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Texas Revolution
A war between Mexico and Texas which was a fight for Texas independence. Famous battles in this war were the Battle of the Alamo and Battle of San Jancito. -
Manifest Destiny
Belief that God gave man the right to posses land and expand providence over the United States. -
Wilmot Proviso
A ban of expanding slavery into the new territories gained in the Mexican-American war. -
Oregon Treaty
Formalized a border between America and British North America west of the Rocky Mountains. -
Mexican-American War
This war was caused by America and Mexico fighting over Texas, and other territories. -
Free Soil Party
A party that formed who opposed the expansion of slavery. -
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
This was the peace treaty to end the Mexican-American War -
Compromise of 1850
This act established California a free state, provided a territorial government for Utah and New Mexico, abolished the DC slave trade, and amend the Fugitive Slave Laws. -
Fugitive Slave Law
Required runaway slaves to be returned to the south and to their owners. -
Underground Railroad
Series of houses and routes to help aid runaway slaves in making it into the North. Families who had houses on these routes would take these runaways in and lead them to the next stop. -
Gadsden Purchase
Provided land to use for the southern transcontinental railroad. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
An act that appealed the Missouri Compromise and made slavery possible in the west states. -
Republican Party
Formed after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act which allowed slavery in the West, because the Republicans opposed expanding slavery. -
Bleeding Kansas
Violent confrontations over the legality of slavery in the new western territories. -
Dred Scott v. Sandford
Stated that slaves were not citizens and were property, and owned like any other piece of land or animal. -
Harper's Ferry
First successful application of interchangeable machinery. -
Election of 1860
Presidential election of Republican Abraham Lincoln and Democrat John C. Breckinridge. -
Fort Sumter
This attack of Fort Sumter marked the beginning of the American Civil War -
Emancipation Proclamation
Speech by Lincoln that freed all the slaves in the rebellious states during the Civil War. -
Gettysburg Address
An honorary speech by Lincoln highlighted the lives lost in the bloodiest battle of the Civil War. -
Sherman's March
William T Sherman marched his troops across Georgia to the Atlantic Ocean to prove to the Confederate people that the government can not protect the from invasion. -
Freedmen's Bureau
Provided support to the newly freed slaves by giving them jobs and housing. -
Sharecropping
Tenant farmers live on an owners land and give a part of their crops to the owner in turn for housing and a job. -
Ku Klux Klan
Group of white men who believe that African Americans are inferior. They used violence to send a message of racism and segregation. -
Thirteenth Amendment
Banned slavery throughout the entire United States and its territories. -
Black Codes
Restricted Blacks from owning property, conducting business, and move freely through public spaces. -
Reconstruction Acts of 1867
Established the Reconstruction as a longer post war effort to rebuild the South. -
Fourteenth Amendment
Granted citizenship to all American born people, including freed slaves. -
Fifteenth Amendment
Gave all citizens of the United States the right to vote. -
Compromise of 1877
This act removed all military occupation in the South, ending the Reconstruction period.