Pre-Civil War
Name the 1854 law that allowed settlers in Kansas and Nebraska to decide on slavery by popular sovereignty and effectively repealed the Missouri Compromise.
Kansas-Nebraska Act
What 1863 speech declared enslaved people in Confederate-held territory to be free?
Emancipation Proclamation
What federal agency was created to assist formerly enslaved people with jobs, food, education, and legal help?
Freedman's Bureau
What were Black Codes/Jim Crow laws?
State and local laws that stripped newly freed people of the political rights given by the Reconstruction amendments and Reconstruction process; included racial discrimination, segregation, social inequality, etc.
Explain how the Compromise of 1877 changed federal policy in the South.
Ended Reconstruction & military occupation, so now Southern states have to independently continue Reconstruction practices without oversight.
Explain one way geographic expansion (westward growth) increased tensions between North and South in the mid-1800s.
Westward expansion raised the slavery question in new territories; adding slave vs. free states threatened the delicate political balance and increased sectionalism and social divisions.
Which April 1861 event is widely considered the start of the Civil War when Confederate forces fired on a federal fort in South Carolina?
Confederate firing on Fort Sumter
Give one requirement Congress set for former Confederate states to be readmitted under Congressional Reconstruction.
Submit to military occupation
Ratify 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments
Create new state constitution
Elect new officials for state and local governments
Oath of loyalty to the Union
Explain one legal or political strategy Southern states used to disenfranchise Black voters after Reconstruction.
Literacy tests, poll taxes, manipulation of voter registrations/records, voter intimidation
Define discrimination and segregation, and what's the difference between the two?
Discrimination - treating someone poorly/unfairly due to some characteristic about them (race, gender, religion, etc.) that they can't change
Segregation - physical separation of groups of people based on some characteristic (in the context of this unit, race)
Difference - Discrimination can include segregation but doesn't always; segregation almost always involves discrimination
What 1820 agreement admitted Missouri as a slave state, Maine as a free state, and set a line (36°30′) limiting slavery in the Louisiana Purchase north of it?
Missouri Compromise
Why did Abraham Lincoln’s election in 1860 prompt several Southern states to secede?
Lincoln opposed expansion of slavery; his election without Southern electoral votes signaled loss of Southern political power and led to fears slavery would be restricted/abolished.
Summarize one main goal of Reconstruction and one outcome that shows that goal was only partially achieved.
Allowing Southern states to rejoin the Union, physical and economic rebuilding in the South, abolition of slavery, citizenship & equal protection for formerly enslaved people, right to vote
Most goals partially achieved but ran into resistance from Southerners through Jim Crow laws and/or politically motivated violence
How did economic systems such as sharecropping limit formerly enslaved people’s independence? Give one similarity and one difference compared to slavery.
Often led into cycles of debt to landowners in which workers are tied to the land until the debt is paid, which conveniently rarely happens; also could argue that sharecropping/tenant farming limited formerly enslaved people's options to find work in other industries as they had limited skills outside of agriculture
Similarities: Pretty much the same type of work/manual labor, still in a subservient position to landowners
Differences: Workers were not legally considered property and were paid a share (at least on paper) rather than unpaid labor
Name one right guaranteed by the 14th Amendment.
Citizenship or equal protection
Define "popular sovereignty" and give one example from the pre-war period (1850s) where it was applied.
Popular sovereignty = people have the power to influence/empower the government
Examples: Kansas-Nebraska Act, Compromise of 1850
Name one immediate result of Lee’s surrender at Appomattox.
Official end of major Confederate resistance, beginning of national reunification, or surrender led to Confederate demobilization (end of war operations).
Explain the purpose of Reconstruction and describe one way it changed Southern state governments during the period.
Restore former Confederate states to the Union and rebuild the South, end slavery and establish legal freedom and citizenship for formerly enslaved people, support formerly enslaved people's transition to society, protect new citizens' participation in government (voting rights)
During Reconstruction, military occupation and Republican majorities in many state and local governments made progress towards each goal; after Reconstruction, huge step backwards as Democrats take power through Jim Crow laws/Black Codes, physical violence, and disenfranchisement
Give one nonviolent method Southerners used to end Reconstruction.
Electoral campaigns for Redeemer (Democrat) candidates, passing Jim Crow laws, or using legal maneuvers to regain state offices (voter registration/records manipulation.
Name one Northern or Southern leader (military or political) and state one role they played in the Civil War or Reconstruction.
North: Abraham Lincoln (POTUS & Commander in Chief of Union Army); Ulysses S. Grant (Union general), George B. McClellan (Union general)
South: Jefferson Davis (POTCS), Robert E. Lee (Confederate general), Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson (Confederate general)
The Compromise of 1850 included several parts; name two.
admission of California as free state; Fugitive Slave Act; slave trade banned in DC; Mexican Cession territories decide by popular sovereignty.
Name one way the Emancipation Proclamation affected the Union war effort.
Allowed recruitment of Black soldiers; undermined the Confederacy’s labor force; shifted international opinion
13th Amendment, 14th Amendment, 15th Amendment, Civil Rights Act of 1866, Reconstruction Act of 1867
Why were there so many different Reconstruction laws/acts passed? Why couldn't they just put it all into one big law?
Took time to identify loopholes/shortcuts Southern states would try to use to get around the wording of the earlier acts and/or any insufficiencies in earlier acts to fully restore formerly enslaved people to equal legal and social status
Define scalawag and carpetbagger, and what's the difference?
Scalawag - Southerner who supported Reconstruction and newly implemented Republican governments; seen as a traitor to pro-Confederacy Southerners
Carpetbagger - Northerner who traveled/moved to the South to participate in newly implemented Republican governments, sometimes for genuine reasons of helping the Reconstruction effort, but more often for personal or political gain; becomes almost a caricature
Difference - scalawags are Southerners, carpetbaggers are Northerners; both are more stereotypes/generalizations than accurate descriptions
Why was the Union (North) predicted to easily win the Civil War?
More industrialized, more production, easier travel, more people, more supplies, better trade relations with other countries, had the federal government's support