APUSH Key Terms

Drifters

Unskilled workers that shifted from job to job within large cities in the United States in the 19th century

South Carolina Slave Revolt

Uprising, also known as the Stono Rebellion, of more than fifty South Carolina blacks along the Stono River; they attempted to reach Spanish Florida but were stopped by the South Carolina militia

New York Draft Riots

Uprisings during the Civil War in 1863, mostly of working-class Irish-Americans, in protest of the draft; rioters were particularly incensed by the ability of the rich to hire substitutes or purchase exemptions

Minstrel Shows

Variety shows performed by white actors in black-face; first popularized in the mid-nineteenth century; consisted of comedy routines, dances, and instrumental solos; while today this is seen as racist, it speaks to the profound effect African American music had on American music

Patroonships

Vast tracts of land along the Hudson River in New Netherlands granted to wealthy promoters in exchange for bringing fifty settlers to the property

Green Mountain Boys

Vermont colonial militia led by Ethan Allen that made a surprise attack on Fort Ticonderoga

Racial Superiority

View that the Caucasians are superior to others and entitled to dominate, control, or rule; argued by southern slaveholders to defend their institutions

Virginia Plan

Virginia delegate James Madison's plan of government, in which states got a number of representatives in Congress based on their population

Bayonet Vote

Voting bloc of returned Union soldiers and veterans that helped propel Lincoln to his reelection

Planter Aristocracy

Wealthy plantation owners with one hundred or more slaves that stood at the head of society, determining the political, economical, and social aspects of society; the face of the south

Ford's Theater

Washington site where Lincoln was assassinated by Booth on April 14, 1865

Valley Forge

Washington's army spent the winter of 1777-1778 here; a quarter of the troops died from disease and malnutrition

New England Confederation

Weak union of the colonies in Massachusetts, Plymouth, and Connecticut led by Puritans for the purposes of defense and organization; early attempt at self-government during the benign neglect of the English Civil War

Antinomianism

Any view which rejects laws or legalism and argues against moral, religious or social norms, or is at least considered to do so

Jeffersonian Democratic-Republicans

Appealed to middle class and underprivileged; demanded a weak central regime; bulk of power held by states; no privileges for certain classes; rule of the people; free speech; pro-French

Falmouth

British burned this city in Maine which led to the colonists attack on Canada because they believed adding a 14th colony would deprive Britain of a valuable base

Hair Buyers

British agents who egged on the Indians to fight against the Americans; were called this because they paid bounties for American scalps

Battle of Washington D.C.

British attacked DC and burned White House during the War of 1812

Second Seminole War

For seven years the Seminole Indians, joined by runaway black slaves, waged a bitter guerrilla war that took the lives of some fifteen hundred; spirit was broken in 1837, when the American field commander treacherously seized their leader, Osceola, under the flag of truce; dragged on for 5 more years, but the Seminole were defeated and forced to relocate

Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World

Incendiary abolitionist track advocating the violent overthrow of slavery; published by David Walker, a Southern-born free black, in 1829

Hessian Flies

In it for the money, and seduced by American promises of land, hundreds of them deserted and remained in America

Middlemen

In trading systems, those dealers who operate between the original buyers and the retail merchants who sell to consumers

Price Revolution

Increase in prices in 16th century caused by an increased demand for goods due to influx of gold and silver; heavy inflation

Naturalization Act

Increased the time to become a US citizen from 5 to 14 years

Yeoman Farmers

Independent and hardworking farmers in the south; lived and worked on smaller-sized farms with their families; plantation owners received food from these farmers to feed their slaves, but they did not have on slavery on their farms

Fiscal Bank

New bank of the United States proposed by Henry Clay but vetoed by President Tyler despite objections from his own Whig Party

Protestant Episcopal Church

New name for the Anglican Church after it was disestablished and de-Anglicized in Virginia and elsewhere

Compromise Tariff of 1833

New tariff proposed by Henry Clay and John Calhoun that gradually lowered the tariff to the level of the Tariff of 1816 to appease the southern states; avoided civil war and prolonged the union for another 30 years

Blue Bellies

Nickname for 60,000 troops who participated in Sherman's march through Georgia

Kentucky Bluegrass

Nickname for European bluegrass that thrived in Kentucky; ideal pasture for livestock, thus luring thousands of pioneers into the west

The Charity Colony

Nickname for Georgia because it was initially a penal colony that sought reform in the way in which debtors' prisons functioned

Lone Star Republic

Nickname for Texas after it won independence from Mexico in 1836

Billy Yank

Nickname for average Northern/Union Soldier

Trail of Tears

The Cherokee Indians were forced to leave their ancestral lands; traveled from North Carolina and Georgia through Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas-more than 800 miles (1,287 km)-to the Indian Territory. More than 4,000 Cherokees died of cold, disease, and lack of food during the 116-day journey

Millionaire Class

The Civil War bred this for the first time in American history; many of these newly rich were noisy, gaudy, brassy, and given to extravagant living; their emergence illustrates the truth that some gluttony and greed always mar the devotion and self-sacrifice called forth by war

Worcester v. Georgia

The Court ruled that the Cherokee nation was a distinct community in which the laws of Georgia had no force

General Court

The Puritan representative assembly of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, elected by the freemen (visible saints); they assisted the governor; this was the early form of Puritan democracy in the 1600's

Direct Resistance

The attempts by slaves in the South to escape slavery or stage revolts against plantation owners

Supreme Court

The highest federal court in the United States; exercises the power to determine constitutionality of statutes

Natural Rights

The idea that all humans are born with rights, which include the right to life, liberty, and property

Tyranny of the Majority

The tendency in democracies to allow majority rule to neglect the rights and liberties of minorities

Racial Prejudice

The tendency to hold a hostile attitude toward an individual because of his or her racial background

Conestoga wagon

Large, broad-wheeled, canvas-covered wagon used by western settlers

Redeemers

Largely former slave owners who were the bitterest opponents of the Republican program in the South; staged a major counterrevolution to "redeem" the south by taking back southern state governments for the Democrats; their foundation rested on the idea of racism and white supremacy; their governments waged an aggressive assault on African Americans

Battle of Yorktown

Last major battle of the Revolutionary War; Cornwallis and his troops were trapped in the Chesapeake Bay by the French fleet; he was sandwiched between the French navy and the American army; he surrendered October 19, 1781

Astoria

Last stop on the Oregon Trail named after John Jacob Astor; first permanent American settlement in the Pacific Northwest

Second Anglo-Powhatan War (1644-1646)

Last-ditch effort by the Indians to dislodge the Virginian settlements; the resulting peace treaty formally separated white and Indian areas of settlement and banished the Chesapeake Indians from their ancestral lands

Unitarianism

Late-eighteenth-century liberal offshoot of the New England Congregationalist Church; rejecting the Trinity, it professed the oneness of God and the goodness of rational man; arose when the Puritan churches stopped requiring conversions for full membership and allowed all Christians the right to worship

Navigation Law of 1650

Law passed by Parliament to regulate the mercantilist system; aimed at rival Dutch shippers; said that all commerce flowing to and from the colonies could only be transported in British/colonial vessels

Mobocracy

Lawless control of public affairs by the mob or populace

French Civil Law

Laws based on legal code rather than court decisions

Personal Liberty Laws

Laws passed by Northern states that forbade the imprisonment of runaway slaves and guaranteed that they would have trial by jury

Townshend Acts

Laws passed in 1767 that taxed goods such as glass, paper, paint, lead, and tea; unlike the Stamp Act, it was an indirect customs duty that was made payable at the American ports

Black Codes

Laws passed in the south just after the civil war aimed at controlling freedmen and enabling plantation owners to exploit African American workers

Slave Codes

Laws that controlled the lives of enslaved African Americans and denied them basic rights; decreed that blacks and their descendants would be the property of their masters for life

David Bradford

Leader of the whiskey rebellion

Democratic-Republican Party

Led by Thomas Jefferson; believed people should have political power; favored strong STATE governments; emphasized agriculture; strict interpretation of the Constitution; pro-French; opposed National Bank

Naturalization

Legal process by which citizens of one country become citizens of another

Fiat Currency

Legal tender, especially paper currency, authorized by a government but not based on a gold standard or silver standard (Continental Dollar)

Judiciary Act of 1789

Legislation passed by Congress that created the federal court system

Southwest Ordinance of 1790

Legislation passed by Congress that set up a government with no prohibition on slavery in United States territory south of the Ohio River.

Virginia Resolution

Less extreme than the Kentucky Resolution; written anonymously by Madison in response to the Alien and Sedition Acts, declared that states had the right to oppose federal laws that the states considered unconstitutional; introduced the idea of interposition; used by Southerners to support secession

Election of 1864

Lincoln vs. McClellan; Lincoln wants to unite North and South, McClellan wants war to end if he's elected; citizens of North are sick of war so many vote for McClellan; Lincoln wins

Supervised Voting

Lincoln's idea of keeping Union soldiers present at voting booths during elections as an intimidation tactic in the Border States

Ten Percent Plan

Lincoln's plan that allowed a southern state to form a new government after 10 percent of its voters swore an oath of loyalty to the United States

Election of 1860

Lincoln, the Republican candidate, won because the Democratic party was split over slavery, despite the fact that he was not included on southern ballots; as a result, the South no longer felt like it has a voice in politics and a number of states seceded from the Union

Whipping Rooms

Rooms in factories where children were brutally whipped as punishment

Fort Ross

Russian fortified colony, north of San Francisco; built in 1812

Shoshone Indians

Sacajawea's tribe who helped Lewis and Clark by giving them food and horses for their journey

Model Treaty

Sample treaty drafted by the Continental Congress as a guide for American diplomats in France; reflected the Americans' desire to foster commercial partnerships rather than political or military entanglements

Tyler Grippe

Sarcastic name given to the outbreak of influenza sweeping the country during John Tyler's presidency by the Whigs

Biglow Papers

Satirical poetry in Yankee dialect by James Russell Lowell; condemned president Polk's policy for expanding slavery

Mount Holyoke Seminary

School in South Hadley, Massachusetts established by Mary Lyon in 1837; first college to teach solely women

Shoddy Millionaires

Scornful term for Northern manufacturers who made quick fortunes out of selling cheaply made shoes and other inadequate goods to the U.S. Army during the Civil War

Paxton Boys

Scots-Irish frontiersmen who led an armed march on Philadelphia in protest against the Quaker establishment of lenient policies toward Native Americans

Third Treaty of San Ildefonso

Secret agreement signed on October 1, 1800 between the Spanish Empire and the French Republic by which Spain agreed in principle to exchange its North American colony of Louisiana for territories in Tuscany

Alaska Purchase

Secretary of State William Seward bought Alaska from Russia for $7.2 Million ("Seward's Folly")

Rhode Island Colony

Self-governing colony founded by Roger Williams in 1636; granted freedom for all religions and non-believers; religious toleration; disestablishment, universal suffrage for white males w/property qualifications; most democratic

"Higher Law"

Senator William Seward's doctrine that slavery should be excluded from the territories as contrary to a divine moral law standing above even the Constitution

Disestablishment

Separation of church and state; denies a government the right to encourage, endorse, or support a particular religion

Battle of Brandywine Creek

September 11, 1777; Howe vs. Washington; Patriots lost because of miscommunication; Howe allowed colonists to retreat

King Philip's War (1675-1676)

Series of assaults by Metacom (King Philip) on English settlements in New England; slowed the westward migration of New England settlers for several decades; resulted in scattered and dispirited tribes

Aroostook War

Series of clashes between American and Canadian lumberjacks in disputed territory of northern Maine; resolved when a permanent boundary was agreed upon in 1842 by Secretary Webster and Lord Ashburton, who decided that the United States would retain 7,000 square miles of the 12,000 square mile territory, but Britain got the desired Halifax-Quebec route

First Anglo-Powhatan War (1610-1614)

Series of clashes between the Powhatan Confederacy and English settlers in Virginia; English colonists torched and pillaged Indian villages, applying tactics used in England's campaigns against the Irish; ended with marriage between Pocahontas and John Rolfe

Alien and Sedition Acts

Series of four laws enacted in 1798 to reduce the political power of recent immigrants

Navigation Laws

Series of laws passed, beginning in 1651, to regulate colonial shipping; the acts provided that only English ships would be allowed to trade in English and colonial ports, and that all goods destined for the colonies would first pass through England

Peace of Utrecht (1713)

Series of treaties between the French, English, and Spanish that ended Queen Anne's War; undermined France's power in North America by giving Britain the Hudson Bay, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia; began Britain's period of salutary neglect

Treaty of Tordesillas

Set the Line of Demarcation which was a boundary established in 1493 to define Spanish and Portuguese possessions in the Americas; Spain received the majority, while Portugal was compensated with land in Africa, Asia, and Brazil

Missouri Compromise

"Compromise of 1820" over the issue of slavery in Missouri; Missouri entered as a slave state and Maine entered as a free state; all states North of the 36th parallel were free states and all South were slave states

The Spanish Armada

"Invincible" group of ships sent by King Philip II of Spain to invade England in 1588; defeated by smaller, more maneuverable English "sea dogs" in the English Channel; marked the beginning of English naval dominance and decline of Spanish presence in the Americas

Deep South

"Lower south" or "cotton kingdom"; area where the majority of the country's cotton was produced; plagued with disease; consisted of Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas; their populations was majority black and they held about one half of all slaves in the South

NINA

"No Irish Need Apply"; a sign commonly posted at factory gates to restrict the increasing hire of Irish Immigrants; people were complaining that they were taking the "white man's" jobs; this public opinion placed the Irish in the basement of America's social class beside the blacks; resulted in the Irish becoming more independent within an American society

Judicial Nationalism

"The Constitution and Federal Law is superior to State Constitutions and State Law - Article VI of the Constitution The Supreme Court is the final arbiter on Constitutional Questions"-John Marshall; strengthened the judicial branch and strengthened the federal government

U.S. Constitution

"The supreme law of the land." Written in 1787 at Philadelphia Convention to replace Articles of Confederation and create stronger central government; outlines structure & power of 3 branches of national government; oldest written constitution still in use (but amended 27 times plus myriad informal amendments)

Third War with England

"War" in which British and American writers "fought" with scathing written commentaries about the opposing country; fostered by lingering Anti-British feeling in America from the 2 wars and British "Travel Books" that condemned and mocked America as barbaric; Charles Dickens was prominent on the British side

Apologists

"defenders of the faith"; Christians who worked hard to dispel the false rumors about Christianity and to make Christianity appear both reasonable and acceptable to non-Christians

Compromise of 1850

(1) California admitted as free state, (2) territorial status and popular sovereignty of Utah and New Mexico, (3) resolution of Texas-New Mexico boundaries, (4) federal assumption of Texas debt, (5) slave trade abolished in DC, (6) new fugitive slave law; advocated by Henry Clay and Stephen A. Douglas; opposed by the South because it unfairly benefited the North

Aztecs

(1200-1521) 1300, they settled in the valley of Mexico. Grew corn. Engaged in frequent warfare to conquer others of the region and forced tribute from conquered peoples. Worshiped many gods (polytheistic). Believed the sun god needed human blood to continue his journeys across the sky. Practiced human sacrifices and those sacrificed were captured warriors from other tribes and those who volunteered for the honor.

Atlantic Slave Trade

(1500-1860) the buying, transporting, and selling of Africans for work in the Americas; 11 million total slaves brought out of Africa; 400,000 slaves brought into the colonies

Lexington and Concord

(1775) First battles of the Revolutionary War, fought outside of Boston; the colonial militia successfully defended their stores of munitions, forcing the British to retreat to Boston; "Shot heard around the world"

The Starving Time

(1609-1610)A period of starvation endured by the Jamestown colonists; The colonists depended upon trade with the local Native Americans for their food supplies; A series of conflicts between the colonists and the Native Americans limited the colonists' ability to trade for supplies and to farm their own food; A large number of colonists died and others tried to flee to England; however, boats arrived with supplies from England intercepted the colonists and forced them to return to Jamestown; Additional support from England, the development of new industries, and the creation of new trade partnerships helped ensure the settlement's long-term survival

Thirty Years War

(1618-1648 CE) War within the Holy Roman Empire between German Protestants and their allies (Sweden, Denmark, France) and the emperor and his ally, Spain; ended in 1648 after great destruction with Treaty of Westphalia; allowed Sweden to begin colonization efforts in the Americas

Dutch West India Company

(1621-1794) Trading company chartered by the Dutch government to conduct its merchants' trade in the Americas and Africa; created outposts in Africa and a thriving sugar industry in Brazil; established the Dutch colonies of New Netherlands and New Amsterdam

Great English Migration

(1630-1642) Migration of 70,000 refugees from England to the North American colonies, primarily New England and the Caribbean; 20,000 migrants who came to Massachusetts largely shared a common sense of purpose--to establish a model Christian settlement in the New World.

Queen Anne's War

(1702-1713) Second in a series of conflicts between the European powers for control of North America; fought between the English and French colonists in the North, and the English and Spanish in Florida; under the peace treaty, the French ceded Acadia (Nova Scotia), Newfoundland, and Hudson Bay to Britain

New York Slave Revolt

(1712) Uprising of approximately two dozen slaves that resulted in the deaths of nine whites and the brutal execution of 21 participating blacks

Molasses Act

(1733) A British law that imposed a tax on molasses imported from non-British colonies into North American colonies; it was intended to maintain the monopoly of the American sugar market by the West Indies sugarcane growers; the least successful of the Navigation Acts, since it was avoided by smuggling and bribery

Zenger Trial

(1734-1735) New York libel case against John Peter Zenger; established the principle that truthful statements about public officials could not be prosecuted as libel

Albany Congress

(1754) Intercolonial congress summoned by the British government to foster greater colonial unity and assure Iroquois support in the escalating war against the French; representatives from seven colonies were sent

French and Indian War

(1754-1763) War fought in the colonies between the English and the French, along with their Native American allies, for possession of the Ohio Valley area

Seven Years' War

(1756-1763 CE) Known also as the French and Indian war; it was the war between the French and their Indian allies and the English that proved the English to be the more dominant force in North America both commercially and in terms of controlled regions

Battle of Quebec

(1759) British victory over French forces on the outskirts of Quebec; the surrender of Quebec marked the beginning of the end of French rule in North America.

Pontiac's Uprising

(1763) An Indian uprising after the French and Indian War, led by an Ottawa chief named Pontiac; they opposed British expansion into the western Ohio Valley and began destroying British forts in the area; British used tactics of biological warfare involving distributing blankets infected with smallpox; the attacks ended when Pontiac was killed

Currency Act

(1764) British act forbidding the American colonies to issue paper money as legal tender, destabilizing the colonial economy; repealed in 1773 by the British as an effort to ease tensions between themselves and the colonies

Sugar Act

(1764) British deeply in debt due to French & Indian War; English Parliament placed a tariff on sugar, coffee, wines, and molasses; colonists avoided it by smuggling and by bribing tax collectors

Stamp Act Congress

(1765) A meeting of delegations from nine of the colonies to protest the newly passed Stamp Act; It adopted a declaration of rights as well as sent letters of complaints to the king and Parliament; showed signs of colonial unity and organized resistance

Stamp Act

(1765) Imposed tax on colonists by requiring the use of stamps on printed goods, including playing cards, documents, newspapers, etc.

Quartering Act

(1765/1774) Required the colonials to provide food, lodging, and supplies for the British troops in the colonies

Boston Massacre

(1770) The first bloodshed of the American Revolution; provoked British guards at the Boston Customs House opened fire on a crowd killing five Americans

Gaspee Affair

(1772) British ship stationed off the coast of Rhode Island to intercept smugglers was burned and looted by colonists

Tea Act

(1773) Eliminated import tariffs on tea entering England and allowed the British East India Company to sell directly to consumers rather than through merchants; caused tea prices to drop in the colonies, even with the tax; viewed as a trick to get the colonists to pay the tax that went against their principles; led to the Boston Tea Party

Boston Tea Party

(1773) Protest by citizens of Boston disguised as Indians who raided three British ships in Boston harbor and dumped hundreds of chests of tea into the harbor in response to the tax on tea

Quebec Act

(1774) Extended boundaries of Quebec into the Ohio Valley, granted equal rights to French Catholics, and recognized legality Catholic Church in the territory; colonists feared this meant that a pope would soon oversee the colonies

Dunmore's Proclamation

(1775) Decree signed by Lord Dunmore, the royal governor of Virginia, which proclaimed that any slaves or indentured servants who fought on the side of the British would be rewarded with their freedom

American Revolution

(1775-1783) Political revolution that began with the Declaration of Independence in 1776; American colonists sought to balance the power between government and the people and protect the rights of citizens in a democracy

Battle of Long Island

(1776) Battle in New York in which more than 1,400 Americans were killed, wounded, or captured; British troops overwhelmed the colonial militias and retained control of the city for most of the war

Armed Neutrality

(1780) Loose alliance of nonbelligerent naval powers, organized by Russia's Catherine the Great, to protect neutral trading rights during the war for American independence

Battle of Camden

(1780) Major British victory in the South, where general Horatio Gates' untrained and tired militiamen were no match for General Lord Cornwallis' army

Battle of the Chesapeake

(1781) Decisive French naval victory over the British that paved the way for the victory at Yorktown

Bank of North America

(1781) The first bank in the US, modeled on the Bank of England, helped to solve the wartime fiscal crisis; instead of issuing paper currency through a land office, as farmers wanted, the bank issued money in the form of short-time loans backed by gold and silver plate

Confederation Period

(1781-1789) Era of United States history in the 1780s after the American Revolution and prior to the ratification of the United States Constitution

Treaty of Fort Stanwix

(1784) Treaty signed by the United States and the pro-British Iroquois ceding the Ohio country to the Americans; first treaty between the United States and an Indian nation

Reign of Terror

(1793-94) During the French Revolution when thousands were executed for "disloyalty"

Napoleonic Wars

(1799-1815) War between Napoleon's France and the other European powers, led by Britain; both sides tried to prevent neutral powers, especially the United States, from trading with their enemy; American ships were seized by both sides and American sailors were impressed, or forced into the British navy; United States was angered by this violation of the "freedom of the seas" principle, which holds that outside its territorial waters, a state may not claim sovereignty over the sea; these violations would escalate and eventually lead to the War of 1812

Fletcher v. Peck

(1810) Established firmer protection for private property and asserted the right of the Supreme Court to invalidate state laws in conflict with the federal Constitution

Rush-Bagot Agreement

(1817) Limited naval power on the Great Lakes for both the United States and British Canada

Goodwill Tour

(1817) Monroe toured through the country due to the overall feeling of nationalism and peace and was greeted with overall enthusiasm

Dartmouth College v. Woodward

(1819) New Hampshire had attempted to take over Dartmouth College by revising its colonial charter; Court ruled that the charter was protected under the contract clause of the U. S. Constitution; upholds the sanctity of contracts

McChulloch v. Maryland

(1819) U.S. Supreme Court decision in which Chief Justice John Marshall, holding that Maryland could not tax the Second Bank of the United States, supported the authority of the federal government over the states

Cohens v. Virginia

(1821) Case that reinforced federal supremacy by establishing the right of the Supreme Court to review decisions of state supreme courts in questions involving the powers of the federal government.

Monroe Doctrine

(1823) Declared that Europe should not interfere in the affairs of the Western Hemisphere and that any attempt at interference by a European power would be seen as a threat to the U.S.; declared that a New World colony which has gained independence may not be recolonized by Europe; mostly just a show of nationalism, it had no major impact until later in the 1800s

Johnson v. McIntosh

(1823) Established that Indian tribes had rights to tribal lands that preceded all other American law; only the federal government could take land from the tribes

Gibbons v. Ogden

(1824) Commerce clause case; decision greatly enlarged Congress' interstate commerce clause power by broadly defining the meaning of "commerce" to include virtually all types of economic activity

Treaty of Limits

(1828) Between United States and Mexico; recognized the Mexico-U.S. boundary that had been established by the 1819 Adams-Onís Treaty between Spain and the U.S.

