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abolition
the movement to abolish slavery -
Missouri Compromise
under the leadership of Henry Clay, Maine was admitted as a free state and Missouri as a slave state; the rest of Louisiana Territory was split into two parts. -
Santa Fe Trail
one of the busiest Native American Trails; stretched 780 miles from Independence, Missouri, to Santa Fe, New Mexico -
San Felipe de Austin
main colony; between Brazos and Colorado rivers; Stephen F. Austin established for Moses Austin; he obtained permission from Spain and Mexico -
Mexico abolishes slavery
slaves were normally carried from Mexico to Texas -
"The Liberator"
antislavery paper established by William Lloyd Garrison; delivered the uncompromising demand of immediate emancipation -
Nat Turner's Rebellion
Turner and more than 50 followers attacked four plantations and killed about 60 whites -
Stephen F. Austin goes to jail
inciting revolution -
Oregon Trail
from Independence, Missouri to Oregon City, Oregon; blazed by two Methodist missionaries (Marcus & Narcissa Whitman) and drove wagon as far as Fort Boise and proved wagons could travel on the Oregon Trail. -
Texas Revolution
the 1836 rebellion in which Texas gained its
independence from Mexico -
Manifest Destiny
expressed the belief that the US was ordained to expand to the Pacific Ocean and into Mexican and Native American territory -
Texas enters the United States
Northerners feared that the annexation of more slave territory
would tip the uneasy balance in the Senate in favor of slave states and prompt war with Mexico -
Mexican-American War
cause: controversy over Texas's win of independence over Mexico, manifest destiny, & expanding westward -
"The North Star"
antislavery newspaper established by Frederick Douglass -
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Mexico agreed to the Rio Grande as the border between Texas and Mexico and ceded the New Mexico and California territories to the United States. The United States agreed to pay $15 million for the Mexican cession, which included present day California, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, most of Arizona, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming. -
Harriet Tubman
After Tubman’s owner died, she heard rumors that she would be sold. Tubman escaped and succeeded in reaching Philadelphia. After passage of the Fugitive Slave Act, Tubman became a conductor on the Underground Railroad. In all, she made 19 trips back to the South and is said to have helped 300 slaves—including her own parents—flee to freedom. -
Compromise of 1850
the compromise provided that California be admitted to the Union as a free state. To please the South, the compromise proposed
a new and more effective fugitive slave law. To placate both sides, a provision allowed popular sovereignty, the right to vote for or against slavery, for residents of the New Mexico and Utah territories. -
Fugitive Slave Act
Under the law, alleged fugitive slaves were not entitled to a trial by jury. In addition, anyone convicted of helping a fugitive was liable for a fine of $1,000 and imprisonment for up to six months. -
Underground Railroad
the system of escape routes used by fugitive slaves -
"Uncle Tom's Cabin"
written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, stressed that slavery was not just a political contest, but also a great moral struggle -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
would divide the area into two territories: Nebraska in the north and Kansas in the south. If passed, the bill would repeal the Missouri Compromise and establish popular sovereignty for both territories. -
Dred Scott v. Sandford
Dred Scott was a free black man; he lived in a free state and failed to sue because he could never become a citizen -
Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas Debates
race to become the US Senate -
John Brown's raid/Harpers Ferry
John Brown led a band of 21 men, black and white, into Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia). His aim was to seize the federal arsenal there and start a general slave uprising. -
Abraham Lincoln becomes president
pledged to halt the further spread of slavery, he also
tried to reassure Southerners that a Republican administration would not “interfere with their slaves, or with them, about their slaves.” -
Formation of the Confederacy
anti-Lincoln, pro-slavery -
Battle of Bull Run
the first bloodshed 3 months after Fort Sumter fell, Confederates were victorious -
Attack on Fort Sumter
Confederates attacked -
Battle at Antietam
McClellan ordered his men to pursue Lee; bloodiest single-day battle in American history with casualties of more than 26000; McClellan was removed by Lincoln -
Emancipation Proclamation
freed slaves in areas behind Confederate lines, outside Union control -
conscription
a draft that forced men to serve in the army -
income tax
a tax that takes a specified percentage of an individual's income -
Gettysburg Address
helped the country to realize that it was not just a collection
of individual states; it was one unified nation -
Battle at Vicksburg
Union general Ulysses S. Grant fought to take Vicksburg, one of the two remaining Confederate strongholds on the Mississippi River. The Confederacy was cut in two. -
Battle at Gettysburg
began when Confederate soldiers led by A. P. Hill encountered
several brigades of Union cavalry under the command of John Buford, an experienced officer from Illinois. After the battle, Lee gave up any hopes of invading the North and led his army back to Virginia. -
Sherman's March
led by William Tecumseh Sherman; he began march southeast through Georgia to the sea; army burned almost every house in its path and destroyed livestock and railroads. He was determined to make Southerners so sick of war that generations would pass away before they would again appeal to it. By mid-November he had burned most of Atlanta. After reaching the ocean, Sherman’s force, followed by 25,000 former slaves, turned north to help Grant wipe out Lee. -
Thirteenth Amendment
“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States.” -
Surrender at Appomattox Court House
Lee and Grant met at a private home to arrange a Confederate surrender -
assassination of Abraham Lincoln
by John Wilkes Booth