Causes of the Civil War
What economic system relied heavily on enslaved labor in the Southern states and increased sectional tensions?
The plantation/slavery-based agricultural economy (cotton-based plantation economy).
Who was the president of the Confederate States of America?
Jefferson Davis.
Which 1861 battle is considered the first major battle of the Civil War and shattered hopes of a short war?
First Battle of Bull Run (First Manassas).
What amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolished slavery?
The 13th Amendment.
Name the political compromise passed in 1820 that tried to maintain the balance between free and slave states.
The Missouri Compromise (1820).
Who wrote the influential novel that exposed the cruelty of slavery and mobilized anti-slavery sentiment in the North?
Harriet Beecher Stowe.
What 1863 Union victory on the Mississippi River split the Confederacy and gave the Union control of that vital waterway?
Siege and capture of Vicksburg (gave Union control of the Mississippi River).
Which amendment guaranteed citizenship and equal protection under the law to all persons born or naturalized in the United States?
The 14th Amendment.
Which 1854 law allowed territories to decide on slavery by vote and helped spark violence in "Bleeding Kansas"?
The Kansas-Nebraska Act.
Which Union general accepted the Confederate surrender at Appomattox Court House in 1865?
Ulysses S. Grant.
Which 1863 battle is often called the turning point of the Civil War, after which the Confederacy largely remained on the defensive?
Battle of Gettysburg.
What federal agency was created in 1865 to assist formerly enslaved people with food, housing, education, and legal matters?
The Freedmen's Bureau (Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands).
What 1857 Supreme Court decision ruled that African Americans were not citizens and that Congress could not ban slavery in the territories?
Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)
Which abolitionist leader and former enslaved person became a leading speaker and advisor and wrote an autobiography titled "Narrative of the Life..."?
Frederick Douglass.
What 1862 Union victory in Tennessee opened the Deep South to Union invasion and led to control of the Mississippi basin? (Name the battle and its strategic river.)
Battle of Shiloh (Tennessee) — control helped secure the Tennessee and Cumberland River approaches (note: strategic control of rivers/transport routes in the West).
What were the "Black Codes" and what was their purpose in the postwar South?
Black Codes were laws passed by Southern states to restrict the freedoms of African Americans and maintain a labor force similar to slavery (e.g., restrictions on movement, labor contracts).
Explain how the publication of a widely read 1852 novel influenced Northern attitudes toward slavery and increased sectional conflict. (Name the novel and describe its impact.)
"Uncle Tom's Cabin" by Harriet Beecher Stowe; it exposed the brutality of slavery to a wide Northern audience and increased anti-slavery sentiment.
Who proposed the 10% Plan for Reconstruction, and what was the main idea of that plan?
Abraham Lincoln proposed the 10% Plan; it required 10% of a state's voters to take an oath of loyalty for readmission and offered a relatively lenient path for restoring state governments.
Describe the significance of General Sherman's "March to the Sea" and how it affected Confederate morale and Southern infrastructure.
Sherman's March to the Sea (from Atlanta to Savannah) used "total war" tactics to destroy infrastructure and supplies, undermining Confederate morale and ability to continue the war.
Explain how sharecropping worked and analyze its economic impact on freedpeople and Southern agriculture.
Sharecropping was a system where landowners allowed tenants (often freedpeople) to farm land in return for a share of the crops; it often trapped tenants in cycles of debt and dependency, limiting economic mobility.