AP U.S. History Midterm Exam
Fletcher v. Peck
(1810) Marshall's ruling protected property rights against popular pressures and was a clear assertion, of the right of the Supreme Court to invalidate state laws conflicting with the Constitution.
McCulloch v. Maryland
(1819) John Marshall ruled that the Bank of the United States was constitutional through implied powers, a clear example of loose construction. His ruling strengthened federal authority and weakened states' rights by not allowing them, specifically Maryland, to tax the Bank's notes.
Dartmouth College v. Woodward
(1819) Marshall's ruling protected business enterprise from domination by the state governments. However, it set a precedent that enabled chartered corporations to escape the binds of needed public control.
Cohens v. Virginia
(1821), Marshall's ruling set the precedent that the Supreme Court had the right to review the decisions of the state supreme courts in all questions involving powers of the federal government.
Gibbons v. Ogden
(1824) Marshall upheld that the federal government, specifically Congress, alone held the power to control interstate commerce.
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Samuel F.B. Morse
His telegraph was among the inventions that tightened the sinews of an increasingly complex business world. A distinguished but poverty-stricken portrait painter, Morse finally secured from Congress an appropriation of $30,000 to support his experiment with "talking wires." In 1844, Morse strung a wire forty miles from Washington to Baltimore and tapped out the historic message, "What hath God wrought?" The invention brought fame and fortune to Morse, as he put distantly separated people in almost instant communication with one another. By the eve of the Civil War, a web of singling wires spanned nearly the entire continent, revolutionizing newsgathering, diplomacy, and finance.
Virginia House of Burgesses
In 1619, representative self-government was born in Virginia. The Virginia Company authorized the settlers to summon an assembly, known as the House of Burgesses. This assemblage was the first of many miniature parliaments to flourish in America.
William Penn founds Pennsylvania colony
In 1681, Penn (a Quaker) was granted an enormous amount of fertile land that was named Pennsylvania (Penn's Woodland) in honor of his father. He advertised extensively for the colony in England and beyond, attracting a heavy inflow of immigrants. He formally launched his colony that year and bought land from the Indians to expand it. His regime was liberal and included a representative assembly elected by the landowners. The Quakers of Pennsylvania didn't embrace slavery, and therefore some progress was made toward social reform. Pennsylvania attracted a mix of ethnic groups because of its liberal nature.
Describe key features of the American population in the early eighteenth century, considering each of the following: a.) size b.) location c.) ethnic diversity d.) social mobility (the ability to rise above one's initial social class)
In 1700, the colonies' population was at about 300,000 people, and approximately 20,000 of those people were black. At this time there was only one American for every twenty Englishmen, but the 18th century proved to be a period of great population growth in the colonies. People of all different ethnicities flocked to the US during the early 1700s, especially Germans and the Scots-Irish. The Germans and Scots-Irish mainly came to Pennsylvania where most white immigrants settled during the 1700s. The colonies had one of the most diverse populations in the world, possibly even the most diverse. The social ladder of America in the 1700s was relatively easy to climb compared to those of Europe; it was helpful that there was no titled nobility or pauperized underclass. However the social structure was more rigid than it had been in the 17th century because of the new class of wealthy merchants.
Identify the key specific elements of the growing crisis between England and her American colonies from 1760—1776. In your opinion, where was the point of no return on this timeline of events?
In 1760, the French surrendered to the British after the French defeat at Montréal; the war officially ended three years later in 1763 with the Treaty of Paris, making the British the world's dominating naval power along with the dominating power in America. The Proclamation of 1763, which prohibited colonists from settling further west than the Appalachians, created tension between the colonists and the British; while it was intended to help ease hostility between the colonists and the Indians, it just angered the colonists, and in response, thousands of them rebelled in 1765 by travelling west despite knowing full well the fairly new British Law. Following 1763, the British Prime Minister, George Grenville, also began enforcing the Navigation Laws, infuriating the colonists. Another unpopular law put into effect by Grenville was the Sugar Act of 1764, which taxed West Indies sugar, but was lowered substantially after colonists' protested. The Quartering Act of 1765 forced some colonies to provide food and lodgings for British soldiers, and the Stamp Act required most paper goods to be stamped, signifying that a tax was paid on each item. While to British eyes neither of these acts were unreasonable, the Americans were extremely opposed to them and were especially opposed to the admiralty courts used to enforce the Stamp and Sugar Acts that defied the most basic freedoms they were used to. The nonimportation agreements launched by the colonists and enforced by sometimes violent groups like the Sons of Liberty were very effective in hurting the British economy and uniting the American people. The Declaratory Act (1766) was created at the same time the Stamp Act was being repealed; it made it clear that England had absolute sovereignty over the North American colonies. A year later in 1767 the Townshend Acts were passed by the head of the British ministry, Charles Townshend. This event was the point of no return; the colonists' reaction to this law led to the arrival of British troops in Boston in 1768 and the Boston Massacre of 1770. If the troops had not arrived in Boston, the tensions between England and her colonies could have dissipated. Committees of correspondence started to be formed in Massachusetts in 1772 to keep the opposition to British control alive. The Boston Tea Party occurred on December 6, 1773 following the shipment of copious amounts of tea to the colonies from the British East India Company and led to further conflict and tension between Britain and her colonies. It also led to the creation of the Boston Port Act in 1774, one of the many "Intolerable Acts" placed on Massachusetts residents. The First Continental Congress created The Association in 1774 and petitioned the British government to no avail. Lastly, in April of 1775, British troops were sent to Lexington and Concord to seize gunpowder from the colonists, ending in gunfire and "the shot heard round the world."
Eli Whitney
In 1793, Whitney created a crude machine called the cotton gin, which was fifty times more effective than the handpicking process. It was a workable device for separating the seed from the short-staple cotton fiber. After the creation of the machine, the raising of cotton became highly profitable, and the South prospered from it, although there was an increase in the need for slaves.
Battle of Lake Erie
In 1814, ten thousand British troops prepared to deliver a crushing blow to New York, using Lake Champlain to transfer supplies. Thomas Macdonough's American fleet challenged the British, fighting desperately near Plattsburg on September 11, 1814. The American fleet managed to surprise the British with an unexpected maneuver, winning the battle. The British were forced to retreat, saving upper New York from conquest, New England from more disaffection, and the Union from possible dissolution. This also affected the negotiations of the Anglo-American peace treaty in Europe.
Joseph Smith
In 1830, Smith reported that he had received some golden plates from an angel. When deciphered, they constituted the Book of Mormon, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was launched. It was a native American product, a new religion, destined to spread its influence worldwide. After establishing a religious oligarchy, Smith ran into serious opposition from his non-Mormon neighbors, in Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois. His cooperative sect antagonized rank-and-file Americans, who were individualistic and dedicated to free enterprise. The Mormons aroused further anger by voting as a unit and by openly but understandably drilling their militia for defensive purposes. Accusations of polygamy likewise arose and increased in intensity, for Joseph Smith was reputed to have several wives. In 1844 Joseph smith and his brother were murdered by a mob in Carthage Illinois, and the movement seemed near collapse.
British invasion of the Chesapeake
In August 1814, about four thousand British troops advanced rapidly on Washington, dispersing some six thousand militiamen at Bladensburg. They then set fire to the Capitol and White House along with most of the other public buildings in Washington. However, the Americans at Baltimore held firm, and while the British fleet hammered Fort McHenry with cannonfire, they could not capture the city.
Explain the main arguments contained in Thomas Paine's pamphlet Common Sense, and also the impact this publication had in America.
In Common Sense, Paine argues that the colonies' size respective to Great Britain alone is reason for being its own nation; he also declared that a republic would be the best form of government in the colonies because the people would truly be represented, unlike in a monarchy. Because the colonists had felt the consequences of life under a monarchy, they were open to his idea for a republic; the town meetings and legislature used in the colonies had set them up for a republic as well. Later that year, the colonies broke from the British Empire.
What is consistent about John Marshall's opinions in each case he presided over?
In each case, Marshall asserted the power of the federal government and his Federalist belief in loose constructionism. He checked the power of the states in each of these cases as well.
In what ways did "radical" abolitionists transform the movement to abolish slavery by the 1830s?
In the 1830s the abolitionists movement took on new energy and momentum, mounting to the proportions of a crusade. The religious fervor of the Second Great Awakening inspired abolitionists like Theodore Dwight Weld and William Lloyd Garrison to outspokenly decry slavery; they formed countless societies and movements during this time period. Numerous abolitionists were actually free black; they distinguished themselves as living monuments to the cause of African American freedom.
Second Great Awakening
In the early nineteenth century, there was a religious revival that swept through America's Protestant churches, beginning in the southern frontier, characterized by emotional mass "camp meetings" and widespread conversion. This transformed the place of religion in American life and sent a generation of believers out on their missions to perfect the world. It brought about a democratization of religion as a multiplicity of denominations vied for members. It also encouraged an evangelicalism that bubbled up into innumerable areas of American life, including prison reform, the temperance cause, the women's movement, and the crusade to abolish slavery. Methodists and Baptists reaped the most abundant harvest of souls from the fields fertilized by revivalism. The Second Great Awakening tended to widen the lines between classes and regions. The more prosperous and conservative denominations in the East were little touched by revivalism, and Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Unitarians continued to rise mostly from the wealthier, better-educated levels of society. Methodists, Baptists, and the members of the other new sects spawned by the swelling evangelistic fervor tended to come from less prosperous, less "learned" communities in the rural South and West.
Why was indentured servitude adopted as the initial labor system in the colonies, especially in the South, and why did black slavery replace indentured servitude by the end of the seventeenth century?
Indentured servants were originally much cheaper than African slaves for the planters who needed help on the plantations. Indian slaves died too quickly from contact with their white masters to be of much use either. Starting the 1680s, black slavery was more popular because wages in England began to rise once again, so less people were willing to gamble their freedom or even their lives on uncertain futures as indentured servants. Also, the planters were worried that the large groups of former indentured servants would mutiny.
American Anti-Slavery Society
It was an abolitionist society founded by William Lloyd Garrison, who advocated the immediate abolition of slavery, in 1833. By 1838, the organization had more than 250,000 members across 1350 chapters.
Is it accurate to describe the period following the War of 1812 as an "Era of Good Feelings?" Why, or why not?
It would not be inaccurate to describe the years between the end of the war in late 1814 and 1819 as the Era of Good Feelings, as nationalism had skyrocketed in America and the country was prosperous under the Tariff of 1816. However, the economic issues of 1819 ended this "Era of Good Feelings." The major problems of the time period came to light during the panic of 1819, which included overspeculation in the western territories, bank foreclosures on countless western farms, and imprisonment of debtors. The panic resulted in financial paralysis, which was a major setback for the American nationalism that was so prevalent during the first years of Monroe's presidency.
Explain how foreign policy problems affected the presidency of John Adams.
Jay's Treaty caused tensions between France and America to heighten; they thought that the treaty was a violation of the Franco-American Treaty, so they began seizing American merchant vessels and refused to receive America's newly appointed envoy. In response, Adams tried to reach an agreement with the French and appointed a diplomatic commission to reason with them. A war with the French may have made Adams a very popular leader and allowed him to be elected for a second term, but he knew that peace was a necessity for the young nation. Through the Convention of 1800, the Franco-American Treaty was annulled, which helped the two nations avoid war. Adams' diplomacy also helped the peaceful transaction of purchasing Louisiana three years later as well.
Explain why Jefferson and his supporters opposed Hamilton's plans for each of the above.
