Causes of the Civil War
This belief that the United States was destined to expand across the continent fueled tensions over slavery in new territories.
What is Manifest Destiny?
This 1863 announcement by Lincoln changed the Union’s war aims by making slavery a central issue.
What is the Emancipation Proclamation?
This amendment abolished slavery.
What is the 13th Amendment?
This new political party emerged in the 1850s with a platform opposing the expansion of slavery.
What is the Republican Party?
This system of agriculture replaced slavery for many freedpeople but often trapped them in debt.
What is sharecropping?
This 1854 law allowed settlers in Kansas and Nebraska to vote on slavery, leading to violent conflict.
What is the Kansas-Nebraska Act?
The bloodiest single day of the Civil War occurred at this battle, which gave Lincoln momentum to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.
What is Antietam?
This agency helped formerly enslaved people adjust to freedom through education, food, and legal support.
What is the Freedmen’s Bureau?
Lincoln suspended this legal protection during the war, allowing for the arrest of suspected Confederate sympathizers.
What is habeas corpus?
This secret terrorist organization used violence to suppress Black political participation during Reconstruction.
What is the Ku Klux Klan?
This Supreme Court case ruled that African Americans were not citizens and that Congress could not ban slavery in the territories.
What is Dred Scott v. Sandford?
This 1863 battle was the turning point of the war in the East, ending Confederate hopes of invading the North.
What is the Battle of Gettysburg?
These laws passed by Southern states attempted to recreate slavery in all but name.
What are Black Codes?
This term describes Republicans who opposed Lincoln's lenient Reconstruction plan.
Who are the Radical Republicans?
Massive Western migration during this era was partly driven by this 1862 law that gave settlers free land.
What is the Homestead Act?
This 1846–48 war reopened debates over whether new territories would be free or slave.
What is the Mexican-American War?
This Union general’s “March to the Sea” aimed to destroy Southern infrastructure and morale
Who is William Tecumseh Sherman?
This 1867 Congressional plan divided the South into military districts and required new state constitutions.
What is Radical Reconstruction?
This amendment granted citizenship and equal protection under the law.
What is the 14th Amendment?
This 1848 event brought migrants to California, accelerating debates about slavery in the West.
What is the Gold Rush?
This 1860 political event convinced many Southern states that their interests were no longer protected and triggered secession.
What is Lincoln’s election?
The Civil War officially ended here in April 1865.
What is Appomattox Court House?
This political deal ended Reconstruction by withdrawing federal troops from the South.
What is the Compromise of 1877?
This amendment granted voting rights regardless of race.
What is the 15th Amendment?
This term refers to Southern leaders who regained political power after Reconstruction and restored conservative rule.
Who are the Redeemers?