Indian Removal Act

(1830) Authorized Andrew Jackson to negotiate land-exchange treaties with tribes living east of the Mississippi; treaties enacted under this act's provisions paved the way for the reluctant—and often forcible—emigration of tens of thousands of American Indians to the West

Cherokee Nation v. Georgia

(1831) The Cherokees argued that they were a seperate nation and therefore not under Georgia's jurisdiction; Marshall ruled that the Cherokee had "an unquestionable right" to their lands, but they were "not a foreign state, in the sense of the Constitution" but rather a "domestic, dependent nation" and so could not sue in a United States court over Georgia's voiding their right to self-rule; cast doubt on the constitutionality of Indian Removal Act

Black Hawk War

(1832) Chief Black Hawk of the Sauk tribe led rebellion against the United States, resisting eviction from their ancestral lands; started in Illinois and spread to Wisconsin Territory; 200 Sauk and Fox murdered; tribes removed to areas west of Mississippi

Force Bill

(1833) Authorized President Jackson to use the army and navy to collect duties on the Tariffs of 1828 and 1832; passed in response to South Carolina's ordinance of nullification had declared these tariffs null and void, and South Carolina would not collect duties on them; never invoked because it was passed by Congress the same day as the Compromise Tariff of 1833, so it became unnecessary; nullified by the South Carolina government

Battle of Goliad

(1836) Battle during the Texas Revolution; James Fannin chose to surrender rather than lose anyway and Santa Anna ordered 400 of the Texan soldiers to be executed

Battle of San Jacinto

(1836) Final battle of the Texas Revolution; resulted in the defeat of the Mexican army and independence for Texas when the Texans captured Santa Anna and forced him to sign a treaty giving Texas its independence

Awful Disclosures

(1836) Maria Monk's sensational expose of alleged horrors in Catholic convents; its popularity reflected nativist fears of Catholic influence.

Potato Famine

(1840s) one of the worst famines in modern history; Irish peasants relied on potatoes, but a plant fungus killed most of them; millions starved; mass immigration to US, Canada, and Australia

Commonwealth v. Hunt

(1842) Landmark ruling of the Massachusetts Supreme Court establishing the legality of labor unions and the legality of union worker strikes if an employer hired non-union workers

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

(1845) Vivid autobiography of the escaped slave and renowned abolitionist Frederick Douglass.

Mexican-American War

(1846-1848) President Polk declared war on Mexico over the dispute of land in Texas; at the end, American ended up with 55% of Mexico's land

Fugitive Slave Act

(1850) A law that made it a crime to help runaway slaves; allowed for the arrest of escaped slaves in areas where slavery was illegal and required their return to slaveholders

Sumner-Brooks Affair

(1856) Charles Sumner gave a two day speech on the Senate floor titled "The Crime Against Kansas"; denounced the South for crimes against Kansas and singled out Senator Andrew Brooks of South Carolina; Brooks beat Sumner over the head with his cane, severely crippling him

Gettysburg Address

(1863) A speech given by Abraham Lincoln after the Battle of Gettysburg, in which he praised the bravery of Union soldiers and renewed his commitment to winning the Civil War; supported the ideals of self-government and human rights

Anti-Papist

(Anti-clericalism) A movement that opposed religious (generally Catholic) institutional power and influence in all aspects of public and political life

Susquehannocks

(Conestogas) Tribe of western Virginia whose rich lands were coveted by the supporters of Bacon's Rebellion; in mis-targeted response to rumors that they were supporting Pontiac's War, those living in Conestoga Town were massacred by the Paxton Boys.

Great Swamp Fight

(December 1675) A critical battle of King Philip's War, in which Native Americans fought English settlers and their Indian allies in one of the bloodiest conflicts in U.S. history; Sometimes called the "Great Swamp Massacre," it took place in the area of West Kingstown, Rhode Island

Battle of Bull Run (Manassas Junction)

(July 1861) First major battle of the Civil War and a victory for the South; dispelled Northern illusions of swift victory

Bunker Hill (Breed's Hill)

(June 17, 1775) Site of a battle early in the Revolutionary War; this battle contested control of two hills overlooking Boston Harbor; British captured the hills after the Americans ran-out of ammunition; "Don't shoot until you see the whites of their eyes!"; showed that Americans could fight the British if they had sufficient supplies

Evacuation Day

(March 17, 1776) The day the British troops were forced to leave Boston

Portsmouth Compact

(March 7, 1638) Established the settlement of Portsmouth, which is now a town in the state of Rhode Island; the first document in American history that severed both political and religious ties with England; set up a new, independent colony that was Christian in character but non-sectarian in governance

Sacking of Lawrence

(May 21, 1856) Pro-slavery activists attacked and ransacked the town of Lawrence, Kansas, which had been founded by anti-slavery settlers to help ensure that Kansas would become a "free state"; resulted in the Pottawatomie Massacre

Pottawatomie Massacre

(May 24, 1856) Slaughter of 5 pro-slavery men in Kansas by John Brown and his followers, in reaction to the Sack of Lawrence; as a result of this event, Kansas collapsed into a civil war and over 200 citizens were killed as pro and antislavery advocates attacked each other

Edict of Nantes

1598 - Granted the Huguenots liberty of conscience and worship, ending religious wars in France, and allowing the French to focus on expansion into the New World

Mayflower Compact

1620 - The first agreement for self-government in America. It was signed by the 41 men on the Mayflower and set up a government for the Plymouth Colony

Massachusetts Bay Colony

1629 - King Charles gave the Puritans a right to settle and govern a colony in the Massachusetts Bay area; The colony established political freedom and a representative government

Salem Witch Trials

1629 outbreak of witchcraft accusations in a Massachusetts Bay puritan village marked by an atmosphere of fear, hysteria and stress; 19 people were hanged; reflected widening social stratification in New England

Bacon's Rebellion

1676 - Nathaniel Bacon and other western Virginia settlers were angry at Virginia Governor Berkeley for trying to appease the Doeg Indians after the Doegs attacked their settlements; the frontiersmen formed an army, with Bacon as its leader, which defeated the Indians and then marched on Jamestown and burned the city; ended suddenly when Bacon died of an illness.

Dominion of New England

1686 - The British government combined the colonies of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Connecticut into a single province headed by a royal governor (Andros); aimed to defend the colonies against further attacks from Native Americans and promote the Navigation Laws; ended in 1692, when the colonists revolted and drove out Governor Andros

Declaration of Independence

1776 statement, issued by the Second Continental Congress, explaining why the colonies wanted independence from Britain; appealed to the natural rights of mankind and listed the tyrannical misdeeds of George III

Battle of Kings Mountain

1780; Battle in North Carolina where Patriots defeated Loyalist militia; many neutral citizens swung over to patriot side and there was increased dislike of the British

Great Compromise

1787; compromise was between the large and small states of the colonies which resolved that there would be representation by population in the House of Representatives, and equal representation would exist in the Senate; each state, regardless of size, would have 2 senators; all tax bills and revenues would originate in the House; combined the needs of both large and small states and formed a fair and sensible resolution to their problems

Marbury vs. Madison

1803 case in which the Supreme Court first asserted the power of judicial review in finding that the congressional statue expanding the Court's original jurisdiction was unconstitutional

Louisiana Purchase

1803 purchase of the Louisiana territory from France; doubled the size of the US.

Battle of Trafalgar

1805 naval battle in which Napoleon's forces were defeated by a British fleet under the command of Horatio Nelson; ensured British supremacy of the seas

Non-Intercourse Act

1809; Replaced the Embargo Act of 1807; unlike the Embargo, which forbade American trade with all foreign nations, this act only forbade trade with France and Britain; did not succeed in changing British or French policy towards neutral ships, so it was replaced by Macon's Bill No. 2.

Macon's Bill No. 2

1810; Forbade trade with Britain and France, but offered to resume trade with whichever nation lifted its neutral trading restrictions first; France quickly changed its policies against neutral vessels, so the U.S. resumed trade with France, but not Britain

Rip Van Winkle

1819 story written by Washington Irving of a man who falls asleep before the American Revolution and wakes up after it is over. While asleep, everything changes and men like the tavern owner are now powerful because in post-Revolution America hierarchy does not exist; shows the contrast in the two ages of America

Utopian Communities

1820-1850; movements that copied early European efforts at utopianism; attempt by cooperative communities to improve life in the face of increasing industrialism; groups practiced social experiments that generally saw little success due to their radicalism; included attempts at sexual equality, racial equality, and socialism

Battle of the Alamo

1836 attack on the Alamo mission in San Antonio by Mexican forces during the Texas Revolution; Mexicans were victorious

Self-Reliance

1841 essay written by American transcendentalist philosopher and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson; contains the most thorough statement of one of Emerson's recurrent themes: the need for each individual to avoid conformity and false consistency, and follow his own instincts and ideas; emphasizes the importance of individualism and its effect on an individual's satisfaction in life, and stresses that anyone is capable of achieving happiness if they change their mindset

Webster-Ashburton Treaty

1842 between the US and the British; settled boundary disputes in the North West, fixed most borders between US and Canada, and talked about slavery and excredition

Married Women's Property Act

1848 New York State law that guaranteed greater property rights for women; used as a model in other states

Treaty of Kanagawa

1854 trade agreement between Japan and the United States opening up two Japanese ports to U.S. trade; signed in response to a show of force by U.S. admiral Matthew Perry

Battle of Chickamauga

1863 Confederate army defeated the Union forces and forced the Union Army back into TN; Confederates did not follow up on Union retreat and they lost Chattanooga to the Union a short time later

Battle of Vicksburg

1863; Union gains control of Mississippi; Confederacy split in two; Grant takes lead of Union armies; total war begins

Tenure of Office Act

1866 - Enacted by radical Congress; forbade the president from removing civil officers without consent of the Senate; meant to prevent Johnson from removing radicals from office; Johnson broke this law when he fired a radical Republican from his cabinet, and he was impeached for this "crime"

Ex Parte Milligan

1868 Court ruling in which the Supreme Court decided that the suspension of habeas corpus was unconstitutional because civilian courts were still operating, and the Constitution of the United States (according to the Court) only provided for the suspension of habeas corpus if these courts are actually forced closed; in essence, the court ruled that military tribunals could not try civilians in areas where civil courts were open, even during wartime

Fifteenth Amendment

1870 constitutional amendment that guaranteed voting rights regardless of race or previous condition of servitude

Radical Whigs

18th century British political commentators who agitated against political corruption and emphasized the threat to liberty posed by arbitrary power; their writings shaped American political thought and made colonists especially alert to encroachments on their rights

Manifest Destiny

19th-century doctrine or belief that the expansion of the US throughout the American continents was both justified and inevitable

Anti-Slavery Society

1st national anti-slavery organization to be devoted to immediate abolition and racial equality

Oregon Trail

2000 mile long path along which thousands of Americans journeyed to the Willamette Valley in Oregon Country in the 1840's

Anglo-Dutch Wars (1652-1674)

3 indecisive wars in which the British annexed the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam to become New York

Fort Mims Massacre

30 August 1813; a force of Creeks, belonging to the "Red Sticks" killed hundreds of settlers, mixed-blood Creeks, and militia in Fort Mims; spread panic throughout the Southeastern United States frontier

Lords Proprietors

8 supporters to whom King Charles II of England gave a grant to establish a colony that included land that stretched to the Pacific and later became Carolina; hoped to grow foodstuff to provision the sugar plantations in Barbados and to export non-English products like wine, silk, and olive oil

Siege of Petersburg

9-month long siege between Lee and Grant that ultimately opened the way for Grant's capture of Richmond

Shays's Rebellion

A 1786 rebellion in which an army of 1,500 disgruntled and angry farmers led by Daniel Shays marched to Springfield, Massachusetts, and forcibly restrained the state court from foreclosing mortgages on their farms; highlighted the need for a strong national government

Neutrality Proclamation

A 1793 statement by President Washington that the United States would not support or aid either France or Britain in their European conflict following the French Revolution

Restoration Movement

A 19th century reform movement in the United States during the Second Great Awakening that sought to reform the church from within and the unification of all Christians in a single body patterned after the church of the New Testament

Battle of Fort Pillow

A Confederate victory was won here; after black troops surrendered, they were massacred by Confederate troops

Fort Nassau

A Dutch settlement that occupied the site of modern Albany, New York

Pony Express

A Mail carrying service; ran from 1860-1861; established to carry mail speedily along the 2000 miles from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California; they could make the trek in 10 days.

Taino

A Native American people of the Caribbean islands - the first group encountered by Columbus and his men when they reached the Americas; killed off by diseases and population dropped from 1 million down to around 200

Incas

A Native American people who built a notable civilization in western South America in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The center of their empire was in present-day Peru. Francisco Pizarro of Spain conquered the empire

Lancaster Turnpike

A Pennsylvania turnpike, built in the 1790s, which connected Philadelphia with the rich farmlands around Lancaster; its success stimulated the construction of other privately built and relatively short toll roads that, by the mid-1820s, connected most of the country's major cities

Congregational Church

A Protestant denomination created by Puritans in New England holding that each individual congregation should be self-governing

Half-Way Covenant

A Puritan church document; In 1662, it allowed partial membership rights to persons not yet converted into the Puritan church; lessened the difference between the "elect" members of the church from the regular members; women soon made up a larger portion of Puritan congregations

Liberia

A West African nation founded in 1822 by the American Colonization Society to serve as a homeland for free blacks to settle; its capital, Monrovia, was named for James Monroe

Battle of Lake Champlain

A battle during the War of 1812 during which the British fleet was defeated and was forced to retreat and to abandon their plans to invade New York and New England after being stopped by Thomas Macdonough; British began to decide that the war was to costly

Battle of Petersburg

A battle in the Civil War at which Grant captured a town near Richmond by surrounding it in order to cut off Richmond from supplies

Civil Rights Bill

A bill passed by Congress in March 1866 as a measure against the Black Codes to reinforce black rights to citizenship; vetoed by Johnson but was later passed as the 14th Amendment

Steamboat

A boat that moves by the power of a steam engine; made it easier, cheaper, and quicker to move goods across the nation, defying wind, wave, tide, and downstream current

Constitution

A body of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organization is acknowledged to be governed

Continental Congress

A body of representatives from the British North American colonies who met to respond to England's Intolerable Acts; declared independence in July 1776 and later drafted the Articles of Confederation

Roman Catholicism

A branch of Christianity that developed in the western Roman Empire and that recognized the Pope as its supreme head

Loose Construction

A broad interpretation of the Constitution, meaning that Congress has powers beyond those specifically given in the Constitution

Limited Liability Company

A business organization in which the business, not the owner, is liable for the company's debts; protects members against losing all of their personal wealth; members are taxed as if they were in a partnership

Joint-Stock Company

A business, often backed by a government charter, that sold shares to individuals to raise money for its trading enterprises and to spread the risks (and profits) among many investors

Erie Canal

A canal between the New York cities of Albany and Buffalo, completed in 1825; considered a marvel of the modern world at the time, it allowed western farmers to ship surplus crops to sell in the North and allowed northern manufacturers to ship finished goods to sell in the West

Minority President

A candidate who fails to win a majority of popular votes and yet wins the Presidency

Most Favored Nation Status

A clause in a commercial treaty that awards to any later signatories all the privileges previously granted to the original signatories

Union Party

A coalition party of pro-war Democrats and Republicans formed during the 1864 election to defeat anti-war Copperheads

The Federalist Papers

A collection of 85 articles written by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison under the name "Publius" to defend the Constitution in detail

XYZ Affair

A commission had been sent to France in 1797 to discuss the disputes that had arisen out of the U.S.'s refusal to honor the Franco-American Treaty of 1778; Talleyrand's three agents told the American delegates that they could meet with Talleyrand only in exchange for a very large bribe; Americans did not pay the bribe, and in 1798 Adams made the incident public, substituting the letters "X, Y and Z" for the names of the three French agents in his report to Congress

First Seminole War

A conflict that occurred between U.S. troops and Seminole Indians in 1817-1818; war started when Andrew Jackson crossed U.S.-Spanish border of Florida and initiated raids on Indian forces

writ of habeas corpus

A court order requiring explanation to a judge why a prisoner is being held in custody

Ostend Manifesto

A declaration (1854) issued from Ostend, Belgium, by the U.S. ministers to England, France, and Spain, stating that the U.S. would be justified in seizing Cuba if Spain did not sell it to the U.S.

Liberal Arts College

A degree-granting institution where the academic focus is on developing the intellect and instruction in the humanities and sciences, rather than on training for a particular vocational, technical, or professional pursuit; grew out of the religious zeal of the Second Great Awakening

Carpetbaggers

A derogatory term applied to Northerners who migrated south during the Reconstruction to take advantage of opportunities to advance their own fortunes by buying up land from desperate Southerners and by manipulating new black voters to obtain lucrative government contracts

"The Submerged Sex"

A derogatory term for women in the early 19th century, defining women as a lesser sex; although women in America had more rights than those in Europe, they were still considered inferior to males and the burgeoning market economy further separated women from men in economic roles

Telegraph

A device for rapid, long-distance transmission of information over an electric wire; introduced in England and North America in the 1830s and 1840s

Negro Spirituals

A distinct form of American music that had origins in Christianity and slavery; used to announce the arrival of a guide to lead fugitives safely to the North

Charter

A document that gives the holder the right to organize settlements in an area

Fort Orange

A dutch fur trading post along the banks of the Hudson River, today it is Albany, NY

Peculiar Institution

A euphemism for slavery and the economic ramifications of it in the American South; aimed to explain away the seeming contradiction of legalized slavery in a country whose Declaration of Independence states that "all men are created equal"; one of the key causes of the Civil War

Kentucky Rifle

A flintlock rifle with a long barrel and short, crooked stock

Presbyterianism

A form of Protestant Church government in which the church is administered locally by the minister with a group of elected elders of equal rank; never made official in any of the colonies

Limited Liability

A form of business ownership in which the owners are liable only up to the amount of their individual investments

Republic

A form of government in which the people select representatives to govern them and make laws

Civil Disobedience

A form of political participation that reflects a conscious decision to break a law believed to be immoral and to suffer the consequences

Union Army

A general term for the United States army during the Civil War; also known as "federals"

Manumission

A grant of legal freedom to an individual slave

Mingo Creek Democratic Society

A group in Pennsylvania modeled after the Sons of Liberty who supported France; used the French Revolution as an excuse to resist the Washington administration; unhappy with the Washington administration's tax on distilled spirits, including whiskey, which was a major part of their economic activity

Boston Associates

A group of Boston businessmen who built the first power loom; in 1814 in Waltham, Massachusetts, they opened a factory run by Lowell; their factory made cloth so cheaply that women began to buy it rather than make it themselves

Ohio Company of Virginia

A group of land speculators composed mainly of well-connected British planters to whom the state of Virginia had granted over 300,000 acres by early 1745; they opened the door to British trade in the South, competing with the already established French traders; their claims to the land were voided with the Quebec Act in 1774

Copperheads

A group of northern Democrats who opposed abolition and sympathized with the South during the Civil War

Oneida Community

A group of socio-religious perfectionists who lived in New York; practiced polygamy, communal property, and communal raising of children; established in upstate New York in 1848 by John Humphrey Noyes and his followers as a utopian society

Blackfoot Indians

A group of these teenagers, armed with muskets from British Canadian fur-traders, stole horses from the Corps of Discovery, which resulted in one of them being shot and killed by Lewis

Fort Necessity

A hastily built British fort where Washington attempted to defeat the French in 1754; the French took the fort and forced Washington to surrender

Smallpox

A highly contagious viral disease characterized by fever, weakness, and skin eruption with pustules that form scabs; responsible for killing Native Americans

Society of the Cincinnati

A historical organization founded in 1783 to preserve the ideals and fellowship of the American Revolutionary War officers; helped to pressure the government to uphold promises it made to officers in the Revolution; criticized for its aristocratic ideals

Canadian Shield

A huge, rocky region that curves around Hudson Bay like a giant horseshoe, it covers half the land area of Canada. It was the first part of the North American landmass to emerge above sea level

Crittenden Compromise (Crittenden Amendments)

A last-ditch effort to resolve the secession crisis by compromise; a series of Constitutional amendments drafted by John Jordan Crittenden that proposed to bar the government from intervening in the states' decision of slavery, to restore the Missouri Compromise, and to guarantee protection of slavery below the line; Lincoln rejected the proposal, causing the gateway to bloodshed to be open

Iroquois

A later native group to the northeastern woodlands. They blended agriculture and hunting living in common villages constructed from the trees and bark of the forests

Draft

A law requiring people of a certain age to serve in the military

Northwest Ordinance of 1787

A law that established a procedure for the admission of new states to the Union; allowed for statehood to be achieved once a territory had population of 60,000; forbade slavery in the Northwest Territory

Bicameral Legislature

A lawmaking body made of two houses

Patent

A legal recognition of a new invention, granting exclusive rights to the inventor

Common Law

A legal system based on custom and court rulings

American Renaissance

A literary explosion during the 1840s until the Civil War inspired in part by Emerson's ideas on the liberation of the individual

Cotton Gin

A machine for cleaning the seeds from cotton fibers, invented by Eli Whitney in 1793; fifty times more efficient and effective than the handpicking process

Haitian Revolution

A major influence of the Latin American revolutions because of its successfulness; the only successful slave revolt in history; it is led by Toussaint L'Ouverture; ended French colonial rule in Haiti; first black government in the Western Hemisphere and the world's second democratic republic established (after the US); struck fear into slave owners in the US

Land Ordinance of 1785

A major success of the Articles of Confederation; Provided for the orderly surveying and distribution of land belonging to the United States; divided the area into townships of six-square miles, with 36 sections of one-square mile each

Mystic Massacre

A massacre that took place in 1637 as part of the Pequot War in which an entire city of Pequot Indians were killed by English, Narraganset, and Mohegan allies near the namesake river; English setters set fire to the Pequot village, trapping them inside so the couldn't get out; 700 were taken and sold/put into slavery

Peace Convention

A meeting called by Virginia leaders after the defeat of the Crittenden Compromise in 1861 to deal with the issue of slavery in the United States

Era of Good Feelings

A name for President Monroe's two terms, a period of strong nationalism, economic growth, and territorial expansion; since the Federalist party dissolved after the War of 1812, there was only one political party and no partisan conflicts

Domestic Feminism

A name for women's choice to have fewer children and smaller families and their growing power and independence in the 18th century; a turning point for women, whose role in society was rapidly progressing

Cumberland Road

A national road that stretched from Maryland to Illinois; first national/interstate highway; milestone for the eventual connection of all the states by highways, thus increasing trade

Jeremiad

A new form of sermon in the Puritan churches in the mid-seventeenth century; preachers scolded parishioners for their waning piety

Demon Drink

A nickname for alcohol by those involved in the temperance movement

Transcendentalism

A nineteenth-century movement in the Romantic tradition which held that every individual can reach ultimate truths through spiritual intuition, which transcends reason and sensory experience; bred hostility to authority, formal institutions and conventional wisdom

New York Tribune

A notable penny paper established by Horace Greeley; its non-sensationalistic, issues oriented, and humanitarian reporting established the mass newspaper as a powerful medium of social action

Common Sense

A pamphlet written by Thomas Paine in 1776 that criticized monarchies and convinced many American colonists of the need to break away from Britain

Transportation Revolution

A period of rapid growth in the speed and convenience of travel because of the development of new methods of transportation in the United States in the early-to-mid 1800s

Tejano

A person of Mexican heritage who considers Texas home

Mulatto

A person of mixed African and European ancestry

Sharecropper

A person who works fields rented from a landowner and pays the rent and repays loans by turning over to the landowner a share of the crops

Republicanism

A philosophy of limited government with elected representatives serving at the will of the people; the government is based on consent of the governed

Newburgh Conspiracy

A plan by Continental Army officers in 1783 to challenge the authority of the Confederation Congress, arising from their frustration with Congress's long-standing inability to meet its financial obligations to the military

Isolationalism

A policy of remaining apart from the affairs or interests of other groups, especially the political affairs of other countries

Liberty Party

A political party that started during the two party systems in the 1840's; main platform was bringing an end to slavery by political and legal means; originally part of the American Anti-slavery however, they split because they believed there was a more practical way to end slavery than Garrison's moral crusade

African Methodist Episcopal Church

A predominantly African American Methodist denomination based in the United States; founded by the Rev. Richard Allen in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1816 from several black Methodist congregations in the mid-Atlantic area that wanted independence from white Methodists; Allen was elected its first bishop in 1816; first independent Protestant denomination formed by blacks

Southern Democratic Party

A pro-slavery party that broke away from the Democratic Party in 1860; favored extension of slavery into the territories and the annexation of Cuba as a slave state

Tariff of 1842

A protective tariff signed by President John Tyler; raised the general level of duties to about where they had been before the Compromise Tariff of 1833

Libel

A published false statement that is damaging to a person's reputation; a written defamation

Sons of Liberty

A radical political organization for colonial independence which formed in 1765 after the passage of the Stamp Act; incited riots and burned the customs houses where the stamped British paper was kept; after the repeal of the Stamp Act, many of the local chapters formed the Committees of Correspondence which continued to promote opposition to British policies towards the colonies; leaders included Samuel Adams and Paul Revere.