Jeffersonians were extremely opposed to having a federal bank because they believed that all powers not specifically granted to the federal government were reserved to the states, the idea of "strict construction." Jeffersonians in the Southern states were not on board with his funding at par plan either because unlike states like Massachusetts, states like Virginia were not drowning in debt, so they didn't want the states debt assumed. They also disliked the new excise laws because they placed taxes on domestic goods, which were especially harsh on pioneer folk.
Explain how the French Revolution divided Hamiltonians (Federalists) and Jeffersonians (Democratic Republicans).
Jeffersonians were overjoyed that the French were overthrowing their king, while some Federalists who feared change and reform were dubious to the "despicable mobocracy." The Reign of Terror more firmly cemented the Federalists discomfort with the Revolution to the point where they considered the revolutionaries to be "blood-drinking cannibals," and they wanted to avoid war at all costs. On the other hand, the Jeffersonians, while sad because of the bloodshed, believed that a few thousand aristocratic heads were a cheap price to pay for human freedom; they wanted to honor the alliance with France and enter the conflict against Britain.
Benjamin Franklin
Known as "the first civilized American," Benjamin Franklin was a true Renaissance man. Although he never attended college, he was a first-rank scientist, a literary mastermind, and a founder of University of Pennsylvania. His best-known literary works are his autobiography and the publication he edited from 1732 to 1758, Poor Richard's Almanack. His inventions and experiments like bifocals, the Franklin stove, and his kite-flying experiment have changed the way we think. He had an incalculable influence in shaping the American character.
Samuel Slater
Known as the "Father of the Factory System" in America, this skilled British mechanic memorized the design of British textile machines and brought those ideas to America, where he put into operation in 1791 the first efficient American machinery for spinning cotton thread.
Slave codes
Laws regarding slavery started being created in 1662 Virgina; these laws were the earliest slave codes. They made black slaves and the slaves' children their masters' property for life; even those who converted to Christianity were not freed. Teaching slaves how to read and write was outlawed in some states as well.
Elijah Lovejoy
Lovejoy of Alton, Illinois, not content to assail slavery, impugned the chastity of Catholic women. His printing press was destroyed four times, and in 1837 he was killed by a mob and became "the martyr abolitionist."
Horace Mann
Mann (1769-1859) was a brilliant and idealistic graduate of Brown University. As secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education, he campaigned effectively for more and better schoolhouses, longer school terms, higher pay for teachers, and an expanded curriculum. His influence radiated out to other states, and impressive improvements were made.
Puritans
Many Puritans came from the commercially depressed woolen districts of England. When Henry VIII broke ties with the Catholic Church to form the Church of England, his action powerfully stimulated some English religious reformers to undertake a total purification of English Christianity. Puritans grew increasingly unhappy over the snail-like progress of the Protestant Reformation in England; many of them eventually settled in New England.
Maryland: Catholic Haven & The Act of Toleration
Maryland was founded in 1634 by Lord Baltimore, a prominent Catholic. He wanted to create a refuge for his fellow Catholics while reaping the financial profits. Because tensions between the Protestants and Catholics of Maryland were high, the representative assembly created the Act of Toleration (passed in 1649). It guaranteed toleration to all Christians, but decreed the death penalty for those who denied the divinity of Jesus.
William H. McGuffey
McGuffey (1800-1843) was a teacher-preacher of rare power. His grade-school readers, first published in the 1830s, sold 122 million copies in the following decades. McGuffey's Readers hammered home lasting lessons in morality, patriotism, and idealism.
King Phillip's War
Metacom (known as King Philip to the English) forged an alliance in 1675 with several Indian tribes and attacked English villages throughout New England. When the war ended in 1676, 52 towns had been attacked, twelve of them destroyed entirely. This war slowed the westward march of English settlement in New England for decades.
Lucretia Mott
Mott was a frontrunner in the women's rights movement of the 19th century. She was a sprightly Quaker whose ire had been aroused when she and her fellow female delegates to the London antislavery convention of 1840 were not recognized.
England seizes New Netherland from Dutch
New Netherland was created in the Hudson River area in 1623-1624. This land that lacked vitality and was riddled with New England immigrants (about half of the population by 1664) lay under the menacing shadow of the vigorous English colonies to the north. In 1664, the Duke of York had been granted the New Netherland area, and an English squadron appeared, forcing the Dutch authorities out and making New Amsterdam New York.
Jamestown
On May 24, 1607, about a hundred English settlers, all of them men, disembarked on the banks of the James River. The site was easy to defend, but it was mosquito-infested and devastatingly unhealthy. The settlers died by the dozens from disease, malnutrition, and starvation.
What do you think were the principal causes of the Salem witch hysteria of the 1790s?
One major cause of the Salem witch hysteria was the fear many of the strictest Puritans had that commercialism was becoming more important to the colonists than their religion; in fact, many of the accused witches were from families that were benefiting the most from the rapid economic growth of the time while the people accusing them were mostly from farms in Salem backcountry. Other important causes was the general turmoil of the time, especially regarding social and religious changes and the wars against the Indians , and the superstitions and prejudices of the time.
Oneida Community
One of the more radical utopian communities established in the nineteenth century (specifically 1848), it advocated "free love," birth control, and eugenics, the selection of parents to produce superior offspring. This curious enterprise flourished for more than thirty years. Utopian communities reflected the reformist spirit of the age.
Robert Owen
Owen was a wealthy and idealistic Scottish textile manufacturer who founded a communal society of about a thousand people at New Harmony, Indiana in 1825, seeking human betterment. Little harmony prevailed in the colony, which, in addition to hardworking visionaries, attracted a sprinkling of radicals, work-shy theorists, and outright scoundrels. The colony sank in a morass of contradiction and confusion.
England defeats Spanish Armada, how did this change the course of history?
Philip II of Spain attempted an invasion of England with his "Invincible Armada" in 1588, but the English fleet was faster and more ably manned and managed to inflict heavy damage on the Spanish ships before an enormous storm scattered the ships. It dampened Spain's fighting spirit and helped ensure England's naval dominance in the North Atlantic. It started England on its way to becoming master of the world oceans.
In what ways did the plantation system hinder the South, economically-speaking?
Plantation agriculture was wasteful, largely because King Cotton and his money-hungry subjects despoiled the good earth. Quick profits led to excessive cultivation, which in turn caused a heavy leakage of population to the West and Northwest. The economic structure of the South became increasingly monopolistic. As the land wore thin, many small farmers sold their holdings to more prosperous neighbors and went north or west. The big got bigger and the small smaller. When the Civil War finally erupted, a large percentage of Southern farms had passed from the hands of the families that had originally cleared them. Another problem in the South was the financial instability of the plantation system. The temptation to overspeculate in land and slaves caused many planters to plunge in beyond their depth. Dominance by King Cotton likewise led to a dangerous dependence on a one-crop economy, whose price level was at the mercy of world conditions. The whole system discouraged a healthy diversification of agriculture and particularly manufacturing. The south also repelled large-scale European immigration, which had added so richly to the manpower and wealth of the North.
radical abolitionism
Political abolitionists, like Douglass, Garrison, Walker, and Truth, backed the Liberty party in 1840, the Free Soil party in 1848, and eventually the Republican party in the 1850s. In the end, most abolitionists, including the pacifistic Garrison himself, followed the logic of the beliefs and supported a frightfully costly fratricidal war as the price of emancipation. High-minded and courageous, the abolitionists were men and women of goodwill and various colors who faced the cruel choice that people in many ages have had thrust upon them: when is evil so enormous that it must be denounced, even at the risk of precipitating bloodshed and butchery?
Anglo-Powhatan Wars
Poof Virginia, Lord De La Warr, arrived in 1610, he declared war against the Indians in the Jamestown region. His troops raided villages, burned houses, confiscated provisions, and torched cornfields. A peace settlement in 1614 ended this First Anglo-Powhatan War. The Indians struck back in 1622, and in response the Virginia Company called for "a perpetual war without peace of truce." In the Second Anglo Powhatan War in 1644, the Indians made one last attempt to dislodge the Virginians but were defeated. The peace treaty of 1646 banished the Chesapeake Indians from their ancestral lands and formally separated Indian from white areas of settlement.
defense of slavery as a "positive good"
Proslavery whites responded to the nullification crisis of 1832 by launching a massive defense of slavery as a positive good. In doing so, they forgot their own section's previous doubts about the morality of the "peculiar institution." Slavery, they claimed was supported by the authority of the Bible and the wisdom of Aristotle. It was good for the Africans, who were lifted from the barbarism of the jungle and clothed with the blessings of Christian civilization. Slavemasters strongly encouraged religion in the slave quarters. White apologists also claimed that master-slave relationships really resembled those of a family. Southern whites were quick to contrast the "happy" lot of their "servants" with that of the overworked northern wage slaves, including sweated women and stunted children. The blacks mostly toiled in the fresh air and sunlight, not in dark stuffy factories. They did not have to worry about slack times or unemployment, as did the "hired hands" of the North. Provided with a jail-like form of Social Security, they were cared for in sickness and old age, unlike northern workers, who were set adrift when they had outlived their usefulness. These curious proslavery arguments only widened the chasm between a backward-looking South and a forward-looking North- and indeed much of the rest of the Western world.
Protestant Reformation & Martin Luther
Religious conflict disrupted England after King Henry VIII broke with the Roman Catholic Church in the 1530s, launching the English Protestant Reformation. Catholics battled Protestants for decades, and the religious balance of power seesawed. Protestantism became dominant in England when the Protestant Elizabeth ascended the throne in 1558, intensifying rivalry with Catholic Spain. Martin Luther denounced the authority of priests and popes, declaring that the Bible alone was the source of God's word. He helped kindle spiritual fervor in millions of men and women- some of whom helped to found America.
Second Continental Congress
Representatives from all thirteen colonies first met on May 10, 1775 to draft new appeals to the king along with raising money to create an army and navy in case the appeals didn't work, and they didn't. They also elected George Washington to head the military because he was one of the few actual officers out of the colonists. They also drafted the Declaration of Independence and were responsible for the war effort in the colonies.
Republicanism
Republicanism is the political theory of representative government, based on the principle of popular sovereignty, with a strong emphasis on liberty and civic virtue. Shays' Rebellion convinced many of the elite that unbridled republicanism had fed an insatiable appetite for liberty that was fast becoming license.
Rice crops in South Carolina
Rice emerged as the principal export crop in Carolina. Rice was grown in Africa, so the Carolinians paid premium prices for West Africans experienced in rice cultivation to work as laborers on the hot and swampy rice plantations. By 1710 they constituted a majority of Carolinians.
Rolfe perfects Tobacco culture in Virginia
Rolfe became father of the tobacco industry and an economic savior of the Virginia colony. By 1612 he had perfected methods for raising and curing tobacco; soon the European demand for tobacco was insatiable. Virginia's prosperity was finally built on tobacco smoke. This "bewitching weed" played a vital role in putting the colony on firm economic foundations.
Anne Hutchinson
She was an exceptionally intelligent, strong-willed, and talkative woman and the mother of fourteen children. She claimed holy life was no sure sign of salvation and that the truly saved need not bother to obey the law of either God or man, which was heresy in this land of extreme Puritans. She was brought to trial in 1683, where she told her inquisitors that she had come by her beliefs through a direct revelation from God, which was even higher heresy. She was banished from Massachusetts and eventually moved to New York where she was killed by Indians.
Harriet Beecher Stowe
She was the daughter of Lyman Beecher, the president of Lane Theological Seminary and the sister of reformer Catharine Beecher and preacher-abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher. Her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin was greatly influenced by Weld's pamphlet American Slavery as It Is.
