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Battle of the Alamo
A thirteen day siege on Texan rebels in the fortress the Alamo led by Spanish General Santa Anna that ended in early March with the fall of the Alamo to Spanish troops and the deaths of the rebels and Americans at the fort. Became a rallying cry of the Texan Revolution as a symbol for standing up for one's independence and still remains an important symbol for the state of Texas. -
Manifest Destiny
A term coined in the early 19th century that claimed it was the God given duty of the U.S. to expand its territory across the continent towards at first the Pacific Ocean and later beyond, claiming it was all meant for the U.S. to take and to civilize regardless of the populations already there. Motivated Westward Expansion and land seizure from Native Americans and later on Mexicans with the annexation of Texas. -
Mexican War 1846-1848
Also called the Mexican-American War the conflict was over land seizure in the Southwest as while Mexico considered the Annexed Texas still part of Mexico, the U.S. meanwhile was interested in seizing not only Texas but other land to the West such as California for Manifest Destiny. Conflict eventually ended with the U.S. as the winner and under the treaty Guadalupe Hidalgo the U.S. gained new territories in the Southwest, which would go on to complicate the issue of slave and free states. -
Treaty Guadalupe Hidalgo
Marked the end of the Mexican-American War as for 15 million dollars and the promise to pay for former Mexican citizens debts the U.S. gained a mass stretch of territory going all the way to California while ending conflict over the state of Texas. Seen as a success of Manifest Destiny by some, but for others the treaty was seen as too much of a compromise against Mexico, meanwhile the increased amount of territory to be divided into states would later increase conflict over slave v free states. -
Compromise of 1850
A group of five laws that sought to settle disputes between supporters of slave and free states without heading into Civil War, establishing Texas as a slave state and California as a free one, while New Mexico and Utah would decide by popular sovereignty. The slave trade but not slavery was banned in D.C. and fugitive slave laws that demanded the capture of runaway slaves in free states increased and intensified. Established temporary peace between the groups, however tensions continued. -
Fugitive Slave Laws
Established in the Compromise of 1850 as a strengthening of previous slave laws, these new additions were harsher and restrained the ability for runaway slaves to find safety even in free states by requiring state governments to aid in tracking slaves down regardless of being a slave state or not while also stating trials for runaway slaves would not need juries. Northern states outraged, passed personal liberty laws that promised juries to those accused of escaping slavery. Added to tensions. -
Free-Soil Movement
An political group that started in the 1840s, arguing that slavery should not be allowed into the newly gained Western territory of the U.S. by the argument of free men on free soil, whose ideas were later absorbed into the new rising political group of the Republican Party. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
A novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe that is often credited as a major cause of the civil war the novel was anti-slavery and is based upon several accounts of former slaves and their escape attempts. Humanized the issue of slavery to many Americans by portraying the cruelties of slave life, unlike Southern novels that romanticized slavery at the time. Shifted the majority of public opinion towards abolition while also causing the spread of Southern Anti-Tom literature that claimed slavery was ideal. -
Dred Scott v Sandford
Considered one of the worst cases in Supreme Court history, slave Dred Scott sought to sue for his freedom after living for multiple years in Freed territory. The judges ruled that no person of African descent had the rights to citizenship for to sue in the U.S. regardless of slavery statues and that it was violating the rights of the states to try and take away a man's slaves, also declaring the Missouri Compromise void in restraining slavery's spread. Caused outrage among abolitionists. -
SC Secession
South Carolina established itself as the first state to leave the Union after the election of Abraham Lincoln over fears about ending slavery within the South, establishing the first state of the U.S. Confederacy. Also led to the official start of the U.S. Civil War as the attack on Union troops who were stuck in Fort Sumter in SC led for the Union to officially declare war to regain the Confederacy. -
Anaconda Plan
A military strategy used by the Union proposed by Winfred Scott to cut off the South from gaining aid or supplies from Europe by blockading ports and a direct attack through the Mississippi, with the plan of containing Southern forces and strangling them until they had not choice but to give in when faced with lack of supplies and pushing inward Union troops. Was ultimately successful in helping reclaim the South. -
Fort Sumter
The conflict that officially started the Civil War as Lincoln wanted to wait for the South to start the conflict. After South Carolina had left the Union there were still Union troops who held down Fort Sumter which the Union claimed as property. SC fired upon the fort and Union forces that attempted to send in provisions, leading to several more states leaving the Union and the declaration of war among the Union in order to regain the states. -
Homestead Act 1862
Pushed forward Western Expansion and Manifest Destiny by giving 160 acres of land to individual settlers for a small price and the promise to maintain and grow that land to produce, with the settler gaining private ownership after five years maintaining the land. Led to millions of acres being claimed in the Western U.S. and the increased expansion into new territories which eventually allowed for applications into statehood. -
Emancipation Proclamation
President Lincoln signed into law the statement that all slaves from rebelling states are considered freed men within 100 days, shifting the perspective of the war from preserving the Union to the end of slavery while technically allowing slavery to remain within the border states that stayed in the Union. Helped alienate the Confederacy from possible allies like Great Britain who opposed slavery and strengthened the Union cause, also leading to the rise of black soldiers in Union forces. -
Suspension of Habeus Corpus
Passed by President Lincoln during the Civil War the suspension allowed for the suspension of having to state a reason and purpose for arresting a person and keeping them in jail with the goal of arresting and keeping arrested those suspect of being Anti-Union in spite of claims that the suspension was unconstitutional. Seen as a controversial wartime move. -
Black Codes
During President Johnson's term Southern states like South Carolina and Mississippi instated various restrictions upon black citizens such as taxes for certain professions, written proof of employment or else be arrested, and the establishment of unfair labor contracts all as various methods to restrain black citizens in spite of the rights they had gained post-Civil War, fighting back against reconstruction and equal status for black citizens as much as possible without returning to slavery. -
Sherman's March
A military strategy used by the North from 1864-1865 also known as the "March to the Sea' where General William Sherman commenced total war against the South after seizing Atlanta and going onward to take Savannah, burning countless buildings and cities to the ground regardless of military presence of not, causing severe damages to civilians. Successful in taking back the South during the war, but had the negative impact of having to rebuild the South during reconstruction. -
Freedman's Bureau
Among the first established welfare agencies in the U.S. which provided food, clothing, shelter, and other needs post-Civil War for both white and black citizens, being a key player of early Construction efforts to improve the South and help former slaves and African American citizens establish themselves. Eventually abandoned after the failure of reconstruction as an unneeded expense that did not aid African Americans but coddled them, an idea that emerged from racist groups like the KKK. -
Civil Rights Act 1866
Defined that all U.S. citizens had the right to equal protection under U.S. law regardless of one's race of birth, instated post-Civil War to protect the rights of African Americans by promising for the first time a use of equal rights by the federal government, however in the South where prejudice ran strong state governments would work their way around the act through corruption and restraints upon black citizens. -
Sharecropping
A method of restraining the mobility of black citizens out of subservience to whites in the South post-Civil War, sharecropping had black workers care for crops for white workers while keeping some of the crop for their own needs while also paying for usage of the field and the tools used, keeping black citizens in heavy debt. There were also many poor white sharecroppers as well who were exploited by rich white farmers, but sharecropping is most associated with the failure of reconstruction.