Union Pacific Railroad

A railroad that started in Omaha, and it connected with the Central Pacific Railroad in Promontory Point, Utah

Third Race

A reference to free African-Americans in the American South, who were prohibited from working in certain occupations and forbidden from testifying against whites in court; this designation set the standard for racial interaction for the next hundred years

Dutch Reformed Church

A reformed Christian denomination in the Netherlands; strong calvinist influence

Methodism

A religion founded by John Wesley; insisted on strict self-discipline and a methodical approach to religious study and observance; emphasized an intense personal salvation and a life of thrift, abstinence, and hard work

Puritans

A religious group who wanted to purify the Church of England; They came to America for religious freedom and settled Massachusetts Bay

Protestant Reformation

A religious movement of the 16th century that began as an attempt to reform the Roman Catholic Church and resulted in the creation of Protestant churches

The Protestant Reformation

A religious movement of the 16th century that began as an attempt to reform the Roman Catholic Church and resulted in the creation of Protestant churches

Great Awakening

A revival of religious feeling in the American colonies during the 1730s and 1740s; greatly increased the number and competitiveness of American Churches; encouraged new missionary work among Native Americans and slaves and the establishment of many new centers of higher learning; broke down boundaries and united Americans under shared experiences

Wilderness Road

A road that traveled westward over the Appalachian Mountains into Kentucky

Kiva

A round room used by the Pueblo peoples for religious ceremonies; built upon the ruins of Santa Fe following Pope's Rebellion

National Woman Suffrage Association

A suffrage group headed by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony that stressed the need for women to lead organizations on their own behalf; focused exclusively on women's rights, sometimes denigrating men of color in the process; took up the battle for a federal women's suffrage amendment

Anxious Bench

A seat at or near the front of a religious revival meeting where the most likely converts were seated

Second Great Awakening

A second religious fervor that swept the nation from the early to mid 1800s; converted more than the first; resulted in moral movements such as prison reform, the temperance movement, and moral reasoning against slavery

Molly Maguires

A secret Irish organization of coal miners in regions of western Pennsylvania and West Virginia in the 1860s and 1870s; miners worked together to achieve better working conditions, and when demands weren't met, they protested by destroying mining equipment and other activities; eventually brought down by a Pinkerton detective, and some alleged members had trials and were hanged

Ku Klux Klan

A secret society created by white southerners in 1866 that used terror and violence to keep African Americans from obtaining their civil rights

Nullification Crisis

A sectional crisis during the presidency of Andrew Jackson created by the Ordinance of Nullification in South Carolina, and the federal government, regarding the role of national government

Patriotism

A sense of pride in one's country

Bleeding Kansas

A sequence of violent events beginning in 1856 involving abolitionists and pro-slaverites that took place in the Kansas Territory; further strained the relations of the North and South, making civil war imminent

Philadelphia Nativist Riots

A series of Anti-Catholic riots that broke out in Philadelphia in 1844 that lead the burning of several Catholic churches and strong anti-nativist backlash

Wilderness Campaign

A series of brutal clashes between Ulysses S. Grant's and Robert E. Lee's armies in Virginia, leading up to Grant's capture of Richmond in April of 1865; having lost Richmond, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse

McGuffey Readers

A series of elementary textbooks created by William Holmes McGuffey that became widely accepted as the basis of reading and moral instruction in hundreds of schools beginning in the 1830s; extolled virtues of hard work, punctuality, sobriety, and lessons in morality patriotism, and idealism

Anti-Federalist Papers

A series of essays written to oppose and defeat the proposed U.S. Constitution

Industrial Revolution

A series of improvements in industrial technology that transformed the process of manufacturing goods

Intolerable Acts

A series of laws passed in 1774 to punish Boston for the Tea Party; also known as Coercive Acts

Caravel

A small, highly maneuverable three-masted ship developed by the Portuguese that allowed the first safe travel and exploration of the African coastline by Europeans

Temperance Movement

A social movement against the consumption of alcoholic beverages.

Covenant

A solemn agreement between human beings or between God and a human being in which mutual commitments are made

Nation-State

A state whose territory corresponds to that occupied by a particular ethnicity that has been transformed into a nationality

The Protestant Wind

A storm that crippled the spanish armada, destroying half of its ships, thus allowing great Britain to win the battle

Fiscal Corporation

A strife to pacify Tyler's objects to a "fiscal bank"; vetoed by President Tyler; after this, he was rejected by his former Whig Party and praised by the Democrats

Nationalism

A strong feeling of pride in and devotion to one's country

Neoclassicism

A style of art and architecture that emerged in the later 18th century; part of a general revival of interest in classical cultures; characterized by the utilization of themes and styles from ancient Greece and Rome; revival of a classical style (in art, literature, architecture or music) but from a new perspective or with a new motivation

Township

A subdivision of a county that has its own government

Primogeniture

A system of inheritance in which the eldest son in a family received all of his father's land. The nobility remained powerful and owned land, while the 2nd and 3rd sons were forced to seek fortune elsewhere. Many of them turned to the New World for their financial purposes and individual wealth.

Auburn System

A system of prison administration in which prisoners were isolated in cells at night but allowed to congregate during the day for work duty and meals, but in total silence; designed to prevent the corruption of one prisoner by another; named after prison in New York

Checks and Balances

A system that allows each branch of government to limit the powers of the other branches in order to prevent abuse of power

Encomienda System

A system whereby the Spanish crown granted the conquerors the right to forcibly employ groups of Indians; it was a disguised form of slavery.

Slavocracy

A term for southern democracy by anti-slavery Union people; suggested that slavery dominated all southern politics; Northerners believed that adding Texas to the United States was the attempts of the south to add one more slave state

Slavocracy

A term for southern democracy by anti-slavery Unionists; suggested that slavery dominated all southern politics, and Northerners believed that adding Texas to the United States was the attempts of the south to add one more slave state

High Federalists

A term used to describe Alexander Hamilton and some of his less-moderate supporters; they wanted the naval war with France to continue and to severely limit the rights of an opposition party

Thornton Affair

A term used to describe when Mexican officials fired shots at General Zachary Taylor in 1846; Taylor chided the Mexican army into shooting; Polk baited the Mexicans to attack an army on the Rio Grande, when they did he used it to justify the Mexican War

Triangular Trade

A three way system of trade during 1600-1800s in which Africa sent slaves to America, America sent raw materials to Europe, and Europe sent guns and rum to Africa

Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek

A treaty signed with Choctaw leaders that gave more than 7.5 million acres of their land to the state of Mississippi

Robertson's Infallible Worm Destroying Lozenges

A type of self-prescribed patent medicine that was commonly used in the 1800s to treat tapeworm in both human and animal

Pocket Veto

A veto taking place when Congress adjourns within 10 days of submitting a bill to the president, who simply lets it die by neither signing nor vetoing it.

War of 1812

A war between the U.S. and Great Britain caused by American outrage over the impressment of American sailors by the British, the British seizure of American ships, and British aid to the Indians attacking the Americans on the western frontier; strengthened American nationalism and encouraged the growth of industry

Battle of Princeton

A week after the Battle at Trenton, Washington left a few men to tend some campfires and fool the enemy; he quietly marched his army to Princeton, where they surprised and beat British forces; New Jersey turned Patriot; helped the American morale

Overseer

A worker hired by a planter to watch over and direct the work of slaves

Reannexation of Texas

After Congress voted to annex Texas, the Mexican government began war preparations when Texans accepted annexation; Polk sent troops to occupy Texas and the disputed territory south of the Nueces River; Polk believed that the land was part of the Louisiana Purchase, and therefore it belonged to the United States

British North America Act

Act of Parliament creating the Dominion of Canada

Declaratory Act

Act passed in 1766 after the repeal of the stamp act; stated that Parliament had authority over the the colonies and the right to tax and pass legislation "in all cases whatsoever."

Force Acts

Acts passed to promote African American voting and mainly aimed at limiting the activities of the Ku Klux Klan; actions committed with the intent to influence voters, prevent them from voting, or conspiring to deprive them of civil rights, including life, were made federal offenses; federal government had the power to prosecute the offenses, including calling federal juries to hear the cases

Navigation Act of 1783

Admitted only British built and manned ships to the ports of the West Indies, and imposed heavy tonnage dues upon American ships in other British ports

Twelfth Amendment

Adopted in 1804, it specifies the separate election of the president and vice president by the electoral college; created in response to the tie between Burr and Jefferson in 1800

Freemen

Adult males who belonged to the Puritan congregation; were the only ones allowed to vote in the Massachusetts Bay Colony

Voyageurs

Adventurers who journeyed by canoe from Montréal to the interior to trade with Indians for furs; had negative impact on Native American culture, including disease, alcohol, and slaughter of beavers which violated their religious beliefs

Cabinet

Advisory council for the president consisting of the heads of the executive departments, the vice president, and a few other officials selected by the president

Exodusters

African Americans who migrated from the South to the West after the Civil War

Rio Grande River

America believed this to be the border between Texas and Mexico

National Republicans

After the 1824 election, part of the Democratic - Republican party joined John Q. Adams, Clay, and Daniel Webster to oppose Andrew Jackson; favored nationalistic measures like recharter of the Bank of the United States, high tariffs, and internal improvements at national expense; supported mainly by Northwesterners and were not very successful; as conservatives, they were alarmed by Jackson's radicalness and joined with the Whigs in the 1830's

Radical Republicans

After the Civil War, a group that believed the South should be harshly punished and thought that Lincoln was sometimes too compassionate towards the South; led by Thaddeus Stevens

Oregon Treaty of 1846

After years of conflict over ownership of the Pacific Northwest, the U.S. and England established the boundary at 49° latitude, essentially splitting the Oregon Country down the middle

Freedmen's Bureau

Agency set up after the Civil War to aid former slaves in adjusting themselves to freedom; furnished food and clothing to needy blacks and helped them get jobs

Gadsden Purchase

Agreement between Mexico and the United States that gave the United States parts of present-day New Mexico and Arizona in exchange for $10 million; all but completed the continental expansion envisioned by those who believed in Manifest Destiny; allowed a railroad to be built through the South; set the present-day boundary for the United States and Mexico

Three-Fifths Compromise

Agreement between northern and southern states at the Constitutional Convention that three-fifths of the slave population would be counted for determining direct taxation and representation in the House of Representatives

Pinckney's Treaty

Agreement between the United States and Spain that changed Florida's border, gave Americans free navigation of the Mississippi River, and granted them duty-free access to the port at New Orleans

Convention of 1800

Agreement which freed America from its alliance with France, forgave French $20 million in damages and resulted in Adams' losing a second term as president

Funding at Par

Alexander Hamilton's policy of paying off all federal bonds at face value in order to strengthen the national credit

Powhatan Confederacy

Alliance of Native American tribes living in the region of the initial Virginia settlement; Powhatan, leader of this alliance, tried to live in peaceful coexistence with the English settlers when they arrived in 1607

Miami Confederacy

Alliance of eight Indian nations led by Little Turtle that inflicted major defeats on American forces in the early 1790s

Administration of Justice Act

Allowed royal officials accused of crimes to be tried in England instead of the colonies

Free Incorporation Laws

Allowed the creation of corporations without an appeal for a charter from the legislature; first passed in New York in 1848

Alien Friends Act

Allowed the president to imprison or deport aliens considered "dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States" at any time

Tariff of Abominations

Also called Tariff of 1828, it raised the tariff on imported manufactured goods; protected the Northern manufacturing industries but harmed the Southern farmers; South said that it was economically discriminatory and unconstitutional because it violated state's rights

Tripolitan War (1801-1805)

Also called the Barbary Wars, this was a series of naval engagements launched by President Jefferson in an effort to stop the attacks on American merchant ships by the Barbary pirates; war was inconclusive; afterwards, the U.S. paid a tribute to the Barbary states to protect their ships from further pirate attacks

Poor White Trash

Also known as "crackers" of "sand hillers"; those who occupied the barren lands of the South and lived in miserable cabins in genuine destitution; many did not own land and supported themselves by hunting and foraging; some worked as common laborers but often found they could not support themselves and resorted to eating clay and suffered from pellagra, hookworm and malaria; often thought of as lazy

Negro Act of 1740

Also known as slave codes; were put into place following the Stono River Rebellion to limit any further attempts at resistance by African slaves by not allowing free travel, possession of weapons, personal/subsistence farming, or group meetings

Blue Laws

Also known as sumptuary laws, they are designed to restrict personal behavior in accord with a strict code of morality; passed across the colonies, particularly in Puritan New England and Quaker Pennsylvania

Constitutional Union Party

Also known as the "do-nothings" or "Old Gentlemen's" party during the 1860 election; a "middle of the road" group that feared for the Union; consisted mostly of Whigs and Know-Nothings; met in Baltimore and nominated John Bell from Tennessee as candidate for presidency; advocated "The Union, the Constitution, and the Enforcement of the Laws."

Jeffs

Also known as the mosquito fleet; an armada of small, frail, coastal, single-gun boats used by the Americans after their success in the battle of Tripoli

Turner's Rebellion

Although it was unsuccessful, it was the most violent slave rebellion in American history; took place in 1831 and was led by a slave from Southampton County, Virginia; it prompted many states to strengthen their slave codes

"Meaner Sort"

American blue bloods resented the pretension of these people & passed laws to try to keep them in their place; Massachusetts in 1651 prohibited poorer people from "wearing gold or silver lace"; in 18th century a tailor was fined & jailed for arranging to race his horse - "a sport only for gentlemen"

Patriots

American colonists who fought for independence from Great Britain during the Revolutionary War

Battle of Plattsburg

American forces repelled another British invasion in northern New York, on September 11, 1814, when they turned back a much more numerous British naval and land force; Thomas McDonough defeated the British in the North and secured the border of US

Fort Stanwix

American fort that successfully held off British attacks in New York by St. Leger's British army

Luminism

American landscape painting style of the 1850s to 1870s, characterized by effects of light in landscape through the use of aerial perspective and the concealment of visible brushstrokes; emphasizes tranquility, and often depicts calm, reflective water and a soft, hazy sky

Anti-Nebraska Democrats

American political party formed in response to the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. Its founders, including Salmon P. Chase, held deep moral opposition to slavery, and were thus appalled by legislation that could lead to more slave-holding states; morphed into Republican Party

Nativists

Americans who opposed immigration, specifically that of the Irish, fearing they would take jobs and impose their Roman Catholic beliefs on society

American Loyalists

Americans who supported the King and English government during and before the Revolution; typically were not worried about and did not feel oppressed by the unfair taxation; accepted the rationale of "virtual representation"; included 16% of colonial population; most numerous in Chesapeake region, where Anglican Church was strongest

Florida Purchase Treaty (Adams-Onis Treaty)

An 1819 agreement between Spain and the United States, in which Spain turned over Florida and the Oregon Territory to the United States; U.S. agreed to assume $5 million debt and give up any claims in Texas

Whig Party

An American political party formed in the 1830s to oppose President Andrew Jackson and the Democrats; stood for protective tariffs, national banking, and federal aid for internal improvements

Chinook Indians

An Indian tribe that began in the early 19th century and spans into modern day; located along the northwestern coast, and were known for being famous traders (ex of trade: dried fish, slaves, and canoes); interacted with Lewis and Clark; impacted the early Americas with their trading and use of water routes

Naturalization Act of 1802

An act that was enacted by the Jeffersonians which reduced the unreasonable requirement of 14 years of residence for citizenship to the previous 5 year requirement

Iroquois Confederacy

An alliance of five northeastern Amerindian peoples (after 1722 six) that made decisions on military and diplomatic issues through a council of representatives. Allied first with the Dutch and later with the English, it dominated W. New England

"Articles of Confusion"

An alternative name for the Articles of Confederation; called so because it merely loosely joined thirteen independent states for joint action in common issues

Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783

An anti-government protest by nearly 400 soldiers of the Continental Army in June 1783; the refusal of the Executive Council of Pennsylvania to stop it ultimately resulted in Congress of the Confederation vacating Philadelphia and the creation of a federal district to serve as the national capital

Natural Aristocracy

An aristocracy which arises out of work and competition rather than birth, education, or special privilege; some Patriots preferred this to republicanism

Saratoga Campaign

An attempt by the British to gain military control of the strategically important Hudson River valley during the American Revolutionary War; consisted of three units converging in Albany (Burgoyne, Howe, Leger)

Great Wagon Road

An early Pioneer route through the Appalachians; this main North-South trail stretched from Pennsylvania to North Carolina

Capitalism

An economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state

Mercantilism

An economic system to increase a nation's wealth by government regulation of all of the nation's commercial interests; nations sought to increase their wealth and power by obtaining large amounts of gold and silver and by selling more goods than they bought

Federalist No. 10

An essay composed by James Madison which argues that liberty is safest in a large republic because many interests (factions) exist; such diversity makes tyranny by the majority more difficult since ruling coalitions will always be unstable

Turnpike

An expressway on which tolls are collected

True Womanhood

An ideal that defines what it means to be a woman according to one's capacity for piety, purity, and domesticity; a gender convention most strongly associated with white, middle-class women; women were expected to be homemakers and the center of the family

Conversion Narrative

An individual needed to provide this and was judged upon it before full church membership was granted in Puritan New England

United Empire Loyalists

An inhabitant of the Thirteen Colonies who remained loyal to Britain during the American Revolution and fled to the British North American colonies after 1776

Conversion

An intense, identifiable personal experience in which God revealed to elect one's heavenly destiny, and caused people to lead more sanctified lives as visible saints

Order of the Star Spangled Banner

An oath-bound secret society in NYC created by Charles Allen in 1849 to protest the rise of the Irish, Roman Catholic, and German immigration into the U.S.; known as the "Know-Nothings" because they kept the society a secret

Proclamation of 1763

An order in which Britain prohibited its American colonists from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains; designed to prevent further Native American uprisings; angered the colonists

American Temperance Society

An organization group in which reformers are trying to help the ever present drink problem; formed in Boston in 1826, and was the first well-organized group created to deal with the problems drunkards had on society's well-being, and the possible well-being of the individuals that are heavily influenced by alcohol

Battle of Cowpens

An overwhelming victory by American Revolutionary forces under Brigadier General Daniel Morgan in the Southern campaign of the American Revolutionary War; cleared most British troops out of Georgia and South Carolina

Creole Affair

An uprising by a group of slaves who were in the process of being transported in the ship, the Creole; slaves killed the captain, took control of ship and sailed for Bahamas, where they became free under British; incidents such as this contributed to the intensification of sectional conflict in the United States

Pope's Rebellion

An uprising of most of the indigenous Pueblo people against the Spanish colonizer's attempts to convert the natives to the Christian religion in the province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México; Destroyed every church in the province; Killed 400 priests and settlers and drove the remaining 2,000 colonists away

Second War for American Independence

Another name for the War of 1812

Cold Water Army

Anti-drinking children's clubs organized by temperance crusaders; one of many tactics used by the American Temperance Society to reform the drunkard nation by turning children against alcohol at a young age

The North Star

Anti-slavery newspaper published by Frederick Douglas

The Liberator

Anti-slavery newspaper written by William Lloyd Garrison; drew attention to abolition, both positive and negative, causing a war of words between supporters of slavery and those opposed

New England Emigrant Aid Company

Antislavery organization in the North that sent thousands of pioneers to the Kansas-Nebraska territory in order to thwart the Southerners and prevent the spread of slavery into the West

The Impending Crisis of the South

Antislavery tract, written by white Southerner Hinton R. Helper, which argued that nonslaveholding whites actually suffered most in a slave economy and that slavery was an impediment to the growth of the entire region of the South

Battle of Concord

April 19, 1775 - The British leave Lexington and head to Concord to take the weapons and gunpowder from the colonists; the British were burning the town when the colonists began firing on soldiers, chasing them out of town and turning the road into a 20 mile battlefield; 275 British soldiers were wounded or died; as a result, a wider conflict between the colonies and the British became much more probable

Palladian Style

Architectural style derived from architect Andrea Palladio which strongly values classical Greek and Roman styles and symmetry; example shown in Thomas Jefferson's Virginia home of Monticello

Freeman's Farm

Area 40 miles north of Albany; by the time that Burgoyne reached Saratoga he was outnumber but the American Militia and said that "swarmed around....like birds of prey"; Patriots won what became known as the First Battle of Freeman's farm

Indian Territory

Area covering most of present-day Oklahoma to which most Native Americans in the Southeast were forced to move in the 1830s

Burned-Over District

Area of New York State along the Erie Canal that was constantly aflame with revivalism and reform; as wave after wave to fervor broke over the region, groups such as the Mormons, Shakers, and Millerites found support among the residents

District of Columbia

Area set aside along the banks of the Potomac River for the new national capital

Privateers

Armed civilian ships that had their government's permission to attack enemy ships and keep their goods; "legalized pirates"

Assembly Lines

Arrangement of equipment and workers in which work passes from operation to operation in direct line until the product is assembled

Elastic Clause

Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution, which allows Congress to make all laws that are "necessary and proper" to carry out the powers of the Constitution

Supremacy Clause

Article VI of the Constitution, which makes the Constitution, national laws, and treaties supreme over state laws when the national government is acting within its constitutional limits

Runaway Inflation

As revenue began to dry up, the Confederate government was forced to print blue-backed paper money with complete abandon; Southern presses continued to grind out poorly-backed treasury notes and caused this to happen; a hyperinflation with prices rising rapidly

Conestoga Massacre

At daybreak on December 14, 1763, a vigilante group of the Scots-Irish frontiersmen attacked Conestoga homes at Conestoga Town, murdered six, and burned their cabins

Sack of Lawrence

Attack in May 1856, led by pro-slavery men, on abolitionists living in the city of Lawrence, Kansas; pro-slavery men were sent to arrest anti-slavery leaders in Lawrence and in the process, the pro-slaverites burned the town, robbed many buildings, and destroyed printing presses used to print abolitionist newspapers; beginning of the Bleeding Kansas crisis

Pequot Indians

Attacked English farmers who had intruded onto their lands along Connecticut's Mystic River; experienced near-extermination by a Puritan militia

Battle of Osawatomie

August 30, 1856; 250-400 pro-slavery Border Ruffians led by John W. Reid attacked the town of Osawatomie, Kansas, which was settled largely by anti-slavery Free-Staters; Reid was intent on destroying the Free-State settlement and then moving on to Topeka and Lawrence to do more of the same; abolitionist John Brown first learned of the raiders when they shot his son Frederick; with 40 or so men, Brown tried to defend the town against the pro-slavery partisans, but ultimately was forced to withdraw; five Free-Staters were killed and the town of Osawatomie was subsequently looted and burned by Reid's men; one of a series of violent clashes between abolitionists and pro-slavery partisans in Kansas and Missouri during the Bleeding Kansas era

Appellate Jurisdiction

Authority of a court to review a decision of a lower court or administrative agency

Land Act of 1820

Authorized a buyer to purchase 80 virgin acres at a minimum of $1.25 per acre in cash; brought about cheap transportation and cheap money

National Banking System

Authorized by Congress in 1863 to establish a standard bank currency; banks that joined the system could buy bonds and issue paper money; first significant step toward a national banking network since 1836

Funding Act of 1790

Authorized the federal government to receive certificates of state war-incurred debts and to issue federal securities in exchange.

Residence Act of 1790

Authorized the president to choose the site for the capital that was not larger than 10 square miles

Mexican Cession

Awarded as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo after the Mexican American War in 1848; United States paid $15 million for 525,000 square miles; largest territorial acquisition in American history

Whiskey Boys

Backcountry farmers who made their living raising corn and selling it in liquid form; led Whiskey Rebellion

Buffer Colony

Barrier (colony of Georgia) that was meant to prevent or slow down a Spanish attack on South Carolina

Division of Power

Basic principle of federalism; the constitutional provisions by which governmental powers are divided on a geographic basis (in the United States, between the national government and the individual states).

Battle of Tippecanoe

Battle between Americans and Native Americans in 1811; Tecumseh and the Prophet attempted to oppress white settlement in the West, but were defeated by William Henry Harrison; led to talk of Canadian invasion and served as a cause for the War of 1812.

Battle of Coleto Creek

Battle fought east of Goliad between Texas forces commanded by colonel James Fannin and Mexican forces commanded by Jose Urrea; Fannin surrendered to Urrea; most survivors were later shot on the orders of Santa Anna.