Jonathan Edwards
Some consider this Northampton, Massachusetts pastor the deepest theological mind ever nurtured in America; he was responsible for sparking the Great Awakening. He was famous for his sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" and believed that hell was "paved with the skulls of unbaptized children." He passionately disagreed with the idea of salvation through good works and believed that one must be fully dependent on God's grace.
Sovereignty
Sovereignty is the authority of a state to govern itself or another state; the Northwest Ordinance gave the federal government sovereignty of the Old Northwest until the population was big enough.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Stanton was a mother of seven who had insisted on leaving "obey" out of her marriage ceremony, shocking fellow feminists by going so far as to advocate suffrage for women.
"old lights" and "new lights"
The "old lights" are the Orthodox ministers who were skeptics of the new wave of theatrical and emotional preachers. The New lights were the revivalists who believed the Awakening was revitalizing American religion.
Alien and Sedition Acts
The Alien Laws were acts passed by a Federalist Congress raising the residency requirement for citizenship to fourteen years and granting the president power to deport dangerous foreigners in times of peace. The Sedition Act of 1798 was also enacted by the Federalist Congress in an effort to clamp down on Jeffersonian opposition. The law made anyone convicted of defaming government officials or interfering with government policies liable to imprisonment and a heavy fine. The act drew heavy criticism from Republicans, who let the act expire in 1801.
American Temperance Society
The American Temperance Society was founded in Boston in 1826 as part of a growing effort of nineteenth century reformers to limit alcohol consumption. Within a few years, about a thousand local groups sprang into existence. They implored drinkers to sign the temperance pledge and organized children's clubs, known as the "Cold Water Army." Temperance crusaders also made effective use of pictures, pamphlets, and lurid lecturers, some of whom were reformed drunkards.
Identify what you consider to be the three most important battles of the Revolutionary War. Explain the significant outcomes of each.
The Battle of Bunker Hill, the Battle of Saratoga, and the Battle of Yorktown were the most important Revolutionary War battles. Bunker Hill, which took place in June 1775, resulted in extreme casualties for the British, although it was considered a British win because the Americans ran out of gunpowder and had to flee. Following this battle, King George III erroneously refused to reconcile with the colonies even when the Second Continental Congress adopted the Olive Branch Petition, formally pronounced that the colonies were in rebellion, and hired German mercenaries, shocking the colonists. In the Battle of Saratoga, British general Burgoyne was forced to surrender his entire command to the American general Horatio Gates. It revived the faltering colonial cause and made it possible for the Americans to receive sorely needed French aid. The Battle of Yorktown was the last truly important battle in the Revolution and ended the war. British general Cornwallis was forced to surrender his troops (seven thousand men) to the French and the Americans. While the war did not technically end, it made it obvious that the British would not make a comeback.
Boston Associates ("Lowell System")
The Boston Associates were a group of Boston families that formed one of the earliest investment capital companies. They dominated the textile, railroad, insurance, and banking business of Massachusetts. They were proud of their textile mill at Lowell, Massachusetts, calling it a showplace factory. The workers were virtually all New England farm girls, carefully supervised on and off the job by matrons. Escorted regularly to church from their company boardinghouses and forbidden to form unions, they had few opportunities to share dissatisfactions over their grueling working conditions.
List significant reasons why France and Britain went to war in 1754.
The British colonists began sparring with the French colonists, known as coureurs de bois, as early as 1989 to see who would truly control the New World. They recruited their Indian allies to help in the fighting as well. King George's War, and especially its 1748 peace treaty, heightened tensions between France and England and their American colonies. During the war, the Americans, assisted by the British, captured Louisbourg, the formidable New French fortress. The peace treaty let the French take back their fort, angering the Americans. Ohio Valley was a crucial spot for both the French and the British. The British needed to go through this area to explore farther out west, while the French wanted the land to create a link between Canada and their land in the Mississippi Valley. The French had begun to make forts all along the Ohio River in 1749, the same time as the British "legally" attained 500,000 acres along the river. This was the last straw; in 1754, the first battles between the French and British began.
West Indies slave labor system
The Caribbean islands served as a staging area for the slave system that would take root elsewhere in English North America. The Barbados slave code of 1661 denied even the most fundamental rights to slaves and gave masters virtually complete control over their laborers, including the right to inflict vicious punishments for even slight infractions.
Explain the role played by France in the American Revolution.
The French wanted revenge against Britain after the French and Indian War, and freeing its American colonies seemed to be the perfect tool to destroy the British Empire. The alliance treaty between the colonies and France bound them to wage war until the US had secured its freedom and until both agreed to terms with the common enemy. Once France entered the war, Spain and Holland joined in as well. Without French involvement, it is highly unlikely that the colonies would have been victorious. The French provided the patriots with guns, money, equipment, a navy, and a good number of armed forces.
John Quincy Adams
The Gag Resolution, an attack on the right of petition, aroused the sleeping lion in Adams, and he waged a successful eight-year fight for its appeal. In 1839, enslaved Africans rebelled aboard the Spanish slave ship Amistad. They seized control of the vessel off the coast of Cuba and attempted to sail back to Africa but were driven ashore on Long Island. After two years of imprisonment and several trials, former president Adams finally secured their freedom in a brilliant, moving argument before the US Supreme Court in 1841, and the Africans returned to the British colony of Sierra Leone in West Africa.
Explain the Great Awakening and its influences on American society.
The Great Awakening was a revolutionary religious movement that began in Massachusetts in the 1730s. Headed by ministers like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield, it reintroduced the idea that parishioners should completely depend on the grace of God instead of believing in salvations through good acts. The infectious and theatrical way George Whitefield preached started a revolution throughout the colonies; skeptics and believers in the Congregational Church and the Presbyterian Church divided them in two, and many of the believers went to the Baptist Church. It made the number of American denominations increase and made them more competitive as well. Many renowned universities like Princeton and Dartmouth were founded as a result of the Great Awakening. It also increased the amount of missionary work done with slaves and Indians and gave the colonies a sense of unity.
Hartford Convention
The Hartford Convention was a convention of Federalists from five New England states who opposed the War of 1812 and resented the strength of Southern and Western interests in Congress and in the White House that took place in late 1814. It was the most spectacular manifestation of Federalist discontent; the delegates met in secret for three weeks to discuss their grievances and to seek redress for their wrongs. It was quite moderate, much less radical than the alarmists supposed.
The Iroquois
The Iroquois Confederacy bound together five Indian nations: the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the Seneca's. According to legend two leaders Deganawida and Hiawatha founded it in the late 1500s. After banding together, the Five Nations vanquished their Native American rivals, but they were defeated by the British later on.
Jay Treaty
The Jay Treaty was signed by the British and Americans. The British promised to evacuate the chain of posts on US soil and to pay damages for the recent seizures of American ships, although they didn't pledge anything about future maritime seizures and impressments or about supplying arms to Indians. The US had to pay the debts still owed to British merchants on pre-Revolutionary accounts. The Democratic-Republican party was outraged because it seemed like an abject surrender to Britain as well as a betrayal of the Jeffersonian South because they would have to pay the major share of the pre-Revolutionary debts, while rich Federalists collected damages for recent British seizures. However, it did spur Spain's haste to strike a deal with the US because Spain feared that the treaty foreshadowed an Anglo-American alliance.
Order of the Star Spangled Banner ("Know Nothings")
The Know-Nothing party was a nativist political party, also known as the American party, which emerged in response to an influx of immigrants, especially Irish Catholics, in the 1850s.
Loyalists/Tories
The Loyalists (derisively called "Tories" after the dominant political party in Britain) believed that no good would come from a break with Britain and that the ragtag Patriot forces were no match for the King's army. They were most numerous where the Anglican Church was the strongest. They made up about 16 percent of the colonial population and were generally conservative, wealthy, and well educated; however, many African Americans sided with the Loyalists in hopes that loyalty towards the crown would result in their freedom. When the war ended, many managed to escape to Nova Scotia, but many were just sold back into slavery in the West Indies after being misleadingly told that they were going to be freed. White Loyalists were arrested and exiled, their property was confiscated, and they lost their legal rights. They also fled abroad, specifically to Britain and Canada, but most stayed in the US.
Maine Law
The Maine Law of 1851, sponsored by Neal S. Dow, the "Father of Prohibition, prohibited the manufacture and sale of alcohol. A dozen other states followed Maine's lead, though most statutes proved ineffective and were repealed within a decade.
Pilgrims sail on Mayflower to Plymouth Bay
The Mayflower missed its destination and arrived off of the coast of New England in 1620. The Pilgrims didn't make their initial landing at Plymouth Rock but undertook a number of preliminary surveys. They finally chose for their site the shore of inhospitable Plymouth Bay. The area was outside the domain of the Virginia Company, and consequently the settlers became squatters.
Cyrus McCormick
The McCormick reaper, created in 1831 by Cyrus McCormick, mechanized the harvest of grains, such as wheat, allowing farmers to cultivate larger plots. The introduction of the reaper in the 1830s fueled the establishment of large-scale commercial agriculture in the Midwest.
Common features of the "Middle Colonies"
The Middle Colonies were New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. They shared the traits of fertile soil, heavy grain exports, and broad expanses of land. The forests were perfect for harvesting lumber and for shipbuilding. Seaports and commerce were stimulated by the deep river estuaries and landlocked harbors. The populations were generally more ethnically mixed than those in the south or north. They had relatively good religious toleration and democratic control as well.
Your text says that while the Missouri Compromise of 1820 lasted thirty four crucial years, in the end it "heralded the future breakup of the Union." Explain.
The Missouri Compromise of 1820 attempted to shove the issue of Southern slavery aside by containing it in the South and not allowing it anywhere else, but it didn't condemn slavery in the South, which was an issue that needed to be addressed at that time, but the nation was still too weak for such a controversial battle about slavery between the North and the South. Because the issue was skirted during the Missouri Compromise, tensions involving slavery would continue to build for the next thirty four years until it ended in war. Also, the violently different opinions on slavery and the predominance of American sectionalism became apparent during the Missouri Compromise.
Explain the relationship between mercantilism, the Navigation Laws, and Britain's efforts to tighten control over colonial trade after 1763.
The Navigation Laws, the first of which was established in 1650, were put into place to regulate shipping and enforce mercantilism in the colonies. Mercantilism was a key idea for the British; by monopolizing the American colonies' trading and by exporting more than they imported, the British were able to bolster their suffering economy, which was deep into debt. They barred the colonists from trading with any country other than Britain and made sure that any ship coming to the colonies passed through a British port first, where a tax would be placed on the goods. However, until the British government began enforcing the laws in 1763, the colonists could easily find ways to smuggle goods and to avoid following the laws. Once the laws actually started to become enforced, they stifled economic initiative and required the Americans to become dependant on the English.
Plymouth
The Plymouth Pilgrims landed in New England in 1620. The little colony of Plymouth was never important economically or numerically. Its population numbered only seven thousand by 1691.
Pony Express
The Pony Express was a short-lived, speedy mail service between Missouri and California that relied on lightweight riders galloping between closely placed outposts. It was in existence from 1860 through 1861.
Treaty of Paris, 1783
The Treaty of Paris of 1783 required the British to recognize the colonies' independence, to grant the US its North American territory (to the Mississippi in the west, the Great Lakes in the north, and to Florida in the south), and to allow the US to have a share in the Newfoundland fisheries. The Americans were required to halt the persecution of Loyalists and to prohibit the creation of laws allowing Americans to flout debts due to British creditors.
