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.

Quiz about the American Civil War and Slavery, including key concepts like the Underground Railroad, important figures like Harriet Tubman, and events leading to the war.