The Civil War
Abraham Lincoln
16th President of the United States, succeeded in keeping the Union together, signed the Emancipation Proclamation, and was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth.
Second Great Awakening
Religious revival / reform movement under 7th US President, Andrew Jackson
Harriet Tubman
A major figure of the Underground Railroad, Tubman helped ferry many slaves up North to freedom. Often nicknamed "Moses," for leading people out of bondage, she rescued people and families over *nineteen* separate trips down South into slave-owning states.
Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise of 1820 prohibited the expansion of slavery past a certain latitude. It admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state.
War of 1812
Fought from 1812 to 1815 and ending in somewhat of a stalemate, both the US and Great Britain ultimately signed a peace treaty with each other. Britain had been pressing US merchant sailors into military service (big no-no...)
Confederacy
Women's Rights Convention
In Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848, this convention launched the women's suffrage movement.
Underground Railroad
Compromise of 1850
Passed in 1850, these five bills dealt with issues of slavery and US territorial expansion. Included among them were laws abolishing the slave trade in Washington, DC, as well as the Fugitive Slave Act. (Granted wins to both sides).
Sectionalism
An exaggerated devotion to a region rather than the whole nation - there was a sharp division in interests between the slave-owning South, the industrial North, and the agricultural (and quickly-expanding) West.
Emancipation Proclamation
Lincoln signed this into law on January 1st, 1863, approaching the third year of civil war in America. The decree stated that "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free."
Indian Removal Act (1830)
Signed into law by President Jackson, this law granted free land to American settlers west of the Mississippi River, forcing many Native Americans to relocate & leave their homes.
Frederick Douglass
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Passed by Congress in 1854, this allowed people in those two territories to decide for themselves whether they wanted to allow slavery or not - repealing the Missouri Compromise of 1820.
Judicial Review
Review by the US Supreme Court of the constitutional validity of a legislative act. First precedent set by the landmark case Marbury vs. Madison (1803).
Gettysburg Address
A speech delivered by Lincoln in on November 19th, 1863 in Gettysburg, PA, four months after a major battle was fought there and won by Union soldiers. The short speech began, "Four score and seven years ago," referring to the signing of the Declaration of Independence 87 years earlier. Lincoln described the US as a nation "conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."
Cherokee Nation vs. Georgia (1831)
The Cherokee Nation fought laws stripping them of their rights and their land, but lost in the Supreme Court because they were not deemed a separate, sovereign nation of their own. :(
Nat Turner
Led a slave rebellion in August of 1831 in Southampton County, Virginia - the only "successful" slave rebellion in US history. Turner evaded capture for two months, but was eventually caught and executed in November. New laws were put into place punishing slaves and further prohibiting black education and limiting rights of free black people.
Dred Scott vs. Sanford (1857)
The Supreme Court ruled that African Americans, whether free or slave, were not American citizens and could not sue in federal court. The Court also ruled that Congress lacked power to ban slavery in the U.S. territories. Finally, the Court declared that the rights of slaveowners were constitutionally protected by the Fifth Amendment because slaves were categorized as property.
Alexander Hamilton
13th Amendment
Passed by Congress on Jan. 31, 1865, the 13th Amendment made slavery illegal, unless as punishment for a crime.
Trail of Tears
When Native Americans were forced to give up their ancestral land (under threat of military force), they marched (often in chains) for thousands of miles westward across the US. Due to harsh conditions, many thousands died along this trail.
Fugitive Slave Act
Part of the Compromise of 1850, the act required that slaves be returned to their owners, even if they were in a free state. The act also made the federal government responsible for finding, returning, and trying escaped slaves.
Mexican-American War
Fought from April 1846 to February 1848, the war stemmed from the annexation of Texas by the U.S. in 1845 and from a dispute over whether Texas ended at the Nueces River (the Mexican claim) or the Rio Grande (the U.S. claim).
Nullification Crisis
A sectional political crisis in 1832-1833, wherein Southern states declared that the Federal tariffs of 1828 and 1832 were unconstitutional and thus were null and void. Another example of tension between states and federal government before the Civil War.