Throughout the early nineteenth century, South Carolina's John C. Calhoun was one of the most prominent and influential politicians in the nation. After serving in the House of Representatives, Calhoun was Secretary of War under President James Madison.  In 1824, he sought the Presidency, but instead ran for Vice President, winning that office when John Quincy Adams won the controversial Presidential campaign. After 1828, Calhoun remained Vice President under Andrew Jackson, and created controversy on a number of issues, notably over Nullification. After severe disagreement, Calhoun resigned the Vice Presidency in 1832 and became a Senator from South Carolina. Later, President James Tyler briefly made him Secretary of State. After this, Calhoun returned to the Senate until his death in 1850.

The "Free Soil Party" arose in the 1840s amid further sectional conflicts around slavery. The Free Soilers were the political organization advocating for the complete abolition of slavery. As such, they saw surprising political success. The Party sent representatives to congress over a number of years, and former President (and former Democrat) Martin Van Buren garnered 10% of the popular vote as the Free Soil candidate in 1848.

In the election of 1796, John Adams was elected president by the Electoral College, while his political rival and opponent Thomas Jefferson was elected vice president by coming in second place.  After the 1796 election, the 12^th Amendment was passed to change this.  For the 1800 election and all subsequent elections, the president and vice president were elected together.

Dred Scott, a slave brought by his master into the free state of Wisconsin, sued to get his freedom, claiming he was a natural born citizen under the United States Constitution.  Scott lost the case, with Chief Justice Roger B. Taney writing an opinion which asserted that people of African descent had no rights under the U.S. Constitution.

Although the Constitution went into effect in June 1788 when nine of thirteen states had ratified it, its supporters saw the necessity of having each of the states ratify it and formally recognize and accept it. All thirteen original states eventually ratified the Constitution, with North Carolina (on November 21, 1789) and Rhode Island (on May 29, 1790) being the last two to do so.

The Bill of Rights is the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution and deals almost entirely with guaranteeing individual liberties. While all of the answers are amendments, the incorrect answer is from the 17th Amendment (ratified in 1913), which revised Article I Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution, changing the election of U.S. Senators from election by a state legislature to popular vote. Here are the amendments in which the other answers are found. The 4th Amendment says that there are to be no unreasonable searches and seizures and all warrants must be issued upon probable cause. The 7th Amendment provides for the right to a trial by an impartial jury. The 9th Amendment says that the Constitution is not an explicit and exhuastive list of individual rights possessed by the people. The 10th Amendment says that powers not delegated to the Federal government by the U.S. Constitution are reserved to the states or to the people

Marbury v. Madison was a Supreme Court case in 1803 most significant for establishing the U.S. Supreme Court as arbiter in the event of a conflict between federal law and the U.S. Constitution. The conflict in the case specifically concerned the Judiciary Act of 1798 and Article III of the Constituion. Chief Justice John Marshall held that in the event of a conflict between a law by Congress and the Constitution, the Court must follow the Constitution, exercising the power of judicial review.

Jefferson Davis was President of the Confederate States of America, formed in 1861 and abolished in 1865. The Confederate States was a union of the states that declared their secession from the United States, precipitating the American Civil War. Alexander Stephens was Vice President of the Confederate States. Robert E. Lee was the commander of the Confederate Army. Ulysses S. Grant was the commander of the Union Army. George Custer was a famous Union soldier.

In Plessy v. Ferguson, the United States Supreme Court case upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation laws under the doctrine of "separate but equal." The decision has widely been regarded as one of the worst in Supreme Court history.

Brown v. Board of Education was the landmark supreme court decision that overturned Plessy v. Ferguson. Dred Scott v. Sandford (another contender for worst Supreme Court ruling) held that African-Americans could not be citizens. Sweatt v. Painter preceded Brown v. Board of Education, and in so doing set the precedent for the Brown v Board ruling. Loving v. Virginia invalidated the laws restricting inter-racial marriage.

Racial segregation laws passed after Reconstruction in the American South were called Jim Crow laws. Black Codes were earlier nineteenth century laws that restricted the civil rights and civil liberties of African Americans. Apartheid was the policy of racial segregation in South Africa, which was officially in place until 1994.