Battle of Plattsburgh

Battle in which Macdonough challenged and defeated the British near Plattsburgh; close to defeat, Macdonough reversed his ship, confronted the enemy with a fresh broadside and won; forced British to retreat and saved New York from conquest and the Union from dissolution

French Revolution

Began in 1789; overthrew the absolute monarchy of the Bourbons and the system of aristocratic privileges, and ended with Napoleon's overthrow of the Directory and seizure of power in 1799; effects were felt in America; Jeffersonians supported the uprising, Federalists feared it

Tuscarora War (1711-1713)

Began with an Indian attack on New Bern, North Carolina; After the natives were defeated, remaining Indian survivors were either sold into slavery, and those who escaped migrated northward, eventually joining the Iroquois Confederacy as its sixth nation

Barbados

British West Indies colony whose rich sugar plantation system and harsh slave codes became the model for Southern colonies in North America

Bloomerism

Belief in the 1850's that questioned cultural norms; Bloomers were similar to hippies in that they, too, were seen as radical young adults who believed in freedom; wore bloomers and smoked cigars; behaviors elicited disapproving stares from matrons and verbal and physical assaults from street urchins

Egalitarianism

Belief that all people should have equal political, economic, social, and civil rights

Rugged Individualism

Belief that success comes through individual effort and private enterprise, with minimal government support

Antinomianism

Belief that the truly saved need not obey the law of either God or man; argued in Massachusetts Bay Colony by Anne Hutchinson

Democratic Ideals

Beliefs and values that support democracy and are essential in order to maintain a democratic way of life; include individual dignity, equality before the law, widespread participation in public decisions, and public decisions by majority rule, with one person having one vote

Equal Rights Party

Believed that men and women should have the same opportunities as men; in 1872, Victoria Woodhull ran for president and challenged white men

Bible Communism

Believed that people could strive for and achieve moral perfection; no personal ownership of property; practiced within the Oneida Community

Secessionists

Believed that since the states voluntarily joined the Union, they could also choose to leave

Anglicans

Belonged to Church of England and came to America; "purified" version of Catholics

Poor Richard's Almanac

Benjamin Franklin's highly popular collection of information, parables, and advice; emphasized homespun virtues like thrift, industry, morality, and common sense

Castoreum

Bitter strong-smelling creamy orange-brown substance that consists of the dried perineal glands of the beaver and their secretion and is used especially for perfumes and medicinal purposes; created a high demand in the fur trade

Battle of Shiloh (1862)

Bloody Civil War battle on the Tennessee-Mississippi border that resulted in the deaths of more than 23,000 soldiers and ended in a marginal Union victory; gained the Union greater control of the Mississippi River

The Age of Reason (1794)

Book written by Thomas Paine that shockingly declared that all churches were "set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit"

36th parallel

Boundary between free and slave territories in the Louisiana Purchase

Nonimportation Agreements

Boycotts against British goods adopted in response to the Stamp Act and, later, the Townshend and Intolerable Acts; the most effective form of protest against British policies and created unity in the colonies

Executive Branch

Branch of government that carries out laws

Judicial Branch

Branch of government that decides if laws are carried out fairly

Legislative Branch

Branch of government that makes the laws

Second Era of Good Feelings

Brief period that dawned after the Compromise in 1850, when talk of secession subsided and people of the North and the South were determined that the compromises should be final and the issue of slavery buried

Cotton Famine

Britain had a surplus of cotton originally, but when they ran out they couldn't get any more from the South because they were fighting in the Civil War; caused hunger and unemployment but eventually the Union and other countries sent relief food and cotton to Britain

Greytown

Britain, who did not want America to monopolize trade arteries in Nicaragua, made haste to secure a solid foothold here, the eastern end of the proposed Nicaraguan canal route; challenged the Monroe Doctrine, rising the possibility of an armed clash, but the impending conflict was settled in 1850 by the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty

West Africa Squadron

British Royal Navy force formed to enforce the abolition of the slave trade in 1807; intercepted hundreds of slave ships and freed thousands of Africans

Salutary Neglect

British colonial policy that relaxed supervision of internal colonial affairs; weakly enforced Navigation Laws; uplifted economy in American colonies and in Britain; contributed significantly to the rise of American self government

Lexington Massacre

British commander in Boston sent a detachment of troops in April 1775 to seize provisions of colonial gunpowder and to capture the "rebel" ringleaders Samuel Adams and John Hancock; 8 Americans were shot and killed.

Jayle Birds

British convicts who were shipped to America involuntarily; included robbers, rapists, and murderers, but some were simply highly respectable citizens who had simply had been victimized by the strict English penal code

Admirality Courts

British courts in the colonies in which juries were not allowed and defendants were assumed guilty until proven innocent

Virtual Representation

British governmental theory that Parliament spoke for all British subjects, including Americans, even if they did not vote for its members

Prohibitory Act

British legislation in late 1775 that cut off all trade between the American colonies and England, and removed the colonies from the King's protection

English Whigs

British political party opposed to Lord North's Tories and generally more sympathetic to the colonial cause

Impressment

British practice of taking American sailors from American ships and forcing them into the British navy; a tactic used in the War of 1812

Canning proposal (1823)

British proposed US combine with England in a joint declaration renouncing any interest in acquiring American territory and warning Europe to keep away from Latin American republics

Battle of Fort McHenry

British shelling of Baltimore harbor in August 1814; unsuccessful; inspires national anthem

HMS Guerriere

British ship that battled the USS Constitution during the war of 1812; the guns of the USS Constitution tore holes in sides of the ship and shot off both masts

HMS Leopard

British ship who captured American men for impressment who in 1807 stopped the American ship Chesapeake and demanded to search for deserters; Chesapeake revolted and the British ship opened fire killing 3, wounding 8, and capturing the 4 deserters

Redcoats

British soldiers who fought against the colonists in the American Revolution; so called because of their bright red uniforms

Battle of Bladensburg

British victory during the War of 1812 that left Washington vulnerable to attack

CSS Alabama

British warship used to aid the Confederates by looting and sinking many Union vessels

Fort Malden

British were forced to retreat from here as well as Detroit and were subsequently overtaken by Harrison's army and beaten at the Battle of Thames

Broadcloth Mob

Broke out due to concerns that the New England textile mills would shut down if cotton was no longer available from the South due to the abolition of slavery; dragged William Lloyd Garrison, through the streets of Boston with a rope tied around him and almost killed him but he escaped

Independence Hall

Building in Philadelphia where the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776 and the Constitutional Convention was held in 1787

Charles Town

Busiest seaport in the South; located in Carolinas; sons of English aristocrats came for money, French and Protestants came for religious toleration

Bonus Bill

Calhoun presented this bill in 1817; $1.5 million distributed to states to fund internal improvements; passed but vetoed by Madison in his last day in office

Responsorial

Call and response style of preaching that melded Christian and African traditions; practiced by African slaves in the South

Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge

Called the Southern Lexington and Concord; prevented loyalist forces from linking with regular British troops to invade South Carolina; ended Loyalist presence in North Carolina; helped build Southern political support for the revolution and increased recruitment of additional soldiers into their forces

Tenochtitlan

Capital of the Aztec Empire, located on an island in Lake Texcoco. Its population was about 150,000 on the eve of Spanish conquest. Mexico City was constructed on its ruins.

Tobacco

Cash crop that made a profit and saved Jamestown; ruinous to soil

Enumerated Products

Certain specified goods from the Colonies, including tobacco, cotton, sugar, and furs, which were to be shipped only to England or other English colonies

War Bonds

Certificates sold by the United States government to pay for the war, to be redeemed at a later date with interest

Protestant Revivalism

Changes in Protestant, especially Presbyterian, beliefs; began with the Second Great Awakening and became a powerful force for social reform *more people began to believe that every individual was capable of salvation, a revival of faith need not depend on a miracle from God; it could be created by individual effort

Second Bank of the United States

Chartered in 1816 under President Madison; became a depository for federal funds and a creditor for (loaning money to) state banks; It became unpopular after being blamed for the Panic of 1819, and suspicion of corruption and mismanagement haunted it until its charter expired in 1836; Jackson fought it throughout his presidency, proclaiming it to be an unconstitutional extension of the federal government and a tool that rich capitalists used to corrupt American society

Five Civilized Tribes

Cherokees, Choctaws, Creeks, Chickasaws, and Seminoles; "civilized" due to their intermarriage with whites, forced out of their homelands by expansion; sided with the Confederacy during the Civil War

Five Civilized Tribes

Cherokees, Choctaws, Creeks, Chickasaws, and Seminoles; "civilized" due to their intermarriage with whites; forced out of their homelands by westward expansion

Committee of Five

Chosen to create a document that gave reasons for separation from England (Declaration of Independence); Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston

Battle of Antietam

Civil War battle in which the North under McClellan succeeded in halting Lee's Confederate forces in Maryland; bloodiest battle of the war resulting in 25,000 casualties; resulted in the Emancipation Proclamation and dissuasion of foreign aid for the South

Second Battle of Bull Run

Civil War battle that ended in a decisive victory for Confederate General Robert E. Lee, who was emboldened to push further into the North

Jefferson Davis' Inaugural Address

Claimed that secession was a "need, not a choice" in order to gain freedom from North's oppression of the South; wanted to obtain respect for the rights to which they were entitled, establish a government system similar to the U.S. Constitution, and grant the people the right to alter or abolish governments whenever they become destructive

Democracy in America

Classic French text by Alexis de Tocqueville on the United States in the 1830s and its strengths and weaknesses such as the tyranny of the majority; explained why republicanism succeeded in the U.S. and failed elsewhere

Leaves of Grass

Collection of poems written by Whitman in 1855; highly romantic, emotional, and unconventional; handled sex with frankness; banned in Boston; financial failure at first and had only three reviews secretly by Whitman himself; later revived and honored in America and Europe

Minute Men

Colonial militia members who were supposed to be ready to fight at a minute's notice

Royal Colonies

Colonies controlled by the British king through governors appointed by him and through the king's veto power over colonial laws (South/North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, New York, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New Jersey)

Self-Governing Colonies

Colonies granted charters to rule themselves (Rhode Island, Connecticut)

Proprietary Colony

Colonies run by individuals or groups to whom land was granted (Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware)

Aquidneck Island

Colonists including William Coddington, Anne Hutchinson, and John Clarke purchased this land from the Narragansetts in the Narragansett Bay and settled the colony in 1638; first settlement in the colony of Rhode Island

Indentured Servants

Colonists who received free passage to North America in exchange for working without pay for a certain number of years; usually worked for 4-7 years

Connecticut River Colony

Colony established in Connecticut area by Reverend Thomas Hooker, along with a group of Boston Puritans Drafted a document known as the Fundamental Orders (basically a constitution)

Pennsylvania Colony

Colony formed from the "Holy Experiment"; settled by Quakers; founded by William Penn, who bought land from the Native Americans and allowed religious freedom

New Hampshire Colony

Colony founded by Captain John Mason; Started as a fishing haven; a place of rocky hills, mountains, and lowlands near the shore

Committee of Secret Correspondence

Committee established by the Second Continental Congress in 1775; purpose was to conduct all foreign policy during the American Revolution

Inaugural Brawl

Common people poured into Washington during Jackson's inauguration, surging into the White House, wrecking things, and threatening Jackson with cracked ribs; left went word spread that bowls of spiked punch had been placed on the lawns; seemed the end of the world to conservatives; Jacksonian vulgarity replaced Jeffersonian simplicity

New Harmony

Communal society of around one thousand members, established in New Harmony, Indiana by Robert Owen; attracted a hodgepodge of individuals, from scholars to crooks, and fell apart due to infighting and confusion after just two years

Virginia Dynasty

Comprised of the four of the first five presidents (Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe), all of whom Virginian plantation owners

Black Legend

Concept that Spanish conquerors merely tortured and murdered Indians, stole gold and infected them with smallpox, leaving nothing of benefit

Disenfranchisement

Condition of being deprived of the right to vote

Battle of Shiloh

Confederate forces surprised Union troops and drove them across the Tennessee river; Union got back up and won the battle but it was one of the most bloody battles in the Civil War

Chesapeake Affair

Conflict between Britain and the United States that precipitated the 1807 embargo; a British ship, in search of deserters, fired on the American Chesapeake off the coast of Virginia; as a result, the U.S. expelled all British ships from its waters until Britain issued an apology

Crimean War (1853-1856)

Conflict between the Russian and Ottoman Empires fought primarily in the Crimean Peninsula; led to an overstimulation of grain in the United States due the the high demand by Russia, which contributed to the Panic of 1857

Pequot War (1637)

Connecticut and Massachusetts soldiers teamed with Narragansett allies to set the main Pequot village afire and kill 500 Pequots

Fourteenth Amendment

Constitutional amendment giving full rights of citizenship to all people born or naturalized in the United States, except for American Indians

Thirteenth Amendment

Constitutional amendment ratified after the Civil War in 1865 that forbade slavery and involuntary servitude

Separation of Power

Constitutional division of powers among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, with the legislative branch making law, the executive applying and enforcing the law, and the judiciary interpreting the law

Civil Liberties

Constitutional freedoms guaranteed to all citizens

Second Continental Congress

Convened in May 1775; originally opposed the drastic move toward complete independence from Britain; in an effort to reach a reconciliation, delegates offered peace under the conditions that there be a cease-fire in Boston, that the Coercive Acts be repealed, and that negotiations begin immediately; King George III rejected the petition.

First Continental Congress

Convened on September 5, 1774, to protest the Intolerable Acts; delegations from 12 colonies; endorsed the Suffolk Resolves, voted for a boycott of British imports, and sent a petition to King George III, conceding to Parliament the power of regulation of commerce but stringently objecting to its arbitrary taxation and unfair judicial system

World Anti-Slavery Convention

Convention against slavery in 1840 that refused to let women debate; helped spark women's rights movement

Kansas-Nebraska Act

Created Nebraska and Kansas as states in 1854 and gave the people in those territories the right to chose to be a free or slave state through popular sovereignty; primary cause of the Civil War; shattered the Democratic Party and led to the emergence of the Republican Party; repealed the Missouri Compromise

Treaty of Alliance

Created a defensive alliance between France and the United States of America during the American Revolution; promised military support in case of attack by British forces indefinitely into the future; noted the terms and conditions of the military alliance, established requirements for the signing of future peace treaties to end hostilities with the British, and provided a secret clause that left open the possibility of Spain and other European nations who may have received injuries from England to join the alliance

Anasazis

Created an irrigation system, but they lived in the four corners region where they built homes on the side of cliffs out of stone that were call Adobes.

Declaration of Rights and Grievances

Created by delegates from the nine colonies attending the Stamp Act Congress; set forth their view that Parliament didn't have right to tax colonists without their legislative consent and demanded repeal of Stamp and Sugar Acts

Continental Association

Created by the First Continental Congress, it enforced the non-importation, non-exportation, and non-consumption of British goods by empowering local Committees of Correspondence in each colony to fine or arrest violators; it was meant to pressure Britain to repeal the Intolerable Acts and return to the days before parliamentary taxation

Tariff of 1857

Created in response to the financial crash of 1857, southern pressure, and a treasury surplus; reduced duties to 20%, the lowest since before the War of 1812; northerners angered about low tariff walls; source of north-south tension.

Navy Department

Created in war preparations in the US with the French after the XYZ Affair; the three-ship navy was expanded; captured over 80 armed French vessels, though several hundred Yankee merchant ships were lost

African American Culture

Culture created by slaves through the combining of African culture and traditions with new realities of slavery; expressed by singing, dancing, storytelling and quilting to tell stories of oppression

Continental Money

Currency authorized by Congress to finance the Revolution and depreciated to near worthlessness; inflation created by the depreciation drove colonial militiamen to desert and return to aid their families

Seventh of March Speech

Daniel Webster's impassioned address urging the North to support of the Compromise of 1850; Webster argued that topography and climate would keep slavery from becoming entrenched in Mexican Cession territory and urged Northerners to make all reasonable concessions to prevent disunion; especially popular with northern bankers who would lose millions if the South seceded

Immortal Trio

Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun

Civil War (1861-1865)

Deadliest war in American history; conflict between North (Union) and South (Confederacy); 11 southern slave states wanted to secede from Union

Treaty of Ghent

December 24, 1814; ended the War of 1812 and restored the status quo; for the most part, territory captured in the war was returned to the original owner; set up a commission to determine the disputed Canada/U.S. border

Battle of Fredericksburg

Decisive victory in Virginia for Confederate Robert E. Lee, who successfully repelled a Union attack on his lines

Suffolk Resolves

Declaration made on September 9, 1774, by the leaders of Suffolk County, Massachusetts; rejected the Massachusetts Government Act, urged for a colonial militia, and resolved on a boycott of imported goods from Britain unless the Intolerable Acts were repealed

Yamasee Indians

Defeated by the South Carolinians in the war of 1715-1716; defeat devastated the last of the coastal Indian tribes in the southern colonies

Convention of 1836

Delegates gathered at Washington-on-the-Brazos to declare Texas independent; drafted a constitution and declaration of independence

Election of 1856

Democrat James Buchanan defeated Republican candidate John C. Fremont and Know-Nothing candidate Millard Fillmore; won the general election by denouncing the abolitionists, promising not to allow any interference with the Compromise of 1850, and supporting the principle of noninterference by Congress with slavery in the territories

Viginia Statute for Religious Freedom

Drafted by Thomas Jefferson in 1786; disestablished the Church of England in Virginia and guaranteed freedom of religion to people of all religious faiths, including Christians of all denominations, Jews, Muslims, and Hindus; served as a model for the First Amendment

Fundamental Orders

Drafted in Connecticut in 1639; the first constitution written in North America; granted ALL adult males to vote not just church going landowners as was the policy in Massachusetts; created a democracy controlled by "substantial citizens"; borrowed to draft state and colonial constitutions

Walker Tariff

Democratic bill proposed by Polk's secretary of Treasury, Robert Walker, that reversed the high rates of tariffs imposed by the Whig-backed "Black Tariff" of 1842 under president John Tyler; proved to provide large revenue

Peace Democrats

Democrats who didn't support the war and hoped to reunite the states through negotiation

Republican Party Platform (1860)

Denounced the Dred Scott decision and resisted the expansion of slavery; wanted a higher protective tariff for manufactures, free homesteads on federal lands, a more liberal naturalization law for immigrants, and federally financed internal improvements

Mr. Madison's War

Derisive Federalist name for the War of 1812 that blamed it on the Republican president

Californios

Descendents of Spanish and Mexican conquerors; as Spanish speaking inhabitants of California, they were the culture of Mexico carried into California

Hamilton's Financial Plan

Designed to pay off the U.S.'s war debts and stabilize the economy; believed that the United States should become a leading international commercial power; included assumption of states' debt, creation of a National Bank, establishment of the U.S.'s credit rate, increased tariffs, and an excise tax on whiskey

Tariff of 1789

Designed to protect domestic manufacturing; discouraged competition from abroad and compelled foreign competitors to raise prices on their commodities; provided the U.S. government with much-needed revenue.

Submission Men

Determined minority of the unionists who blocked the nullification of the Tariff of 1828 in South Carolina

Lyceum Movement

Developed in the 1800's in response to growing interest in higher education; associations were formed in nearly every state to give lectures, concerts, debates, scientific demonstrations, and entertainment; directly responsible for the increase in the number of institutions of higher learning

Lowell System

Developed in the textile mills of Waltham, Massachusetts, in the 1820s; as much machinery as possible was used, so that few skilled workers were needed in the process; workers were almost all single young farm women, who worked for a few years and then returned home to be housewives

Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge

Dispute over the toll bridge of Charles River and the free bridge of Warren; court under Roger B. Taney ruled in favor of Warren; decision reversed Dartmouth College v. Woodward; stated that property rights can be overridden by public need

Baptism

Dissenters of the Church of England; focused on the power of local churches; stresses following in example; each person interprets the Bible the way the Holy Spirit tells them how; emphasis on New Testament; no Church creeds; very simple and appealed to rural people

Congressional Reconstruction

Divided the South into 5 military districts and stationed troops in each district

Freeport Doctrine

Doctrine developed by Stephen Douglas that said the exclusion of slavery in a territory could be determined by the refusal of the voters to enact any laws that would protect slave property; slavery could only exist when popular sovereignty degreed it so

Macon's Bill No. 1

Drawn up by Albert Gallatin; prohibited public vessels of France or England or private vessels owned by subjects of either power from entering American ports; forbade the importation of goods from either country or its colonies; provided that whenever either country should revoke or modify her edicts so that they would cease to violate the neutral commerce of the United States, the President of the United States should issue a proclamation announcing the cessation of the prohibitions of the act towards the revoking power

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

During the 1858 Senate Debate, Lincoln forced Douglas to debate issue of slavery; Douglas supported pop-sovereignty; Lincoln asserted that slavery should not spread to territories; Lincoln emerged as strong Republican candidate

Beecher's Bibles

During the Kansas border war, the New England Emigrant Aid Society sent rifles at the instigation of fervid abolitionists like the preacher Henry Ward Beecher; these rifles became known as "Beecher's Bibles".

Quids

During the War of 1812, they were "Old" Democratic-Republicans who criticized the fighting because it violated the classic Democratic-Republican commitment to limited federal power and the maintenance of peace

New Amsterdam

Dutch colonial settlement that served as the capital of New Netherland; established on the southern tip of the Island of Manhattan in the Hudson Bay; no religious toleration, free speech, or democratic practices; diverse population; later became New York

New Netherlands

Dutch holdings in North America along the Hudson River; established for quick-profit fur trading

Battle of Detroit

Early engagement in the War of 1812; British force under Major General Isaac Brock with Native American allies under the Shawnee leader Tecumseh used bluff and deception to intimidate the American Brigadier General William Hull into surrendering the fort

Trade Unions

Early labor organizations that brought together workers in the same trade, or job, to fight for better wages and working conditions

Federal Style

Early national style of architecture that borrowed from neoclassical models and emphasized symmetry, balance, and restraint; famous builders associated with this style included Charles Bulfinch and Benjamin Latrobe

Forty-Niners

Easterners who flocked to California in 1849 after the discovery of gold there; established claims all over California and overwhelmed the existing government

American System

Economic program advanced by Henry Clay that included support for a national bank, high tariffs, and internal improvements; emphasized strong role for federal government in the economy

Market Economy

Economic system in which decisions on production and consumption of goods and services are based on voluntary exchange in markets by individuals

Plantation Economy

Economic system stretching throughout the Americas that produced crops, especially sugar, cotton, and tobacco, using slave labor on large estates

One-Crop Economy

Economy based on a single crop, such as bananas, sugarcane, or cacao

Orders in Council

Edicts issued by the British Crown closing French-owned European ports to foreign shipping; French responded by ordering the seizure of all vessels entering British ports, thereby cutting off American merchants from trade with both parties

The Dial

Edited by Margaret Fuller; the publication of the transcendentalists; appealed to people who wanted perfect freedom; progress in philosophy and theology and hope that the future will not always be as the past

The Man Without a Country

Edward Everett Hale's story of treason and banishment, inspired by the wartime banishing of Copperhead Clement Vallandigham; widely read in the North, it inspired greater devotion to the Union

Bloody Monday

Election Day in 1855 in Louisville; Know-Nothings wanted to prevent non-native born immigrants from voting; mobs and burnings broke out, mostly in the Irish district; part of the reason the Know-Nothings had a quick rise and a quick fall

Revolution of 1800

Electoral victory of Democratic Republicans over the Federalists, who lost their Congressional majority and the presidency; the peaceful transfer of power between rival parties solidified faith in America's political system

Planter Aristocrats

Elite southern families who owned more than 100 slaves each; provided the political and social leadership in the South, feeling a sense of obligation to serve the public; reduced to poverty after the Civil War when they lost investments and their land became almost worthless; their investments of more than $2 billion in slaves (their primary form of wealth) had evaporated with emancipation

Black Soldiers

Emancipated blacks served for the Union; in the first few months of the war, blacks were largely excluded from the military; after the Emancipation Proclamation black enlistment rapidly increased; most were assigned to menial tasks such as digging trenches; they had a higher mortality rate, were paid less, and unlike whites, were not returned if they became prisoners of war (they were sent back to their master or executed)

New York Colony

Emerged after a struggle between the English and the Dutch in which the English military forces forcefully took control of the island of Manhattan 1664; Named for Duke of York

Cult of Domesticity

Emphasized new ideas of femininity, the woman's role within the home and the dynamics of work and family; according to this idea, "True women" were supposed to possess four cardinal virtues: piety, purity, domesticity, and submissiveness; revolved around the woman being the center of the family

Conscription Act

Enacted in April of 1862, it subjected all white males between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five to military service for three years

Homestead Act of 1862

Encouraged westward settlement by allowing heads of families to buy 160 acres of land for a small fee ($10-30); settlers were required to develop and remain on the land for five years; over 400,000 families got land through this law

