Expansion & Sectionalism
The primary motivation for the U.S. war with Mexico, driven by expansionist goals.
Manifest Destiny
This political party was formed primarily to oppose the expansion of slavery.
The Republican Party
President Lincoln's stated goal at the very beginning of the Civil War.
To preserve the Union
This amendment officially abolished slavery in the United States.
The 13th Amendment
Laws passed in the South to restrict the rights of newly freed African Americans.
Black Codes
A key provision of the Compromise of 1850 intended to satisfy Southern interests.
A stronger Fugitive Slave Law
This Supreme Court decision declared that African Americans were not citizens.
The Dred Scott decision
The Union's strategic plan to suffocate the South by blockading its ports.
The Anaconda Plan
This amendment guaranteed equal protection under the law for all citizens.
The 14th Amendment
The agency established to provide food, schools, and aid to former enslaved people.
The Freedmen’s Bureau
This 1846 proposal sought to ban slavery in any land won from Mexico.
The Wilmot Proviso
The event in 1860 that most directly led Southern states to begin seceding.
The Election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860
The proclamation that freed slaves only in states currently in rebellion.
The Emancipation Proclamation
This amendment gave Black men the right to vote.
The 15th Amendment
This labor system often trapped former slaves in a cycle of debt and poverty.
Sharecropping
This act allowed for popular sovereignty to decide the status of slavery in new territories.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
The term for slave states that remained loyal to the Union during the war.
Border States
This significant Union victory gave the North control of the Mississippi River.
The Battle of Vicksburg
This political group sought to punish the South and expand civil rights for freedmen.
Radical Republicans
The primary goal of this group was to intimidate Black voters and politicians.
The Ku Klux Klan (KKK)
The violent conflict between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces in a U.S. territory.
"Bleeding Kansas"
The law requiring all citizens to assist in the return of runaway slaves.
The Fugitive Slave Act
The first African American military unit to see combat during the war.
The 54th Massachusetts Regiment
The agreement that resulted in the withdrawal of federal troops from the South.
The Compromise of 1877
The central theme of Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address regarding the South.
Reconciliation and healing