A New Nation (Part 2)

Question 1

Stamp Act

Answer 1

Parliament’s 1765 requirement that revenue stamps be affixed to all colonial printed matter, documents, and playing cards; the Stamp Act Congress met to formulate a response, and the act was repealed the following year.

Question 2

virtual representation

Answer 2

The idea that the American colonies, although they had no actual representative in Parliament, were “virtually” represented by all members of Parliament.

Question 3

writs of assistance

Answer 3

One of the colonies’ main complaints against Britain; the writs allowed unlimited search warrants without cause to look for evidence of smuggling.

Question 4

Sugar Act

Answer 4

1764 decision by Parliament to tax refined sugar and many other colonial products.

Question 5

No taxation without representation

Answer 5

The rallying cry of opponents to the 1765 Stamp Act. The slogan decried the colonists’ lack of representation in Parliament.

Question 6

Committee of Correspondence

Answer 6

Group organized by Samuel Adams in retaliation for the Gaspée incident to address American grievances, assert American rights, and form a network of rebellion.

Question 7

Sons of Liberty

Answer 7

Organizations formed by Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and other radicals in response to the Stamp Act.

Question 8

Regulators

Answer 8

Groups of backcountry Carolina settlers who protested colonial policies.

Question 9

Townshend Acts

Answer 9

1767 parliamentary measures (named for the chancellor of the Exchequer) that taxed tea and other commodities, and established a Board of Customs Commissioners and colonial vice-admiralty courts.

Question 10

Boston Massacre

Answer 10

Clash between British soldiers and a Boston mob, March 5, 1770, in which five colonists were killed.

Question 11

Crispus Attacks

Answer 11

During the Boston Massacre, the individual who was supposedly at the head of the crowd of hecklers and who baited the British troops. He was killed when the British troops fired on the crowd.

Question 12

Boston Tea Party

Answer 12

The incident on December 16, 1773, in which the Sons of Liberty dumped hundreds of chests of tea into Boston Harbor to protest the Tea Act of 1773.

Question 13

Intolerable Acts

Answer 13

Four parliamentary measures in reaction to the Boston Tea Party that forced payment for the tea, disallowed colonial trials of British soldiers, forced their quartering in private homes, and reduced the number of elected officials in Massachusetts.

Question 14

Continental Congress

Answer 14

First meeting of representatives of the colonies, held in Philadelphia in 1774 to formulate actions against British policies; in the Second Continental Congress (1775–1789), the colonial representatives conducted the war and adopted the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation.

Question 15

Battle of Lexington and Concord

Answer 15

The first shots fired in the Revolutionary War, on April 19, 1775, near Boston; approximately 100 minutemen and 250 British soldiers were killed.

Question 16

Battle of Bunker Hill

Answer 16

First major battle of the Revolutionary War; it actually took place at nearby Breed’s Hill, Massachusetts, on June 17, 1775.

Question 17

Continental army

Answer 17

Army authorized by the Continental Congress in 1775 to fight the British; commanded by General George Washington.

Question 18

Lord Dunmore’s proclamation

Answer 18

A proclamation issued in 1775 by the earl of Dunmore, the British governor of Virginia, that offered freedom to any slave who fought for the king against the rebelling colonists.

Question 19

Common Sense

Answer 19

A pamphlet anonymously written by Thomas Paine in January 1776 that attacked the English principles of hereditary rule and monarchical government.

Question 20

Declaration of Independence

Answer 20

Document adopted on July 4, 1776, that made the break with Britain official; drafted by a committee of the Second Continental Congress, including principal writer Thomas Jefferson.

Question 21

Hessians

Answer 21

German soldiers, most from Hesse-Cassel principality (hence, the name), paid to fight for the British in the Revolutionary War.

Question 22

Battle of Saratoga

Answer 22

Major defeat of British general John Burgoyne and more than 5,000 British troops at Saratoga, New York, on October 17, 1777.

Question 23

Benedict Arnold

Answer 23

A traitorous American commander who planned to sell out the American garrison at West Point to the British. His plot was discovered before it could be executed and he joined the British army.

Question 24

Battle of Yorktown

Answer 24

Last battle of the Revolutionary War; General Lord Charles Cornwallis along with over 7,000 British troops surrendered at Yorktown, Virginia, on October 17, 1781.

Question 25

Treaty of Paris

Answer 25

Signed on September 3, 1783, the treaty that ended the Revolutionary War, recognized American independence from Britain, established the border between Canada and the United States, fixed the western border at the Mississippi River, and ceded Florida to Spain.

Question 26

republic

Answer 26

Representative political system in which citizens govern themselves by electing representatives, or legislators, to make key decisions on the citizens’ behalf.

Question 27

suffrage

Answer 27

the right to vote

Question 28

Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom

Answer 28

A Virginia law, drafted by Thomas Jefferson in 1777 and enacted in 1786, that guarantees freedom of, and from, religion.

Question 29

inflation

Answer 29

An economic condition in which prices rise continuously.

Question 30

free trade

Answer 30

The belief that economic development arises from the exchange of goods between different countries without governmental interference.