Treaty of Hartford

Ended Pequot War in 1638; slowly dissolved the Pequot nation; outlawed their language/alphabet; forced them to assimilate; divided land among survivors

Mormon War

Ended in 1858; President Buchanan responded to pressure from Protestants to eliminate polygamy by removing Young from the governorship; small army sent to Salt Lake City; he feared that abolition of polygamy would serve as a legal precedent for ending slavery (he was pro-slavery)

Treaty of Paris (1763)

Ended the French and Indian War and effectively ended French rule in North America; the British were granted the majority of French colonial territory; French were allowed to keep two fishing stations in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and small sugar islands in the West Indies; allowed British to emerge as the dominant power in North America and expand their naval power

Treaty of Breda

Ended the second Anglo-Dutch War(1665-1667); The English kept the island of Manhattan, the Dutch giving up their claim to the town and the rest of the colony, while the English formally abandoned Suriname in South America, and the island of Run in the East Indies to the Dutch, confirming their control of the valuable Spice Islands

Disenclavement

Ending of isolation for some areas and the increase in intersocietal contacts in most areas; European presence in Africa had this effect

Separatists

English Protestants who would not accept allegiance in any form to the Church of England due to the allowance of all people, damned or saved, to attend congregations

Quakers

English dissenters who broke from Church of England, preached a doctrine of pacifism, inner divinity, and social equity; under William Penn they founded Pennsylvania

The Virginia Company of London

English joint stock company established by royal charter by James I of England on April 10, 1606 with the purpose of establishing colonial settlements in North America

Royal African Company

English joint-stock company that enjoyed a state-granted monopoly on the colonial slave trade from 1672 until 1698; the supply of slaves to the North American colonies rose sharply once the company lost its monopoly privileges

Romantics

Enlightenment-era poets, novelists, and playwrights who questioned the Scientific Revolution's obsession with logic; they felt that science was not adequate to describe the full range of human experience, and stressed instinct, intuition, and feeling in their writings; characterized by idealism, emotion, passion; celebrate freedom of spirit and the common person

Freedmen

Enslaved people who had been freed by the war

Kansas "Civil War"

Erupted after Pottawatomie Creek in 1856; destroyed millions worth of property; between abolitionists and proslaveryites; later merged with the larger Civil War in 1861

On the Duty of Civil Disobedience

Essay by Henry David Thoreau that later influenced Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Railroads

Essential to westward expansion because they made it easier to travel to and live in the west; faster, more reliable, and cheaper than canals, and able to travel in any terrain or weather; first appeared in the United States in 1828

Santa Fe

Established as the capital of the New Mexican province in 1609 following the Battle of Acoma

Congressional Committee on the Conduct of the War

Established by Congress during the Civil War to oversee military affairs; largely under the control of Radical Republicans; agitated for a more vigorous war effort and actively pressed Lincoln on the issue of emancipation

Militia Act of 1792

Established the various states militia and granted the President the authority to call out the state militia under federal control

Confederate States of America

Eventually made up of 11 former states that seceded from the United States in 1861; Jefferson Davis was the 1st and only president; unable to defeat the North due to lack of railroad lines, lack of industry, and the inability to obtain European support for their cause

Complex Marriage

Everyone in the community is married to everyone and able to engage in free love; practiced by John Humphrey Noyes' Oneida Community and received much criticism from their neighbors

Republican Motherhood

Expectation that women would instill Republican values in children and be active in families; helped increase education for women

Garrisonians

Extreme abolitionists

Northern Democratic Party

Faction of the Democratic Party during the 1860 presidential election, Stephen Douglas was the nominee; advocated popular sovereignty

Northern Democrats

Faction of the Democratic Party during the 1860 presidential election; the party split in two due to problems with slavery; Stephen A. Douglas was the nominee and lost to Abraham Lincoln

Wage Slaves

Factory workers in the North who were ill-fed, worked long hours, received low wages, and worked in undesirable conditions; treated as expendable

Appomattox Court House

Famous as the site of the surrender of the Confederate Army under Robert E. Lee to Union commander Ulysses S. Grant in April 1865

Treaty of Amity and Commerce

February 6. 1778 with France; France recognized the United States as independent and offered trade concession, including important privileges to American shipping

Fort Sumter

Federal fort in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina; the Confederate attack here marked the beginning of the Civil War

State-Supported Universities

Federal land was granted to nourish the growth of these institutions for higher learning; established more to satisfy local pride than genuinely advance the cause of learning; first schools sprang up in the South, specifically North Carolina, in 1795

Whispering Campaign

Federalists slandered Jefferson to make him look bad before the election of 1800 by spreading rumors that Jefferson had intimate relations with one of his slaves, Sally Hemings, and she had 5 of his children

Southern Disadvantages

Few factories to produce weapons, railroad tracks, and other supplies; few railroads to move troops and vital supplies; more than one third of the population was enslaved (3.5 million); small population (9 million)

Panic of 1857

Financial crash brought on by gold-fueled inflation, overspeculation, and excess grain production; raised calls in the North for higher tariffs and for free homesteads on western public lands

54th Massachusetts

First African American Regimen; successfully defended Fort Wagner

Battle of Monterrey

First American victory of Mexican-American War led by Zachary Taylor into the heart of the city; forced the surrender of General Pedro de Ampudia

First Baptist Church of Providence

First Baptist church in America, founded by Roger Williams

Articles of Confederation

First Constitution of the United States; weak (no executive, no judicial, no power to tax, no power to regulate trade)

The Lily

First U.S. newspaper edited by and for women; published from 1849 to 1853 by Amelia Jenks Bloomer before she sold the newspaper to Mary Birdsall in 1854; initially focused on temperance; soon broadened its focus to include the many issues of women's rights activists in the 1850s; grew in its distribution as a result of its discussion of bloomers, a comfortable fashion popularized by Bloomer in the paper

The Seven Ranges

First area to be surveyed by the American government as part of the Northwest Territory; Thomas Hutchins; government hoped to used profits from land sales to pay off debts from American Revolution

Topeka Constitution

First attempt to establish a constitution for Kansas Territory; angered pro-slaverites who claimed it was illegal; started another dispute and contributed to "Bleeding Kansas"

Troy Female Seminary

First college level school for women in New York; established by Emma Willard in 1821

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad

First common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first thirteen-mile stretch opening in 1830

Baptist Church

First established in the Americas by Roger Williams in Rhode Island in 1636

Barbados Slave Code

First formal statute governing the treatment of slaves, which provided for harsh punishments against offending slaves but lacked penalties for the mistreatment of slaves by masters; Similar statutes were adopted by Southern plantation societies on the North American mainland in the 17th and 18th centuries

Anti-Masonic Party

First founded in New York, it gained considerable influence in New England and the mid-Atlantic during the 1832 election, campaigning against the politically influential Masonic order, a secret society; Anti-Masons opposed Andrew Jackson, a Mason, and drew much of their support from evangelical Protestants

Fort Mose

First free African settlement in North America; in Spanish Florida near St. Augustine

USS Monitor

First ironclad warship commissioned by the United States Navy; most famous for her participation in the first-ever naval battle against the ironclad CSS Virginia of the Confederate States Navy.

Battle of Quebec (1775)

First major defeat of the war for the Americans, and it came with heavy losses; General Richard Montgomery was killed, Benedict Arnold was wounded, and Daniel Morgan and more than 400 men were taken prisoner

Invasion of Quebec

First major military initiative by the newly formed Continental Army during the Revolutionary War; objective was to gain military control of the British Province of Quebec , and convince French-speaking Canadians to join the revolution

Tariff of 1816

First protective tariff in American history, created primarily to shield New England manufacturers from the inflow of British goods after the War of 1812

Maine Law of 1851

First statewide attempt to restrict the consumption of alcohol; prohibited the manufacture and sale of alcohol except for medical reasons; many states followed but within a decade, most statutes were repealed or declared unconstitutional

Bill of Rights

First ten amendments to the Constitution; drafted by Madison; placed limitations of government and protected natural rights

Finality Men

Five thousand Georgia Whigs who voted for Webster in the election of 1852 even though he had died 2 weeks before the election

Committee of Style

Five-member committee of the Constitutional Convention that met during the last week of the Convention in September 1787 to give final form to the Constitution; along with the Committee of Detail, it was one of the two most important committees at the Convention

Committee of Detail

Five-member committee of the Constitutional Convention that met in late July and early August 1787 to fashion the resolutions passed by the Convention to that point into a draft constitution.; along with the Committee of Style, it was one of the two most important committees at the Convention

Russo-American Treaty

Fixed the line of 54°40' as the southernmost boundary of Russian holdings in North America

Shaysites

Followers of Daniel Shays; protesters in Shays's Rebellion that protested at courthouses against judges because of the foreclosing and seizure of their belongings by creditors after the war; many of them were farmers and war veterans who couldn't afford to pay their bills after the war

Congress of Vienna

Following Napoleon's exile, this meeting of European rulers in Austria in 1814-1815 established a system by which the balance of power would be maintained, liberal revolutions would be repressed, as would imperial expansion, and the creation of new countries in Europe

Oregon Territory

For twenty years, the British and the United States agreed to jointly occupy this region; in the mid-1840s this region became a political issue in the United States, with many expansionists willing to risk war to get all of the territory, including present-day British Columbia (54 40 or fight!); in 1846, Britain and the United States agreed to extend the 49th Parallel, forming the modern border between Canada and the United States

Embargo Act of 1807

Forbade American trading ships from leaving the U.S; forced Britain and France to change their policies towards neutral vessels by depriving them of American trade; difficult to enforce because it was opposed by merchants and everyone else whose livelihood depended upon international trade; hurt the national economy; replaced by the Non-Intercourse Act; prompted revival of the Federalist Party

Extraterritoriality

Foreign residents in a country living under the laws of their native country, disregarding the laws of the host country

Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748)

Formed after War of Jenkin's Ear and King George's War; dictated that England would return Louisbourg (Nova Scotia) to the French in return for the French returning Madras (India)

Narragansett Indians

Formed an alliance with the Puritans to fight against the Pequot

Delaware Colony

Formed as part of Pennsylvania but became a separate colony in 1775 because Pennsylvania couldn't govern both areas; when the Dutch originally tried to settle this area the American Indians killed them all and burned down their settlement

Catawba Nation

Formed from splintered remnants of several different groups uprooted by the shock on European arrival; of the southern Piedmont region

Free Soil Party

Formed in 1847 - 1848; dedicated to opposing the expansion of slavery into the newly acquired territories of Oregon and Mexican territory

Fort Vincennes

Fort controlled by the British; captured in a surprise attack by Clark and his 170 man army in February 1779; victory strengthened the American control of the Ohio River valley

Castillo de San Marcos

Fort in St. Augustine, Florida; built by the Spanish to protect sea-lanes to the Caribbean from the French; the oldest continually inhabited European settlement in the United States

Chapultepec

Fort outside of Mexico City that was the site of an 1847 battle between the United States and Mexico during the Mexican-American War

Crown Point

Fort with a strategic location along Lake Champlain that was captured by Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen along with Fort Ticonderoga in May 1775

New Orleans (1718)

Fortified post at the mouth of the Mississippi River; established by French and used as an outpost for fur-trapping in the area

Gibraltar

Fortress taken by Great Britain from Spain that controlled entrance to Mediterranean; Spain wished to continue the conflict of the American Revolution until they could capture it

Battle of Baltimore

Fought between British and American forces in the War of 1812; one of the turning points of the war where American forces warded off a sea invasion of the busy port city of Baltimore, Maryland; the defense of Baltimore's Fort McHenry in the battle inspired Francis Scott Key to compose the poem "The Star-Spangled Banner" which would later become the national anthem of the United States; created a sense of nationalism.

Battle of Acoma

Fought between Spaniards under Don Juan de Oñate and the Pueblo Indians in present-day New Mexico. Spaniards brutally crushed the Pueblo peoples, cutting off a foot from each survivor; resulted in the death of 500 men and 300 women and children

Battle of Cold Harbor

Fought during the American Civil War from June 1 to June 3, 1864, near Cold Harbor, Virginia; culminated in the slaughter of more than 13,000 Union soldiers attempting to advance to the Confederate entrenchment; Confederates lost fewer than 2,000 men, and even they were shocked by the carnage caused by the folly of the Union commanders

Battle of Horseshoe Bend

Fought during the War of 1812 in central Alabama; on March 27, 1814, United States forces and Indian allies under General Andrew Jackson defeated the Red Sticks, a part of the Creek Indian tribe inspired by the Shawnee leader Tecumseh, effectively ending the Creek War

Whigs

Fought for independence against Britain; most numerous in New England; Patriots

American Fur Company

Founded by John Jacob Astor in 1808; grew to monopolize the fur trade in the United States by 1830, and became one of the largest businesses in the country; worked south of the Columbia River in Oregon

Washington-on-the-Brazos

Founded by Stephen Austin when Texas was still a part of Mexico, and the settlement became the site of the Convention of 1836 and the signing of the Texas Declaration of Independence.

Hudson River School

Founded by Thomas Cole; first native school of landscape painting in the U.S.; attracted artists rebelling against the neoclassical tradition, painted many scenes of New York's Hudson River

Hudson's Bay Company

Founded in 1670 in London, England, by a group of British merchants eager to exploit the resources of northern Canada; led an expedition to secure British claims in the Oregon Country in 1824

College of William and Mary

Founded in 1693, it was the first college of the Jamestown area

Shakers

Founded in 1747 in England, but were brought to America by "Mother" Ann Lee in 1774; Utopian group that splintered from the Quakers; believed that they & all other churches had grown too interested in this world and neglectful of their afterlives; prohibited marriage and sexual relationships; practiced celibacy

American Peace Society

Founded in 1828 by William Ladd; only opposed to wars between nation states; it did not oppose the American Civil War, regarding the Union's war as a "police action" against the "criminals" of the Confederacy; supported the U.S. government during the Civil War, WWI, and WWII; dissolved after the United Nations was formed in 1945

American Anti-Slavery Society

Founded in 1833 by William Lloyd Garrison and other abolitionists; Garrison burned the Constitution as a pro-slavery document; argued for "no Union with slaveholders" until the South repented for their sins by freeing their slaves

American Anti-Slavery Society

Founded in 1833 by William Lloyd Garrison and other abolitionists; Garrison burned the Constitution as a pro-slavery document; argued for "no Union with slaveholders" until they repented for their sins by freeing their slaves

New Haven

Founded in Connecticut by Puritans who contrived to set up an even closer church government alliance than in Massachusetts

U.S. Sanitary Commission

Founded with the help of Elizabeth Blackwell, this government agency trained nurses, collected medical supplies, and equipped hospitals in an effort to help the Union Army; helped professionalize nursing and gave many women the confidence and organizational skills to propel the women's movement in the postwar years

Framing Fathers

Founders of constitution

Election of 1852

Franklin Pierce (Democrat) and Winfield Scott (Whig); Whig party splits over nomination Fillmore v. Scott; Anti-slavery North vs. Southern Whigs that disliked Winfield Scott; doomed Whig Party; Democratic party united under Pierce; leads to formation of sectional parties instead of national parties. Franklin Pierce successful

Labor Contracts

Freedmen had to sign agreements in January for a year work; those who quit in the middle of a contract often lost all their wages they had earned

Bastille Day

French Independence Day

Huguenots

French Protestants

Declaration of the Rights of Man

French Revolution document that outlined what the National Assembly considered to be the natural rights of all people and the rights that they possessed as citizens; inspired by Jefferson's ideals from the Declaration of Independence

New France

French colony in North America, with a capital in Quebec, founded 1608; fell to the British in 1763; autocratic government; only 60,000 inhabitants

Fort Duquesne

French fort located at the beginning of the Ohio River that was site of first major battle of French and Indian War; General Washington led unsuccessful attack on French troops and was then defeated at Fort Necessity, marking beginning of conflict.

French Acadians

French residents of Nova Scotia, many of whom were uprooted by the British in 1755 and scattered as far south as Louisiana, where their descendants became known as "Cajuns"

Squatters

Frontier farmers who illegally occupied land owned by others or not yet officially opened for settlement; Included many of North Carolina's early settlers who contributed to the colony's reputation as being more independent-minded and "democratic" than its neighbors

Clermont

Fulton's steamboat in 1807 which powered by a newly designed engine; it took this ship only 32 hours to go 150 miles from New York to Albany on its maiden voyage

Camp Meetings

Gatherings especially prominent on the frontier with fiery revivalist preachers promoting the doctrine of human free will

Logan Act

George Logan went as private citizen to negotiate with France after XYZ Affair; resulting in the release of a few prisoners and a promise to send a dignitary to America, as well as the passing of this act that declared that no private citizen would be allowed to negotiate with foreign countries in the name of the US, so someone could not act as Logan did

Mount Vernon

George Washington's home

Hessians

German soldiers hired by George III to smash Colonial rebellion; proved good in mechanical sense but they were more concerned about money than duty

Pennsylvania Dutch

German-speaking Protestants who settled in Pennsylvania; totaled about 1/3 of the colony's population

Continental Sunday

Germans were accustomed to this tradition; the Germans partied on the Sabbath & drank huge quantities of bier (beer)

Bureau of Indian Affairs

Government agency created in 1836 to oversee federal policy toward Native Americans

Patent Office

Government bureau in the Department of Commerce that keeps a record of patents and trademarks and grants new ones; between 1800 and 1860, they saw the increase of patents from 306 to over 28,000

Dutch East India Company

Government-chartered joint-stock company that controlled the spice trade in the East Indies; sent Henry Hudson into New York Bay and Hudson Rivers seeking riches and hoping to find a shortcut through the North American continent to India

DeWitt Clinton

Governor of New York who started the Erie Canal project; his leadership helped complete the canal, which boosted the economy greatly by cutting time traveled from west New York to the Hudson

New Jersey Colony

Granted to two proprietors in 1664 by the Duke of York and was split into East and West; became united in 1702 when it became a royal colony

Alabama Affair

Great Britain allowed the Confederates to build a warship in one of their shipyards; United States claimed that by allowing the ship to be built, the British had helped prolong the civil war; since the war had been very expensive, Americans presented Britain with a bill for damages, along with the suggestion that if the British didn't want to pay they could always hand over canada instead

Pilgrims

Group of English Protestant dissenters who established Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts in 1620 to seek religious freedom after having lived briefly in the Netherlands

Tecumseh's Confederacy

Group of Native Americans in the Old Northwest that began to form in the early 19th century around the teaching of Tenskwatawa (The Prophet); rejected Treaty of Fort Wayne and sought to return to tradition

Putney Association

Group of Noyes' first followers named after Putney, Vermont; became the Oneida Community

Catchall Parties

Political parties which downplay strict ideology in order to attract people with diverse positions

Fire-Eaters

Group of extremist pro-slavery politicians from the South who urged the separation of southern states into a new nation, which became known as the Confederate States of America

Young Guard

Group of younger Congressmen who seemed more interested in purifying the Union rather than patching it up; rejected the old policy of compromise on slavery and strongly supported the emancipation of slaves; led by New York Senator William H. Seward.

Scots-Irish

Group that settled the frontier after arriving in Pennsylvania in the early 1700s; made whiskey and hated the British and other governmental authorities

Nullies

Group under Jackson's presidency that tried to muster the necessary 2/3 vote for nullification in South Carolina legislature in 1832; blocked by "submission men"

Society for Propagating the Gospel Among Indians

Group was founded in 1787 that was devoted to civilizing and Christianizing the Indians; sent missionaries into Indian villages in the 1820s

Charter of the Virginia Company of London

Guaranteed the rights of Englishmen to the colonists

Northern Disadvantages

Had to conquer a large area; invade unfamiliar land; lines of supply were longer; unfamiliar terrain; didn't want to fight; unskilled generals

Biddies (Bridgets)

Hardly literate Irish women who took jobs as kitchen maids after immigrating to America in the mid-1800s

President

Head of the Executive Branch; given authority to make appointments to domestic offices and veto power over legislation

Attorney General

Head of the department of justice

Savannah Indians

Helped English settlers in Carolinas with Indian slave trade, but were later annihilated by the colonists when they tried to leave

Pacific Railroad Act

Helped fund the construction of the Union Pacific transcontinental railroad with the use of land grants and government bonds

Ranchos

Huge properties for raising livestock set up by Mexican settlers in California

Yankee ingenuity

Idea of an orderly New England town, with simple small-town democracy, improvisation, and adaptation; was often necessary for New England colonists b/c unlike the rich and fertile soil of Virginia, New England had poor soil as well as a harsh winter and had to rely on improvisation and other means for economic success

Popular Sovereignty

Idea that the individual territories should determine whether to enter the Union as free or slave states

Buckskins

Ill-disciplined colonial militiamen who used guerilla tactics against Native Americans under the command of General Edward Braddock in the beginning of the French Indian War

Spindle Cities

Impersonal, stuffy factory cities that were over-populated and impoverished

Santa Fe Trail

Important trade route going between Independence, Missouri and Santa Fe, New Mexico used from about 1821 to 1880

Know-Nothing Party

Political party of the 1850s that was anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant

Whiskey Rebellion

In 1794, farmers in Pennsylvania rebelled against Hamilton's excise tax on whiskey, and several federal officers were killed in the riots caused by their attempts to serve arrest warrants on the offenders; in October, 1794, the army, led by Washington, put down the rebellion; showed that the new government under the Constitution could react swiftly and effectively to such a problem, in contrast to the inability of the government under the Articles of Confederation to deal with Shay's Rebellion

California Gold Rush

In 1848 gold was discovered by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill, in Coloma, California; news of the discovery soon spread, resulting in some 300,000 men, women, and children coming to California from the rest of the United States and abroad

Great Exhibition of 1851

In 1851, the British organized the first industrial fair at London in the Crystal Palace; had 100,000 exhibits that showed a wide variety of products made in the Industrial Revolution; a display of Britain's wealth to the world

Trent Affair

In 1861 the Confederacy sent emissaries James Mason to Britain and John Slidell to France to lobby for recognition; Union ship captured both men and took them to Boston as prisoners; British were angry and Lincoln ordered their release

Hampton Roads Conference

In 1865, Jefferson Davis sent VP Stephens to meet with President Lincoln to possibly negotiate a peace; Davis demanded southern independence while Lincoln would only take a full surrender, thus nothing was achieved

Visible Saints

In Calvinism, those who publicly proclaimed their experience of conversion and were expected to lead godly lives

Elect

In Calvinist doctrine, those who have been chosen by God for salvation

Restoration Period

In England, the period following the restoration of Charles II to the throne in 1660; reintroduced a strong intensity in empire-building, with greater royal involvement

Circular Letter

In reaction to the 1767 Townshend Acts, the Massachusetts assembly circulated a letter to the other colonies, asking that they work together and jointly issue a petition of protest; strong-willed response of British authorities to the letter influenced the colonial assemblies to work together on a closer basis

Alien Enemies Act

In the event of war, the president has the power to arrest, imprison, and deport all members of the enemy nation

Independent Treasury Act

In the wake of the Specie Circular and the Panic of 1837, President Van Buren proposed, and Congress passed this act in 1840; took the federal government out of banking; payments to the government were to be made in hard cash and it was to be stored in government vaults until needed; also called the Divorce Bill

Republic of Texas

Independent nation of Texas that was created after Texans defeated Mexico in the Texas Revolution; lasted from 1836 until 1848, when Texas was annexed to the United States

Mountain Whites

Independent small farmers in the Appalachian Mountain Range; hated plantation owners and blacks, and viewed the impending Civil War as a "rich man's war, but a poor man's fight"; supported the Union

Excise Tax

Indirect tax that is not paid by the customers directly, but is imposed on the supplier or the producer, who then includes it in the product price

Shoddy Wool

Inferior wool products sold by Northern manufacturers looking to earn profit

American Slavery As It Is

Influential pamphlet written by Theodore Dwight Weld which spread the idea of antislavery

Greek Revival

Inspired by the contemporary Greek independence movement, this building style, popular between 1820 and 1850, imitated ancient Greek structural forms in search of a democratic architectural vernacular

Brook Farms

Intellectual commune in Massachusetts based on "plain living and high thinking"; consisted of 20 intellectuals committed to the philosophy of transcendentalism when it was founded in 1841; failed in 1846 when a building burned down and the community collapsed into debt

North American Review

Intellectual magazine that reflected the post-1815 spirit of American nationalism

McCormick Reaper

Invented in 1830; mechanized the harvest of grains, such as wheat, allowing farmers to cultivate larger plots; fueled the large-scale establishment of commercial agriculture in the Midwest and a move away from subsistence farming

Sewing Machine

Invented in 1846 by Elias Howe; made making clothing faster and cheaper which created a boom in the northern clothing industry

Adventurers

Investors in the newly-titled Virginia company that remained in England

Ancient Order of Hibernians

Irish Catholic Fraternal Organization that required members to be Catholic and either Irish born or of Irish descent; purpose was to act as guards to protect Catholic Churches from anti-Catholic forces in the mid 19th century, and to assist Irish Catholic immigrants, especially those who faced discrimination or harsh coal mining working conditions

Famine Irish

Irish fleeing the Potato famine who immigrated to America in search of a better life in the 1840s

Isle of Elba

Island where Napoleon is exiled the first time and Dantes stops to deliver a letter

Emancipation Proclamation

Issued by Abraham Lincoln on September 22, 1862; declared that all slaves in the states in rebellion against the Union would be free

Mosquito Fleet

It is the term used to describe the United States Navy's fleet of small gunboats, leading up to and during the War of 1812; created during Jefferson's presidency in his attempt to avoid too powerful of a naval force

Regulator Movement

It was a movement during the 1760's by western North Carolinians, mainly Scots-Irish, that resented the way that the Eastern part of the state dominated political affairs and believed that the tax money was being unevenly distributed

Penn's Woodland

Literal translation of "Pennsylvania"; what William Penn named his colony, but in honor of his father, not himself

Bank War

Jackson believed the Bank of US had too much power and was too rich; vetoed the 2nd Bank charter and withdrew government money from the US Banks, putting it into "pet banks"

Battle of New Orleans

Jackson victory that occurred when British troops attacked U.S. soldiers in New Orleans on January 8, 1815; the War of 1812 had officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent in December, 1814, but word had not yet reached the U.S.

