Download Civil War and Reconstruction Vocabulary List

Civil War and Reconstruction Vocabulary List
- Missouri Compromise of 1820- Missouri
Economic, Social & Political Events
- Anti-Slavery Movement- Main
became slave state, Maine a free state, territories
above 36’30 would be free
- Dred Scott v. Sanford- Scott sued for
freedom on basis of living in free territory with
his owner; Supreme Court ruled against Scott;
also ruled that Congress could not prohibit
slavery in any federal territory
- Compromise of 1850- Resolution by
Henry Clay that temporarily settled the slavery
issue between the North and South; Included:
1. California would be a free state
2. New Mexico & Utah would decide the slavery
issue themselves (popular sovereignty)
3. Sale of slaves in DC abolished
4. Texas gave up claims to New Mexico for 10
million dollars
5. A stronger Fugitive Slave Act was passed
- Fugitive Slave Law- All citizens in the US
had to assist in the return of runaway slaves
- Raid on Harper’s Ferry- Attack on the
federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, in an
attempt to arm the slaves for an uprising; led by
John Brown who was captured and hanged
organization was American Antislavery Society
- Slave Codes- Passed by Southerners to
further restrict slaves because of rebellions such
as Nat Turner’s
- Underground Railroad- Network of escape
routes to the North
- Harriet Tubman- Escaped slave who
became a conductor on the Underground
Railroad
- Kansas-Nebraska Act- 1854 federal law
that established popular sovereignty in newly
organized territories and overturned the Missouri
Compromise
- Popular Sovereignty- Idea by which the
people of a territory decide the slavery issue by
vote
- Bleeding Kansas- Nickname for Kansas
that resulted after proslavery and antislavery
forces began fighting over the slavery issue
- John Brown- First white American
abolitionist to advocate and practice insurrection
as a means to the abolition of slavery; belief in
confrontation led him to kill five pro-slavery
southerners in what became known as the
Pottawatomie Massacre in May 1856; response
to the raid of the "free soil" city of Lawrence
- Sumner-Brooks Incident- Cane beating of
Senator Charles Sumner by Congressman
Preston Brooks; resulted from Sumner’s remarks
about the Kansas-Nebraska Act and Brooks’
relative Senator Andrew Butler
- Free Soil Party- Political party formed by
antislavery Whigs and Democrats in 1848;
opposed the expansion of slavery into the
territories
- Republican Party- Formed as a direct
reaction to the Kansas-Nebraska Act; did not
want to see slavery expand into the territories
- Lincoln-Douglas Debates- Debates held
during Illinois Senate campaign; Lincoln
asserted his belief that slavery was “a moral,
social, and political wrong”; Douglas reaffirmed
his belief that the people could still prohibit
slavery in a territory by refusing to pass the local
laws to make it work
- Freeport Doctrine- Position held by
Stephen Douglas that people in a territory have
the power to prohibit slavery by refusing to pass
local laws necessary to make a slave system
work
Causes of the Civil War
- Harriet Beecher Stowe- Northerners saw
evils of slavery for first time because of her
novel; Southerners believed novel was a book of
insulting lies
- Uncle Tom’s Cabin- Book by Harriet
Beecher Stowe which further divided the North
and South over slavery issue
- Election of 1860- Candidates: Stephen
Douglas, John Breckinridge, John Bell, and
Abraham Lincoln; Lincoln received only 40% of
the popular vote but his electoral vote was a
landslide with 180 votes; seven southern states
decided to secede because Lincoln won without
winning a single southern state
- Lincoln- Sixteenth President of the United
States (1861-1865); known for his effective
leadership during the Civil War and his
Emancipation Proclamation declaring the end of
