APUSH Period 5 (1844–1877) covers the sectional crisis, Civil War, and Reconstruction — roughly 13% of the exam and the single most-targeted period for DBQ and LEQ prompts. Know the causes of the war AND the failure of Reconstruction equally well.
Road to Civil War
Compromise of 1850 — California admitted free; Utah and New Mexico territories with popular sovereignty; slave trade (not slavery) banned in DC; Fugitive Slave Act strengthened (required Northerners to return escaped enslaved people → enraged Northern opinion). Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) — Harriet Beecher Stowe; made slavery emotionally real to Northern readers; Lincoln: "the little woman who made this great war." Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) — Stephen Douglas proposed popular sovereignty for Kansas and Nebraska, explicitly repealing Missouri Compromise line; "Bleeding Kansas" (pro/anti-slavery settlers fought); destroyed Whig Party; created Republican Party (1854). Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) — Supreme Court: enslaved people are property, not citizens; Congress cannot ban slavery in territories (Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional); enraged Republicans; strengthened abolitionist resolve. Lincoln-Douglas Debates (1858) — Lincoln: "A house divided against itself cannot stand"; Douglas: Freeport Doctrine (territories can exclude slavery through local legislation despite Dred Scott); damaged Douglas's Southern support.
Civil War
Confederate vs. Union war aims — Confederate: states' rights + slavery preservation + independence; Union: initially preserve the Union; expanded to include emancipation. Emancipation Proclamation (1863) — freed enslaved people in Confederate states only; military/diplomatic measure (prevented British recognition of Confederacy); reframed war as war against slavery; allowed Black men to enlist. 54th Massachusetts Infantry — one of first African American Union regiments; assault on Fort Wagner demonstrated Black soldiers' courage; destroyed Confederate argument that Black men wouldn't fight.
Reconstruction (1865–1877)
13th Amendment (1865) — abolished slavery. 14th Amendment (1868) — citizenship to all born in US; equal protection; due process; key basis for later civil rights law. 15th Amendment (1870) — prohibited denying vote based on race. Freedmen's Bureau — federal agency providing food, education, legal assistance to formerly enslaved people; underfunded, opposed by Johnson. Black Codes — Southern state laws restricting Black freedom (vagrancy laws, labor contracts, no voting/jury service); essentially re-enslavement; triggered Radical Republican Reconstruction. Sharecropping — labor system replacing slavery; tenant farmers worked land for share of crop; debt to landlord for seed/tools created perpetual debt peonage. Compromise of 1877 — Hayes gets presidency; federal troops withdrawn from South; end of Reconstruction; "Redeemer" Democrats restored white supremacy.
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