s divine mission to spread democracy and civilization from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Who is John O' Sullivan?
This river was established as the southern border of Texas under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, resolving one of the key disputes that had sparked the Mexican-American War.
What is the Rio Grande River?
Proposed in 1846 during the Mexican-American War, this amendment sought to ban slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico. Though it repeatedly failed in Congress, it intensified sectional tensions and revealed the growing divide between North and South.
What is the Wilmot Proviso?
Formed in 1848, this short-lived political party opposed the expansion of slavery into the western territories, arguing that free men on free soil constituted a morally and economically superior system. Its slogan—“Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor, and Free Men”—foreshadowed the rise of the Republican Party.
What is the Free Soil Party?
In 1856, after delivering a fiery anti-slavery speech attacking Senator Andrew Butler, this Massachusetts senator was brutally beaten on the Senate floor by Butler’s nephew, Representative Preston Brooks—an event that shocked the North and was celebrated in parts of the South.
What is the Caning of Charles Sumner?
In this 1858 statement, Stephen Douglas argued that slavery could be excluded from a territory despite the Dred Scott decision if local governments refused to enact laws protecting it—an idea that cost him Southern support but won re-election to the Senate.
What is the Freeport Doctrine?
Fought in Pennsylvania in July 1863, this three-day battle ended Robert E. Lee’s invasion of the North and is often considered the turning point of the Civil War, resulting in massive casualties and a decisive Union victory.
What is the Battle of Gettysburg?
Erupting in July 1863, this violent uprising was sparked by anger over the Union draft law and fears among working-class immigrants that freed slaves would take their jobs. Lasting several days, it led to over 100 deaths and revealed deep racial and class tensions in the North.
What is the New York City Draft Riots?
These were derogatory terms used by Southern Democrats during Reconstruction—one describing Southern whites who supported Republican governments, and the other referring to Northern newcomers who moved South to participate in rebuilding efforts or seek economic opportunity.
What are “Scalawags” and “Carpetbaggers”?
This informal political deal resolved the disputed 1876 presidential election by awarding Rutherford B. Hayes the presidency in exchange for withdrawing federal troops from the South, effectively ending Reconstruction and abandoning protections for Black civil rights.
What is the Compromise of 1877?
Part of America’s growing Pacific ambitions, this 1854 agreement—secured by Commodore Matthew Perry—opened Japan to U.S. trade after centuries of isolation. It reflected the extension of Manifest Destiny beyond the continent, as the U.S. sought economic and strategic influence in Asia.
What is the Kanagawa Treaty?
This was a nickname used by critics of President James K. Polk, this term reflected the belief that the Mexican–American War was an unjust conflict provoked by the president to expand slavery and fulfill Manifest Destiny through territorial conquest.
What is "Mr. Polk's War."
As part of this major compromise, the slave trade—but not slavery itself—was abolished in this city. The change was meant to appease Northern abolitionists while maintaining Southern political influence in the federal government.
This radical abolitionist believed armed resistance was the only way to end slavery. After killing pro-slavery settlers in “Bleeding Kansas,” he led a failed 1859 raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, becoming a martyr in the North and a terrorist in the South.
Who is John Brown?
These pro-slavery activists from Missouri crossed into Kansas during the 1850s to stuff ballot boxes and intimidate anti-slavery settlers. Their violent tactics during territorial elections helped spark the bloody conflict known as “Bleeding Kansas.”
What are border ruffians?
Formed by former Whigs and Know-Nothings, this short-lived party ran John Bell for president in 1860. Seeking to avoid sectional conflict, it took no firm stand on slavery and instead called for preserving the Union and enforcing the Constitution as it was.
What is the Constitutional Union Party?
Devised by Union General Winfield Scott, this strategy aimed to defeat the Confederacy by blockading Southern ports and gaining control of the Mississippi River—slowly squeezing the South’s resources like a constricting snake.
What is the Anaconda Plan?
To suppress dissent and maintain order during the Civil War, President Lincoln authorized this controversial action, allowing the government to arrest and detain individuals without trial—an act critics saw as unconstitutional but which he defended as necessary to save the Union.
What is the suspension of habeaus corpus?
Passed by Congress in 1864, this bill required a majority of a Southern state’s white male citizens to pledge loyalty to the Union and demanded stronger safeguards for emancipation. President Lincoln refused to sign it, viewing it as too harsh and disruptive to reunification.
What is the Wade-Davis Bill?
After federal troops withdrew from the South, these Democratic-controlled state governments sought to save the region from Republican rule. They cut social programs, suppressed Black voting through violence and intimidation, and laid the groundwork for Jim Crow segregation
What are "Redeemer" governments?