California Gold Rush

1. California Gold Rush 401

2. Starting in 1848, thousands of people began traveling west to search for gold and other precious metals. Few people actually found gold, but this movement led to organized settlements and eventually statehood for the western territory. 402

3. Wilmot Proviso 403

4. Proposed in 1846 before the end the Mexican War, the Wilmot Proviso stipulated that slavery be prohibited in any territory the U.S. gained from Mexico in the upcoming negotiations. With strong support from the North, the proviso passed in the House of Representatives but stalled in the Senate. 404

5. Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo 405

6. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican War. It granted the U.S. control of Texas, New Mexico, and California. In return, the U.S. assumed all monetary claims of U.S. citizens against the Mexican government and paid Mexico $15 million. 406

7. Gettysburg Address 407

8. In a speech that began “Four score and seven years ago,” Abraham Lincoln recast the war as an historic test of the ability of a democracy to survive. He delivered the speech on November 19, 1863, at the dedication of a cemetery for casualties of the Union victory at the battle of Gettysburg 408

9. Fugitive Slave Act 409

10. The Fugitive Slave Act, originally passed in 1793, and strengthened as part of the Compromise of 1850, allowed Southerners to send posses onto Northern soil to retrieve runaway slaves. During the early 1850s, Northerners mounted resistance to the act by aiding escaping slaves and passing personal liberty laws. 410

11. Freeport Doctrine 411

12. The Freeport Doctrine was a Democrat Stephen A. Douglas’s attempt to reconcile his belief in popular sovereignty with the Dred Scott decision. In the famed Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858, Douglas argued that territories could effectively forbid slavery by failing to enact the slave codes, even though the Dred Scott decision deprived government of the right to restrict slavery in the territories. 412

13. Freedman’s Bureau 413

14. Established in 1865 and staffed by Union army officers, the Freedman’s Bureau worked to protect black rights in the South and to provide employment, medical care, and education to Southern blacks. 414

15. Fourteenth Amendment 415

16. Ratified in July 1868 (ratification was a prerequisite for ex-Confederate states’ readmission into the Union), the Fourteenth Amendment guaranteed the rights of citizenship to all people born or naturalized in the United States, black and white, and provided for the loss of congressional representation for any state that denied suffrage to any of its male citizens. 416

17. Booker T. Washington 417

18. Washington was an African-American leader and the first principal of the Tuskegee Institute (1881). Washington adopted a moderate approach in the addressing racism and segregation, urging his fellow blacks to learn vocational skills and strive for gradual improvements in their social, political, and economic status. 418

19. Union 419

20. A general term for the combined states of the United States during the Civil War, “Union” referred to the government and troops of the North. 420

21. Underground Railroad 421

22. The Underground Railroad was a network of safe houses and escorts established by Northern abolitionists to foil enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act. The network helped escaped slaves reach freedom in the North and in Canada. 422

23. Uncle Tom’s Cabin 423

24. Uncle Tom’s Cabin, written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, portrayed the evils of the institution of slavery. Published in 1852, the novel sold over a million copies in its first eight years and reached millions more through dramatic adaptations. Uncle Tom’s Cabin aroused sympathy for runaway slaves among all classes of Northerners and hardened many Northerners against the South’s insistence upon continuing slavery. 424

25. Boss Tweed 425

26. William Marcy “Boss” Tweed was a New York City political figure who maintained his power through illegal means. In 1871, Thomas Nast, a political cartoonist, helped to expose “Boss” Tweed’s “Tweed Ring,” which stole millions of dollars from taxpayers. Future New York Governor Samuel J. Tilden also helped break up the Tweed Ring. 426

27. Harriet Tubman 427

28. A former slave, Harriet Tubman helped establish the Underground Railroad, a network of safe-houses and escorts throughout the North to help escaped slave to freedom. 428

29. Jefferson Davis 429

30. A former secretary of war, Davis was elected president of the Confederacy shortly after its formation. Davis was never able to garner adequate public support and faced great difficulties in uniting the Confederate states under one central authority. 430

31. Jim Crow Laws 431

32. Jim Crow laws were state laws that institutionalized segregation in the South from the 1880s through the 1960s. Along with segregating schools, buses, and other public accommodations, these laws made it difficult or impossible for southern blacks to vote and often forbade intermarriage. 432

33. Confederate States of America 433

34. The 11 seceded states formed the Confederate States of America during the Civil War. 434

35. Carpetbaggers 435

36. Southern white Democrats gave the nickname “carpetbaggers” to northerners who moved South during Reconstruction in search of political and economic opportunity. These northern opportunists purportedly took so little with them that they could fit all of their belongings in rough suitcases made from carpeting materials. 436

37. Battle of Gettysburg 437

38. Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, was the site of the largest battle of the Civil War. Widely considered to be the turning point of the war, the battle marked the Union’s first major victory in the East. The three-day campaign, from July 1 to 4, 1863, resulted in an unprecedented 51,000 total casualties. 438

39. Harpers Ferry 439

40. In 1859, John Brown led twenty-one men in seizing a federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in a failed attempt to incite a slave rebellion. 440

41. Ulysses S. Grant 441

42. Grant was the commanding general of the Union forces in the West for much of the war and of all Union forces during the last year of the war. Grant later became the nation’s eighteenth president, serving from 1869 to 1877 and presiding over the decline of Reconstruction. His administration was marred by corruption. 442

43. Dred Scott v. Sandford 443

44. In the 1857 Dred Scott case, the Supreme Court ruled that no black, whether slave or free, could become a U.S. citizen or sue in federal court. The decision further argued that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional because it violated the Fifth Amendment’s protection of property-including slaves-from being taken away without due process. 444

45. Frederick Douglass 445

46. Frederick Douglass is perhaps the most famous of all abolitionists. An escapes slave, Douglass worked closely with William Lloyd Garrison to promote abolitionism in the 1830s. 446

47. James Buchanan 447

48. James Buchanan, a moderate Democrat with support from both the North and South, served as president of the United States from 1857 to 1861. He could not stem the tide of sectional conflict that eventually erupted in the Civil War 448

49. Stephen A. Douglas 449

50. Stephen A. Douglas first rose to national prominence as Speaker of the House, when he pushed the Compromise of 1850 through Congress. Douglass became the leading Northern Democrat and supporter of popular sovereignty and authored the Kansas-Nebraska Act. He battled Abraham Lincoln for a seat in the Senate (successfully) in 1858, and for president (unsuccessfully) in 1860. 450