Cotton Kingdom
The US had become a huge agricultural factory by the 19th century, specifically a cotton factory. The crop accounted for half the value of all American exports after 1840, and export earnings provided much of the capital that stoked the Republic's economic growth. The South produced more than half of the entire world's supply of cotton. Southern leaders were fully aware that Britain was tied to them by cotton threads, and this dependence gave them a sense of power. In their eyes, "Cotton was King," the gin was his throne, and the black bondsmen were his henchmen. If war should every break out between north and South, northern warships would presumably cut off the outflow of cotton. Fiber-famished British factories would then close their gates, starving mobs would force the London government to break the blockade, and the South would triumph.
Charter of the Virginia Company
The Virginia Company of London, a joint-stock company, received a charter from King James I for a settlement in the New World in 1606. The Charter is a document that guaranteed to the overseas settlers the same rights of Englishmen that they would have enjoyed if they had stayed at home. This helped reinforce the colonists' sense that even on the far shores of the Atlantic, they remained comfortably within the embrace of traditional English institutions.
"Mr. Madison's War"
The War of 1812 was bitterly called this by New England Federalists, who were violently opposed to the war because they sympathized with Britain and resented the Republicans' sympathy with Napoleon, who they hated passionately. The country was divided almost equally in its conflict about declaring war on Britain, which is represented by the very close votes in the House (79 to 49) and in the Senate (19 to 13).
What reasons did Madison give for his request that Congress declare war on Great Britain in 1812?
The actions of the British regarding the Indians, which included supplying them with weapons in order to fight the Americans, were a major selling point Madison used in his request to Congress. He believed that the best way to deal with the Indians was to wipe out their source of weapons, the British in Canada. Another reason Madison gave was his desire to restore confidence in the republican experiment, which had waned due to the discord that had occurred because of the Americans' noble attempt to remain neutral. He argued that only a vigorous assertion of American rights could demonstrate the viability of American nationhood and of democracy; therefore, there was a necessity for America to defend itself.
According to your text, the Declaration of Independence is more like an "explanation of independence." Show multiple reasons why.
The colonies had already technically "declared" independence before the creation of the Declaration of Independence; Richard Henry Lee moved that "these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states" in June 1776. On July 2, 1776, his motion was adopted by the colonies, officially declaring the colonies' independence. Congress decided that something else was needed in order to explain their reasoning. The Declaration of Independence gave the reasons for the Americans' break with the British: the king's many misdeeds and the basic human rights that were denied to the colonists.
Patriots/Whigs
The colonists who supported the American Revolution were known as Patriots or Whigs, after the opposing political party in Britain. Most young colonists were Patriots, including Patrick Henry and Samuel Adams. Rebels were the most numerous where Presbyterianism and Congregationalism flourished, notably in New England.
Describe the ways in which President Madison inherited the foreign policy problems that plagued Jefferson in his second term.
The conflict between the French and the British was still in full force when Madison was sworn into office in 1809. The embargo established by the Non-Intercourse Act created under Jefferson had not expired by this time, so the economic consequences of refusing to trade with Britain and France were still directly affecting the Americans. When the embargo was dismantled through Macon's Bill No. 2, Madison was in an uncomfortable situation; the Bill made it obvious to the French and British that America needed their trade to survive. However, he hoped that if the British saw the Americans and French trading exclusively with one another, they would withdraw their restrictions. Sadly, this did not occur, so Madison had to establish an embargo just against Britain, which he knew could be the last straw for the British and end in war.
Identify key developments in each of the following prior to the Civil War, and show how each contributed to industrialization: a.) manufacturing technology b.) transportation c.) communications technology d.) business organization
The creation of the cotton gin and the introduction of textile machines drastically jump-started industrialization in the US. Cotton now could be easily separated from its seeds and then could be easily turned into textile up north. Eli Whitney also invented the idea of interchangeable parts, a revolutionary idea that would change the way manufacturing was done. The creation of the Erie canal and the steamboat made industrialization easier because goods from the south and the west could reach northern factories much more efficiently than in the past. The invention of the telegraph made communicating over long distances much easier and faster, revolutionizing news gathering, diplomacy, and finance. The principle of limited liability aided the concentration of capital by permitting the individual investor, in cases of legal claims or bankruptcy, to risk no more than his own share of the corporation's stock.
Commonwealth v. Hunt
The decision of this 1842 Massachusetts Supreme Court case strengthened the labor movement by upholding the legality of unions, provided that their methods were "honorable and peaceful." This enlightened decision did not legalize the strike overnight throughout the country, but it was a significant signpost of the times. Trade unions still had a rocky row to hoe, stretching ahead for about a century, before they could meet management on relatively even terms.
Judiciary Act, 1789
The first Congress created this to install effective federal courts. It organized the Supreme Court, with a chief justice (the first of whom was John Jay) and five associates, and also established the federal district and circuit courts along with the office of attorney general.
General Incorporation Law
The first general incorporation laws were established in New York in 1848, meaning that businessmen could create corporations without applying for individual charters from the legislature.
What are the specific protections in the Bill of Rights for a.) individual liberties b.) states' rights?
The individual liberties protected by the Bill of Rights include freedom of religion, speech, and the press. It also protects the right to bear arms and to be tried by a jury along with the right to assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances. It also prohibits cruel and unusual punishment and seizure of private property. The states' rights it protects include the reservation of all rights not explicitly delegated or prohibited by the federal Constitution "to the States respectively, or to the people."
What led the delegates to the Philadelphia Convention of 1787 to conclude that an entirely new system of national government had to be enacted?
The issue with pirates in the Mediterranean region was a major cause of the Philadelphia Convention's decision. Congress needed the power to control taxes in order to obtain commercial treaties with other countries, which wouldn't have been possible with the current Articles. Shays' Rebellion and the "mobocracy" fear also made it a necessity.
the Paxton Boys
The march of the Paxton Boys was an armed protest that took place in 1794 Philadelphia. The leaders were fiery Scots-Irishmen who were angry about the Quaker's relaxed policies regarding the Indians.
Massachusetts Bay colony founded
The most extreme Puritans, known as Separatists, decided to establish a settlement in the Massachusetts area after securing a royal charter to form the Massachusetts Bay Company. They used the charter as a constitution of sorts, making royal control difficult. The colony started in 1630 with nearly a thousand settlers; during the Great Migration of the 1630s about twenty thousand English refugees fled to this area. It became the biggest and most influential of the New England outposts.
Describe the status, influence, and culture of the wealthiest white slaveowners in the South.
The planter aristocrats enjoyed a lion's share of southern wealth. They could educate their children in the finest schools, often in the North or abroad. Their money provided the leisure for study, reflection, and statecraft, as was notably true of men like John C. Calhoun and Jefferson Davis. They felt a keen sense of obligation to serve the public. It was no accident that Virginia and the other southern states produced a higher proportion of front-rank statesmen before 1860 than the "dollar-grubbing" North. Southern aristocrats strove to perpetuate a type of medevialism that had died out in Europe.
sewing machine
The sewing machine, invented by Elias Howe in 1846 and perfected by Isaac Singer, gave a strong boost to northern industrialization. The sewing machine became the foundation of the ready-made clothing industry, which took root about the time of the Civil War.
Robert Fulton
The steamboat craze was touched off by an ambitious painter-engineer named Robert Fulton. In 1807, he installed a powerful steam engine in a vessel that went from New York City up the Hudson River toward Albany, making the run of 150 miles in 32 hours. The success of the steamboat was sensational. It chanced all of America's navigable streams into two-way arteries, thereby doubling their carrying capacity.
transportation revolution
The transportation revolution refers to a series of nineteenth century transportation innovations- turnpikes, steamboats, canals, and railroads- that linked local and regional markets, creating a national economy.
Abigail Adams
The wife of John Adams wrote in a 1776 letter to him that she believed that women deserved the same rights as men and that "the Ladies" were determined "to foment a rebellion" of their own if they were not given political rights. He didn't take her seriously.
1st African slaves (1619)
The year before the Plymouth Pilgrims landed in New England, a Dutch warship appeared off Jamestown and sold some twenty Africans. This transaction planted the seeds of the North American slave system.
How did industry, urbanization, and transportation affect American agriculture?
These factors all allowed American agriculture to expand west rapidly. The ease with which goods could be shipped from the western part of the US to the north using the Erie Canal and steamboats made moving west easier and more profitable for many American citizens. The rise of the cotton gin and textile mills made demand for cotton extremely high, causing cotton country to expand into Alabama and Mississippi.
The Federalist
These famous articles featured in New York newspapers were written by Alexander Hamilton along with John Jay and James Madison. They were designed as propaganda, yet they remain the most penetrating commentary ever written on the Constitution and are still widely sold in book for as The Federalist. the most famous of which was Madison's Federalist No. 10, which brilliantly refuted the conventional wisdom of the day that it was impossible to extend a republican form of government over a large territory.
Tecumseh and the Prophet
These two Shawnee brothers reacted to the influx of white settlers encroaching on Indian land by creating a confederacy of all the tribes east of the Mississippi, which inspired a vibrant movement of Indian unity and cultural renewal. The warriors who followed of the brothers dressed in traditional Indian buckskin garb and swore off alcohol to stay sharp for the upcoming battle with the whites. The brothers urged their supporters to never cede land to whites unless all Indians agreed. The Battle of Tippecanoe discredited the Prophet and drove Tecumseh into an alliance with the British, for whom he fought fiercely until his death in 1813.
clipper ships
These were small, swift vessels used in the 1840s and 1850s and gave American shippers an advantage in the carrying trade. Clipper ships were made largely obsolete by the advent of sturdier, roomier iron steamers on the eve of the Civil War.
What were the successes and failures under the Articles of Confederation?
They clearly outlined the powers allotted to the central government, which included creating a postal service and making treaties, and they also were a unifying factor between the states. However, it only allotted for a very weak Congress; it was actually less effective than the old Continental Congress. With each state only having one vote and all bills requiring the vote of nine states, and any amendment of the Articles requiring a unanimous vote, hardly anything could be accomplished. They also couldn't regulate commerce, meaning each state could establish different laws regarding taxes, and Congress wasn't able to enforce its own tax-collection program as well. While they weren't perfect by any means, they were a crucial step towards the Constitution.
Describe the economic and social lives of the non-slaveowning white majority in the South.
They scratched out a simple living from the thinner soils of the backcountry and mountain valleys. To them the riches of the Cotton Kingdom were a distant dream, and they often sneered at the lordly pretentions of the cotton "snobocracy." These farmers participated in the market economy scarcely at all. As subsistence farmers, they raised corn and hogs, not cotton, and often lived isolated lives, punctuated periodically by extended socializing and sermonizing at religious camp meetings. Some of the least prosperous nonslaveholding whites were scorned even by slaves as "poor white trash." Known as "hillbillies," "crackers," or "clay eaters," they were often described as listless, shiftless, and misshapen. Later investigations have revealed that many of them were not simply lazy but sic, suffering from malnutrition and parasites. All these whites without slaves had no direct economic stake in the preservation of slavery, yet they were among the stoutest defenders of the slave system. They always had the hope of buying a slave or two and of parlaying their paltry holdings into riches. They also took fierce pride in their racial superiority, which would be watered down if the slaves were freed. Many of the poorer whites were hardly better off economically than the slaves; some, indeed, were not as well-off. But even the most wretched whites could take perverse comfort in the knowledge that they outranked someone in status: the still more wretched African American slave. Thus did the logic of economics join with the illogic of racism in buttressing the slave system.
Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions
They were statements secretly drafted by Jefferson and Madison for the legislatures of Kentucky and Virginia. They argued that states were the final arbiters of whether the federal government overstepped its boundaries and could therefore nullify, or refuse to accept, national legislation they deemed unconstitutional.