Question 31

Loyalists

Answer 31

Colonists who remained loyal to Great Britain during the War of Independence.

Question 32

Joseph Brant

Answer 32

The Mohawk leader who led the Iroquois against the Americans in the Revolutionary War.

Question 33

abolition

Answer 33

Social movement of the pre–Civil War era that advocated the immediate emancipation of the slaves and their incorporation into American society as equal citizens.

Question 34

freedom petitions

Answer 34

Arguments for liberty presented to New England’s courts and legislatures in the early 1770s by enslaved African-Americans.

Question 35

Lemuel Haynes

Answer 35

A black member of the Massachusetts militia and celebrated minister who urged that Americans extend their conception of freedom to enslaved Africans during the Revolutionary Era.

Question 36

coverture

Answer 36

Principle in English and American law that a married woman lost her legal identity, which became “covered” by that of her husband, who therefore controlled her person and the family’s economic resources.

Question 37

republican motherhood

Answer 37

The ideology that emerged as a result of American independence where women played an indispensable role by training future citizens.

Question 38

Articles of Confederation

Answer 38

First frame of government for the United States; in effect from 1781 to 1788, it provided for a weak central authority and was soon replaced by the Constitution.

Question 39

Ordinance of 1784

Answer 39

A law drafted by Thomas Jefferson that regulated land ownership and defined the terms by which western land would be marketed and settled; it established stages of self-government for the West. First Congress would govern a territory; then the territory would be admitted to the Union as a full state.

Question 40

Ordiance of 1785

Answer 40

A law that regulated land sales in the Old Northwest. The land surveyed was divided into 640-acre plots and sold at $1 per acre.

Question 41

Northwest Ordinance of 1787

Answer 41

Law that created the Northwest Territory (area north of the Ohio River and west of Pennsylvania), established conditions for self-government and statehood, included a Bill of Rights, and permanently prohibited slavery.

Question 42

empire of liberty

Answer 42

The idea, expressed by Jefferson, that the United States would not rule its new territories as colonies, but rather would eventually admit them as full member states.

Question 43

Shay’s Rebellion

Answer 43

Attempt by Massachusetts farmer Daniel Shays and 1,200 compatriots, seeking debt relief through issuance of paper currency and lower taxes, to prevent courts from seizing property from indebted farmers.

Question 44

Constitutional Conventions

Answer 44

Meeting in Philadelphia, May 25–September 17, 1787, of representatives from twelve colonies—excepting Rhode Island—to revise the existing Articles of Confederation; the convention soon resolved to produce an entirely new constitution.

Question 45

Virginia Plan

Answer 45

Virginia’s delegation to the Constitutional Convention’s plan for a strong central government and a two-house legislature apportioned by population.

Question 46

New Jersey Plan

Answer 46

New Jersey’s delegation to the Constitutional Convention’s plan for one legislative body with equal representation for each state.

Question 47

federalism

Answer 47

A system of government in which power is divided between the central government and the states

Question 48

division of powers

Answer 48

The division of political power between the state and federal governments under the U.S. Constitution (also known as federalism).

Question 49

checks and balances

Answer 49

A systematic balance to prevent any one branch of the national government from dominating the other two.

Question 50

separation of powers

Answer 50

Feature of the U.S. Constitution, sometimes called “checks and balances,” in which power is divided between executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the national government so that no one can dominate the other two and endanger citizens’ liberties.

Question 51

three-fifths clause

Answer 51

A provision signed into the constitution in 1787 that three-fifths of the slave population would be counted in determining each state’s representation in the House of Representatives and its electoral votes for president.

Question 52

The Federalist Papers

Answer 52

Collection of eighty-five essays that appeared in the New York press in 1787–1788 in support of the Constitution; written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay

Question 53

Anti-Federalists

Answer 53

Opponents of the Constitution who saw it as a limitation on individual and states’ rights; their demands led to the addition of a Bill of Rights to the document.

Question 54

Bill of Rights

Answer 54

First ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, adopted in 1791 to guarantee individual rights against infringement by the federal government.

Question 55

Treaty of Greenville

Answer 55

1795 treaty under which twelve Indian tribes ceded most of Ohio and Indiana to the federal government, and which also established the “annuity” system.

Question 56

annuity system

Answer 56

System of yearly payments to Native American tribes by which the federal government justified and institutionalized its interference in Indian tribal affairs.

Question 57

gradual emancipation

Answer 57

A series of acts passed in state legislatures throughout the North in the years following the Revolution that freed slaves after they reached a certain age, following lengthy “apprenticeships.”

Question 58

Letters from an American Farmer

Answer 58

1782 book by Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur that popularized the notion that the United States was a “melting pot” while excluding people of color from the process of assimilation.

Question 59

open immigration

Answer 59

American immigration laws under which nearly all white people could immigrate to the United States and become naturalized citizens.

Question 60

Notes on the State of Virginia

Answer 60

Thomas Jefferson’s 1785 book that claimed, among other things, that black people were incapable of becoming citizens and living in harmony alongside white people due to the legacy of slavery and what Jefferson believed were the “real distinctions that nature has made” between races.