Leisler's Rebellion

Jacob Leisler seized control of lower New York from 1689 to 1691. The uprising, which occurred in the midst of Britain's "Glorious Revolution," reflected colonial resentment against the policies of King James II

The Last of the Mohicans

James Fenimore Cooper; 1826; symbolizes Native American removal from the land; heightened formal rhetoric

Founding Fathers

James Madison, Thomas Jefferson and other leaders who laid the groundwork for the United States

Judge Breaking

Jefferson's ill-advised attempt at removing Chase; represented a reassuring victory for the independence of the judiciary and the separation of powers among the 3 branches of government

Valley of Democracy

Jefferson's vision for the newly acquired land in Louisiana as an agrarian republic

Mixed Government

John Adams's theory from Thoughts on Government (1776), which called for three branches of government, each representing one function: executive, legislative, and judicial; devised to maintain a balance of power and ensure the legitimacy of governmental procedures.

Pottawatomie Massacre

John Brown and his followers murdered 5 pro-slavery settlers in Kansas then mutilated their bodies to scare other slave supporters and to keep slavery supporters from moving into Kansas; in response to the sacking of Lawrence

Raid on Harper's Ferry

John Brown's plan to take over the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, arm the slaves and lead a revolt; the North viewed Brown as a hero, and the South viewed Brown as a terrorist and created state militias to guard against further raids, greatly preparing the South for the upcoming Civil War

Massachusetts Bay Company

Joint-stock company chartered by Charles I in 1629; It was controlled by Non-Separatists who took the charter with them to New England and, in effect, converted it into a written constitution for the colony

Oneida Community Ltd

Jointly owned silverware-manufacturing company that grew out of the Oneida Community's abandonment of Bible Communism

Battle of Monmouth

June 28, 1778; Inconclusive and strategically irrelevant; neither side landed the blow they hoped to on the other; Washington's army remained an effective force in the field and the British redeployed successfully to New York; Continental Army inflicted more casualties than it suffered, and it was one of the rare occasions on which it retained possession of a battlefield

West Point

Key American fort on the Hudson River that General Benedict Arnold attempted to hand over to the British after turning traitor

Battle of Buena Vista

Key American victory against Mexican forces in the Mexican War; General Zachary Taylor led his weakened force of five thousand men against Santa Anna's twenty thousand and succeeded; elevated General Zachary Taylor to national prominence and helped secure his success in the 1848 presidential election

Fort Henry and Fort Donelson

Key victory for Union General Ulysses S. Grant; secured the North's hold on Kentucky and paved the way for Grant's attacks deeper into Tennessee.

Southern Advantages

Knowledge of land, fighting to protect lifestyle, better trained soldiers, strong military leaders

Black Republicans

Label coined by the Democratic Party to attack the Republican Party as believers in racial equality; Democrats used this fear to convince many whites to remain loyal to them

War of Jenkin's Ear (1739-1743)

Land squabble between Britain and Spain over Georgia and trading rights; battles took place in the Caribbean and on the Florida/Georgia border; the name comes from a British captain named Jenkin, whose ear was cut off by the Spanish

King George's War (1744-1748)

Land squabble between France and Britain in which France tried to retake Nova Scotia (which it had lost to Britain in Queen Anne's War); ended with Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle

Pueblo Indians

Lived in the Southwestern United States; They built extensive irrigation systems to water their primary crop, which was corn; Their houses were multi-storied buildings made of adobe

Potosí

Located in Bolivia, one of the richest silver mining centers and most populous cities in colonial Spanish America

Plymouth Bay

Location chosen by the Pilgrims to settle; became squatters here since they had missed the land under their charter

Clipper Ships

Long, narrow, wooden ships with tall masts and enormous sails; developed in the mid-1800s; unparalleled in speed and were used for trade, especially for transporting perishable products from distant countries like China and between the eastern and western U.S., but could only carry a small cargo

Merchant-Planters

Lords of sprawling river-front estates that came to dominate the agriculture and commerce of the southern colonies

House of Representatives

Lower house of Congress; consists of a different number of representatives from each state, depending on population

Sectionalism

Loyalty to one's own region of the country, rather than to the nation as a whole

Wyandotte Constitution

Made Kansas a free state; restricted voting rights to white men; passed because southern states started to succeed from the Union, giving the north the advantage in Congress

Sedition Act

Made it a crime to criticize the government or government officials; opponents claimed that it violated citizens' rights to freedom of speech and freedom of the press that were guaranteed by the First Amendment

Tammany Hall

Main local political machine of the Democratic Party; played a major role in controlling New York City and New York State politics and helping immigrants, most notably the Irish, rise in American politics from the 1790s to the 1960s

Army of the Potomac

Major Union force deployed near Washington, commanded by General McClellan during the Civil War

Peninsula Campaign

Major Union operation launched in southeastern Virginia from March through July 1862; the first large-scale offensive in the Eastern Theater; the operation, commanded by Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, was an amphibious turning movement intended to capture the Confederate capital of Richmond by circumventing the Confederate States Army in northern Virginia; McClellan was initially successful against the equally cautious General Joseph E. Johnston, but the emergence of General Robert E. Lee changed the character of the campaign and turned it into a humiliating Union defeat

Market Revolution

Major changes in the United States economy that occured when people began to buy and sell goods rather than make them for themselves

Battle of Hampton Roads

March 9th-10th naval battle where the Confederate Virginia was able to slightly damage the Union Merrimack; battle concluded as a stalemate; wooden ships became obsolete after these two ironclads met

Montgomery Convention

Marked the formal beginning of the Confederate States of America. Seven states convened in Montgomery, Alabama on February 4, 1861; organized a provisional government for the Confederacy and created the Constitution of the Confederate States of America; on January 7, 1861 the committee submitted a secession ordinance accompanied by a report in favor of immediate secession

Plantation Colonies

Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, North & South Carolina; Devoted to exported profitable staple crops; All had slavery; People were very spread out - difficult to set up schools and churches

St. Bartholomew's Day

Massacre of French Protestants by French Catholics

Big House

Master's house on the plantation

Plantation Mistress

Matriarch of a planter's household; married to plantation master; in charge of supervising the domestic aspects of plantation life; jobs included nursing sick slaves, making clothes, and managing the household

Battle of Ticonderoga

May 10, 1775; 1st win in for America in Revolution; Ethan Allen, Benedict Arnold, and the Green Mountain Boys took the fort with ease and captured large amounts of gunpowder and cannons

Spot Resolutions

Measures introduced by Illinois congressman Abraham Lincoln, questioning President James K. Polk's justification for war with Mexico; Lincoln requested that Polk clarify precisely where Mexican forces had attacked American troops, suspecting that the Americans had crossed the border into Mexico

Charleston Convention

Meeting at Charleston in December 1860, right after Lincoln was elected; South Carolina unanimously voted to secede

Hartford Convention

Meeting of Federalists near the end of the War of 1812 in which the party listed it's complaints against the ruling Republican Party; sought to abolish three-fifths clause of Constitution, limit presidents to a single term, and prohibit the election of two successive presidents from the same state; viewed as traitorous to the country and lost the Federalist much influence

Nashville Convention

Meeting of representatives of nine southern states in the summer of 1850 to discuss grievances against Northern aggression; called for extension of the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific Ocean and a stronger Fugitive Slave Law; rejected the Compromise of 1850 and called for Southern secession

British Regulars

Members of the army of Great Britain in colonial America

Bounty Jumpers

Men who enlisted in the Union army to collect the bounties offered by some districts to fill military quotas; these men would enlist and then desert as soon as they got their money

Slave Catchers

Men who were paid to travel in the North to find and bring back slaves who had run away

Factor

Mercantile intermediaries whose main functions were warehousing and selling consigned goods, accounting to principals for the proceeds, guaranteeing buyers' credit, and sometimes making cash advances to principals prior to the actual sale of the goods; Their services were of particular value in foreign trade, and they became important figures in colonial exploration and development due to their role in the Slave Trade

Empress of China

Merchant ship that left NY and went to China in 1784; carried ginseng (used by Chinese doctors); introduced trade with the East Asian markets

Strict Construction

Method of interpreting the Constitution that allows the federal government to take only those actions the Constitution specifically says it can take

Literacy Tests

Method used to deny African-Americans the right to vote in the South that tested a person's ability to read and write; done very unfairly so that even though most African Americans could read and write by the 1950's, they still failed

Santa Anna's Revenge

Mexicans later took some satisfaction in knowing that the territory wrenched from them had proved to be a venomous apple of discord that partly led to the American Civil War

Nueces River

Mexico believed this to be the border between Mexico and Texas

Lane Theological Seminary

Midwestern institution whose president Lyman Beecher expelled 18 students for organizing a debate on slavery

Johnny Reb

Name for stereotypical Southern Soldier

West Point

Military Academy at West Point, New York; military school for more than 1,000 officers in both the Union and Confederate armies, including Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant

Total War

Military strategy in which an army attacks not only enemy troops but the economic and civilian resources that support them

Musters

Militia assemblies periodically for several days of drilling, interspersed with merrymaking and flirting

Boys in Blue

Millions of youth that fought in the Civil War, inspired by Uncle Tom's Cabin

New Lights

Ministers who took part in the revivalist, emotive religious tradition pioneered by George Whitefield during the Great Awakening.

Cahokia

Mississippian settlement near present-day East St. Louis, home to as many as 25,000 Native Americans

First Party System

Model of American politics used to characterize the political party system that existed in the United States between roughly 1792 and 1824; featured two national parties competing for control of the presidency, Congress, and the states: the Federalist Party, created largely by Alexander Hamilton, and the rival Jeffersonian Democratic-Republican Party, formed by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison

King Wheat and King Corn

Monarchs of Northern agriculture; during war years the North had ideal weather while Britain had a series of bad harvests, meaning the North had the cheapest and most abundant supply

Radical Abolitionism

More aggressive form of abolitionism started by William Lloyd Garrison in 1831 with the publication of his newspaper, The Liberator; included ideas that slavery should be eradicated immediately with no concern about economic or social effects

Northern Advantages

More manpower, more factories, more productive capabilities, more money, better rail system

Family Stability

More prevalent in New England than Chesapeake region because of lack of diseases, immigration as a family, longevity, and high birth rate; led to obedience through nurture, low premarital pregnancy rates, and a tranquil social structure

Nauvoo

Mormon community built on the banks of the Mississippi River in Illinois in the 1840s which became an imposing and economically successful community

Romanticism

Movement in literature and art during the late 18th and early 19th centuries that celebrated nature rather than civilization

Prison Reform and Care of the Disabled Movement

Movement led by Dorothea Dix to create state hospitals to care for the disabled instead of placing them in prisons, creation of juvenile correctional facilities, and the work to rehabilitate prisoners while in prison

Oregon Fever

Movement where over 5,000 Americans migrated to the Oregon Territory while it was still partly occupied by the British

The Blue Law State

Name for Connecticut because of the blue paper on which the repressive laws (sumptuary laws) were printed

Greenbacks

Name for Union paper money not backed by gold or silver; value would fluctuate depending on status of the war

The Bloody Year

Name for the year of 1777 in which Mohawk chief Joseph Brant allied with the British and attacked Pennsylvania and New York; as a result, Washington burned down Native American villages

Midnight Judges

Name given to group of judges that was appointed by John Adams the night before he left office; appointed to the federal courts to create a long term federalist influence in the judiciary branch because judges serve for life instead of limited terms

Fifty-Niners

Name given to those who rushed to harvest the petroleum gushers in 1859 in Pennsylvania; the result was the birth of a new industry with its "petroleum plutocracy" and "coal oil Johnnies"

The Blithedale Romance

Nathaniel Hawthorne; based on Transcendentalist utopian settlement at Brook Farm.

Congress of the Confederation

National government from 1781-1789; what the 2nd Continental Congress 'morphed' into; 9 states were needed to pass another article or amendment to the Articles of Confederation; 13 states were needed to pass the initial Articles of Confederation

Wampanoag Indians

Native American Tribe that helped the Pilgrims

First Nations

Native American groups who lived south of the Arctic region in Canada

Shawnee Indians

Native American tribe living in southern Ohio; they lived in longhouses and had hunting camps; defeated at the Battle of Tippecanoe

Doeg Indians

Native American tribe that attacked the frontiersmen in western Virginia in the 1670s; granted monopoly over the thriving fur trade by the governor

Cherokee Indians

Native American tribe that lived in northwestern Georgia; forcefully removed from the state in the early 1830s

Tuscarora Indians

Native American tribe which attacked the colony of North Carolina; they were defeated and sold into slavery; later allied with the Iroquois Confederacy

Battle of Oriskany

Native Americans and British ambush the American Army; fought on August 6, 1777; one of the bloodiest battles in the North American theater of the American Revolutionary War and a significant engagement of the Saratoga campaign; prevented St. Leger's forces from reinforcing Burgoyne

Algonquins

Native Americans that depended on fur and joined up with Hurons and French to beat the Iroquois; Great Lakes region

Goliad Massacre

Nearly 400 Texans were executed by the Mexicans after the Battle of Goliad, under order of Santa Anna in 1836

Freedom Dues

Necessities given to indentured servants once they were freed; included tools, a few barrels of corn, a suit of clothes, and perhaps a small parcel of land

Oregon Treaty

Negotiation of the border between Oregon and Canada by the United States and Britain in 1846; Americans wanted it at 54º40' (slogan became "Fifty-four forty or fight!"); eventually was put at the 49th parallel

Dutch Revolt (1566-1609)

Netherland's rebellion against Catholic Spain; aided by Protestant England, they gained their independence and emerged as a major commercial and naval power

Praying Towns

New England settlements where Indians from various tribes were gathered to be Christianized

Middle Colonies

New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware

Butternuts

Nickname for poor southern farmers who moved into the Old Northwest in the 1820's; tried to enact black codes to prevent African American settlers, while escaping the slave owner society of the south

Damned Dutchmen

Nickname for the massive amount of German immigrants

Broad Brims

Nickname given to Quakers for the types of hats that they often wore

Cotton Kingdom

Nickname given to the American South after Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton gin allowed it to produce massive amounts of cotton (and become wholly reliant on slave labor)

"filibustering" expeditions

Nineteenth century invasions of Central American countries launched privately by groups of Americans seeking to establish personal rule and spread slavery.

Passive Resistance

Nonviolent opposition to slavery by Southern slaves; included sabotaging expensive equipment, poisoning their masters' food, and slowing down work on the plantations

Conscience Whigs

Northern Whigs who opposed slavery on moral grounds; sought to prevent the annexation of Texas as a slave state, fearing that the new slave territory would only serve to buttress the Southern "slave power"

Free-Soilers

Northern antislavery politicians, like Abraham Lincoln, who rejected radical abolitionism but sought to prohibit the expansion of slavery in the western territories

Non-Sectarian

Not involving or relating to a specific religious sect or political group

Civic Virtue

Notion that democracy depended on unselfish commitment to the public good; the democratic ideas, practices, and values that are at the heart of citizenship in a free society

Uncle Tom's Cabin

Novel published by Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1852 which portrayed slavery as brutal and immoral

Uncle Tom's Cabin

Novel published by Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1852 which portrayed slavery as brutal and immoral; highly influenced England's view on the American Deep South and slavery; promoted abolition; intensified sectional conflict

Peaceful Coercion

Obtaining compliance without using force; Jefferson's strategy to force British and French to accept American definition of neutral rights by forbidding American trade with Europe

Battle of Queenston Heights

October 13, 1812; First major engagement between American and British forces during the War of 1812; fought as the result of an American attempt to establish a foothold on the Canadian side of the Niagara River

Battle of Germantown

October 4, 1777; The Continental Army unsuccessfully attempted to drive Howe's British forces out of Pennsylvania

Harper's Ferry Raid

October of 1859; John Brown of Kansas attempted to create a major revolt among the slaves; wanted to ride down the river and provide the slaves with arms from the North, but he failed to get the slaves organized; Brown was captured and executed; South saw the act as one of treason and were encouraged to separate from the North; Brown became a martyr to the northern abolitionist cause

Amish

Of German origin, these people were originally Anabaptist and would settle in Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio; shunned extravagance and reserved baptism for adults; fled for America from Europe in the 1700s, and again from 1815-1865 due to religious persecution

Blue Bloods

Of noble or upper-class descent

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Official name of the Mormon Church.

Whitewashed Rebels

Officials in office and those who were part of the Confederate government; at this point they had been thrown out of government

Olive Branch Petition

On July 8, 1775, the colonies made a final offer of peace to Britain, agreeing to be loyal to the British government if it addressed their grievances (repealed the Coercive Acts, ended the taxation without representation policies); rejected by Parliament

Pickett's Charge

On the 3rd day of the Battle of Gettysburg, Lee asked Pickett to lead troops on a mile and a half run where they were then slaughtered by the Union Army

University of Virginia

One of the earliest state-supported universities; founded in 1819; idea by Thomas Jefferson, who designed its architecture and separated it from religion and politics; focused on modern languages and the sciences

Scots Highlanders

One of the few European groups in the colonies that had loyalty to the British crown

Jacksonian Era

One of the most colorful periods in the history of American politics, this era was a time during which sectional differences (states' rights, protective tariffs, and national bank) disrupted America's spirit of unity; characterized by new forms of political campaigning strategies and a much wider voter turnout

Democratic Party

One of the two major U.S political parties rising out of the Democratic-Republican Party; founded in 1828 by Andrew Jackson to support a decentralized government and state's rights

Peculator

One who embezzles or misuses money or property, especially public funds.

Unicameral Legislature

One-house legislature

Mutual Criticism

Oneida practice in which the criticized would sit in silence while his merits and faults were discussed

Grandfather Clause

Only allowed people to vote if their father or grandfather had voted before Reconstruction

Antifederalists

Opponents of ratification of the Constitution and of a strong central government; believed in the need for a bill of rights in the Constitution; mostly poorer classes; saw the Constitution as a plot by the government to steal power from the people

Circuit Courts

Part of federal court system; 13 federal circuit courts: one for the D.C. and 12 for the rest of the country; also called "courts of appeal"

Writs of Assistance

Part of the Townshend Acts; said that customs officers could inspect a ship's cargo without giving a reason; colonists protested that it violated their rights as British citizens

Dissenter

Protestant whose views and opinions differed from those of the Church of England

Daughters of Liberty

Organization that supported the boycott of British goods; urged Americans to wear homemade fabrics and produce other goods that were previously available only from Britain.; believed the American colonies would become economically independent

Labor Unions

Organizations of workers who, together, put pressure on the employers in an industry to improve working conditions and wages; forbidden by law until the Commonwealth v. Hunt Massachusetts Supreme Court case

Committees of Correspondence

Organized by patriot leader Samuel Adams; a system of communication between patriot leaders in New England and throughout the colonies; provided the organization necessary to unite the colonies in opposition to Parliament

54th Parallel

Original desired border for the Oregon territory; President Polk used it as a campaign strategy, but later settled for less to avoid fighting two wars

Powhatan Indians

Original tribes in the area surrounding Jamestown, gave the settlers food, taught them the ways of the forests and introduced new crops (corn and yams), constantly warring with the settlers

Marine Corps

Originally created in 1775 and reestablished in preparation of war with France

Mason-Dixon Line

Originally drawn by surveyors to resolve the boundaries between Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Virginia in the 1760s, came to symbolize the North-South divide over slavery

Mason-Dixon Line

Originally drawn by surveyors to resolve the boundaries between Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Virginia in the 1760s; it came to symbolize the North-South divide over slavery

Tax-supported public education

Originally existed to educate the poor; gained gradual support over fear of uneducated people w/ voting rights; triumphed in 1828 when laborers demanded education for their children as a result of manhood suffrage; poorly designed system with one room school houses open only a few months of the year and ill-suited teachers; blacks were mostly left out from education

Annapolis Convention

Originally planning to discuss the promotion of interstate commerce, delegates from five states met at Annapolis, Maryland in September 1786 and ended up suggesting a convention to amend the Articles of Confederation

Old Lights

Orthodox clergymen who rejected the emotionalism of the Great Awakening in favor of a more rational spirituality

Conversations

Paid seminars held by Margaret Fuller designed to promote scholarly dialogue among local elite women and some men

The Oxbow

Painting by Thomas Cole; portrayed the ecological threat of human encroachment on the once-pristine environment of the United States

South Carolina Exposition

Pamphlet published by the South Carolina legislature, written by Vice President John C. Calhoun in 1828; spoke against the "Tariff of Abominations," and proposed nullification of the tariff, declaring it unconstitutional; Calhoun wished to use nullification to prevent secession, yet address the grievances of sectionalist Southerners; these sectionalist ideas helped lead to the Civil War

Headrights

Parcels of land consisting of about 50 acres which were given to colonists who brought indentured servants into America; used by the Virginia Company to attract more colonists

Debt Assumption

Part of Hamilton's financial plan in 1790; the federal government takes on any state debts and pays it all off by issuing new bonds which would stabilize the currency and US economy

East New Jersey

Part of New Jersey acquired by the Quakers in the later years before the two Jerseys were combined in a Royal Colony

Creek War (1813-1814)

Part of the War of 1812 involving the Creek nation in Mississippi Territory and Tennessee militiamen; General Andrew Jackson's forces gained victory at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814, forcing the Creeks to sign away much of their land

Whiskey Tax

Part of the excise taxes, it added a tax on whiskey at seven cents a gallon; helped pay of some of the debt; angered backcountry distillers who used the product as a means of securing extra income and for bartering purposes

Morrill Land Grant Act

Passed by Congress in 1862, this law distributed millions of acres of western lands to state governments in order to fund state colleges

Judiciary Act of 1801

Passed by the departing Federalist Congress, it created sixteen new federal judgeships ensuring a Federalist hold on the judiciary branch

Reconstruction Act

Passed by the newly elected Republican Congress, it divided the South into five military districts, disenfranchised former confederates, and required that Southern states both ratify the Fourteenth Amendment and write state constitutions guaranteeing freedmen the right to vote before gaining readmission to the Union

Homestead Act

Passed in 1862; provided 160 acres of free public land in the West to anyone willing to settle there and develop it for five years; encouraged westward migration

Mestizos

People of mixed Native American and European heritage, notably in Mexico

Stationmasters

People who allowed runaway slaves to hide in their homes along the Underground Railroad

Confederate Army

People who fought for the southern states during the Civil War

Speculator

People who invest in a risky venture in the hope of making a large profit

Tom Shows

Performances of Harriet Beecher Stowe's book on stage; for people who could not read

American Agriculturalist

Persona Benjamin Franklin took on when he visited Paris to negotiate a treaty with France; gained him fame and popularity in French society

City of Brotherly Love

Philadelphia

Daguerreotype

Photograph taken by an early photographic process employing an iodine-sensitized silvered plate and mercury vapor; developed by Louis Daguerre

Ohio Country

Piece of Native American land that was fought over by the British and the French; includes Ohio and parts of West Virginia, Indiana, and Pennsylvania

Comanche Indians

Plains' Indians that were feared by Texans

Plan of Union

Plan written by Joseph Galloway at the First Continental Congress which appealed to the British to give the Americans their own Parliament to work with the British Parliament, but still be under the crown; rejected in favor of the Suffolk Resolves

