1. Uncle Tom’s Cabin was written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom’s Cabin was an antislavery novel that helped to shape how people felt about slavery in the United States.
2. John Brown was an abolitionist who wanted to end slavery by any means necessary. Brown
hoped to start an armed slave rebellion against plantation owners. Brown was arrested and
convicted of murder and treason.
3. There were conflicts between the North and the South over states’ rights. People in the
South believed that each state should control over issues affecting people in the state. The
North believed in a strong federal government that would have power over the state
government.
4. The North had more people and factories. The South had many farms and fewer people.
5. In the North, slaves were less common than in the South. Many Northern states had passed
laws to abolish slavery.
6. Fort Sumter is in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. Fort Sumter was the place where the
Civil War began.
7. The Battle of Gettysburg was a three day battle with the largest number of casualties in
the Civil War. It is often described as the war’s turning point. The South never recovers and
the North wins the Civil War.
8. The Atlanta Campaign: Atlanta, Georgia, was an important rail and commercial center during
the Civil War. The fall of Atlanta gave the North more confidence and helped Lincoln get
re-elected. General Sherman stayed in Atlanta for two months and then ordered the city
burned to the ground.
9. Sherman’s March to the Sea was from Atlanta to Savannah, GA: Sherman left Atlanta and
applied a “scorched earth” policy as he marched across Georgia making his way to Savannah.
He ordered his troops to burn crops, kill livestock, consume supplies, and destroy railroads
and homes so the South could no longer fight.
10. Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse and ended the
Civil War.
11. Abraham Lincoln was President of the United States during the Civil War.
12. Robert E. Lee was leader of the Confederate forces during the Civil War.
13. Ulysses Grant was leader of the Union forces during the Civil War.
14. The Confederates are the Southern forces that seceded from the Union. The Union forces
were the states that did not secede and stayed part of the United States.
15. Jefferson Davis was the President of the Confederate States of America.
16. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson was a Confederate General. He was Robert E. Lee’s right hand
man. He was accidentally killed by his own men.
17. After the war, slavery was illegal. The North was not greatly changed by the Civil War. In
the South, most factories, farms, railroads, and businesses had been destroyed. It would
take the South many years to recover from the Civil War.
18. Reconstruction is the time immediately following the Civil War.
19. The 13th Amendment abolished slavery in the United States.
20. The 14th Amendment granted citizenship and protected the civil rights of the recently freed
slaves.
21. The 15th Amendment gave African American men the right to vote.
22. The Freedmen’s Bureau was established by Congress to aid former slaves by helping them
get an education, a job, and by providing health care. Slave who became free after the Civil
War were called Freedmen.
23. Sharecropping is what people would do if they did not have enough money to purchase land
to farm. They would work the land and then split whatever crops they grew with the owner
of the land.
24. Jim Crow laws were laws that allowed the segregation of facilities by calling them “separate,
but equal”.
25. Black Codes restricted the civil rights and civil liberties of African Americans by
prohibiting their right to vote, forbidding them to sit on juries, limiting their right to
testify against white men, carry weapons in public places and work in certain occupations.
They were mainly passed on the state and local level in rural Southern states.
26. During the late 19th century, cowboys would take the cattle from ranches to the railroads on
cattle trails, such as the Great Western Cattle Trail and the Chisholm Trail.
27. During this time, many cowboys were African Americans.
28. The Wright Brothers invented the world’s first successful airplane and making the first
controlled human flight.
29. George Washington Carver invented many ways to use crops other than cotton. He most
remembered for inventing over 100 products that used peanuts.
30. Abraham Graham Bell invented the first practical telephone.
31. Thomas Edison invented a practical electric light bulb.
32. William McKinley was President of the United States during the Spanish-American War.
33. The United States entered the Spanish-American War after the sinking of the Maine. The
US blamed Spain for the sinking, but it was later proved to be an accident.
34. Theodore Roosevelt was a hero the Spanish-American War (Rough Riders) and later became
President of the United States. Theodore Roosevelt was responsible for the building of the
Panama Canal. Winning the Spanish-American War and building the Panama Canal made other
countries view the U.S. as a world power.
35. Between 1880 and 1924 25 million immigrants moved to the United States from Southern
and Eastern Europe (Italy, Russia, Hungary, Greece, and Poland). They came to the U.S.
looking for work and to escape persecution (unfair treatment or punishment mostly due to
their race and/or religion). Most immigrants settled in cities near family and friends. The
largest populations of immigrants were found in New York, Boston, Pittsburg, and Chicago.
36. Cities grew very rapidly during this time which caused many problems, such as over-crowding,
pollution, filthy living conditions, and disease.
37. The U.S. enters WWI after Germany refuses to stop sinking U.S. ships. The Lusitania was
one of the ships that the Germans sank. It is often quoted as being a reason for the US
entering WWI even though it was sank 6 months before the US entered the war.
