Flashcards: Period 5 (1844–1877)

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Manifest Destiny

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The 19th-century belief that the United States was destined by God to expand its territory across North America.

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Mexican-American War (1846–1848)

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Armed conflict between the U.S. and Mexico after the U.S. annexed Texas; resulted in U.S. acquisition of the Mexican Cession.

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Wilmot Proviso

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Proposed amendment banning slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico; it failed but heightened sectional tensions.

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Compromise of 1850

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A package of laws including the admission of California as a free state and a stronger Fugitive Slave Act to ease sectional crisis.

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Popular Sovereignty

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Policy that allowed settlers of a federal territory to decide the status of slavery themselves.

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Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)

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Law that allowed popular sovereignty in Kansas and Nebraska, effectively repealing the Missouri Compromise.

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Bleeding Kansas

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Violent clashes between pro- and anti-slavery settlers in Kansas as a result of popular sovereignty.

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Free Soil Party

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A political party opposing the expansion of slavery into western territories, emphasizing 'free soil, free labor, free men.'

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Fugitive Slave Act (1850)

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Law that required citizens to assist in the recovery of runaway slaves and denied alleged fugitives the right to a jury trial.

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Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)

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Influential anti-slavery novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe that fueled abolitionist sentiment in the North.