Civil War

Unit Review Sheet

Facts and Definitions

Lesson 1: Sectional Differences

• The Missouri Compromise of 1820 allowed Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state but disallowed slavery in any additional new states north of Missouri's southern border.
• The Compromise of 1850 allowed California to enter the Union as a free state but also instituted the Fugitive Slave Act, which made it easier for slave owners to force runaways who fled to free states back into slavery.
• The Dred Scott Decision (1857) ruled that Congress and territorial legislatures could not prohibit slavery in the territories.
• The Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) allowed the residents of Kansas to choose whether the state would be a slave state or a free state. This act resulted in violence as pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions each tried to get as many people who agreed with their point of view into the territory as possible to sway the vote.
• The Lincoln-Douglas debates focused on the issue of slavery and received national attention.

Lesson 2: Moving Toward War

• Debates over the amount of power that should be held by the federal government compared to state governments took on new importance leading up to 1860 as federal laws and court decisions addressed the issue of slavery and debates about the institution became more heated.
• Secession means the act of formally withdrawing from some institution — usually this terms refers to the withdrawal of one group of people or one territory from a larger political body, for example, an individual state deciding to remove itself from a country.

Lesson 3: The Start of the War

• During the Civil War, Jefferson Davis was president of the Confederate States of America and Abraham Lincoln was president of the United States of America.

Lesson 4: Early Days of the War

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Lesson 5: Wartime Strategies

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Lesson 6: The Emancipation Proclamation

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Lesson 7: Gettysburg and Beyond

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Lesson 8: The War's End

• The 13th Amendment (1865) abolished slavery.
• The 14th Amendment (1868) required the government to treat people equally under the law, regardless of race.
• The 15th Amendment (1870) gave African Americans the right to vote.

Final Project: Civil War Card Game

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