Slave Drivers

Plantation supervisors who were sometimes slaves themselves; made sure that slaves followed orders and carried out punishments

Jesuits

Played a vital role as explorers and geographers within the French colonial territory; struggled to save the Native Americans from the fur-trappers and convert them to Christianity

Green Dragon Tavern

Played large role in the american revolution; place for networking and secrecy; Sons of Liberty came here and planned Boston Tea Party

Barbary Pirates

Plundering pirates off the Mediterranean coast of Africa; President Thomas Jefferson's refusal to pay them tribute to protect American ships sparked an undeclared naval war with North African nations

Promontory Point

Point in Utah where the Transcontinental Railroad was completed

Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions

Political declarations in favor of states' rights; written by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in opposition the the Alien and Sedition acts; maintained that states could nullify federal legislation they regarded as unconstitutional

American Party

Political organization that was created after the election of 1852 by the Know-Nothings, was organized to oppose the great wave of immigrants who entered the United States after 1846

American Party

Political organization that was created after the election of 1852 by the Know-Nothings; organized to oppose the great wave of immigrants who entered the United States after 1846

Know-Nothing Party

Political party of the 1850s that was anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant; sought for laws authorizing the deportation of immigrants and promoted literature of exposure

Republican Party

Political party that rose in the wake of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854; believed in the non-expansion of slavery; consisted of Whigs, Northern Democrats, and Free-Soilers in defiance to the Slave Powers

Biglow Papers

Political satire by written by James Russell Lowell in 1846 dealing with the Mexican War; partly poetry in the Yankee dialect; condemned the alleged slavery-expansion designs of Polk

"Fifty-Four Forty or Fight"

Political slogan of the Democrats in the election of 1844, which claimed fifty-four degrees, forty minutes as the boundary of the Oregon territory claimed for the United States

Voting Restrictions

Poll taxes, literacy test, grandfather clause; aimed at disenfranchising black voters

Taverns

Popular colonial centers of recreation, gossip, and political debate where all social classes would mingle; became a cradle of democracy

Godey's Lady's Book

Popular magazine marketed specifically for women which contained art, poetry and articles; a place where women could get their works published and important topics could be discussed; first published in 1830 and lasted until 1898; attained enormous circulation of 150,000; read by millions of American women

Pet Banks

Popular term for pro-Jackson state banks that received the bulk of federal deposits when Andrew Jackson moved to dismantle the Bank of the United States in 1833

Implied Powers

Powers that Congress has that are not stated explicitly in the Constitution

Teetotalism

Practice of abstaining totally from alcoholic drinks

Midwifery

Practice of providing holistic health care to the childbearing woman and newborn; popular profession among women in New England

Kindergarten

Preschool for children age 4 to 6 to prepare them for primary school; popularized by Germans in the mid-1800s due to their widespread support of public school

Lee's Resolutions

Presented to Second Continental Congress by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia; urged Congress to declare independence; accepted July 2, 1776; "These United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States"

Proclamation to the People of South Carolina

President Andrew Jackson's edict stating nullification and disunion were treason; in response to South Carolina's Nullification Ordinance

Bank of the United States

Proposed by Alexander Hamilton as the basis of his economic plan; powerful private institution, in which the government was the major stockholder; used as a way to collect and amass the various taxes collected; provide a strong and stable national currency. Jefferson vehemently opposed it, believing it to be unconstitutional

Wade-Davis Bill

Proposed far more demanding and stringent terms for reconstruction; required 50% of the voters of a state to take the loyalty oath and permitted only non-Confederates to vote for a new state constitution; Lincoln refused to sign the bill, pocket vetoing it after Congress adjourned

Church of England

Protestant church led by the king of England, independent of Catholic Church; most popular among southern plantation colonies

Calvinism

Protestant sect founded by John Calvin; Emphasized a strong moral code and believed in predestination; supported constitutional representative government and the separation of church and state.

Reannexation of Oregon

Prior to 1846, America and Great Britain had jointly occupied the Oregon Country; in 1844, Polk began to demand that America obtain the entire territory; in compromise, a treaty was signed in 1846 giving the United States all of Oregon south of the 49th parallel

Debtors Prison

Prisons established to house people to be punished through hard labor if they could not pay their debts and taxes; occurred through the mid 19th century

Jay Cooke and Company

Private banking house through which the national treasury marketed its bonds; received a commission of three-eighths of one percent on all sales; Panic of 1873 was caused by the failure of this company, which had invested too heavily in railroads and lost money when the railroads cheated the federal government

American Missionary Association

Private organization that sent Northern white women south to serve as teachers to freed blacks

Border Ruffians

Pro-slavery Missourians who traveled in armed groups to vote in Kansas' election during the mid-1850's, in order to make it a pro-slavery government

Mass Production

Production of goods in large numbers through the use of machinery and assembly lines

Suzy Bs

Progressive women everywhere were called this; named after the militant, Quaker lecturer for women's rights

New Jersey Plan

Proposal at the Constitutional Convention that called for equal representation of each state in Congress regardless of the state's population

Albany Plan of Union

Proposal by Benjamin Franklin at the Albany Congress in 1754 to create one government for the 13 colonies

Lyceums

Public lectures that hosted speakers on topics ranging from science to moral philosophy; part of a broader flourishing of higher education in the mid-nineteenth century

Slave Auction

Public sale in which slaves were sold to the highest bidders; families were often separated

Thoughts on Government

Published by John Adams in 1776; sketched out the idea of a new American government with three branches and a system of checks and balances; rejects the idea of a single legislative body; two legislative bodies serve as checks to the power of the other

Book of Mormon

Published by Joseph Smith in 1830; named for the ancient prophet who was claimed to have written in; a translation of gold tablets he had found in the hills of New York, revealed to him by an angel of God; told the story of two successful ancient American civilizations, whose people had anticipated the coming of Christ and were rewarded when Jesus actually came to America after his resurrection

Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography

Published in 1818; one of the few non-religious books that achieved genuine distinction in America; a classic in its simplicity, clarity & inspirational quality

Women in the Nineteenth Century

Published in 1845; Margaret Fuller's work that sought to apply to women the transcendentalist idea that freedom meant a quest for personal development

Natural Men

Pure people who lived in the untamed American wilderness, uncorrupted by the artificiality of modern civilization; explored in Cooper's novels

Impeachment of Andrew Johnson

Radical Republicans tried Andrew Johnson for impeachment because he wanted to fire Edwin Stanton, the Secretary of War; Congress passed a law called the Tenure of Office Act saying that a President cannot fire a worker "just because"; President Johnson stayed in office by one vote

Deerfield Massacre

Raid that occurred during Queen Anne's War on February 29, 1704, when French and Native American forces under the command of Jean-Baptiste Hertel de Rouville attacked the English settlement at Deerfield, Massachusetts just before dawn, razing the town and killing 56 colonists

Freeport Question

Raised during one of the Lincoln-Douglas debates by Abraham Lincoln, who asked whether the Court or the people should decide the future of slavery in the territories

The American Scholar

Ralph Waldo Emerson's address at Harvard College, in which he declared an intellectual independence from Europe, urging American scholars to develop their own traditions

British Anti-Expansionists

Realized that the Columbia River was not that valuable and that they would lose a war if conflict was to break out so they proposed that Britain give up the Oregon Territory to the United States

Culpeper's Rebellion

Rebellion against the colonial government in Carolina in 1677; lead by John Culpeper; directed against the government's acceptance of English trade laws (Navigation Laws); succeeded in disposing the governor and placing Culpeper in his position, but he was removed in 1679

Bear Flag Revolt

Rebellion by Americans in 1846 against Mexican rule of California

Red Sticks

Rebellious and dangerous Creek Indians that massacred Fort Mims and were defeated by Andrew Jackson at Horseshoe Bend

Johnson's Reconstruction Plan

Recognized Lincoln's 10 percent plan; disefranchised certain leading Confederates and called for special state conventions, which were required to repeal the ordinances of secession, repudiate all Confederate debts, and ratify the 13th Amendment.

Union League

Reconstruction-Era African American organization that worked to educate Southern blacks about civic life, built black schools and churches, and represented African American interests before government and employers; campaigned on behalf of Republican candidates and recruited local militias to protect blacks from white intimidation

Massachusetts Government Act

Reduced power of the Massachusetts legislature while increasing the power of the royal governor; said that members of the Massachusetts assembly would no longer be elected, but instead would be appointed by the king; in response, the colonists elected a their own legislature which met in the interior of the colony

Tariff of 1832

Reduced the Tariff of 1828, but was not sufficient enough for Southerners

Farewell Address

Referred to as Washington's Farewell Address; main points included America assuming leadership in the Western Hemisphere, developing its own trade, and not entering into permanent alliances with foreign nations, especially with Europe

Corrupt Bargain

Refers to the claim from the supporters of Andrew Jackson that John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay had worked out a deal to ensure that Adams was elected president by the House of Representatives in 1824

Yankee Commercialism

Refers to the developing profitable industries and economy of the northernmost colonies and resulted in a turn away from religious life

American Colonization Society

Reflecting the focus of early abolitionists on transporting freed blacks back to Africa, the organization established Liberia, a West-African settlement intended as a haven for emancipated slaves

Northwest Territory

Region of the United States bounded by the Ohio and Mississippi rivers and the Great Lakes; given to the United States by the Treaty of Paris in 1783

Sumptuary Laws

Regulations restricting extravagance in food, drink, dress, and household equipment, usually on religious or moral grounds.

Glorious (Bloodless) Revolution (1688)

Relatively peaceful overthrow of the unpopular Catholic monarch, James II, replacing him with Dutch-born William III and Mary, daughter of James II. William and Mary increased Parliamentary oversight and placed new limits on monarchical authority; resulted in the collapse of the Dominion of New England and inspired challenge to the crown within the colonies

Mormonism

Religious denomination Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints based on the Book of Mormon started by Joseph Smith in Ohio in 1830; taken over by Brigham Young in 1844 and moved to Utah where they started a prosperous community; had problems with the federal government

Millerites (Adventists)

Religious movement started by William Miller; said the world was coming to an end on October 22, 1843, and in order to save one's soul, one would have to renounce all worldly things

Predestination

Religious theory that God has already planned out a person's life and decided who will go to Heaven or Hell

Wilmot Proviso

Representative in Congress David Wilmot introduced an amendment stating that any territory acquired from Mexico would be free; amendment passed the House twice, but failed to ever pass in Senate; became a symbol of how intense dispute over slavery was in the United States

Sinful Eleven

Republican term for the former Confederate states when they all (except TN) rejected the 14th amendment on Johnson's advice

Test Oaths

Required, sworn statements of loyalty or religious belief; resisted by Quakers in England

Caroline Affair

Residents of eastern Canada launched a rebellion against British, seized an American steamship, the Caroline, to ship supplies across the Niagara River to them from New York; British authorities in Canada seized the Caroline and burned it, killing an American; British refused to disavow the attack or provide compensation for it; authorities in New York arrested a Canadian and charged him with the murder of the American

Temperance

Restraint or moderation, especially in regards to alcohol or food

New England Conscience

Result of Puritan heritage; high idealism; inspired reformers and abolitionists

Declaration of Sentiments

Revision of the Declaration of Independence to include women and men (equal); the grand basis of attaining civil, social, political, and religious rights for women; listed injustices of men towards women

James River

Richmond and Jamestown are located along it; flows into Chesapeake Bay

Deposit Privileges

Rights of Americans to send produce down the Mississippi to its mouth for shipping; rejected in 1802 by Spaniards when they took control ceded control of New Orleans to the French

Providence

Roger Williams' liberal settlement that allowed for complete religious tolerance, permitted all men to vote, and did not require attendance to the Baptist Church or taxes to support the church

Congregationalism

Set up by the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony; a church system in which each local church served as the center of its own community; stood in contrast to the Church of England, in which the single state church held sway over all local churches; with their insistence on independent local bodies, they became important in many social reform movements, including abolitionism, temperance, and women's suffrage

Portsmouth

Settlement near Narragansett Bay founded by the dissident Puritan Anne Hutchinson in 1638

"Better Sort"

Settlers that tried to recreate the old social structure form the Old World but were prevented by the "Meaner Sort"

March to the Sea

Sherman's march from Atlanta, Georgia, to Savannah, Georgia which cut off Confederate supplies received by the sea; Union wanted to destroy the Southern economy and morale, leading to Southern surrender

California Bear Flag Republic

Short-lived California republic, established by local American settlers who revolted against Mexico; once news of the war with Mexico reached the Americans, they abandoned the Republic in favor of joining the United States

First Families of Virginia (FFVs)

Shorthand term for the wealthy extended clans like the Fitzhughs, Lees, and Washingtons that dominated politics in the most populous colony; owned large numbers of slaves and massive tracts of land

Boston Port Act

Shut down Boston Harbor until Boston repaid the East India Company for the lost tea

Treaty of Fontainebleau

Signed between French and Spanish as the French Indian War was coming to an end in 1762; France kept Louisiana out of British hands by secretly transferring it to Spain before peace negotiations began

Anglo-American Convention

Signed by Britain and the United States in 1818, this pact allowed New England fishermen access to Newfoundland fisheries, established the northern border of Louisiana territory and provided for the joint occupation of the Oregon Country for ten years

Clayton-Bulwer Treaty

Signed by Great Britain and the United States in 1850, it provided that the two nations would jointly protect the neutrality of Central America and that neither power would seek to fortify or exclusively control any future isthmian waterway; revoked by the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty of 1901, which gave the United States control of the Panama Canal

Treaty of New Echota

Signed by only 500 Cherokee Indians who were bribed; said that all 17,000 Cherokee's must leave within 2 years to go to land in Louisiana Territory or they would be forced to leave by the United States Army on the Trail of Tears

Treaty of Greenville

Signed in 1795, this was one of the first important treaties the U.S. signed with Native American peoples after the adoption of the Constitution; U.S. got most of what is now Ohio and other territory in exchange for $20,000 dollars and a promise of no further encroachment on Indian lands

Treaty of Fort Wayne

Signed in 1809; gave the US control over most of Indiana; between the US and many tribes, but not the Shawnee; Shawnee were angered, leading to formation of Tecumseh's Confederacy and battles at Thames and Tippecanoe

Joint Committee on Reconstruction

Six senators and nine representatives that drafted the 14th Amendment and Reconstruction Acts; purpose of the committee was to set the pace of Reconstruction; most were radical Republicans

Yankee Seamen

Skilled mariners and successful traders; provisioned the Caribbean islands with food and forest products; hauled Spanish and Portuguese gold, wine, and oranges to London, where they were exchanged for industrial goods that were to be sold for a profit back in America (triangular trade)

Breakers

Slave drivers who employed the lash to brutally "break" the souls of strong-willed slaves

Amistad Rebellion

Slave revolt that took place on board of a Spanish ship; resulted in U.S. Supreme Court case in which it was found that the Africans had been illegally enslaved and should be brought back to Africa

Internal Slave Trade

Slave trade within the states after internal slave trade was outlawed in 1808; slaves tended to be "sold down the river" to the Deep South, which split up families and was used as punishment

Conquistadors

Spanish soldiers and explorers who led military expeditions in the Americas and captured land for Spain

Prosser's Rebellion

Slave uprising led by Gabrielle Prosser an enslaved, literate blacksmith in Richmond; information about the planned rebellion was leaked and Prosser along with 25 other slaves were hung; in order to prevent this from happening again, the Virginia Legislature moved to place restrictions on free slaves

Intelligent Contraband

Slaves that served as Union spies, guides, and scouts; provided shelter to escaped Northern prisoners of war

Black Loyalists

Slaves who joined the British during the American Revolution because of the promise of freedom

"Bread or Death"

Slogan frequently used during the Panic of 1857 to try to increase agriculture

Willamette River Valley

Small grassy area to the South of the Columbia River; many people settled here in the 1840's as a result of Oregon Fever; final destination of the Oregon Trail

Poll Taxes

Small taxes levied on the right to vote that often fell due at a time of year when poor African-American sharecroppers had the least cash on hand; used by most Southern states to exclude African Americans from voting; declared void by the Twenty-fourth Amendment in 1964

Barracoons

Small wooden shacks where slaves were kept before arrival of slaves ships

Commerce Raiders

Small, maneuverable ships given to the Confederates by the British which were effective at taking out larger warships; most effective of these was the Alabama

Proprietors

Sober-minded town fathers that were granted a parcel of land from colonial legislature in New England, where they would move their families and start a town

Common School Movement

Social reform effort that began in the mid-1800s and promoted the idea of having all children educated in a common place regardless of social class or background

Communitarianism

Social reform movement of the nineteenth century driven by the belief that by establishing small communities based on common ownership of property, a less competitive and individualistic society could be developed.

Land Butchery

Soil exhaustion caused by cotton farmers' excessive cultivation of the land; caused many farmers to leave the South for the North and West

Canarsie (Manhatto) Indians

Sold the island of Manhattan to Peter Minuit for $24 even though it was not their territory

West New Jersey

Sold to Quakers in 1674, who set up a religious sanctuary

Tallmadge Amendment

Sought to forbid the further introduction of slaves into Missouri and mandated that all children of slave parents born in the state after its admission should be free at the age of 25; failed to pass the Senate; viewed by southerners as a threat to the sectional balance

Palmetto State

South Carolina

Ordinance of Nullification

South Carolina declared the tariffs of 1828 and 1832 null and void and forbade the collection of the duties; in February, 1833, they threatened secession if federal bureaucrats tried to collect them

Butternut Region

Southern counties of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois where many former Southerners had settled and who still harbored pro-Southern sympathies; did not want to fight an anti-slavery war

Redeemer Governments

Southern state governments controlled by the former Confederates, who were trying to undo Reconstruction

rag money

Southern term for the useless money printed from the banks because of its rapid depreciation and inflation

Scalawags

Southern whites who supported Republican policy through reconstruction

War Hawks

Southerners and Westerners who were eager for war with Britain; strong sense of nationalism; wanted to takeover British land in North America and expand

Fort Natchez

Spanish captured the fort after the Revolutionary War, even though it was in American territory, and refused to give it back without negotiation; Spain wanted to keep a strong presence in America, and the Americans had to deal with foreign affairs without the help of the British army

Columbia Convention

Special convention held in the capital of South Carolina, called after nullies emerged with more than a 2/3 majority in the state election; delegates declared the Tariff of 1824 to be null and void within South Carolina; called upon the state legislature to undertake any necessary military preparations; threatened to take South Carolina out of the Union if the federal government tried to collect the customs duties by force; faced with civil war within and invasion from without, this convention met again, repealed the law of nullification, and nullified the Force Bill

The Crime Against Kansas

Speech delivered in Congress by Charles Sumner, Republican of Massachusetts, that blamed slavery for the violence between pro- and antislavery activists in Kansas; resulted in Brooks attacking Sumner

Episcopalians

Spiritual descendants of the Anglican church

Ecological Imperialism

Spoliation of western natural resources through excessive hunting, logging, mining, and grazing

Culper Spy Ring

Spy network for Washington based in NY that helped get important information to Washington about the British movements during the American Revolution; used a complicated system to deliver messages

Normal School

State-supported school for training high school graduates to become teachers; first established by Horace Mann

Lincoln's Inaugural Address

Stated that, "no state...can lawfully get out of the Union"; pledged there would be no war unless the South started it

Declaration and Resolves

Statement adopted by the First Continental Congress on October 14, 1774, in response to the Intolerable Acts; outlined colonial objections to the Intolerable Acts, listed a colonial bill of rights, and provided a detailed list of grievances

Border States

States bordering the North, between the North and South: Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri; slave states, but did not secede

Easy States

States that deliberately lowered tariffs in order to attract unfair share of trade

Ninth Amendment

States that people's rights are not limited to just those listed in the Constitution

Tenth Amendment

States that the powers not delegated to the federal gov. in the Constitution are reserved to the states

Sultana

Steamboat that exploded on the Mississippi River in April, 1865, killing over 1,700 Union prisoners of war

Marshall Court

Strengthened the power of the federal government over that of the states (McCulloch v. Maryland, Gibbons v. Ogden, Cohens v Virginia); judicial branch determined the meaning of Constitution (Marbury v. Madison)

Methodists and Baptists

Stressed personal conversion, democracy in church affairs, emotionalism; benefited most from the evangelical revivals of the Second Great Awakening

Gag Resolution

Strict rule passed by prosouthern Congressmen in 1836 to prohibit all discussion of slavery in the House of Representatives

Isthmus of Tehuantepec

Strip of land in Mexico that represents the shortest distance between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific; was once considered as a possible site for a canal; the Gadsden Purchase allowed the U.S. to transport goods across it

Hamiltonian Federalists

Strongly nationalistic; loose interpretation of the Constitution; wanted government controlled by the rich, well-born, and able; feared undiluted democracy (the ignorant could be manipulated); mostly merchants, large planters, and investors, concentrated in urban areas.

War Democrats

Sub-division of the fractured democratic party. Consisting of a large portion, the war democrats patriotically supported the Lincoln administration. These democrats did not pose as big a threat to the Union as the Peace Democrats or copperheads.

Log Cabin and Hard Cider Campaign

Successful Whig party presidential campaign of William Henry Harrison in 1840; portrayed Harrison as a simple man sprung from the people when in reality he was rich as a part of one of the First Families of Virginia; it won Harrison the election; new forms of campaigning among the masses

Compact Theory

Supported by Jefferson and Madison; declared that the thirteen states, in creating the federal government, had entered into a contract about its jurisdiction; the national government was the agent of the states, meaning that the individual states were the final judges of the national government's actions; basis for the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions passed in 1798

Tories

Supported the British cause in the American Revolution; Loyalists; dominant political faction in Britain

Lecompton Constitution

Supported the existence of slavery in the proposed state and protected rights of slaveholders; rejected by Kansas, making Kansas an eventual free state

Federalists

Supporters of the Constitution and a strong central government; typically held wealth, power, and influence; educated and organized

Dred Scott v. Sanford

Supreme Court case that decided US Congress did not have the power to prohibit slavery in federal territories and slaves, as private property, could not be taken away without due process - basically slaves would remain slaves in non-slave states and slaves could not sue because they were not citizens; declared the Missouri Compromise as unconstitutional

Public Land Survey System

Surveying method developed and used in the United States to divide property for sale and settling; also known as the Rectangular Survey System, it was created by the Land Ordinance of 1785 to survey land ceded to the United States by the Treaty of Paris in 1783

New Sweden

Swedish fur-trading community established with the assistance of the Dutch on the Delaware River in 1638 and absorbed by New Netherland in 1655

Bible Commonwealth

System in which religious leaders powerfully influenced admission to church membership by conducting public interrogations

Spoils System

System of employing and promoting civil servants who are friends and supporters of the group in power; employed by Jackson when he was elected in 1828; filled government positions with illiterates, incompetents, and crooks

Underground Railroad

System of secret routes used by escaped slaves to reach freedom in the North or in Canada

Protective Tariff

Tax on imported goods that is intended to protect a nation's businesses from foreign competition

Duties

Taxes on imported goods

Tariffs

Taxes on imported goods

Corps of Discovery

Team of adventurers, led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, sent by Thomas Jefferson to explore Louisiana Territory and find a water route to the Pacific; brought back detailed accounts of the West's flora, fauna, and native populations; their voyage demonstrated the viability of overland travel to the West

Local Color

Term applied to fiction or poetry which tends to place special emphasis on a particular setting, including its customs, clothing, dialect and landscape

Bread Colonies

Term for Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey, describing their heavy grain exports

Rogues' Island

Term for Rhode Island because malcontents and exiles from other New England settlements were sent there

King Congress

Term used against Congress in mid 1780s; suggests it is oppressive and tyrannical just like the King

Black Ivory

Term used for slaves because they were so valuable

Black Forties

Term used to describe the 1840s, when about 1.5 million Irish came to America because of a potato famine; most of the Irish were Roman-Catholic; politically powerful because they bonded together as one large voting body; increased competition for jobs, so they were hated by native workers; they hated the blacks and the British

Union

Term used to refer to the United States of America and the national government

Old Northwest

Territories acquired by the federal government from the states with the Articles of Confederation, encompassing land northwest of the Ohio River, east of the Mississippi River, and south of the Great Lakes; the well-organized management and sale of the land in the territories under the land ordinances of 1785 and 1787 established a precedent for handling future land acquisitions.

