Civil War Vocabulary List Trimester Two and Three
List One
Manifest Destiny:
The belief that the United States had the right to all the land between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
Annex:
To add on to.
Union:
A grouping together.
Strike:
Refusing to do assigned job.
Immigrant:
A person who enters a new country in order to settle there.
Famine:
A severe food shortage.
List Two
Nativists:
A group wanting to preserve the country for native born, white citizens.
Economics: The science that deals with the production, distribution, and consumption of wealth.
Abolitionists:
People who wanted to end slavery in the United States.
Underground Railroad:
A network of abolitionists that secretly helped runaway slaves reach freedom.
Sectionalism:
Loyalty to a state or region of a country.
Popular Sovereignty:
Regional control by local citizens.
List Three
Fugitive:
A runaway
States Rights:
The belief that individual states have the right to limit the power of the federal government.
Civil War:
A war between people of the same country.
Arsenal:
A storage area for weapons.
Emancipate:
To set free.
Secede:
To withdraw from a group.
List Four
Secessionist:
A small group trying to leave a larger group.
Secession:
The act of leaving a larger group.
Confederacy:
The league or alliance of southern states prior to the Civil War.
Union:
The league or alliance of northern states prior to the Civil War.
Habeas Corpus:
The right to have a hearing before being jailed, or having individual property taken away.
Inflation:
An economic cycle in which the value of money falls, and the prices of goods rise.
Profiteers:
Business people that overcharge for important items during war or national disaster.
List Five
Export:
To send goods or ideas to another place.
April 13, 1861:
Fort Sumter fell to the Confederates.
Battle of Bull Run
First Confederate victory of the Civil War; took place in Virginia on July 21, 1861.
Emancipation Proclamation:
A proclamation passed by Lincoln stating that all slaves in rebelling states would be set free January 1, 1863.
Appomattox Courthouse:
Town in Virginia where General Lee surrendered to General Grant on April 9, 1865.
List Six
Black Codes:
Laws passed by Southern legislators that severely limited the rights of freedmen.
Fourteenth Amendment:
Granted citizenship to all persons born in the United States.
Reconstruction Act:
Threw out Southern state governments that had refused to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment
Poll Taxes:
Required voters to pay a fee each time they voted.
Literacy Tests:
Required voters to explain a difficult part of the Constitution in order to vote.
Grandfather Clauses:
Voters whose grandfathers had been eligible to vote prior to January 1, 1867 were not required to take the literacy test in order to vote.
Vocabulary, Political Cartoons, and Contemporary Events
(Homework for second trimester)
York Eight Social Studies
Vocabulary lists are glued into social studies notebook. Political cartoons and contemporary events articles will be provided on a weekly basis. Students should glue all political cartoons into their notebooks.
Every day six students will have a vocabulary quiz and will be required to hand in the assigned political cartoon questions. Students must rephrase the questions, answer the questions, type their answers, and glue them into their social studies notebooks.
Political Cartoons
Political Cartoon Questions are due every day six.
1. In your opinion what is the political cartoon trying to tell the viewer?
2. Is the focus of the political cartoon local (city/state/regional), national (in the United States), or international (outside the United States)? How do you know?
3. Who are the people in the cartoon? If there are images and symbols, what do they represent?
4. Do you agree with the political message of this cartoon, or do you disagree with the political message of this cartoon? Please explain why.
Contemporary Events
Contemporary Events questions are due every day three.
Each week students must read (feel free to help) the assigned article that is posted on the York Eight homework site and answer the following questions (don’t forget to rephrase the question). Please glue the answers (typed) into their social studies notebook.
Three out of the four questions will be assigned every week and there will be an additional question posted on the homework site that must be answered.
1. Create a bibliography entry (Please see bibliography sheet for details) of this article, editorial, or blog.
2. What impact (positive/negative) does this individual/or group have on the society in which they live? On the societies around them? Explain.
3. If you were put in a position of leadership, and had ultimate control over this group or event, what would you do to deal with this issue or problem?
4. Give a brief description (four to eight sentences) of this event, group, or individual. If the main topic is a group or individual, what is their goal or purpose? If the main topic is an event, how does the event affect the community (and the surrounding communities) in which the event took place? Explain.
“The Weapon”
Frederic Brown
The room was quiet in the dimness of early evening. Dr. James Graham, key scientist of a very important project, sat in his favorite chair, thinking. It was so still that he could hear the turning of the pages in the next room as his son leafed through a picture book.
Often Graham did his best work, his most creative thinking, under these circumstances, sitting alone in an unlighted room in his own apartment after the days regular work. But tonight his mind would not work constructively. Mostly he thought about his mentally arrested son – his only son – in the next room. The thoughts were loving thoughts, not the bitter anguish he had felt years ago when he had first learned of the boys condition. The boy was happy; wasn’t that the main thing? And to how many men is given a child who will always be a child, who will not grow up to leave him? Certainly that was rationalized, but what is wrong with rationalization when – The doorbell rang.
Graham rose and turned on the lights in the almost-dark room before he went through the hallway to the door. He was not annoyed; tonight, at this moment, almost any interruption to his thoughts was welcome.
He opened the door. A stranger stood there; he said,
“Dr. Graham? My name is Niemand; I’d like to talk to you. May I come in a moment?”
