Legislation
This amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1865, abolished slavery and involuntary servitude.
What is the 13th Amendment?
Published in 1852, this novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe exposed the moral evils of slavery and fueled abolitionist sentiment in the United States.
What is Uncle Tom's Cabin?
This 19th-century belief held that the United States was destined to expand across the North American continent, justifying westward expansion.
What is Manifest Destiny?
This 1877 agreement resolved a disputed presidential election by awarding the presidency to Rutherford B. Hayes and effectively ended Reconstruction in the South.
What is the Compromise of 1877?
Ratified in 1870, this amendment prohibits denying a citizen the right to vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
What is the 15th Amendment?
This presidential election resulted in Abraham Lincoln’s victory and prompted several Southern states to secede from the Union.
What is the Election of 1860?
This term describes the violent conflicts in the 1850s between pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers in a Midwestern territory deciding the issue of slavery by popular vote.
What is Bleeding Kansas?
Issued by Abraham Lincoln in 1863, this executive order declared that all enslaved people in Confederate-held territory were free.
What is the Emancipation Proclamation?
Ratified in 1868, this amendment granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States and guaranteed equal protection under the law.
What is the 14th Amendment?
This act allowed settlers in two U.S. territories to vote on whether to allow slavery, leading to violent conflict known as “Bleeding Kansas.”
What is the Kansas-Nebraska Act?
Passed by Congress in 1867, these laws divided the South into military districts and set requirements for readmission to the Union, including ratifying the 14th Amendment.
What are the Reconstruction Acts?
Delivered in 1863, this brief but famous speech by Abraham Lincoln honored fallen soldiers and redefined the purpose of the Civil War as a fight for national unity and equality.
What is the Gettysburg Address?
This agreement attempted to ease sectional tensions by admitting California as a free state while strengthening the Fugitive Slave Act.
What is the Compromise of 1850?
Fought between 1846 and 1848, this conflict resulted in the U.S. gaining vast territories in the Southwest, fueling debates over the expansion of slavery.
What is the Mexican-American War?
Starting in 1848, this mass migration to California was fueled by the discovery of precious metal, dramatically increasing the population and economic development of the West.
What is the Gold Rush?
Signed in 1848, this treaty ended the Mexican-American War and forced Mexico to cede vast territories, including California, Arizona, and New Mexico, to the United States.
What is the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo?
In this landmark Supreme Court decision, an enslaved man’s lawsuit helped intensify sectional conflict by declaring the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional.
What is Dred Scott v. Sanford?
In 1859, an abolitionist led a raid on a federal arsenal in Virginia in an attempt to start a slave rebellion, heightening sectional tensions across the nation.
What is John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry?
This phase of Reconstruction, led by Presidents Lincoln and Johnson, aimed to quickly restore Southern states to the Union with lenient terms, often clashing with Congress.
What is Presidential Reconstruction?
This phase of Reconstruction, led by Congress after 1867, sought to transform Southern society through strict measures, military oversight, and protections for newly freed African Americans.
What is Radical Reconstruction?