38. WWI ended with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. The Treaty of Versailles punished
Germany by causing them to repay a huge war debt. This left Germany in a very bad
situation. When a leader came along that promised to help them reclaim their former glory
they chose to follow him. That leader is Adolf Hitler. Some historians blame the Treaty of
Versailles with providing the conditions that lead to WWII.
39. During the 1920’s most people believe in isolationism and do not want to drawn into any more
problems in Europe.
40. There was great prosperity during the 1920’s. People begin to own their own homes; there is
a growth in the number of consumer goods available to the average person due to the use of
electricity and many new inventions. People begin to own cars; they move to away from the
over-crowded cities, and radio and movies give them new kinds of entertainment.
41. People enjoy listening to jazz. Louis Armstrong was a famous jazz musician.
42. The Harlem Renaissance was a time in when African Americans living in Harlem developed
new music, poetry, and art.
43. Langston Hughes was a popular African American poet during the Harlem Renaissance.
44. Babe Ruth was considered by some to be the best baseball player of all time.
45. Henry Ford made the first affordable automobile. He developed the assembly line that
helped to cut down on the cost of making a car which allowed more Americans to afford an
automobile.
46. Charles Lindbergh was a famous pilot. He was the first to make a solo flight across the
Atlantic.
47. Many people during the 1920’s believed that the stock market always went up. They
borrowed money to buy stock. When the stock market crashed in 1929, many Americans
could not repay loans and lost their homes. People lost their jobs and banks closed. The
Depression lasted for around 10 years.
48. Herbert Hoover was President when the Great Depression started. Many people thought
that he did not do enough to end the Depression. When people lost their homes and were
forced to live in shacks, those towns were called “Hoovervilles”.
49. Franklin Roosevelt became President after Herbert Hoover. He started the “New Deal”
programs that were supposed the help end the Great Depression. Some historians believe
that these programs actually made the depression last longer.
50. Some of the New Deal programs were Civilian Conservation Corps, the Works Progress
Administration, and the Tennessee Valley Authority. These programs basically gave people
jobs and helped strength the infrastructure of the United States, such as building roads,
hospitals, and National Parks.
51. Duke Ellington was a famous jazz band leader.
52. Margaret Mitchell wrote Gone with the Wind. She was from Atlanta, Georgia. The book was
set during the Civil War.
53. Jesse Owens was a famous track and field star who won Gold medals at the 1936 Summer
Olympics that was held in Berlin, Germany. Hitler wanted to use the games to show the world
that the German race was superior to other races. Hitler was upset that an African
American won gold and defeated his athletes.
54. The US did not enter WWII until the Japanese attacked the US at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
The Japanese were hoping to destroy the US Navy which they considered to be a huge threat.
The surprise attack killed around 2400 Americans.
55.Iwo Jima was a battle in which the U.S. fought for and captured the island of Iwo Jima from
Japan. It would also give the allied forces a base that they could use to attack the Japanese
mainland using the B-29.
56.D- Day was the day when one-hundred sixty thousand Allied troops landed along a 50-mile
stretch of French coastline to fight Nazi Germany.
57.VE day stands for Victory in Europe Day. It was the day that German surrendered to the
Allied forces.
58.VJ Day stands for Victory in Japan Day. It was the day that Japan surrendered to Allied
forces.
59.The Holocaust was the murder of 12 million people (6 million of the people were Jews) by the
Nazis. Most were taken to concentration camps.
60.President Truman became President after Roosevelt died in office. Truman ended the WWII
with Japan by dropping two atomic bombs (one on Hiroshima and the other on Nagasaki). It is
believed by many that if he had not dropped the bombs and the US had been forced to invade
Japan the US would have lost many American soldiers and many Japanese would have died
defending their home land.
61.Franklin D. Roosevelt was President when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. He was
President during most of WWII.
62.Joseph Stalin was the leader of Russia during WWII.
63.Winston Churchill was Prime Minister of Great Britain during WWII.
64.Hirohito was Emperor of Japan during WWII.
65.Benito Mussolini was leader of Italy during WWII.
66.Adolf Hitler was dictator of Germany during WWII.
67.Rosie the Riveter represented the woman who worked in the factories during WWII to build
the machines needed for the war.
68.The Tuskegee Airmen were a group of African American pilots that flew missions during
WWII.
69.The term “Iron Curtain” was first used by Winston Churchill to describe how people living in
a communist country are separated from the free world. It is not an actual curtain.
70. After WWII, due to the Soviet Union being part of the Allied forces some countries were
divided into free and communist countries. Germany was divided into East Germany (communist)
and West Germany (free). The capital of Berlin was also divided and the free part was
surrounded by communist Germany. The Russians wanted to force the people of West Berlin to
become communist by blocking all food and supplies from coming into the city. The US started
an airlift to bring supplies to the people of West Berlin. The communist then gave up and
stopped the blockade of the city.