Graham looked at him. He was a small man, nondescript, obviously harmless – probably a reporter or an insurance agent.
But it didn’t matter what he was. Graham found himself saying, “Of course. Come in, Mr. Niemand.” A few minutes of conversation, he justified himself by thinking, might divert his thoughts and clear his mind.
“Sit down,” he said, in the living room. “Care for a drink?” Niemand said, “No, thank you.” He sat in the chair; Graham sat on the sofa.
The small man interlocked his fingers; he leaned forward. He said,
“Dr. Graham, you are the man whose scientific work is more likely than that of any other man to end the human race’s chance for survival.”
A crackpot, Graham thought. Too late now he realized that he should have asked the man’s business before admitting him. It would be an embarrassing interview – he disliked being rude, yet only rudeness was effective.
“Dr. Graham, the weapon on which you are working-”
The visitor stopped and turned his head to the door that led to a bedroom opened and a boy of fifteen came in. The boy didn’t notice Niemand; he ran to Graham.
“Daddy, will you read to me now?” The boy of fifteen laughed the sweet laughter of a child of four.
Graham put an arm around the boy. He looked at the visitor, wondering whether he had known about the boy. From the lack of surprise on Niemand’s face, Graham felt sure he had known.
“Harry” – Graham’s voice was warm with affection – “Daddy’s busy. Just for a little while. Go back to your room; I’ll come and read to you soon.”
“Chicken Little? You’ll read me Chicken Little?”
“If you wish. Now run along. Wait, Harry, this is Mr. Niemand.”
The boy smiled bashfully at the visitor. Niemand said, “Hi, Harry,” and smiled back at him, holding out his hand. Graham, watching, was sure now that Niemand had known; the smile and the gesture were for the boy’s mental age, not his physical one.
The boy took Niemand’s hand. For a moment it seemed that he was going to climb into Niemand’s lap, and Graham pulled him back gently. He said, “Go to your room now, Harry.”
The boy skipped back to his bedroom, not closing the door.
Niemand’s eyes met Graham’s and he said, “I like him,” with obvious sincerity. He added, “I hope that what you’re going to read to him will always be true.”
Graham didn’t understand. Niemand said, “Chicken Little, I mean, it’s a fine story – but may Chicken Little always be wrong about the sky falling down?”
Graham suddenly had liked Niemand when Niemand had shown liking for the boy. Now he had remember that he must close the interview quickly. He rose, in dismissal.
He said, “I fear you’re wasting your time and mine, Mr. Niemand. I know all the arguments, everything you can say I’ve heard a thousand times. Possibly there is truth in what you believe, but it does not concern me. I’m a scientist, and only a scientist. Yes, it is public knowledge that I am working on a weapon, a rather ultimate one. But, for me personally, that is only a by-product of the fact that I am advancing science. I have thought it through, and I have found that that is my only concern.”
“But, Dr. Graham, is humanity ready for an ultimate weapon?”
Graham frowned. “I have told you my point of view, Mr. Niemand.”
Niemand rose slowly from the chair. He said, “Very well, if you do not choose to discuss it, I’ll say no more.” He passed a hand across his forehead. “I’ll leave, Dr. Graham. I wonder, though… may I change my mind about the drink you offered me?”
Graham’s irritation faded. He said, “Certainly. Will whisky and water do?”
“Admirably.”
Graham excused himself and went into the kitchen. He got the decanter of whisky, another of water, ice cubes, glasses.
When he returned to the living room, Niemand was just leaving the boy’s bedroom. He heard Niemand’s “Good night, Harry,” and Harry’s happy “Night, Mr. Niemand.”
Graham made drinks. A little later, Niemand declined a second one and started to leave.
Niemand said, “I took the liberty of bringing a small gift to your son while you were getting the drinks for us. I hope you’ll forgive me.”
“Of course. Thank you. Good night.”
Graham closed the door; he walked through the living room into Harry’s room. He said, “All right, Harry. Now I’ll read to -”
There was a sudden sweat on his forehead, but he forced his face and his voice to be calm as he stepped to the side of the bed. “May I see that, Harry?” When he had it safely, his hands shook as he examined it.
He thought, only a madman would give a loaded revolver to an idiot.
Questions – do four of five. Rephrase the questions, type the answers, and glue them into the notebook.
“The Weapon”
Fredric Brown
1. What is Dr. Graham inventing?
2. “I hope that what you’re going to read to him will always be true.”
Why would Mr. Niemand say this?
3. What message was Mr. Niemand trying to give to Dr. Graham by giving Harry the gun?
4. At the end of the story Harry is referred to a an idiot. Who, or what, is the author comparing Harry to?
5. How does this story relate back to the Wide World of Engineering expedition.
Questions
“The Weapon”
Fredric Brown
1. What is Dr. Graham inventing?
2. “I hope that what you’re going to read to him will always be true.”
Why would Mr. Niemand say this?
3. What message was Mr. Niemand trying to give to Dr. Graham by giving Harry the gun?
4. At the end of the story Harry is referred to a an idiot. Who, or what, is the author comparing Harry to?
5. How does this story relate back to the Wide World of Engineering expedition.
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Hello, and thank you Mr. Clifford for posting this all! This is wonderfully helpful for when I am sick, and need to study! Cheers!