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Manifest destiny
In the 19th century US, Manifest Destiny was a belief that was widely held that the destiny of American settlers was to expand and move across the continent to spread their traditions and their institutions, while at the same time enlightening more primitive nations.Manifest Destiny brought money, land, resources, and a strengthened economy to the Americans. The negative effect that this had on Native Americans were lasting effects. Manifest Destiny caused war and tension with Mexico. -
Mexican War 1846-47
It was a dispute over the border between Texas and Mexico resulted in armed conflict. After offering to buy the territory, Polk moved U.S. troops into a place that Mexico said was not in Texas, but rather part of the Mexican state of Coahuila. The Mexican army attacked them.Mexico ceded nearly all the territory now included in the U.S. states of New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, California, Texas, and western Colorado for $15 million and U.S. assumption of its citizens' claims against Mexico. -
Free-soil movement
The Free Soil Party essentially a single issue reform party dedicated to stopping the spread of slavery to new states and territories in the West, it attracted a very dedicated following.The party leadership consisted of former anti-slavery members of the Whig Party and the Democratic Party. Its purpose was opposing the expansion of slavery into the western territories, arguing that free men on free soil comprised a morally and economically superior system to slavery. -
Gold rush
It created a lasting impact by propelling significant industrial and agricultural development and helped shape the course of California's development by spurring its economic growth and facilitating its transition to statehood.It undoubtedly sped up California's admission to the Union as the 31st state. California applied to enter the Union with a constitution that barred the Southern system of racial slavery, provoking a crisis in Congress between slavery and anti-slavery politicians. -
Fugitive Slave Law
A law passed as part of the Compromise of 1850, which provided southern slaveholders with legal weapons to capture slaves who had escaped to the free states. The law was highly unpopular in the North and helped to convert many previously indifferent northerners to antislavery. It required the return of runaway slaves. It sought to force the authorities in free states to return fugitive slaves to their masters. -
Dred Scott v Sanford
The Supreme Court ruled that Americans of African descent, whether free or slave, were not American citizens and could not sue in federal court. The Court also ruled that Congress lacked power to ban slavery in the U.S. territories. Delivered by Chief Justice Roger Taney, this opinion declared that slaves were not citizens of the United States and could not sue in Federal courts. ... The Dred Scott decision was overturned by the 13th and 14th Amendments to the Constitution. -
Panic of 1857
The Panic of 1857 was a financial panic in the United States caused by the declining international economy and over-expansion of the domestic economy. The world economy was also more interconnected by the 1850s, which also made the Panic of 1857 the first worldwide economic crisis.The national economic depression, engulfed the country for nearly three years further increasing tension in the United States which was on the verge of American Civil war over the issue of slavery. -
Emancipation Proc.
The Emancipation Proclamation was an order by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln to free slaves in 10 states. It applied to slaves in the states still in rebellion in 1863 during the American Civil War.The Emancipation Proclamation did not free all slaves in the United States. Rather, it declared free only those slaves living in states not under Union control. It also tied the issue of slavery directly to the war. -
Wade-Davis Bill 1864
The Wade-Davis Bill required that 50 percent of a state's white males take a loyalty oath to be readmitted to the Union. In addition, states were required to give blacks the right to vote. Congress passed the Wade-Davis Bill, but President Lincoln chose not to sign it, killing the bill with a pocket veto. -
Sherman’s March
Sherman's March to the Sea was a military campaign of the American Civil War conducted through Georgia from November 15 until December 21, 1864, by Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman of the Union Army. The purpose of Sherman's March to the Sea was to frighten Georgia's civilian population into abandoning the Confederate cause. Sherman's soldiers did not destroy any of the towns in their path, but they stole food and livestock and burned the houses and barns of people who tried to fight back. -
Black codes
It restrict African Americans' freedom, and to compel them to work for low wages.Black codes were restrictive laws designed to limit the freedom of African Americans and ensure their availability as a cheap labor force after slavery was abolished during the Civil War.The Freedmen's Bureau was created in 1865 to help the former slaves. Reconstruction did away with the black codes, but, after Reconstruction ended in 1877 till Civil Rights Act of 1964. -
Civil Rights Act 1866
The Civil Rights Act was passed by Congress over the veto of President Andrew Johnson. The act declared that all persons born in the United States were now citizens, without regard to race, color, or previous condition. It was mainly intended, in the wake of the American Civil War, to protect the civil rights of persons of African descent born in or brought to the United States. This legislation was passed by Congress in 1865 and vetoed by United States President Andrew Johnson. -
Reconstruction Acts
It laid out the process for readmitting Southern states into the Union. The Fourteenth Amendment provided former slaves with national citizenship, and the 15 Amendment granted black men the right to vote.The measures' main points included: Creation of five military districts in the seceded states (not including Tennessee, which had ratified the 14th Amendment and was readmitted to the Union) Each district was to be headed by a military official empowered to appoint and remove state officials. -
Johnson’s impeachment
The impeachment of Andrew Johnson was initiated on February 24, 1868, when the United States House of Representatives resolved to impeach Andrew Johnson, the 17th president of the United States, for "high crimes and misdemeanors," which were detailed in 11 articles of impeachment.The primary charge against Johnson was violation of the Tenure of Office Act, passed by Congress in March 1867, over his veto. Specifically, he had removed from office Edwin M. -
14th Amendment
The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1868, granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States—including former slaves—and guaranteed all citizens “equal protection of the laws.” One of three amendments passed during the Reconstruction era to abolish slavery and establish.The amendment grants citizenship to "all persons born or naturalized in the United States" which included former slaves who had just been freed after the Civil War. -
15th Amendment
The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the federal government and each state from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude." It was ratified on February 3, 1870, as the third and last of the Reconstruction Amendments.The 15th Amendment granting African-American men the right to vote was adopted into the U.S. Constitution in 1870. -
Force Acts 1870 & 71
They were criminal codes which protected African-Americans' right to vote, to hold office, to serve on juries, and receive equal protection of laws. It prohibited discrimination by state officials in voter registration on the basis of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. It established penalties for interfering with a person's right to vote and gave federal courts the power to enforce the act. -
Amnesty Act 1872
It reversed most of the penalties imposed on former Confederates by the Fourteenth Amendment. The 1872 Act affected over 150,000 former Confederate troops who had taken part in the American Civil War.In May 1865, President Andrew Johnson provided for amnesty and the return of property to those who would take an oath of allegiance. Former high-ranking Confederate government and military officials, and people owning more than $20,000 worth of property, had to apply for individual pardons. -
Panic of 1873
The panic of 1873 was a result of over-expansion in the industry and the railroads and a drop in European demand for American farm products and a drop off of European investment in the US.The Panic of 1873 stands as the first global depression brought about by industrial capitalism. It began a regular pattern of boom and bust cycles that distinguish our current economic system and which continue to this day. -
Civil Rights Act 1875
The Civil Rights Act of 1875 attempted to. a. protect African Americans from discrimination in public accommodations like hotels and theaters. It protect African Americans against disenfranchisement in the voting booth. Landmark Legislation: Civil Rights Act of 1875. Radical Republican senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts introduced the Civil Rights Act in 1870 as an amendment to a general amnesty bill for former Confederates.