George Whitefield
This English minister, formerly an alehouse attendant, had an amazing gift for public speaking. His eloquence reduced Jonathan Edwards to tears and even caused the skeptical and thrifty Benjamin Franklin to empty his pockets into the collection plate. His sermons had the same messages as Edwards': those of an all-powerful, all-knowing God and of humans' helplessness
Dewitt Clinton
This New York governor's major project was the Erie Canal which linked the Great Lakes to the Hudson River. The creation of the Canal caused the value of land along the rout to skyrocket and the formation of new cities. Industry in New York and the Old Northwest in general prospered.
Macon's Bill #2
This bargaining measure was used by Congress to dismantle the embargo in 1810 by reopening American trade with the world. It also attempted to attract Britain and France by stating that whichever one of them repealed its commercial restrictions would have open trade with America, while the embargo would be reestablished with the other country. While it basically admitted that the US couldn't survive without either Britain or France as a commercial ally, it also left the ball that would determine which country would be the American ally in the other countries' hands. When Napoleon offered to lift his restrictions on British ports, the US was forced to declare an embargo on Britain, thereby pushing the two nations closer to war.
the Battle of New Orleans
This battle occurred in January 1815 and was a resounding victory of American forces against the British. It restored American confidence and fueled an outpouring of nationalism. It was the final battle of the War of 1812.
Battle of Tippecanoe
This battle occurred in the fall of 1811 in the Indiana wilderness. In an attempt to weaken the Indians, the governor of Indiana Territory, William Henry Harrison, gathered an army that advanced on the headquarters of Tecumseh, who was absent. His brother, the Prophet, attacked Harrison's army with a small Shawnee force, but they were defeated badly, and their settlement was burned. The Battle of Tippecanoe discredited the Prophet and drove Tecumseh into an alliance with the British (against the US), for whom he fought fiercely until his death in 1813.
Georgia: James Oglethorpe & the Buffer colony
This colony was founded in 1733 and was the last of the thirteen colonies to be created. The English crown intended Georgia to serve chiefly as a buffer. It would protect the more valuable Carolinas against vengeful Spaniards from Florida and against the hostile French from Louisiana. One of the founders of the colony, James Oglethorpe was interested in prison reform, repelled Spanish attacks as an able military leader, and saved "the Charity Colony" by his energetic leadership and by heavily mortgaging his own personal fortune.
Mayflower Compact
This document was a simple agreement to form a crude government and to submit to the will of the majority under the regulations agreed upon. The compact was signed by forty-one adult males and was a promising step toward genuine self-government. It set an invaluable precedent for later written constitutions.
Frederick Douglass
This free black abolitionist leader was a former slave and a self-educated orator of rare power. Escaping from bondage in 1838 at the age of twenty-one, he was "discovered" by the abolitionists in 1841 when he gave a stunning impromptu speech at an antislavery meeting in Massachusetts. Thereafter he lectured widely for the cause, despite frequent beatings and threats against his life. In 1845 he published his classic autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. It depicted his remarkable origins as the son of a black slave woman and a white father, his struggle to learn to read and write, and his eventual escape to the North. Douglass whas as flexibly practical as Garrison was stubbornly principled. He increasingly looked to politics to end the blight of slavery.
Quakers
This group, officially known as the Religious Society of Friends, arose in England during the mid-1600s. They refused to support the established Church of England with taxes, making them the bain of the authorities. They hated strife and warfare and refused military service. In the Bay Colony, Quakers were persecuted with fines, beatings, and banishment for flouting the authority of the Puritan clergy. Four Quakers who defied expulsion were hanged on the Boston Common. They were abused but were sheltered by Roger Williams despite differences in beliefs.
"gag resolution"
This law prohibited debate or action on antislavery appeals. Driven through the house by pro-slavery Southerners, the gag resolution passed every year for eight years, eventually overturned with the help of John Quincy Adams.
cotton gin
This machine was invented by Eli Whitney in 793 and it sped up the process of harvesting cotton. The gin made cotton cultivation more profitable, revitalizing the Southern economy and increasing the importance of slavery in the South.
John Peter Zenger
This newspaper printer was involved in the renowned New York legal case of 1734-1735 known as the Zenger trial. His newspaper had criticized the corrupt New York governor, so he was arrested and charged with seditious libel. His lawyer who was a former indentured servant, Andrew Hamilton told the jury that "the very liverty of both exposing and opposing arbitrary power" was at stake, which convinced the jury to rule in favor of Zenger. It was a banner achievement for freedom of the press and for democracy.
Whiskey Rebellion
This rebellion flared up in southwestern Pennsylvania in 1794 in retaliation to the high excise tax on whiskey, which to those pioneer folk was a burden on an economic necessity and a medium of exchange. They erected whiskey poles (like liberty poles) and raised the cry "Liberty and No Excise," along with tarring and feathering revenue officers. The revolt was miniscule and only three rebels were killed, but its consequences were mighty. Washington's government commanded a new respect although its foes condemn its brutal display of force.
Stono River Rebellion
This rebellion was a South Carolina slave revolt that occurred in 1739 when over 50 slaves tried to go to Spanish Florida. The local militia stopped them.
New York uprising
This revolt occurred in 1712; nine whites were killed, and so twenty-one blacks were executed. Some of them were burned at the stake over a slow fire.
Shays' Rebellion
This revolt occurred in 1786 in Western Massachussetts and was instigated by Captain Daniel Shays who was a Revolutionary War veteran along with hundreds of poor backcountry farmers armed with muskets who were losing their farms because of foreclosures and tax delinquencies. They demanded that the state issue paper money, lighten taxes, and suspend property takeovers. The Massachusetts government responded drastically; they raised a small army, and several scuffles took place. During one skirmish in Springfield, three dissenters were killed, and one was wounded. The revolt was eventually crushed, but in response the legislature passed debtor-relief laws.
Unitarianism
This sect of Christianity, inspired in part by Deism, first caught on in New England at the end of the eighteenth century. Unitarians believed in a unitary deity, instead of the orthodox Trinity (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit). They also rejected the divinity of Christ but emphasized the inherent goodness of mankind. They proclaimed their belief in free will and the possibility of salvation through good works. They pictured God not as a stern Creator but as a loving Father. Unitarianism appealed most to intellectuals whose rationalism and optimism contrasted sharply with the hellfire doctrines of Calvinism, especially predestination and human depravity.
John Calvin
This severe and somber religious leader elaborated Martin Luther's ideas in ways that profoundly affected the thought and character of generations of Americans yet unborn. Calvinism became the dominant theological credo of several groups of American settlers including the New England Puritans. He believed that God was all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-good. Humans, because of the corrupting effect of original sin, were weak and wicked.
headright system
This system used in both Maryland and Virginia helped encourage the importation of servant workers; whoever paid the passage of a laborer received the right to acquire fifty acres of land. It was more beneficial to the masters than to the servants themselves because they were able to purchase vast amounts of real estate with this money acquired, making them the great merchant planters who dominated the southern colonies.
Treaty of Ghent
This treaty (basically an armistice), signed on Christmas Eve 1814, ended the War of 1912 in a virtual draw. It restored prewar borders but failed to address any of the grievances that first brought America into the war, including the Indian menace, search and seizure, Orders in Council, impressment, and confiscation, proof that the Americans had not defeated the British.
Pinckney Treaty
This treaty of 1795 with Spain granted the Americans virtually everything they demanded, including free navigation of the Mississippi River, the right of deposit (warehouse rights) at New Orleans, and the large disputed territory of western Florida.
the Regulator movement
This uprising that occurred in North Carolina a few years after the march of the Paxton Boys was also unsurprisingly led by the hotheaded Scots-Irish, one of which was future president Andrew Jackson. The rebels were angry that the eastern Carolinians were dominating the colony's affairs. Many of the men joined the American rebels during the American Revolution.
Leisler's Rebellion
This uprising was caused from resentment against upper-class pretentions. In New York animosity between lordly landholders and aspiring merchants fueled this ill-starred and bloody insurgence that rocked NYC from 1689 to 1691.
New Harmony
This was a communal society of around one thousand members, established in New Harmony, Indiana by Robert Owen. It attracted a hodgepodge of individuals, from scholars to crooks, and fell apart due to infighting and confusion just two years after its creation in 1825.
The Great Compromise
This was a compromise between the New York Plan and the New Jersey Plan. The New York Plan supported the large states; it stated that population should decide the number of representatives in both houses of bicameral Congress. The New Jersey Plan called for equal representation for each state, regardless of size and population, in a unicameral Congress. The Great Compromise decided that the number of representatives each state had in the House of Representatives would depend on population, while all states would have two senators, and therefore equal representation, in the Senate. To appease the big states, it was decided that every tax bill or revenue measure must originate in the House, where population counted more heavily.
Hudson River School
This was a mid-nineteenth century American artistic movement that produced romantic renditions of local landscapes. Due to the nationalistic upsurge after the War of 1812, American painters of portraits turned increasingly from human landscapes to romantic mirrorings of local landscapes.
Transcendentalism
This was a mid-nineteenth century literary and intellectual movement that emphasized individualism and self-reliance. It predicated upon a belief that each person possesses an "inner-light" that can point the way to truth and direct contact to God. It resulted in part from a liberalizing of the Puritan theology. It owed much to foreign influences, including the German romantic philosophers and the religions of Asia. The transcendentalists rejected the prevailing theory, derived from John Locke, that all knowledge comes to the mind through the sense. Truth, rather, "transcends" the senses: it cannot be found by observation alone. Every person possesses an inner light that can illuminate the highest truth and put him or her in direct touch with God, or the "Oversoul."
Halfway Covenant
This was a new formula for church membership introduced by troubled ministers in 1662. It allowed children of baptized but not-yet-converted existing members to be baptized (not full communion however). It weakened the distinction between the "elect" and others, making the community even less spiritually pure as before; strict religious purity was sacrificed to the cause of wider religious participation.
Jeremiad
This was a new kind of sermon created by Puritan preachers in the mid-seventeenth century that scolded the congregations for the decline in conversions and their waning piety. They get their name from the doom-saying Old Testament prophet Jeremiah.
Burned Over District
This was a popular name for Western New York, a region particularly swept up in the religious fervor of the Second Great Awakening. The Millerites and Mormons came out of this region.
Tammany Hall
This was a powerful New York political machine, established in 1789, that primarily drew support from the city's immigrants, especially the Irish, who depended on Tammany Hall patronage, particularly social services. The new Irish involvement in politics led to their votes being sought after by politicians.
"peculiar institution"
This was a widely used term for the institution of American slavery in the South. Its use in the first half of the 19th century reflected a growing division between the North, where slavery was gradually abolished, and the South, where slavery became increasingly entrenched.
The Liberator
This was an antislavery newspaper published by William Lloyd Garrison, who called for the immediate emancipation of all slaves, from 1831 to 1865.
Liberty party
This was an antislavery party (1840-1848) that ran candidates in the 1840 and 1844 elections before emerging with the Free Soil Party. Supporters of the Liberty party sought the eventual abolition of slavery, but in the short term hoped to halt he expansion of slavery into the territories and abolish the domestic slave trade.
"Molly Maguires"
This was the nickname for a secret organization of Irish miners that campaigned, at times violently, against poor working conditions in the Pennsylvania mines in the 1860s and 1870s.
Thomas Jefferson
This wealthy Virginian lawyer was commissioned by the Second Continental Congress to draft the Declaration of Independence at the age of 33. As the Declaration of Independence demonstrates, he had a true talent for writing.
Phyllis Wheatly
This woman began life as a slave and was never formally educated, but she taught herself how to read and write. While living in England she published a book of poetry that is considered one of the best of its time.
