Crossword Puzzle US History

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Across
  1. 5. Also known as the GOP, for “Grand Old Party,” it emerged from the renewed sectional tension of the 1850s. The GOP was founded in 1854 by antislavery Whigs, Democrats, Free-Soilers, and Know-Nothings from the North and West. Although the GOP lost the 1856 presidential election, the popular John C. Fremont garnered many votes and won 11 of the 16 free states in the Electoral College.
  2. 7. A controversial law that constituted part of the Compromise of 1850. It required that escaped slaves, upon their capture, would be returned to their masters, and that the authorities in a free state had to cooperate with this process. Nicknamed the “Bloodhound Law” by abolitionists for the common use of such dogs in hunting down slaves.
  3. 11. While a famous actor in his own lifetime, Booth is best remembered for orchestrating the assassination of Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865 at Ford’s Theater. Booth and his co-conspirators had tried on multiple occasions to assassinate Lincoln. In fact, other key cabinet figures were supposed to be killed simultaneously with Lincoln, but those plots failed for varying reasons. Shot while attempting to evade capture in the ensuing manhunt.
  4. 13. An unrecognized independant California that existed from June 14 to July 9, 1846. Led by John C. Fremont, and annexed into the United States under the terms of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Named for its flag, which featured a bear.
  5. 14. A sea fort near Charleston, South Carolina. On April 12–13, 1861, the first shots of the Civil War were fired there. The Confederate Army fired upon the unarmed merchant vessel Star of the West, which was attempting to resupply the U.S. forces stationed at the fort.
  6. 16. A statesman and orator from Kentucky, Clay was known as “The Great Compromiser” for brokering multiple deals over nullification and slavery. He was also a proponent of infrastructure development that he called the American System. Clay notably ran for president on several occasions but never won. See: Compromise of 1850, Great Triumvirate.
  7. 18. American abolitionist and author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), an influential work of abolitionism.
  8. 20. Laws passed by Southern legislatures in response to legal emancipation of slaves. These codes restricted the actions, movements, and freedoms of African Americans. Under these codes, African Americans could not own land, so they were tied instead to small plots leased from a landowner. This began the system of sharecropping. See: Jim Crow laws, Reconstruction.
Down
  1. 1. Sixteenth President. Served 1861 to his assassination on April 15, 1865. A former Whig who had opposed the Mexican-American War, he joined the newly formed Republican Party. His 1860 election triggered the secession of several states, and he deftly led the Union through the ensuing Civil War.
  2. 2. Commonly refers to the California Gold Rush, which took place between 1848 and roughly 1855. The population of California ballooned as prospectors flocked to the state to seek a fortune in mining gold. Over 100,000 American Indians died as settlers and prospectors violently displaced them. See: Forty-Niners.
  3. 3. An underground society of whites who ruthlessly and successfully used terrorist tactics to frighten both white and black Republicans in the South. While quashed by the Force Acts of 1870 and 1871, the organization survived, resurfacing and spreading throughout the country in later years. See: Redeemers.
  4. 4. An attempt by abolitionist to circumvent the Fugitive Slave Act, which assisted slaves escaping to the North.
  5. 6. An 1842 treaty that divided a contested territory in northern Maine between the United States and Britain, settling Maine’s northern boundary.
  6. 8. A Confederate general who worked under Lee. Until his death in 1863, he was involved in every major battle in the eastern theater of the war. He is considered an able officer by military historians. Jackson was accidentally shot by Confederate soldiers in May 1863. He lost his arm and died from infection shortly thereafter.
  7. 9. A response to the lackluster Reconstruction efforts by President Johnson. Proposed in 1866 and ratified in 1868, it protected the rights of all U.S. citizens, granted all African Americans full citizenship and civil rights, and required states to adhere to the due process and equal protection clauses of the Constitution. Furthermore, it disallowed former Confederate officers from holding state or federal office. It would decrease the proportional representation of any state that denied suffrage to any able citizen.
  8. 10. It banned slavery and involuntary servitude, and functionally repealed the Three-Fifths Clause. Passed in early 1865 and ratified later that year, this amendment was one of Lincoln’s last major achievements prior to his assassination.
  9. 12. The sole President of the Confederate States. Served February 22, 1862 to May 10, 1865. Davis was a Democrat from Mississippi. A veteran of the Mexican-American War, he had served in the House (1845–1856) and Senate (1847–1851, 1857–1861), as well as Secretary of War (1853–1857) under Franklin Pierce. Davis was a micromanager who hampered the Confederate war effort by refusing to delegate issues or authority to his subordinates. He also lacked the political skill to overcome the decentralized, states’ rights structure of the Confederacy, which made him reliant on state governors in a way Lincoln did not deal with.
  10. 15. Written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, this novel expressed Northern abolitionist frustrations with the Fugitive Slave Act. In the North, the novel quickly gained fame and convinced many that slavery was morally wrong. Meanwhile in the South, the commitment to protecting the institution of slavery intensified.
  11. 17. Nickname for an influx of immigrants to California in 1849 seeking riches in the gold rush. A number of immigrants were Chinese.
  12. 19. Coined by Southern Democrats, it was a derogatory term for Southern Republicans that meant they were pirates who sought to steal from state governments and line their own pockets. See: carpetbagger, Reconstruction.