Unit test review

Active political parties:

Democrats, Republicans

Freesoilers: supported the acquisition of new territory only if the land had no slaves

Greebacks: wanted to switch back to soft money (bills)

Knownothings:

Impact of lincoln’s election: SC succeeds, loss in unity,

Crittenden compromise: last attempt to avoid succession, The amendments made major concessions to
southern concerns. They forbade the abolition of slavery on federal land in slaveholding states,
compensated owners of runaway slaves, and restored the Missouri Compromise line of 36 degree 30′,
which had been repealed in the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

Bleeding Kansas: Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois proposed an amendment that effectively repealed
the Missouri Compromise, which had outlawed the extension of slavery north of the 36º 30’ parallel
(Missouri’s southern border) except in Missouri itself. The new act was the Kansas-Missouri Act which
allowed for popular sovereignty. Because of popular sovereignty, many people would travel into Kansas
to vote. Led to fighting such as John Brown

Dred Scott Case: Supreme Court found that slaves were property and therefore could not sue

Uncle Tom’s Cabin: propaganda that spread the severity and cruelty of slavery

Immigration: heavily Irish and German

Wilmont Proviso: no slavery allowed in lands that were ceded by Mexico after the Mexican-American
War

Homestead Act: citizens could buy up to 160 acres of public land for cheap provided they live and
improve the land

Manifest Destiny: belief that the US should spread its domain and capitalism and democracy across the
North America continent

Slave Codes: Every slave state had its own slave code and body of court decisions. All slave codes made
slavery a permanent condition, inherited through the mother, and defined slaves as property, usually in
the same terms as those applied to real estate. Slaves, being property, could not own property or be a
party to a contract. Most slave codes were concerned with the rights and duties of free people in regard
to enslaved people.
Freedman’s Bureau: On March 3, 1865, Congress passed “An Act to establish a Bureau for the Relief of
Freedmen and Refugees” to provide food, shelter, clothing, medical services, and land to displaced
Southerners, including newly freed African Americans.

13th Amendment: abolished slavery

14th Amendment: equal protection under the law and sets the citizenship guidelines

15th Amendment: black men could vote

Mexican American War: It stemmed from the annexation of the Republic of Texas by the U.S. in 1845
and from a dispute over whether Texas ended at the Nueces River (the Mexican claim) or the Rio Grande
(the U.S. claim)