Henry David Thoreau
Thoreau (1817-1862) was Emerson's close associate- a poet, mystic, transcendentalist, and nonconformist. Condemning a government that supported slavery, he refused to pay his Massachusetts poll tax and was jailed for a night. A gifted prose writer, he is well known for his work Walden. The book is a record of Thoreau's two years of simple existence in a hut that he built on the edge of Walden Pond, near Concord, Massachusetts. A stiff-necked individualist, he believed that he should reduce his bodily wants as to gain time for a pursuit of truth through study and meditation. Walden and his essay On the Duty of Civil Disobedience exercised a strong influence in furthering idealistic thought, both in America and abroad. His writings later encouraged Mahatma Gandhi to resist British rule in India and, still later, inspired the development of American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.'s thinking about nonviolence.
Scots-Irish
Thousands and thousands of the Scots-Irish migrated to America, especially Pennsylvania, in the early 1700s because of the dire economic situation the English had created by restricting their woolen and linen production. Many of them were squatters in the American frontier, and they were among the first to settle out West. As a people they were known for defying the government in the march of the Paxton Boys and the Regulator movement, their restlessness and ramshackle settlements that were only inhabited for brief periods of time before the Scots-Irish moved on, and their lack of qualms about fighting with the Indians or the white landowners.
What "safeguards for conservatism" were embedded in the Constitution?
To eliminate the fear of "mobocracy," the Constitution appointed federal judges for life. Also, the president and the senators would be chosen by indirect voting, specifically by the Electoral College and by state legislatures respectively. The only direct democratic elections were for the House of Representatives.
In what specific ways did the Revolution foster equality in America, and in what areas did true equality remain elusive?
Trade organizations for artisans and laborers were created, several states abolished primogeniture laws, and the slave trade was abolished. The issue of slavery had still not been resolved after the Revolution because the political leaders were worried that a conflict over it would tear the new country's fragile unity apart. The role of mothers and women in general became more prominent during and after the Revolution. While their husbands were away fighting, they were completely in charge of their households, meaning that every aspect of living was on the shoulders of a single human being in each house instead of spread across two people like they were when the men were around. After the Revolution, the idea of republican motherhood became popular; women were educated just enough to be able to raise their sons to be law-abiding, virtuous citizens. This was obviously not truly equality for women; they didn't have suffrage or much power at all, but their role in society was more respected.
Sojourner Truth
Truth was a freed black woman in New York who fought tirelessly for black emancipation and women's rights.
Explain the developments in immigration during this era, and the "nativist" reactions to immigrants.
Turmoil in European countries, especially Germany and Ireland, led to a major increase of American immigrants in the mid-1800s. The huge numbers of these immigrants, most of whom were Catholic, worried many Americans. Catholicism was considered a foreign religion at the time, and the nativist Americans believed that the dramatic increase of these Catholic immigrants could turn American into a Catholic nation, a sentiment that terrified them. The threat of a Catholic country was not the only issue Americans had with the influx of immigrants. These immigrants would work cheaply and take jobs from "real" Americans. In response to these issues, the Know-Nothing party was established, consisting of nativists who wanted strict restrictions on immigration and naturalization and for laws authorizing the deportation of alien paupers.
Nat Turner
Turner was a semiliterate, visionary black preacher who led an uprising that slaughtered about sixty Virginians, mostly women and children, in 1831. Reprisals were swift and bloody, and Nat Turner's rebellion was soon extinguished. It sent a wave of hysteria sweeping over the snowy cotton fields, and planters in growing numbers slept with pistols by their pillows.
Indentured servitude
Unemployed farmers and workers from England traded working for Chesapeake masters for generally four to seven years in return for a "free" trip to the British colonies and "freedom dues" after their years of work, which included some corn, clothing, a hoe and ax, and, in some cases, a little plot of land. About 100,00 indentured servants had traveled to the Chesapeake area by 1700.
Seneca Falls Convention and Declaration of Sentiments
Unflinching feminists met in 1848 in this memorable convention in Seneca Falls, New York. Stanton read a "Declaration of Sentiments," which in the spirit of the Declaration of Independence declared that "all men and women are created equal." One resolution formally demanded the ballot for females. Amid scorn and denunciation from press and pulpit, the Seneca Falls meeting launched the modern women's rights movement.
Describe the characteristics of the new state constitutions adopted during and after the Revolution. In what ways did they break new political ground and foster greater equality, and in what ways did they continue colonial political practices?
Unlike British "constitutions," the new American state constitutions were written documents that defined the powers of the government; the fact that they were written made them superior to and more important than ordinary legislature. Most importantly, the governments under these constitutions were derived from the people, not a king. However, weak executive and judicial branches were created (purposefully) because the Americans were still distrustful of them after the reign of corrupt British officials. The legislatures were given the most power and were the most democratic of all of the branches.
While fighting began in the spring of 1775, colonial representatives did not declare independence from Great Britain until the summer of 1776. Explain.
Until the addition of German mercenaries into the British army and the burnings of Falmouth and Norfolk along with the radical ideas of Paine's Common Sense, the colonists as a whole were wary of breaking from the British Empire. In July of 1775, the Second Continental Congress even created the Olive Branch Petition, professing American loyalty to the king and begging him to prevent further hostilities, which he disregarded following the battle of Bunker Hill. Most Americans considered themselves British citizens still and were loyal to the King; Britain was their mother country. The hiring of the Hessians and the burning of American towns horrified the colonists and Paine opened their eyes to the British goal of crushing the colonists, causing them to declare independence.
Denmark Vesey
Vesey was a free black who led an ill-fated rebellion in Charleston, South Carolina in 1822.Betrayed by informers, Vesey and more than thirty followers were publicly strung from the gallows.
John Smith
Virginia was saved from utter collapse at the start largely by the leadership and resourcefulness of the young adventurer Captain John Smith. He took over in 1608, whipping the gold-hungry colonists into line with the rule, "He who shall not work shall not eat."
David Walker
Walker's incendiary Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World (1829) advocated a bloody end to white supremacy.
Washington's Neutrality Proclamation
Washington issued this in 1793 after the outbreak of war between Britain and France. It proclaimed the government's official neutrality in the conflict and sternly warned Americans to be impartial toward both armed camps. It proved to be a major prop of the spreading isolationist tradition along with being very controversial. The pro-British Federalists were heartened while the pro-French Jeffersonians were enraged. The neutrality actually favored France because if the Americans had entered the war, the British would have blockaded the American coast and cut off those essential supplies.
What early steps did Washington take to shape operations of the Executive Branch?
Washington notably established the cabinet in 1789, which consisted of the heads of the executive branch departments. At this time, the different positions in the cabinet were Secretary of State, Secretary of Treasury, and Secretary of War. This establishment was not written in the Constitution, but it became customary to have cabinet meetings during Washington's administration.
Noah Webster
Webster (1758-1843) was a Yale-educated Connecticut Yankee, known as the "Schoolmaster of the Republic," who aided educational advances in America by improving textbooks. His "reading lessons," used by millions of children in the nineteenth century, were partly designed to promote patriotism. Webster devoted twenty years to his famous dictionary, published in 1828, which helped to standardize he American language.
Theodore Dwight Weld
Weld was an American abolitionist who had been evangelized by Charles Grandison Finney in New York's Burned-Over District in the 1820s. Self-educated and simple in manner and speech, he appealed with special power and directness to his rural audiences of untutored farmers. He was materially aided by two wealthy and devout New York merchants, the brothers Arthur and Lewis Tappan. In 1832 they paid his way to Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati. Expelled along with several other students in 1834 for organizing an eighteen-day debate on slavery, Weld and his fellow "Lane Rebels"- full of the energy and idealism of youth- fanned out across the old Northwest to preach the antislavery gospel. Humorless and deadly earnest, Weld also assembled a potent propaganda pamphlet, American Slavery as It Is in 1839. Its compelling arguments made it among the most effective abolitionist tracts and greatly influenced Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin.
Rhode Island colony founded
When Roger Williams founded a Baptist church in this area in 1636, he established religious tolerance for all religions, even Judaism and Catholicism. This made Rhode Island more liberal than any other New World colony. Because of the settlements of Massachusetts Bay exiles in the area, it became known as "Rogue's Island," an area for people who weren't welcome anywhere else. It began as a squatter colony in 1636 but established rights to the land in 1644 when it secured a charter.
triangular trade
While it was a rather small part of the colonies' trade, it was ridiculously profitable for the traders who traded between the New England colonies, the Gold Coast of Africa, and the West Indies. The traders started with a cargo of rum that they would trade to African chiefs for slaves who they would bring to the West Indies to trade for molasses, which would be taken back to the colonies to be made into rum. The rum would then be sent to the Gold Coast to complete the cycle, one that ended in much income for the traders.
Emma Willard
Willard (1787-1870) helped women's schools at the secondary level to attain some respectability in the 1820s. In 1821 she established the Troy (New York) Female Seminary.
The Philadelphia Constitution has been described as a "bundle of compromises." Explain.
Without the Great Compromise, the Constitution as we know it would not exist. Either one of the conflicting New Jersey or New York Plans could have been established, but the Great Compromise created our federal legislative branch. The New York Plan supported the large states; it stated that population should decide the number of representatives in both houses of bicameral Congress. The New Jersey Plan called for equal representation for each state, regardless of size and population, in a unicameral Congress. The Great Compromise decided that the number of representatives each state had in the House of Representatives would depend on population, while all states would have two senators, and therefore equal representation, in the Senate. To appease the big states, it was decided that every tax bill or revenue measure must originate in the House, where population counted more heavily. Another compromise that was included in the Constitution was the three-fifths compromise, which allowed slaves to count as three-fifths of a person regarding to population, which was important for the number of representatives in the House of Representatives. The South wanted slaves to count towards the population while the North didn't.
Brigham Young
Young seized the falling torch of Mormonism after Joseph Smith's death in 1844. Stern and austere in contrast to Smith's charm and affability, Young had only received eleven days of formal schooling. However, he quickly proved to be an aggressive leader, an eloquent preacher, and a gifted administrator. Determined to escape further persecution, Young in 1846-1847 led his oppressed and despoiled Mormons to Utah. Under his rigidly disciplined management, the community became a prosperous frontier theocracy and a cooperative commonwealth. He married as many as twenty-seven women and begot fifty-six children.
In 2-3 sentences for each of the below, explain Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton's plans for a.) fixing the debt problems faced by the United States b.) raising revenue c.) a national bank
a.) Hamilton believed it was necessary for Congress to pay off its debts at face value, which was known as "funding at par." He also thought they needed to assume completely the debts incurred by the states during the Revolution, known as "assumption." He thought this would help unify the states and attach them more firmly to the federal government. b.) The only way to be able to pay off the $54 million dollar debt owed by the federal government would be by enforcing customs duties, which relied on foreign trade. Another major part of Hamilton's plan to raise revenue was enforcing internal tariffs on domestic goods like whiskey. c.) Hamilton believed that a private bank modeled after the Bank of England where the government would be the major stockholder and the federal Treasury could deposit its surplus money would help to stimulate business and provide a strongbox for the government. It would also print the paper money needed in the US while providing a stable national currency.
Evaluate each of the following factors as causes of Bacon's Rebellion in 1676, and determine which you feel was most critical: a.) resentment felt by backcountry farmers b.) Governor Berkeley's Indian policies c.) pressures of the tobacco economy.
a.) Resentment felt by backcountry farmers- Many of the rebels were frontiersmen who had been forced into the untamed backcountry in search of arable land. This was the most critical cause because if they hadn't been disfranchised and banished to the frontier, they wouldn't have been discontent to begin with. They wouldn't have been on the frontier when the Indian attacks occurred either. b.) Governor Berkeley's Indian policies- The rebels decided the last straw was when Governor Berkley refused to strike back at the Indians after multiple violent attacks on the frontier. c.) Pressures of the tobacco economy- Tobacco country was brutal for these young men; they were unsuccessful at acquiring land or wives.