slavery in Confederate-held territory
- Secession- After Lincoln was elected, but
before he was inaugurated, seven Southern states
withdrew from the US; Buchanan, the lame duck
president, decided to leave the problem for
Lincoln to take care of
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Civil War and Reconstruction Vocabulary List
- Gettysburg- Considered bloodiest battle of
Causes . . . . (continued)
- Fort Sumter, SC- Site of the opening
the war; major turning point; South invaded
North and lost; France & Great Britain would not
come in on the side of the Confederacy
- Gettysburg Address- A three-minute
address by Abraham Lincoln during the Civil
War at the dedication of a national cemetery on
the site of the Battle of Gettysburg (Nov. 19,
1863)
- Vicksburg- Site of battle in Mississippi in
which Grant besieged the city for six months
until the Confederates surrendered; allowed the
Union control of the Mississippi River
- Writ of Habeas Corpus- Lincoln
suspended this writ, which states that a person
cannot be arrested without probable cause and
must be informed of the charges against him and
be given an opportunity to challenge them;
throughout the war, thousands were arrested for
disloyal acts
- Election of 1864- Candidates: Abraham
Lincoln and George McClellan; Lincoln won
with 212 electoral votes to 21, the popular vote
was much closer; Lincoln had fired McClellan as
commanding general of Union troops
- William T. Sherman’s March- General
William T. Sherman’s march through the South
from Chattanooga to Atlanta, Savannah, and
back up to Bentonville and Durham, North
Carolina; Sherman launched a campaign of total
war, destroying anything the Confederates could
use in the war
- Anaconda Plan- U.S. General-in-Chief
Winfield Scott’s plan to defeat the Confederacy:
blockade the southern & eastern coasts, seize
control of the Mississippi River so as to break
the Confederacy in two and then strike from all
sides at once
- Copperheads- Lincoln believed that anti-war
Northern Democrats harbored traitorous ideas
and he labeled them “Copperheads”; poisonous
snakes waiting to get him
engagement of the Civil War; one of only two
forts in the South still under Union control; on
April 12, 1861, the Confederate Army began
bombarding the fort, which surrendered on April
14; Congress declared war on the Confederacy
the next day
- Confederation- Joining of southern states
into the Confederate States of America
- Jefferson Davis- Chosen as president of the
Confederacy in 1861
The Civil War
- Robert E. Lee- General of Confederate
forces during the Civil War; surrendered
Confederate forces to Grant at Appomattox
Courthouse
- Thomas “Stonewall” JacksonConfederate general known for his swift strikes
against Union forces; earned nickname
Stonewall by holding his forces steady under
extreme pressure at the First Battle of Manassas;
died of pneumonia after being shot by one of his
own men at the Battle of Chancellorsville
- George McClellan- Early Union army
leader in the Civil War; careful organizer and
planner who moved too slowly for northern
politicians; ran against President Abraham
Lincoln in the election of 1864
- Ulysses S. Grant- Commander of Union
forces during the Civil War; accepted Lee’s
surrender at Appomattox Courthouse
- First Battle of Bull Run/ManassasConfederate soldiers charged Union men who
were en route to besiege Richmond; Union
troops fled back to Washington; Confederates
didn’t realize their victory in time to follow; first
major battle of the Civil War – both sides were
ill-prepared
- Antietam- General Lee led his army into
enemy territory in Maryland, hoping to gain a
major victory in order to convince Britain to give
official recognition & support to the
Confederacy; Union troops intercepted the
Confederate troops and the bloodiest single day
of the war resulted; Lee retreated to Virginia
- Emancipation Proclamation- issued Sept.
