Expansion Baby!
The 19th-century belief that the expansion of the US throughout the American continents was both justified and inevitable.
Manifest Destiny
This was the south's greatest concern with adding free-soil states to the Union.
Tipping the balance of votes in the U.S. Senate
This was the primary (ideological) reason for the North declaring war on the South.
Preserving the Union
Upon his election in 1860, in an attempt to prevent the civil war, Abraham Lincoln made this promise to the South.
He would not interfere with slavery where it already existed.
This 'little misunderstanding' resulted in the United States gaining 525,000 square miles of land and expanding all the way to the Pacific Ocean.
Mexican American War
What were the two greatest outcomes of the Supreme Court case of Dredd Scott v. Sanford?
- Enslaved persons were not citizens and therefor had no rights in the US court system
- Enslaved persons were property and therefor, based on the Constitution, could not be taken away (freed), without just compensation
- Essentially every state could now act as a pseudo-slave state
What were two advantages the South had towards the beginning of the Civil War?
Homefield advantage– had to defend land they were familiar with rather than invade land that they were unfamiliar with
King Cotton- the belief that trade relationships with Europe would help them in the war
Superior leadership and military strategy
What were two strategic benefits the union gained as a result of Abraham Lincoln issuing the emancipation proclamation in 1863?
- Enslaved persons abandoned plantations in the south (hurt the South's economic strength)
- Formerly enslaved persons joined the Union army in the north (strengthened the North's military strength)
- Positioned war as a fight against slavery and gave the North on the moral high ground (keeping Europe out of the War)
These people / this political party believed that new states and territories should be free of slavery, primarily to allow (white) homesteaders a fair chance at establishing themselves without having to compete with plantations.
free-soilers
Many southerners felt this attack on a Federal Arsenal in West Virginia in an attempt start a slave revolt proved their concerns that the North was aggressively looking to abolish slavery and their way of life with violence if necessary.
John Brown's Raid / Harpers Ferry
The attack on this Federal stronghold made it clear that compromise was no longer possible and resulted in the start of the civil war.
Fort Sumter
Abraham Lincoln's personal relationship with this former slave, writer, orator, and abolitionist, convinced Lincoln that African Americans not only deserved human rights, but should be treated as equals.
Frederick Douglass
This idea that states should be allowed to choose for themselves whether or not to allow slavery was unpopular in both the North and South.
popular sovereignty
This 1854 bill added two more states to the union, mandated 'popular sovereignty', and resulted in one of the most fraudulent state votes in US history.
Kansas-Nebraska Act
What were two advantages the North had at the beginning of the Civil War.
An industrial based economy focused on manufacturing that could be used to create weapons.
More financial institutions for financing the war.
A previously established government.
An official navy.
A superior railway system.
This 3-minute address by Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War (November 19, 1963) at the dedication of a national cemetery established moral resolve for union victory and is considered one of the greatest orations in human history.
Gettysburg Address
This compromise temporarily quelled the debate regarding the admission of free and slave states by establishing the 36°30′ parallel, south of which slavery was legal, north of which was not.
Missouri Compromise / 1820 Compromise
This vote that resulted in Republican victory without a single vote of support from the south was the 'final straw' for many Southerners felt they didn't really have a voice in government.
Election of Abraham Lincoln / Election of 1860
William T. Sherman's brutal military campaign / strategy crushed the south's economic resources and infrastructure as well as their spirits.
Sherman's March to the Sea / The Savanah Campaign
Scorched earth / Total War
This American stage actor who, as part of a conspiracy plot, assassinated Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. on April 14, 1865.
John Wilkes Booth