Manifest Destiny & the Mexican-American War
This belief held that the United States was destined by God to expand across the continent.
What is Manifest Destiny?
Formed in 1861, this new government composed the seceded Southern states.
What was the Confederate States of America?
This first major battle of the Civil War shattered Northern hopes of a quick victory.
What was Bull Run (Manassas)?
Lincoln suspended this legal protection against unlawful imprisonment during the war.
What is the writ of habeas corpus?
This 1865 organization helped former enslaved people transition to freedom with food, education, and medical care.
What was the Freedmen’s Bureau?
This seaport fort in South Carolina became the site of the opening shots of the Civil War.
What was Fort Sumter?
Ratified in 1865, this constitutional amendment abolished slavery throughout the United States.
What is the 13th Amendment?
This 1840s slogan demanded U.S. control of the entire Oregon territory up to a specific northern latitude.
What is “Fifty-four forty or fight”?
This doctrine promoted by Stephen Douglas said settlers should decide whether to allow slavery.
What is popular sovereignty?
This 1862 battle in Maryland, the bloodiest single day in U.S. history, gave Lincoln the opening to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.
What was Antietam?
This 1862 act funded construction of a transcontinental railway to improve Western transportation.
What was the Pacific Railroad Act?
Lincoln’s lenient Reconstruction plan required this percentage of voters to swear loyalty to the Union.
What is ten percent?
This 1854 purchase from Mexico allowed the U.S. to plan a southern transcontinental railroad route.
What was the Gadsden Purchase?
This secret network of abolitionists, safe houses, and routes helped enslaved people escape from the South to freedom in the North or Canada.
What was the Underground Railroad?
This 1845 event brought an independent republic into the Union and helped trigger the Mexican-American War.
What was the annexation of Texas?
This 1852 novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe helped galvanize Northern opposition to slavery.
What is Uncle Tom’s Cabin?
Lincoln delivered this famous speech dedicating a cemetery, redefining the Civil War as a test of democratic government.
What is the Gettysburg Address?
This 1862 tariff sharply increased import duties and protected Northern industry during the war.
What was the Morrill Tariff Act?
These laws in Southern states attempted to restrict the rights and mobility of freedmen.
What were the Black Codes?
This political party collapsed in the 1850s largely because it was split between Northern antislavery members and Southern proslavery members.
What was the Whig Party?
This set of laws admitted California as a free state, strengthened the Fugitive Slave Law, and allowed new territories to decide slavery for themselves.
What was the Compromise of 1850?
These resolutions by Congressman Abraham Lincoln demanded to know the exact location of early fighting in the Mexican-American War.
What were the Spot Resolutions?
Violent clashes between pro- and anti-slavery forces in Kansas earned this nickname.
What is Bleeding Kansas?
Lee's last major invasion of the North ended at this turning point battle in 1863.
What was Gettysburg?
This U.S. law offered settlers free land for establishing agricultural colleges.
What was the Morrill Land Grant Colleges Act?
This constitutional amendment granted citizenship and equal protection to all persons born in the U.S.
What is the Fourteenth Amendment?
This 1850 law was the most controversial part of the Compromise of 1850, requiring Northerners to aid in capturing escaped slaves.
What was the Fugitive Slave Law?
In 1858, Abraham Lincoln challenged this Illinois senator in a series of debates over slavery, popular sovereignty, and the future of the Union.
Who was Stephen A. Douglas?
This U.S. diplomatic mission secretly proposed buying Cuba from Spain to expand slavery.
What was the Ostend Manifesto?
This Supreme Court case ruled that African Americans could not be U.S. citizens and invalidated the Missouri Compromise.
What was Dred Scott v. Sandford?
Grant finally forced Lee’s surrender here in April 1865.
What is Appomattox Courthouse?
This 1863 New York violence erupted over anger at conscription and racial tensions.
What were the New York Draft Riots?
This act divided the South into five military districts and required new state constitutions.
What was the Reconstruction Act?
This 1862 law provided free land in the West to settlers willing to improve it for five years.
What was the Homestead Act?
Passed in 1870–1871, these laws authorized federal troops to suppress violence and protect Black voting rights during Reconstruction.
What were the Force Acts?
This decisive battle against Mexico made Zachary Taylor a war hero.
What was the Battle of Buena Vista?
John Brown's 1859 attempt to seize a federal arsenal took place in this town.
What is Harpers Ferry?
This 1864 campaign of destruction through Georgia devastated the Confederate home front.
What was Sherman’s March?
This 1863 address declared enslaved people free in Confederate territory.
What was the Emancipation Proclamation?
This white supremacist terrorist organization used violence to intimidate Black voters.
What was the Ku Klux Klan (KKK)?
This 1862 financial reform created a unified federal banking structure during the Civil War.
What was the National Banking System?
This 1867 purchase of Alaska from Russia was ridiculed by critics but later proved strategically and economically valuable.
What was Seward’s Folly?
This treaty ended the Mexican-American War and gave the U.S. vast territories in the Southwest.
What was the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo?
These last-ditch proposals attempted to protect slavery in the South and avert secession in 1860–61.
What were the Crittenden Amendments?
This Union victory in 1863 gave the North control of the Mississippi River.
What was Vicksburg?
This 1864 coalition party nominated Lincoln for reelection.
What was the National Union Party?
This 1873 Supreme Court case severely limited federal protection of civil rights.
What were the Slaughter-House Cases?
This 1873 Louisiana massacre revealed the violent resistance to Black political power during Reconstruction.
What was the Colfax Massacre?
This faction of Northern Democrats opposed the Civil War, advocating peace with the Confederacy and criticizing Lincoln’s policies.
Who were the Copperheads?
This 1846 proposal aimed to ban slavery in all land acquired from Mexico and inflamed sectional tensions.
What was the Wilmot Proviso?
This antislavery party in 1848 opposed the expansion of slavery into western territories.
What was the Free Soil Party?
This devastating 1862 battle in Tennessee showed that the war would be longer and bloodier than expected.
What was the Battle of Shiloh?
This incident involving a British ship carrying Confederate diplomats nearly brought the U.S. and Britain to war.
What was the Trent Affair?
Congress impeached Andrew Johnson for violating this act restricting presidential removal of officials.
What was the Tenure of Office Act?
This Supreme Court case (1876) ruled that the federal government could not punish individuals for civil rights violations, severely weakening Reconstruction.
What was United States v. Cruikshank?
These radical Southern politicians in the 1850s pushed for secession and defended the expansion of slavery, inflaming sectional tensions.
Who were the Fire-Eaters?
During Reconstruction, these two groups—Northern transplants who moved South to seek political or economic opportunities and Southern whites who supported Republican policies—were often vilified by former Confederates for their role in enforcing federal Reconstruction measures.
MUST NAME BOTH!
Who were Carpetbaggers and Scalawags?