Question 61

Bank of the United States

Answer 61

Proposed by the first secretary of the treasury, Alexander Hamilton, the bank that opened in 1791 and operated until 1811 to issue a uniform currency, make business loans, and collect tax monies. The Second Bank of the United States was chartered in 1816 but President Andrew Jackson vetoed the recharter bill in 1832.

Question 62

impressment

Answer 62

The British navy’s practice of using press-gangs to kidnap men in British and colonial ports who were then forced to serve in the British navy.

Question 63

Jay’s Treaty

Answer 63

Treaty with Britain negotiated in 1794 by Chief Justice John Jay; Britain agreed to vacate forts in the Northwest Territories, and festering disagreements (border with Canada, prewar debts, shipping claims) would be settled by commission.

Question 64

Federalists

Answer 64

led by George Washington, John Adams, and Alexander Hamilton, favored a strong central government.

Question 65

Republicans

Answer 65

supported a strict interpretation of the Constitution, which they believed would safeguard individual freedoms and states’ rights from the threats posed by a strong central government.

Question 66

Whiskey Rebellion

Answer 66

Violent protest by western Pennsylvania farmers against the federal excise tax on whiskey, 1794.

Question 67

Democratic-Republican societies

Answer 67

Organizations created in the mid-1790s by opponents of the policies of the Washington administration and supporters of the French Revolution.

Question 68

Judith Sargent Murray

Answer 68

A writer and early feminist thinker prominent in the years following the American Revolution.

Question 69

XYZ affair

Answer 69

Affair in which French foreign minister Talleyrand’s three anonymous agents demanded payments to stop French plundering of American ships in 1797; refusal to pay the bribe was followed by two years of undeclared sea war with France (1798–1800).

Question 70

Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798

Answer 70

Four measures passed in 1798 during the undeclared war with France that limited the freedoms of speech and press and restricted the liberty of noncitizens.

Question 71

Virginia and Kentucky resolutions

Answer 71

Legislation passed in 1798 and 1799 by the Virginia and the Kentucky legislatures; written by James Madison and Thomas Jefferson in response to the Alien and Sedition Acts, the resolutions advanced the state-compact theory of the Constitution. Virginia’s resolution called on the federal courts to protect free speech. Jefferson’s draft for Kentucky stated that a state could nullify federal law, but this was deleted.

Question 72

Revolution of 1800

Answer 72

First time that an American political party surrendered power to the opposition party; Jefferson, a Republican, had defeated incumbent Adams, a Federalist, for president.

Question 73

Haitian Revolution

Answer 73

A slave uprising that led to the establishment of Haiti as an independent country in 1804.`

Question 74

Gabriel’s Rebellion

Answer 74

A slave uprising that led to the establishment of Haiti as an independent country in 1804.

Question 75

Marbury v. Madison

Answer 75

First U.S. Supreme Court decision to declare a federal law—the Judiciary Act of 1801—unconstitutional.

Question 76

Louisiana Purchase

Answer 76

President Thomas Jefferson’s 1803 purchase from France of the important port of New Orleans and 828,000 square miles west of the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains; it more than doubled the territory of the United States at a cost of only $15 million.

Question 77

Lewis and Clark Expedition

Answer 77

Led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, a mission to the Pacific coast commissioned for the purposes of scientific and geographical exploration.

Question 78

Barbary Wars

Answer 78

The first wars fought by the United States, and the nation’s first encounter with the Islamic world. The wars were fought from 1801 to 1805 against plundering pirates off the Mediterranean coast of Africa after President Thomas Jefferson’s refusal to pay them tribute to protect American ships.

Question 79

Embargo Act

Answer 79

Attempt in 1807 to exert economic pressure by prohibiting all exports from the United States, instead of waging war in reaction to continued British impressment of American sailors; smugglers easily circumvented the embargo, and it was repealed two years later

Question 80

Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa

Answer 80

Tecumseh—a leader of the Shawnee tribe who tried to unite all Indians into a confederation to resist white encroachment on their lands. His beliefs and leadership made him seem dangerous to the American government. He was killed at the Battle of the Thames. His brother, Tenskwatawa—a religious prophet who called for complete separation from whites, the revival of traditional Indian culture, and resistance to federal policies.

Question 81

War of 1812

Answer 81

War fought with Britain, 1812–1814, over issues that included impressment of American sailors, interference with shipping, and collusion with Northwest Territory Indians; settled by the Treaty of Ghent in 1814.

Question 82

Fort McHenry

Answer 82

Fort in Baltimore Harbor unsuccessfully bombarded by the British in September 1814; Francis Scott Key, a witness to the battle, was moved to write the words to “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Question 83

Battle of New Orleans

Answer 83

Last battle of the War of 1812, fought on January 8, 1815, weeks after the peace treaty was signed but prior to the news’ reaching America; General Andrew Jackson led the victorious American troops

Question 84

Hartford Convention

Answer 84

Meeting of New England Federalists on December 15, 1814, to protest the War of 1812; proposed seven constitutional amendments (limiting embargoes and changing requirements for officeholding, declaration of war, and admission of new states), but the war ended before Congress could respond.