Battle of Fort Wagner

The 54th Massachusetts, a black Union regiment, heroically but unsuccessfully assaulted the Confederates at Fort Wagner in South Carolina; the 54th suffered major casualties, but the regiment's performance confirmed the bravery of black troops in combat

Episcopal Church

The American branch of the Anglican communion; those churches that trace their roots to the Church of England and regard episcopacy as a biblically mandated ministry of the church

Fort Michilimackinac

The American fort that the British and the Canadians captured early in the war of 1812; it commanded the upper Great Lakes and the Indian-inhabited area to the south and the west

Battle of Trenton

The Americans, led by General Washington, surprised the Hessian troops guarding Trenton on December 26, 1776 and took most of them prisoner

49th Parallel

The Oregon Treaty of 1846 established an U.S./Canadian (British) border along this line; the boundary extended from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean

Battle of Fallen Timbers

The U.S. Army defeated the Native Americans under Shawnee Chief Blue Jacket and ended Native American hopes of keeping their land that lay north of the Ohio River

Continental Navy

The US Navy during the revolutionary war, made up largely of private trade ships refitted for war, whose job was to harass the British in the Atlantic Ocean

Battle of Chancellorsville

The Union was defeated by the Confederate Army led by Robert E. Lee; General Thomas Stonewall Jackson was accidentally wounded by one of his own men

Headright System

The Virginia Company's system in which settlers and the family members who came with them each received 50 acres of land; any person who paid for the passage of a laborer would receive that person's land, encouraging plantation owners to employ more indentured servants

Rendezvous System

The basis for the American fur-trapping industry; each summer many traders ventured to the Rocky Mountains to trade with fur-trappers and Indians for pelts in exchange for manufactured goods

English Common Law

The basis of a court system for justice; judges sit in court, applying their common sense and knowledge of legal precedent to the facts before them

Preparationism

The belief that there were things a person could do to prepare themselves for grace; Thomas Hooker supported this doctrine

Electoral College

The body of electors of each state who formally elect the United States president and vice-president

Commerce Clause

The clause in the Constitution (Article I, Section 8, Clause 1) that gives Congress the power to regulate all business activities that cross state lines or affect more than one state or other nations

Joint Occupation

The control and settlement of an area by two or more countries or groups

Black Belt

The cotton-growing region that was developed in the early 1800s, stretching from Georgia through Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana; named for its rich black soil; held the majority of Southern slaves

Sectional Tensions

The disagreements and conflicts between the North and the South before the Civil War; primarily stemmed from the economic, political, and social differences stemming from Southern reliance on slavery

Nullification

The doctrine that a state can declare null and void a federal law that, in the state's opinion, violates the Constitution

Deskilling

The elimination of skilled labor under a new system of mechanized manufacturing, in which workers completed discrete, small-scale tasks rather than crafting an entire product; employers found they could pay workers less and replace them more easily

Columbian Exchange

The exchange of plants, animals, diseases, and technologies between the Americas and the rest of the world following Columbus's voyages

Pennsylvania Abolition Society (The Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage)

The first American abolition society; founded April 14, 1775, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by Quakers

Harvard College

The first American college, established in 1636 by Puritan theologians who wanted to create a training center for ministers; named for John Harvard, a Charleston minister who had left it his library and half his estate

Roanoke Colony

The first attempted colony in the Americas established by Walter Raleigh in 1584 off the coast of Virginia; mysteriously vanished

Treaty of Wanghia

The first formal diplomatic agreement between the US and China; signed on July 3, 1844; gave the United States "most favored nation" status in China, granting them trading rights

Maryland Toleration Act (1649)

The first law on religious tolerance in the British North America; allowed freedom of worship for all Christians - including Catholics - in Maryland, but sentenced to death anyone who denied the divinity of Jesus

Jacksonian Democracy

The first major opening up of American suffrage (voting rights) by Jackson's new Democratic Party in 1830s; Franchise extended to all white men (not just rich white men); achieved by state legislation not constitutional amendment

Jamestown

The first permanent English settlement in North America, founded in East Virginia

American Temperance Union

The founding of this organization in 1826 by evangelical Protestants signaled the start of a national crusade against drunkenness; using a variety of techniques, they set out to persuade people not to drink intoxicating beverages and was successful in sharply lowering per capita consumption of alcohol; an example of the spirit of reform that was prevalent in the early 1800s

Emancipation

The freeing of slaves, with no compensation to slaveholders

Cherokee National Council

The governing body that the Cherokees established. In 1808, they developed a legal system, and in 1827 they wrote a constitution enacting a system of tribal government to regulate affairs within the borders of their lands; government included an electoral system and a legislative, judicial, and executive branch; stated the Cherokee were not subject to the laws of Georgia; treaties with the U.S. government recognized the Cherokee Nation, but the State of Georgia objected to having an independent Indian nation within its boundaries and passed legislation claiming jurisdiction over the Cherokee Nation in 1828

Lane Rebels

The group of theology students, led by Theodore Dwight Weld, who were expelled from Lane Theological Seminary for abolitionist activity and later became leading preachers of the antislavery gospel

Black Baptist Church

The largest African American denomination after the emancipation of slaves

Dominion of Canada

The loose confederation of Ontario (Upper Canada), Quebec (Lower Canada), Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, created by the British North America Act in 1867

Federal District Courts

The lowest tier of the federal court system and similar to the trial courts that exist in each state

Constitutional Convention

The meeting of state delegates in 1787 in Philadelphia called to revise the Articles of Confederation; it instead designed a new plan of government, the United States Constitution

Acculturation

The modification of the social patterns, traits, or structures of one group or society by contact with those of another; the resultant blend

Progressivism

The movement in the late 1800s to increase democracy in America by curbing the power of the corporation; fought to end corruption in government and business, and worked to bring equal rights of women and other groups that had been left behind during the Industrial Revolution

Noche Triste

The night of June 30, 1520, when war began between Aztecs and Spanish, leading to Spanish conquest of Mexico

Continental Army

The official army of the colonies, created by second continental congress and led by George Washington

Home Guard

The older men of a country who were charged with defending their neighborhoods during the Civil War.

Oberlin College

The oldest coeducational liberal arts school in the United States, located in Oberlin, Ohio; first college to teach women and African Americans

Soil Butchery

The plantation colonies were in some degree expansionary because of this; by excessively growing tobacco, the settlers deprived the soil of nutrients; they could not plant tobacco there anymore and so had to move elsewhere (to land with more nutrients); destroyed the soil by continuously growing the same crop

Lord Dunmore's Ethiopian Regiment

The population of black soldiers who fought for the British

Judicial Review

The power of the Supreme Court to declare laws unconstitutional

Empire of Liberty

The practice of admitting a territory's population in the Western frontier as equal members of the American political system, rather than ruling over them as a colonial power

Land Speculation

The practice of buying up land with the intent of selling it off in the future for a profit

Protectionism

The practice of shielding one or more industries within a country's economy from foreign competition through the use of tariffs or quotas

Sectional Politics

The pursuit of interests that are of special concern to the region or section of the country, rather than the nation as a whole

Deism

The religion of the Enlightenment (1700s); followers believed that God existed and had created the world, but that afterwards He left it to run by its own natural laws; denied that God communicated to man or in any way influenced his life; relied on science rather than the bible and reason rather than revelation; embraced by Founding Fathers like Jefferson and Franklin

Lutheranism

The religious doctrine that Martin Luther developed; it differed from Catholicism in the doctrine of salvation, which Luther believed could be achieved by faith alone, not by good works; the first Protestant faith

Grand Banks

The rich fishing area in the Atlantic Ocean near Newfoundland

Ohio Fever

The rush of people going West because of cheap land; mostly European immigrants

Gold Fever

The rush to secure gold, especially alluvial gold, in order to acquire immediate riches and the associated social status; resulted in a new flood of population into Golden state, which soon applied to become free state, tipping the balance, and setting off the sectional debate on slavery

Plymouth Colony

The second permanent English colony in North America; located in New England; founded and settled by Separatist Pilgrims in 1620

African Diaspora

The separation of Africans from their homeland through centuries of forced removal to serve as slaves in the Americas and elsewhere

Mayflower

The ship that brought the Pilgrims to the New World

Civil Law

The system of law concerned with private relations between members of a community rather than criminal, military, or religious affairs.

Antebellum Period

The time period before the Civil War during which there were many reforms, including the establishment of free (tax-supported) public schools, improving the treatment of the mentally ill, controlling/abolishing the sale of alcohol, winning equal legal/political rights for women, and abolishing slavery

Senate

The upper house of the United States Congress; two senators are elected from each state, regardless of state population, guaranteeing each state equal representation

Middle Passage

The voyage that brought enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to North America and the West Indies

American Dream

The widespread belief that the United States is a land of opportunity and that individual initiative and hard work can bring economic success

Interposition

Theory that a state should be able to intervene between the federal government and the people to stop an illegal action

Free Blacks

They were ex-slaves were either freed by their owners or escaped; considered free, but were still held under many restrictions and racial laws and found limited work; developed their own communities, cultures, found work and were able to develop economically; considered to be a "third race"; barred from several Northern states, denied the right to vote, and forbidden from attending public school; hated by immigrants with whom they competed for menial jobs

Compromise of 1790

This included passage of the Residence Act in July and the Funding Act in August. Central to this was an agreement that several Southerners would change their votes and support the federal assumption of state debts in return for a bill locating the US capital on the Potomac River after a ten year temporary residence at Philadelphia

Free Labor Ideology

This is a set of beliefs and ideas that presented slavery as a threat to a white male economic independence; central to the Republican party's attack on slavery; asserted that the ability of working men to achieve economic independence was the basis of northern superiority; belief that all work in a free society is honorable and that manual labor is degraded when it is equated with slavery or bondage

Filibustering

This is an attempt to obstruct a particular decision from being taken by using up the time available, typically through an extremely long speech; would prevent the "opposing" party to pass an unfavorable law and ultimately force a compromise

Halifax-Quebec Route

This route was one in which the British were determined to build a road through to safeguard against the St. Lawrence River freezing over, although it ran through disputed territory-claimed also by Maine under the Treaty of Paris in 1783; led to the Aroostook war, and the British won it with the compromise at the end of the war

Treaty of Paris (1783)

This treaty ended the Revolutionary War; recognized the independence of the American colonies; granted the colonies the territory from the southern border of Canada to the northern border of Florida, and from the Atlantic coast to the Mississippi River; Americans allowed fishing access in Grand Banks of Newfoundland; Loyalist persecution was ended and they were allowed to regain their property

Huron Indians

This tribe asked Champlain to join them in battle against their foes, the Iroquois; they were friendly with the French settlers; located in the northern region of North America; they sometimes helped out with the fur trade in Canada as well

Morrill Tariff Act

This was an act passed by Congress in 1861 to meet the cost of the war; raised taxes on shipping from 5 to 10 percent however later needed to increase to meet the demanding cost of the war; although they were still low to today's standards they still raked in millions of dollars

Panic of 1819

This was the first widespread economic crisis in the United States which brought deflation, depression, bank failures, and unemployment; set back nationalism to more sectionalism and hurt the poorer class, which gave way to Jacksonian Democracy; caused by overproduction and the reduced demand for goods after the war; generally blamed on the National Bank

The Course of Empire

Thomas Cole; depicted the cyclical rise and fall of human civilization; powerful anthology for 19th century Americans anxious about industrialization and expansion

Monticello

Thomas Jefferson's stately self-designed home in Virginia that became a model of American architecture

Conservatives

Those who generally favor limited government and are opposed to change

Protestants

Those who protested against the Roman Catholic Church

Forty-Eighters

Thousands of disappointed German liberals left Germany after the failed revolutions of 1848 and many moved to the United States where they were given this name; brought, in addition to a ripple of revolutionary agitation, a stream of professional and craft oriented immigrants to U.S.

Antebellum Period

Time before the Civil War during which there were many reforms movements, including the establishment of free (tax-supported) public schools, improving the treatment of the mentally ill, controlling/abolishing the sale of alcohol, winning equal legal/political rights for women, and abolishing slavery

Seneca Falls Convention

Took place in upstate New York in 1848; women of all ages and even some men gathered to discuss the rights and conditions of women; issued the Declaration of Sentiments, which among other things, tried to gain women the right to vote.

Capture of Fort Niagara

Took place late in 1813, during the War of 1812; American garrison was taken by surprise, and the fort was captured in a night assault by a select force of British regular infantry

Prophetstown

Town founded by Tecumseh and his brother, the Prophet; located where the Tippecanoe and Wabash Rivers meet; site for the Battle of Tippecanoe

French West Indies

Trade with these islands was important because its purchases of North American timber and foodstuffs provided the crucial cash for the colonists to continue to make their own purchases in England

CSS Merrimack

Union steamship captured by the Confederates and turned into and ironclad; renamed the Virginia; easily able to sink wooden warships with minor damage

Anaconda Plan

Union war plan by Winfield Scott, called for blockade of southern coast, capture of Richmond, capture Mississippi River, and to take an army through heart of south

Coureurs de Bois

Translated as "runners of the woods," they were French fur-trappers that established trading posts in North America; drinkers, free spenders, free lovers/livers

Circuit Riders

Traveling ministers on the frontier who rode horseback over regular routes and preached messages of religious revival during the Second Great Awakening

Blue Light Federalists

Treacherous New Englanders who supposedly flashed lanterns on the shore so that blockading British cruisers would be alerted to the attempted escape of American ships

Jay's Treaty

Treaty drafted by John Jay in 1794; Britain was to pay for Americans ships that were seized in 1793; Americans had to pay British merchants debts owed from before the revolution; Britain had agreed to remove their troops from the Ohio Valley

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

Treaty signed by the U.S. and Mexico in 1848 that officially ended the Mexican-American War; Mexico had to give up much of its northern territory to the U.S (Mexican Cession); in exchange the U.S. gave Mexico $15 million and assumed $3.25 million in claims against Mexicans by Americans and said that Mexicans living in the lands of the Mexican Cession would be protected

Treaty of Nanking

Treaty that concluded the Opium War; awarded Britain a large indemnity from the Qing Empire, denied the Qing government tariff control over some of its own borders, opened additional ports of residence to Britons, and ceded Hong Kong to Britain; prompted United States to attempt trade relations with China

Old Ironsides

United States 44-gun frigate that was one of the first three naval ships built by the United States; known for the thicker sides, heavier firepower, and larger crews

Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves

United States federal law that stated that no new slaves were permitted to be imported into the United States; took effect in 1808, the earliest date permitted by the United States Constitution

"Colossus of the North"

United States given this name by Latin American nations after the Mexican American War who felt this giant power would cast its shadow over the entire hemisphere due to its rapid expansion across North America

Liberty Tree

Tree in the center of Boston used as a bulletin board and meeting spot for the Sons of Liberty

Mandan Indians

Tribe in northern Missouri; helped Lewis and Clark during the winter of 1804; supplied the expedition with food and supplies

Lakota Sioux

Tribe that started using horses in the 17th century which allowed them to change from farming to nomadic bison hunting

Battle of Saratoga

Turning point of the American Revolution; convinced the French to give the U.S. military support; lifted American spirits; ended the British threat in New England by taking control of the Hudson River; showed the French that the Americans had the potential to beat the British

Battle of Gettysburg

Turning point of the War that made it clear the North would win; 50,000 people died; the South lost its chance to invade the North

West Florida Controversy

Two post-Revolutionary border disputes between Spain and the United States over the region known as West Florida over a period of 37 years

Laird Rams

Two well-armed ironclad warships constructed for the Confederacy by a British firm; seeking to avoid war with the United States, the British government purchased the two ships for its Royal Navy instead

"Abolition War"

Type of war many people were against after Emancipation Proclamation (especially butternut region)

Specie Circular

U.S. Treasury decree requiring that all public lands be purchased with "hard," or metallic, currency; issued in 1836 after small state banks flooded the market with unreliable paper currency, fueling land speculation in the West.

USS Philadelphia

US warship captured by the Barbary Pirates; burned by the Americans in Tripoli Harbor to keep it out of the pirates' hands in 1804

Quasi War (1798-1800)

Undeclared war between the U.S. and France; caused by the French seizure of U.S. merchant ships; fought mostly in the West Indies; led to the loss of several hundred U.S. merchant ships

Interchangeable Parts

Uniform pieces that can be made in large quantities to replace other identical pieces; first developed by Eli Whitney in 1798 and further adopted in 1850 with Samuel Colt's invention of the revolver

Sherman's March

Union General William Tecumseh Sherman's destructive march through Georgia; early instance of "total war," purposely targeting infrastructure and civilian property to diminish morale and undercut the Confederate war effort

Battle of Chattanooga

Union armies of Hooker, Thomas, and Sherman under the command of Ulysses S. Grant won a decisive victory over the Confederate Army under Braxton Bragg in eastern Tennessee on November 23-25, 1863; gave the North control of important rail lines and cleared the way for General William T. Sherman's march into Georgia

Opium War

War between Britain and the Qing Empire from 1839 to 1842 that was, in the British view, occasioned by the Qing government's refusal to permit the importation of opium into its territories; victorious British imposed the one-sided Treaty of Nanking on China

Texas Revolution

War between Texas settlers and Mexico from 1835-1836 resulting in the formation of the Republic of Texas

King William's War

War fought largely between French trappers, British settlers, and their respective Indian allies; also known as the War of the league of Augsburg, it lasted from 1689-1697; it was the third time the major European powers crushed the expansionist plans of King Louis XIV of France

Irish Tactics

War tactics that included, burning houses and fields, and confiscating possessions; used against the Catholics in Ireland and later used against the Powhatan Indians in the colony of Virginia

Mechanized Warfare

Warfare that relies on machines powered by gasoline and diesel engines

Longhouse Religion

Warned against witchcraft, abortion, consumption of whiskey, and other practices associated with white culture; created by Iroquois prophet named Handsome Lake

USS Constitution

Warship which defeated the British Warship Guerriere in 1812; called "Old Ironsides"

Protestant Ethic

Weber's term to describe the ideal of a self-denying, highly moral life accompanied by thrift and hard work in order to achieve in life; displayed by visible saints

Freetown

West African settlement in what is now Sierra Leone at which British naval commanders freed Africans they rescued from illegal slave ships

Self-Defense Doctrine

What Monroe doctrine should be called, as it was concerned primarily with security of the United States, not Latin America

"Lightning Sticks"

What the Iroquois Tribes called the guns of Samuel de Champlain's army

Snobocracy

What the poor white farmers of the South called the aristocratic way of life of the Cotton Kingdom

Panic of 1837

When Jackson was president, many state banks received government money that had been withdrawn from the Bank of the U.S, which issued paper money and financed wild speculation, especially in federal lands; Jackson issued the Specie Circular to force the payment for federal lands with gold or silver and many state banks collapsed as a result; panic ensued (1837) during which the Bank of the U.S. failed, cotton prices fell, businesses went bankrupt, and there was widespread unemployment and distress

Democratic Despotism

When people theoretically have a say in government through voting, but the ruler still has absolute power

Springfield Armory

Where four rebels in Shays's Rebellion were shot and killed

Sutter's Mill

Where gold was first discovered in California in 1848, setting off the gold rush

Spinsters

Widows and unmarried women who spun for a living; often recruited into a family enterprise by the wife of the family

Leavenworth Constitution

Written by free-staters in Leavenworth, Kansas; prohibited slavery; allowed all men to vote, including blacks and Indians; failed in U.S. Congress

Kentucky Resolution

Written by jefferson; introduced nullification; states have right to judge laws made and if be, declare laws null and void

Irrepressible Conflict

William H. Seward's argument in a 1858 speech in which he predicted the collision of the socioeconomic institutions of the North and the South; this confrontation, Seward maintained, would determine whether the nation would be dominated by a system of free labor or slave labor; Abraham Lincoln posited the same idea in his 1858 "House Divided" speech; qt the time, the use of the phrase did not include the assumption that the "irrepressible conflict" would necessarily find expression in violence or armed conflict

Battle of the Thames

William Henry Harrison pushed up the river Thames into Upper Canada and on October 4, 1813, won a victory against the Shawnee; notable for the death of Tecumseh, who was serving as a brigadier general in the British army; resulted in no lasting occupation of Canada, but weakened and disheartened the Indians of the Northwest

Quaker Indian Policy

William Penn's fair treatment and acceptance of Native Americans into his colony

Battle of Mexico City

Winfield Scott marched 300 miles from Vera Cruz to Mexico City where he waged a three-week siege; Winfield Scott defeated Santa Anna's army; ended the Mexican War

Camp Followers

Women and children who followed the Continental Army during the American Revolution, providing vital services such as cooking and sewing in return for rations

Government Girls

Women in Washington who filled jobs left in D.C. when the men went to fight in the Civil War

Feminization of Religion

Women took charge of new religious roles because they were dismissed from every other segment of public life, and formed several new religious sects during the Second Great Awakening; became much more involved in the church, and even expanded their education, basically giving themselves much more authority in life; brought family back to God; reform movements

Woman's Loyal League

Women's organization formed to help bring about an end to the Civil War and encourage Congress to pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting slavery

American Woman Suffrage Association

Women's suffrage organization led by Lucy Stone, Henry Blackwell, and others who remained loyal to the Republican Party, despite its failure to include women's voting rights in the Reconstruction Amendments; stressed the urgency of voting rights for African American men; leaders held out hope that once Reconstruction had been settled, it would be the women's turn

Reform Movements

Work to change society for the better; focused on improving conditions for the poor, enslaved, imprisoned, women, and disabled.

Treatise on Domestic Economy

Written by Catherine Beecher; helped to standardize domestic practices and reinforce domestic values, arguing that a woman's proper role was in the home, where she could powerfully affect American society

Walden

Written by Henry David Thoreau; a personal account of his life spent in a cabin on the edge of Walden Pond, where he lived simply and found truth

Declaration of the People of Virginia

Written by Nathaniel Bacon; criticized governor Berkeley's administration and leveled several allegations against him

writ of mandamus

Written order from a court to enforce the performance of some public duty; issued on behalf of Marbury by the Supreme Court, but was deemed unconstitutional in this case

Factory Girls

Young women employed in the growing factories of the early 19th century; they labored long hours in difficult conditions, living in new social situations away from farms and families

English Civil War

a conflict, lasting from 1642 to 1649, in which Puritan supporters of Parliament battled supporters of England's monarchy; caused neglect of the English colonies in the Americas

Knickerbocker Group

a group of talented writers including Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, and William Cullen Bryant; enabled America to boast for the first time a literature that matched its magnificent landscapes

Antinomian Controversy

a theological dispute begun by Anne Hutchinson in 1636 with the Puritan Church in the Massachusetts Bay Colony; based upon the belief that the elect need not obey the law of either God or man;

Indian Territory

an area covering most of present-day Oklahoma and parts of Kansas and Nebraska to which most Native Americans in the Southeast were forced to move in the 1830s

Three-Sister Farming

beans growing on the trellis of the cornstalks and squash covering the plants mounds to retain moisture in the soil

Owenites

followers of Robert Owen, who established a community called New Harmony in 1824 in Indiana; Owen was a British factory owner who wanted to create a model factory village with strict rules, housing, and free public education; wanted workers to receive what they deserved for their labor and promoted communitarianism, the idea that individual rights should be balanced with those of the whole community and can be influenced by individuals' environment; they influenced the labor movement, educational reform, and women's rights, which all sought to make reforms in order to promote greater equality

Sugar Revolution

increase in the European demand for sugar, fueled by its success in the Caribbean

Paddies (Patricks)

irish who were treated bad because they were Roman Catholic; worked in canals and on railroads after immigrating to America in the mid-1840s

West Indies

islands that lie between southeastern North America and northern South America, and separate the Caribbean Sea from the Atlantic Ocean; used by the Spanish as staging areas for conquest of the Americas

California Trail

major overland emigrant route across the Western United States from Missouri to California in the middle 19th century; used by 250,000 farmers and gold-seekers to reach the California gold fields

Arminianism

named after Dutch theologian Jacobus Arminius; belief that individual free will determined person's salvation, not divine decree; all humans could be saved if they accepted God's grace; threatened the Calvinist doctrine of predestination

Black Warrior

the American steamer which was seized by Spanish officials in 1854 as a show of force after Americans tried to seize Cuba by force; sparked conflict between the two countries

Fundamental Law

the basic legal and political document of a state; it prescribes the rules through which government operates

House of Burgesses

the first elected legislative assembly in the New World established in the Colony of Virginia in 1619; set up by England to make laws and levy taxes but England could veto its legislative acts

Wildcat Banks

unstable banking institutions that issued paper money called wildcat currency to lend to speculators; operated under state charters and were especially numerous after Jackson defeated the second Bank of the United States; didn't require collateral for loans so farmers took out loans, bought land, lost money on the land, defaulted on their loans, and then the banks started to fail