Write a clearly developed sentence or two for each component of the following question: Compare and contrast the southern and New England colonies in terms of each of the following: • Geography/climate • mortality rates • gender ratios • family relationships
• Geography/climate- The climate of New England could only be described as extreme with its bitterly cold winters and unpleasantly hot summers; in comparison, the southern climate was hostile to the health of its settlers. New England's notoriously stony soil and mountainous terrain proved to be perfect for various agricultural products while the hot, humid Southern climate and its broad, fertile expanses provided an ideal setting for tobacco. • Mortality rates- By immigrating to New England, the settlers added ten years to their lives, living to the age of seventy on average. In contrast, southerners died young because of the hostile environment. • Gender ratios- Because of the low mortality rate in the South, many women were left as widows, while both women and men lived a long time in the North. • Family relationships- Family ties were much stronger in the New England colonies because the immigrants who migrated there generally came in families. The Southerners frequently migrated as individuals.
List several examples of distinctively "American" ways of life that had emerged in both the southern and New England colonies by the end of the seventeenth century.
• Having a village green in the middle of a town • No true "aristocracy," even the upper class worked in Southern society • Family burial plots were created in the South because the roads were so terrible and difficult to travel on during inclement weather. • "Yankee ingenuity" was fostered by the flinty fields and comfortless climate of New England • Scratching a living from the protesting earth; penny pinching frugality
To what extent did Jefferson, as president, remain true to his constitutional principles?
- he didn't remove many of Hamilton's policies he had formerly scorned, like the Bank of the United States or the "funding at par" plan, even thought he had previously called the Bank unconstitutional - however, he did disestablish the excise tax because it was so unpopular and bore so heavily on the farmers who were loyal to him although this decision cost the US about a million dollars a year.
How did foreign policy issues affect partisanship in this era?
-The Jeffersonians were fine with the large fleet of fast little coastal vessels that Jefferson proposed would guard American shores, but the Federalists hated them and contemptuously called them the "mosquito fleet." - The Louisiana Purchase of 1803 was wildly popular with most Americans because the large expanse of land was bought so cheaply. - The Embargo Act infuriated many American citizens, especially Jeffersonian Southerners and Westerners, who had no livelihood if they couldn't trade their goods with Europe.
Why was the election of Jefferson a test of the American republican experiment?
-his party members were "true heirs of a republican government" -common man won election - ironic- elected b/c of 3/5ths clause - Hamilton and Adams had betrayed many of the republican beliefs of the Revolution, but Jefferson's mission was to restore that experiment, to check the growth of government power, and to halt the decay of virtue that had set under Federalist rule -partisanship is working -the peaceful and orderly transfer of power on the basis of an election whose results all parties accepted - no violent revolution IS a revolution in and of itself - remarkable achievement for the young nation, esp. after the strong partisan divide during Adams' presidency - the ease with which the power was transferred was not found in Britain for another generation
Land Ordinance
1785: This was the first law regarding the area known as the "Old Northwest," which lay northwest of the Ohio River, east of the Mississippi River, and south of the Great Lakes. It declared that the land in this region should be sold to help pay off the national debt after the land was surveyed before sale and settlement to eliminate confusion. The land was to be divided into six square mile townships, which would be split into thirty-six sections of one square mile each. The sixteenth section would be set aside to be sold for the public school system's benefit. It was very orderly which contrasted with the land south of the Ohio River.
Northwest Ordinance
1787: These laws related to the governing of the Old Northwest and came to grips with the poroblem of how a nation should deal with its colonies (just like the problem Britain suffered from). The law was a compromise; temporary tutelage, then permanent equality. Two evolutionary territorial stages where the area would be subordinate to the federal government would occur first. Once a territory had sixty thousand inhabitants, it could be admitted by Congress as a state that would have the same privileges as the thirteen original colonies. It also forbade slavery in the Old Northwest.
Give specific examples of "American nationalism" that emerged as a result of the War of 1812.
A distinct pride in all aspects of American culture appeared after the War of 1812 including in areas such as literature, art, finance, and manufacturing. Notable writers like Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper were among the first American novelists who became well known during this time period for books written about America. Textbooks for American schools began to be written by Americans as well. As romanticism emerged, paintings of the American landscape became popular also. A new Bank of the United States was created by Congress in 1816, and the army was expanded. Congress also passed the Tariff of 1816, which was created to shield New England manufacturers from the inflow of British goods after the war, and was the first protective tariff in American history, and the nationalistic American System was established, partially from an outcry for better transportation that was especially strong in the West.
Molasses Act
A good portion of the American trade business was dependent on the West Indies, especially the French West Indies. The English government was pressured by English West Indies planters to make this trade relationship cease, and they attempted to do so by passing the Molasses Act in 1733. However, the Americans easily managed to work around this law. If they hadn't been able to, the economic success America was currently experiencing would have gone down the drain. This attempt foreshadows the American Revolution; Parliament's apparent attempt to crush the Americans' spirits will result in revolt instead of submission.
Explain why the North became increasingly industrialized, while the South lagged in manufacturing.
A major factor in the lack of industrialization in the South was the large slave population, which made it less viable to increase manufacturing in an area where slave labor was easily found and where good farmland was abundant. Also, the majority of Southerners were quite poor, so creating a market for textiles would be much more difficult there. The north was perfect for industry because its lack of good farmland. Other factors were the numerous seaports perfect for importation and exportation of goods, a dense population, and a multitude of rivers that were used as energy sources. The large population also supplied the area with markets needed to sell the goods created in the factories.
XYZ Affair
After Jay's Treaty, Adams sent three diplomats to try to smooth things over in France, but three go-betweens known as X, Y, and Z demanded an unneutral loan of about $250000 for the privilege of merely talking with Talleyrand. While the Americans knew that bribes were standard diplomatic devices in Europe, negotiations quickly broke down. It sent a wave of war hysteria sweeping through the US. The slogan of the hour was "Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute." Federalists were delighted at this turn of affairs, while most Jeffersonians hung their heads in shame over the misbehavior of their French friends.
Three-Fifths Compromise
After the Great Compromise decided that the House of Representatives and apportioning direct taxes depended on population, the southern states argued that slaves should count towards the population while the northern states argued that as citizens, they didn't count. A compromise was reached where a slave would count as three-fifths of a person.
Millerites
Also known as Adventists, Millerites rose from the Burned-Over District in the 1830s. Named after the eloquent and commanding William Miller, they interpreted the Bible to mean that Christ would return to earth on October 22, 1844. Donning their go-to-meeting clothes, they gathered in prayerful assemblies to greet their Redeemer. The failure of Jesus to descend on schedule dampened but did not destroy the movement.
What events led to the proclamation by President Monroe that came to be known as "The Monroe Doctrine?" Why is this significant to U.S. foreign policy?
America was thrilled by the creation of sister republics in Chile, Venezuela, Argentina, and other South American countries who had thrown off the rule of the Spanish monarchy during the 1810's. In contrast, the European monarchies, including Russia, Austria, Prussia, and France, were alarmed by this outburst of democracy and decided to send their militaries to Latin America in order to restore monarchial rule there. Both America and Britain disagreed with this plan, and so British foreign secretary George Canning proposed creating a joint declaration with America renouncing their interest in acquiring territory in Latin America and warning European leaders to stay away from the republics as well. Although the Americans decided it was unnecessary to take up the British on their offer, they did decide to use the protection of Britain to issue the Monroe Doctrine, which stressed noncolonization and nonintervention while issuing a stern warning to the European powers. The Monroe Doctrine had no true contemporary significance; however, it was an expression of the nationalism that came out of the war of 1812 and deepened the illusion of isolationalism.
Describe the growing conflicts between white Americans and American Indians that fueled conflict with Britain by 1812.
Americans were becoming increasingly land-hungry and started driving even more Native Americans out of their homelands in order to settle there. The actions of the Americans led to warring between the natives and them, like in the Battle of Tippecanoe. The British took advantage of the heightened tensions by supplying the Indians with weapons, hoping to weaken the Americans and strengthen their alliance with the natives; however, these actions were a main reason for America's declaration of war against the British.
Susan B. Anthony
Anthony was a Quaker-reared, militant lecturer for women's rights, who fearlessly exposed herself to rotten garbage and vulgar epithets. She became such a conspicuous advocate of female rights that progressive women everywhere were called "Suzy Bs."
George Washington
As one of the few ranking military officers in the colonies, he was chosen by the Second Continental Congress to preside over the Patriot army. He was a wealthy Virginian planter who had fought alongside the British in the French and Indian War and had military experience; however, he lost more battles than he won. Although lacking in true military prowess, he possessed outstanding leadership skills and was known for his strong character along with his patience and courage. He insisted in serving his country without pay.
colonization movement
Because of the widespread loathing of blacks, some of the earliest abolitionists efforts focused on transporting blacks bodily back to Africa. The American Colonization Society was founded for this purpose in 1817, and in 1822 the Republic of Liberia, on the fever-stricken West African coast, was established for former slaves. Its capita, Monrovia, was named after President Monroe. Some fifteen thousand freed blacks were transported there over the next four decades. But most blacks had no wish to be transplanted into a strange civilization after becoming partially Americanized. By 1860, virtually all southern slaves were no longer Africans, but native-born African Americans, with their own distinctive culture and history. Yet the colonization idea appealed to some antislaveryites, including Abraham Lincoln, until the time of the Civil War.
Oligarchy
Before the Civil War, the South was in some respects not so much a democracy as an oligarchy- or a government by the few, in this case heavily influenced by a planter aristocracy. In 1850 only 1,733 families owned more than 100 slaves each, and this select group provided the cream of the political and social leadership of the section and nation. The planter aristocrats enjoyed a lion's share of southern wealth. Dominance by a favored aristocracy was basically undemocratic. It widened the gap between rich and poor. It hampered tax-supported public education, because the rich planters could and did send their children to private institutions.
What were the specific proposals made by Congressman Henry Clay that became known as the "American System?"
Better transportation by building roads and canals was a sentiment Clay shared with Westerners, who were quite passionate about it because of the poor roads. According to Clay, funds from a protective tariff, which would be established to help bolster eastern manufacturing, could be used for the purpose of making these new roads and canals. The American System would also provide easy and abundant credit through a strong banking system.
Middle Passage
Black slaves who were taken from their homes in Africa had to take a long, dangerous voyages on incredibly cramped slave ships to reach America. They were generally bound and branded, and as many as 20% of the slaves died during this portion of the trip.
Think about how you would define democracy. In a short paragraph, develop an argument as to whether colonial politics had or had not become more democratic by the 1760s.
By the 1760s, America was not the same democracy its citizens know today, nor was it fully self-governing socially, economically, or politically; however, it was certainly more democratic than it was in the 17th century. Most colonies had a two-house legislative body, although in most colonies the English government or the proprietor of that colony generally selected the upper house, except in Connecticut and Rhode Island, which were self governing. The Zenger trial is an example of the court system ruling in favor of freedom of the press, a right eventually added to the Constitution in the 1st Amendment. While America still had much to improve in the 1760s, it was certainly on the right track towards becoming a true democracy.
Shakers
Called "Shakers" for their lively dance worship, they emphasized simple, communal living and were all expected to practice celibacy. First transplanted to America from England by Mother Ann Lee around 1770, the Shakers counted six thousand members by 1840, though by the 1940s the movement had largely died out because of their monastic customs prohibiting both marriage and sexual relations.
