American Civil War and Slavery

Key Terms/Concepts

• North-South Divide: Refers to the cultural, economic, and political differences between the Northern and Southern states of the United States, leading to tensions that eventually contributed to the American Civil War.
• Underground Railroad: A network of secret routes and safe houses used by enslaved African Americans to escape to freedom in the 19th century.
• Uncle Tom's Cabin: A novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe that highlighted the brutality of slavery, contributing to the abolitionist movement.
• The Dred Scott Case: A landmark Supreme Court case in 1857 that ruled that African Americans, whether free or slave, were not citizens and had no right to sue in court.
• Causes of the Civil War: The complex set of economic, cultural, and political factors that led to the secession of Southern states and the subsequent American Civil War.
• Special Field Orders No. 15: An order issued by General William T. Sherman in 1865, granting African Americans land in the Southern states.
• Sharecropping: A system of agriculture in which farmers worked on land owned by others, often under exploitative conditions, particularly in the post-Civil War South.

Key Individuals/Groups

• Dred Scott: An enslaved African American who sued for his freedom, leading to the landmark Dred Scott Case.
• Harriet Tubman: An escaped slave who became a prominent abolitionist and conductor on the Underground Railroad.
• Frederick Douglass: A former slave who became a renowned orator, writer, and abolitionist.
• William Lloyd Garrison: A prominent abolitionist and publisher of The Liberator, a radical anti-slavery newspaper.
• John Brown: An abolitionist who led the raid on Harpers Ferry, intending to spark a slave rebellion.
• Harriet Beecher Stowe: Author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, a novel that humanized the experiences of enslaved people.
• Nat Turner: A slave who led a violent rebellion in Virginia in 1831, resulting in the deaths of dozens of people.
• Abraham Lincoln: The 16th President of the United States, who issued the Emancipation Proclamation and led the country through the Civil War.
• Jefferson Davis: The President of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War.
• General William T. Sherman: A Union general who led marches through the South, devastating large portions of the Confederacy.
• Geronimo: A Native American leader who resisted Mexican and American forces in the Southwest.
• Andrew Johnson: The 17th President of the United States, who vetoed Reconstruction-era legislation and clashed with Congressional Republicans.
• The KKK: A white supremacist organization that used violence and intimidation to maintain white dominance in the post-Civil War South.
• The Eastern Bloc: Not applicable to American history (likely a mistake).
• Emmett Till: A 14-year-old African American boy whose brutal murder in Mississippi galvanized the Civil Rights Movement.
• Rosa Parks: An African American woman who sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott by refusing to give up her seat on a bus.
• Martin Luther King Jr.: A prominent Civil Rights leader who advocated for nonviolent resistance and delivered iconic speeches, including the "I Have a Dream" speech.
• Little Rock Nine: A group of nine African American students who integrated Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas in 1957.

Major Events/Legislation/Policies

• French and Indian War: A war fought between British and French forces in North America from 1754 to 1763, leading to British dominance and debt that contributed to the American Revolution.
• Indian Removal Act, 1830: A law that forcibly relocated tens of thousands of Native Americans from their ancestral lands to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma).
• 3/5th Compromise: A constitutional provision that counted enslaved people as three-fifths of a person for representation and taxation purposes.
• Missouri Compromise: A set of laws that admitted Missouri as a slave state and banned slavery in the Louisiana Territory north of the 36°30' parallel.
• Nat Turner's Rebellion: A slave rebellion led by Nat Turner in 1831, resulting in the deaths of dozens of people.
• John Brown's Raid/Bleeding Kansas: A series of violent conflicts in Kansas and Virginia led by John Brown, intending to spark a slave rebellion.
• Emancipation Proclamation: A presidential proclamation issued by Abraham Lincoln in 1863, declaring freedom for all slaves in Confederate territory.
• Lincoln's Assassination: The murder of President Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth in 1865.
• Black Codes (Jim Crow laws): A set of laws that restricted the rights and freedoms of African Americans in the post-Civil War South.
• The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments: Constitutional amendments that abolished slavery, defined citizenship, and granted voting rights to African Americans.
• Compromise of 1877: A deal that ended Reconstruction, allowing Rutherford B. Hayes to become President in exchange for withdrawing federal troops from the South.
• The Dawes Act, 1887: A law that divided Native American land into individual allotments, leading to the loss of tribal lands and cultural heritage.
• The Chinese Exclusion Act, 1882: A law that prohibited Chinese immigrants from entering the United States, restricting immigration for the first time.
• 19th Amendment (women's suffrage): A constitutional amendment granting women the right to vote, ratified in 1920.
• The Truman Doctrine: A policy of containment against Soviet expansion, marking the beginning of the Cold War.
• Plessy v. Ferguson (separate but equal): A Supreme Court case that validated segregation and "separate but equal" facilities, later overturned by Brown v. Board of Education.
• Brown v. Board of Ed.: A landmark Supreme Court case that declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional, paving the way for desegregation and the Civil Rights Movement.
• Montgomery Bus Boycotts: A year-long protest against segregation on Montgomery, Alabama buses, led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
• Greensboro Sit-ins: A series of nonviolent protests against segregation at a lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, sparking widespread sit-ins across the South.
• "Mississippi Burning": A phrase referring to the 1964 murders of three Civil Rights workers in Mississippi, highlighting the violence faced by activists during the Freedom Summer.
• Civil Rights Act, 1964: A landmark law that prohibited discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
• Voting Rights Act, 1965: A law that outlawed literacy tests and poll taxes, protecting the voting rights of African Americans and other marginalized groups.