22, 1862 after the Northern victory at the Battle
of Antietam; Lincoln freed all slaves in the states
that had seceded; Lincoln had no power to
enforce the law
- African-American ParticipationApproximately 180,000 escaped slaves and
freemen served in Union Army
- Appomattox Courthouse- Location of
Confederate General Lee’s surrender to Union
General Grant ending the Civil War
- John Wilkes Booth- Shot Lincoln at Ford’s
Theatre on April 14, 1865; escaped by jumping
onto the stage (broke his leg) and fleeing town
on a waiting horse; later found in a barn and
refused to come out; barn was then set on fire;
Booth was shot, either by himself or a soldier
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Civil War and Reconstruction Vocabulary List
- Freedman’s Bureau- Agency set up in
Reconstruction
- Andrew Johnson- A Southerner from
1865 to aid former slaves in adjusting to
freedom; furnished food and clothing to needy
blacks and helped them get jobs
- Black Codes- Restrictions on the freedom of
former slaves; passed by Southern governments;
replaced slave codes
- Grandfather Clauses- Contained in Jim
Crow laws used from 1890 to 1910 in much of
the South to prevent blacks from voting; some
states passed laws requiring poll taxes and/or
supposed literacy tests from would-be voters; an
exemption to these requirements was made for
all persons allowed to vote before the American
Civil War and any of their descendants; the term
was born from the fact that the law tied the thencurrent generation's voting rights to those of their
grandfathers
- Jim Crow Laws- State laws adopted in the
South that were designed to enforce segregation
- Ku Klux Klan- White-supremacist group
formed by six former Confederate officers after
the Civil War; group eventually turned to
terrorist attacks on blacks
- Tenure of Office Act- Enacted by radical
Congress, it forbade the president from removing
civil officers without consent of the Senate;
meant to prevent Johnson from removing
radicals from office; Johnson broke law when he
fired a radical Republican from his cabinet
- Johnson’s Impeachment- Johnson was
found guilty by House when he fired Secretary
of War Stanton; Senate failed to remove Johnson
from office by one vote
- Credit Mobilier Scandal- A construction
company formed in 1864 by owners of the Union
Pacific Railroad to fraudulently skim off railroad
profits for themselves; federal officials
implicated in scandal
- Solid South- Term applied to the one-party
(Democrat) system of the South following the
Civil War; for 100 years after the Civil War, the
South voted Democrat in every presidential
election
- Compromise of 1877- Hayes promised to
show concern for Southern interests and end
Reconstruction by removing Union troops from
the South in exchange for the Democrats giving
him the presidency
Tennessee; Vice President when Lincoln was
killed; became president; opposed Radical
Republicans who passed Reconstruction Acts
over his veto; first president to be impeached, he
survived the Senate removal by only one vote
- Radical Republicans- After the Civil War,
a group that believed the South should be harshly
punished and thought that Lincoln was
sometimes too compassionate towards the South
- Thaddeus Stevens- A radical Republican
who believed in harsh punishments for the
South; leader of the radical Republicans in
Congress
- Reconstruction Plans1. Lincoln’s Plan - Ten Percent Plan: former
Confederate states would be readmitted to the
Union if 10% of their citizens took a loyalty oath
and the state agreed to ratify the 13th Amendment
which outlawed slavery; not put into effect
because Lincoln was assassinated
2. Johnson’s Plan: Southern states were required
to nullify their acts of secession, abolish slavery,
and refuse to pay Confederate war debts to be
readmitted to the Union; Johnson also pardoned
all rebels except ex-Confederate officeholders
and the richest planters
3. Congress’s Reconstruction Acts: pushed
through Congress over Johnson’s veto, it gave
radical Republicans complete military control
over the South; increased the requirements for
gaining readmission to the Union - to win
readmission, an ex-Confederate state had to
ratify the 14th amendment and place guarantees
in its constitution for granting the right to vote to
all adult males regardless of race
- Scalawags- A derogatory term for
Southerners who were working with the North to
buy up land from desperate Southerners
- Carpetbaggers- A derogatory term applied
to Northerners who migrated south during the
Reconstruction to take advantage their own
fortunes by buying up land from desperate
Southerners and by manipulating new black
voters to obtain lucrative government contracts
- Sharecropper- A person who agreed to work
a parcel of land in return for a share of the crop,
a cabin, seed, tools, and a mule
- Tenant Farmers- System of farming in
which a person rents land to farm from a planter
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Civil War and Reconstruction Vocabulary List
Supremacy of National Government
- Military Reconstruction- Placed the South
under military occupation; divided the former
Confederate states into five military districts,
each headed by a general with absolute power
over his district; in exchange for the presidency,
Hayes removed the Union troops from the South
- 13th Amendment- Abolished slavery
- 14th Amendment- Declared that all persons
born or naturalized in the United States were
citizens; required all states to respect the rights
of U.S. citizens and provide them with “equal
protection of laws” and “due process of law”
- 15th Amendment- Granted all males the
right to vote regardless of race
- Civil Rights Act of 1866- Prohibited
abridgement of rights of blacks or any other
citizens
- Election of 1876- Candidates: Rutherford
B. Hayes- Rep. and Samuel J. Tilden- Dem.
Hayes received only 165 electoral votes while
Tilden received 184 of the 185 electoral votes
needed to win; 20 electoral votes were disputed
and an electoral commission decided that Hayes
was the winner
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