Characteristics of the Carolinas
Carolina prospered by developing close economic ties with the flourishing sugar islands of the English West Indies. Many Carolina settlers had emigrated from Barbados, explaining why the slave system was the same in both colonies. Carolina itself had a vigorous slave trade; manacled Indians were also among the young colony's major exports.
Peter Cartwright
Cartwright (1785-1872) was the best known of the Methodist "circuit riders," or traveling frontier preachers. This ill-educated but sinewy servant of the Lord ranged for half a century from Tennessee to Illinois, calling upon sinners to repent. With bellowing voice and flailing arms, he converted thousands of souls to the Lord. Not only did he lash the Devil with his tongue, but with his fists he knocked out rowdies who tried to break up his meetings. His Christianity was definitely muscular.
Catharine Beecher and the "Cult of Domesticity"
Catharine Beecher was the unmarried daughter of a famous preacher and the sister of Harriet Beecher Stowe; she urged women to enter into the teaching profession. The Cult of Domesticity was a pervasive nineteenth-century cultural creed that venerated the domestic role of women. It gave married women greater authority to shape home life but limited opportunities outside the domestic sphere.
Describe the working conditions and social lives of slaves, and some of the ways in which slaves coped with their circumstances.
Conditions varied greatly from region to region. Everywhere, however, slavery meant hard work, ignorance, and oppression. The slaves toiled from dawn to dusk in the fields, under the watchful eyes and whip-ready hand of a white overseer or black "driver." They had no civil or political rights, other than minimal protection from arbitrary murder or unusually cruel punishment. Some states offered further protections, such as banning the sale of a child under the age of ten away from his or her mother. But all laws were difficult to enforce, since slaves were forbidden to testify in court or even to have their marriages legally recognized. Floggings were common and strong-willed slaves were sometimes sent to breakers, whose technique consisted mostly in lavish laying on of the lash. A majority of blacks lived on larger plantations that harbored communities of twenty or more slaves. In some counties of the Deep South, especially along the lower Mississippi River, blacks accounted for more than 75 percent of the population. There the family life of slaves tended to be relatively stable, and a distinctive African American slave culture developed. Most slaves were raised in stable two-parent households. Continuity of family identity across generations was evidenced in the widespread practice of naming children for grandparents or adopting the surname not of a current master, but of a forebear's master. African Americans also displayed their African cultural roots when they avoided marriage between first cousins, in contrast to the frequent intermarriage of close relatives among the ingrown planter aristocracy. Blacks in slavery molded their own distinctive religious forms from a mixture of Christian and African elements. They were deprived of the dignity and sense of responsibility that comes from independence and the right to make choices. They were denied an education, because reading brought ideas, and ideas brought discontent. Many states passed laws forbidding their instruction, and perhaps nine-tenths of adult slaves at the beginning of the Civil War were totally illiterate. Slaves often slowed the pace of their labor to the barest minimum that would spare them the lash, thus fostering the myth of black "laziness" in the minds of whites. They filched food from the "big house" and pilfered other goods that had been produced or purchased by their labor. They sabotaged expensive equipment, stopping the work routine altogether until reparise were accomplished. Occasionally they even poisoned their masters' food. Many too to their heel as runaways, frequently in search of a separated family member, for the slaves universally pined for freedom.
Dorthea Dix
Dix (1802-1887) was a formidable New England teacher-author who possessed infinite compassion and willpower. She traveled some sixty thousand miles in eight years and assembled her damning reports on insanity and asylums from firsthand observations. Though she never raised her voice, Dix's message was loud and clear. Her classic petition of 1843 to the Massachusetts legislature, describing cells so foul that visitors were driven back by the stench, turned legislative stomachs and hearts. Her persistent prodding resulted in improved conditions and in a gain for the concept that the demented were not willfully perverse but mentally ill.
Explain what the text means by a "continental economy" emerging in the U.S. during this era.
Each part of the US economy, whether it was manufacturing in the North or cotton production in the South, relied on the other sectors to survive. The northern factories needed cotton from the south to use for spinning and weaving, and without the northern factories, the southern farmers wouldn't have anyone to turn their raw cotton into textiles. The vast land out west allowed for the expansion of cotton farming land along with the cultivation of other important crops.
Citizen Genet
Edmond Genet was a representative of the French Republic who landed in Charleston and tried to take advantage of the existing Franco-American alliance. He believed that the Neutrality Proclamation did not reflect the true wishes of the American people, so he embarked upon neutral activity not authorized by the French alliance, including the recruitment of armies to invade Spanish Florida and Louisiana along with British Canada. He also threatened to appeal over the head of Washington to the sovereign voters, resulting in his removal from the US.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Emerson (1803-1882) was the founding father of the movement Transcendentalism (he was also a Unitarian). He is most famous for his works "Nature" and "Self Reliance" and for his impressive oration skills. He journeyed thousands of miles on the lyceum circuits, casting his pearls of civilization before appreciative audiences. Trained as a Unitarian minister, he early forsook his pulpit and ultimately reached a wider audience by pen and platform. He was influential as a practical philosopher and through his fresh and vibrant essays enriched countless thousands of humdrum lives. Catching the individualistic mood of the Republic, he stressed self-reliance, self-improvement, self-confidence, optimism, and freedom. The secret of Emerson's popularity lay largely in the fact that his ideals reflected those of an expanding America. By the 1850s he was an outspoken critic of slavery, and he ardently supported the Union cause in the Civil War.
Europe in the 16th Century (Elizabeth 1, etc.) What factors shaped colonization?
England had many of the characteristics that Spain displayed on the eve of its colonizing adventure in the 15th Century: a strong unified national state under a popular monarch; a measure of religious unity after a protracted struggle between Protestants and Catholics; and a vibrant sense of nationalism and national destiny. Peace with a chastened Spain provided the opportunity for English colonization. Population growth provided the workers. Unemployment, as well as a thirst for adventure, for markets, and for religious freedom, provided the motives. Joint-stock companies provided the financial means.
What were the principal arguments of the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists during the debates in the states over ratification of the Constitution?
Federalists favored the stronger federal government while the antifederalists were opposed to it. The antifederalists believed that the Constitution was a plan by the "elite" to steal power from the common people because members of the upper class had drawn it up and it had aristocratic elements. They were upset by the lack of a bill of rights and were worried that states would lose their sovereignty. They were also opposed to having a standing army, not mentioning God in the Constitution, only requiring two-thirds of the states for ratification, not having annual elections for congressional representatives, and creating a federal stronghold. The federalists were much wealthier than the antifederalists as a whole, and they believed that the Constitution would firmly unify the states and generally make them stronger.
Charles G. Finney
Finney (1792-1875) was the greatest of the revival preachers. Trained as a lawyer, he abandoned the bar to become an evangelist after a deeply moving conversion as a young man. Tall and athletically built, Finney held huge crowds spellbound with the power and the pungency of his message. He led massive revivals in Rochester and New York City in 1830 and 1831. Finney preached a version of the old-time religion, but he was also an innovator. He devised the "anxious bench," where repentant sinners could sit in full view of the congregation, and he encouraged women to pray aloud in public. Holding out the promise of a perfect Christian kingdom on hear, he denounced both alcohol and slavery. He eventually served as president of Oberlin College in Ohio, which he helped make a hotbed of revivalist activity and abolitionism.
What political, economic, and social problems plagued the United States during the Articles of Confederation period?
Foreign relations were very tense between the US and the European countries, especially Britain. The British refused to make commercial treaties with America or to repeal the Navigation Laws that were still in place. Spain was also unfriendly to America; they declined to let the Americans use the Mississippi River for commerce, which would be detrimental to the Westerners who relied on the river. Mediterranean commerce had become difficult as well because of North African pirates who would capture ships and enslave the sailors aboard; the Americans couldn't afford to purchase protection from them. A weak Congress was struggling along; with each state only having one vote and all bills requiring the vote of nine states, and any amendment of the Articles requiring a unanimous vote, hardly anything could be accomplished. They also couldn't regulate commerce, meaning each state could establish different laws regarding taxes, and Congress wasn't able to enforce its own tax-collection program as well. Conflicts like Shays' Rebellion also had citizens worried that a "mobocracy" had been created.
Margaret Fuller
Fuller edited a transcendentalist journal, The Dial, and took part in the struggle to bring unity and republican government to Italy. She died in a shipwreck off New York's Fire Island while returning to the US in 1850.
William Lloyd Garrison
Garrison was a mild-looking reformer of twenty-six and a spiritual child of the Second Great Awakening. On New Years' Day in 1831, he published in Boston the first issue of his militantly anti-slavery newspaper, The Liberator. With this mighty paper broadside, Garrison triggered a thirty-year war of words and in a sense fired one of the opening barrages of the Civil War. Stern and uncompromising, Garrison nailed his colors to the masthead of his weekly. He proclaimed in strident tones that under no circumstances would he tolerate the poisonous weed of slavery, but would stamp in out at once, root and branch. Other dedicated abolitionists rallied to Garrison's standard, and in 1833 they founded the American Anti-Slavery Society. Garrison often appeared to be more interested in his own righteousness than in the substance of the slavery evil itself. He repeatedly demanded that the "virtuous" North secede from the "wicked" South. Yet he did not explain how the creation of an independent slave republic would bring an end to the "damning crime" of slavery.In 1835 Garrison, with a rope tied around him, was dragged through the streets of Boston by the so-called Broadcloth Mob but escaped almost miraculously. Renouncing politics, on the Fourth of July, 1854, he publicly burned a copy of the Constitution as "a covenant with death and an agreement with hell." Critics, including some of his former supporters, charged that Garrison was cruelly probing the moral wound in America's underbelly but offering no acceptable balm to ease the pain. He was bitterly condemned as a terrorist and an inciter of murder. The Sate of Georgia offered $5,000 for his arrest and conviction.
excise tax
Hamilton created this tax in 1791 to attain additional internal revenue by establishing a tax on domestic goods such as whiskey. Whisky was taxed seven cents a gallon, and this mainly affected backcountry farmers and pioneer folk for whom it was cheaper to distill their grain and sell it than to transport and sell the grain itself.
Marquis de Lafayette
He was a French officer who served with the colonists and also played a major role in the French Revolution. He provided the Patriots with about $200,000 of his own money.
Alexander Hamilton
He was a charismatic New Yorker who brilliantly saved the 1786 convention in Annapolis by engineering the adoption of his report. It called upon Congress to summon a convention to meet in Philadelphia the next year, not to deal with commerce alone, but also to bolster the entire fabric of the Articles of Confederation. He was an advocate for having a super-powerful central government, but his five-hour speech at the Philadelphia convention did not convince any of the other delegates although it was quite eloquent.
Patrick Henry
He was a fiery individual most known for his famous speech in the Virginia Convention in which he shouted "Give me liberty, or give me death!"
Roger Williams
He was a popular young Salem minister with radical ideas and an unrestrained tongue. He was threatening to the Puritan leaders because he was an extreme Separatist who hounded his fellow clergymen to make a clean break with the Church of England along with challenging the legality of the Bay Colony's charter. The Bay Colony leaders found him guilty of disseminating new and dangerous opinions in 1635 and banished him from the colony. He fled to Rhode Island in 1636, building a Baptist church and establishing complete freedom of religion for all beliefs.
James Madison
He was known as the "Father of the Constitution" because he made so many notable contributions in the 1787 Philadelphia Convention and was such a profound student of government. He contributed to writing the Federalist articles; the most famous of which was Madison's Federalist No. 10, which brilliantly refuted the conventional wisdom of the day that it was impossible to extend a republican form of government over a large territory.