ALL NECESSARY VOCAB Flashcards
Jamestown
The first successful settlement in the Virginia colony founded in May, 1607. Harsh conditions nearly destroyed the colony but in 1610 supplies arrived with a new wave of settlers. The settlement became part of the Virginia Company of London in 1620. The population remained low due to lack of supplies until agriculture was solidly established. Jamestown grew to be a prosperous shipping port when John Rolfe introduced tobacco as a major export and cash crop.
Columbia Exchange
a period of cultural and biological exchanges between the New and Old Worlds. Exchanges of plants, animals, diseases and technology transformed European and Native American ways of life. Disease killed millions of natives, while new foods brought from the Americas sustained larger populations in Europe
Encomienda System
created by the Spanish to control and regulate American Indian labor and behavior during the colonization of the Americas. It’s a dependency relation system, where the stronger people fed/protected the weakest in exchange for a labor/slavery. The birth of this type of “system” was initially developed by Portugal to drive their sugar trade off the coast of Africa which gave rise to institutionalized slavery, which Portugal dominated during the 15th century. The Spanish use of it, for which it is most famous, grew out of the Portuguese prototype and was implemented to control and regulate American Indian labor and behavior during the colonization of the Americas. This system of domination was gradually off set by the introduction of African slave labor, which combined with mineral wealth, lead to Spain becoming the richest European nation in the sixteenth century
Roanoke Colony
First attempt by British (Sir Walter Raleigh) to settle North America in 1587 that failed. Before Jamestown and Plymouth were settled, Roanoke Island, NC played host to the first English-speaking colonists in America, but when ships returned to resupply the 100 man settlement, they were mysteriously gone.
Louisiana
Area that was named after Louis XIV when French explores ventured into the area from the mouth of the Mississippi River.
Mestizo
a term traditionally used in Spain and Spanish America to mean a person of combined European and Native American descent.
The Mayflower Compact
1620 - The first governing document of Plymouth Colony written by the Pilgrims on the Mayflower prior to landing in Massachusetts establishing themselves as a political society and setting guidelines for self-government. Decisions by the will of the majority.
The House of Burgesses
1619 - America’s Oldest Legislative Assembly. The first legislative assembly of elected representatives in North America, governed in conjunction with a colonial governor and his council.
Acts of Toleration
1689 - Founded Maryland partly as a refuge for English Catholics. Sought enactment of the law to protect Catholic settlers and those of other religions that did not conform to the dominant Anglicanism of Britain and her colonies.
Roger Willaims
A Puritan, English Reformed theologian, and later a Reformed Baptist who was an early proponent of religious freedom and separation of church and state. He founded Rhode Island after being banished from Massachusetts for his religious beliefs.
William Penn
Founder of Pennsylvania, and an early advocate of democracy, religious freedom, and Quaker idealism. Under his direction, the city of Philadelphia was planned and developed. In 1681 King Charles II handed over a large piece of his American land holdings to William Penn to satisfy a debt the king owed to Penn’s father.
Bacon’s Rebellion
An armed rebellion in 1676 by Virginia settlers against the rule of Governor William Berkeley. The colony’s dismissive policy as it related to the political challenges of its western frontier, along with barring common colonists from the governor’s inner circle, helped to motivate a popular uprising against Berkeley who had failed to address the demands of the colonists.
King Philip’s War
An armed conflict between Native American inhabitants of present-day New England and English colonists and their Native American allies in 1676. While England was preoccupied with a civil war, colonists were forced to handle their own problems which led to a sense of self-identity.
Fundamental Orders of Conneticut
First written constitution in US History: representative legislature elected by popular vote, and governor chosen by legislature. Considered by some as the first written Constitution in the Western tradition, and thus earned Connecticut its nickname of The Constitution State.
Mercantalism
The practice of enacting policies that established colonies as the providers of raw materials for parent country. Essentially, colonies existed to enrich parent country
Navigation Acts
Acts Laws that monopolized trade with the colonies which effectively forced colonists to accept low prices for products, and pay high prices for manufactured goods
Middle Passage
the stage of the triangular trade in which millions of Africans were shipped to the New World as part of the Atlantic slave trade. Millions died- an estimated 15% of all Africans shipped.
John Locke
Influential philosopher that promoted the ideal that governments are bound to natural laws, sovereignty lies with the governed, not the governor, and that the governed have the responsibility to revolt if social contract is broken
Great Awakening
refers to several periods of religious revival in American religious history characterized by widespread revivals led by evangelical Protestant ministers, a sharp increase of interest in religion, a profound sense of conviction and redemption on the part of those affected, an increase in evangelical church membership, and the formation of new religious movements and denominations.
Jonathan Edwards
a revivalist preacher who played a critical role in shaping the First Great Awakening. His most famous work was “Sinners in the hands of an Angry God,”
Enlightenment
a European intellectual movement of the late 17th and 18th centuries emphasizing reason and individualism rather than tradition.
Stamp Act
An act of the British Parliament in 1756 that exacted revenue from a direct tax on the American colonies by imposing a stamp duty on newspapers and legal and commercial documents. Colonial opposition led to the act’s repeal in 1766 and helped encourage the revolutionary movement against the British Crown.
Declaratory Act
was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain, which accompanied the repeal of the Stamp Act 1765. The declaration stated that the Parliament’s authority was the same in America as in Britain and asserted Parliament’s authority to pass laws that were binding on the American colonies.
Boston Massacre
an incident on March 5, 1770, in which British Army soldiers killed five male civilians and injured six others. The incident was heavily propagandized by leading Patriots, such as Paul Revere and Samuel Adams, to fuel animosity toward the British authorities
Committee of Correspondence
The first formal committee was established in Boston in 1764 . They were shadow governments organized by the Patriot leaders of the Thirteen Colonies on the eve of the American Revolution. They coordinated responses to England and shared their plans; by 1773 they had emerged as shadow governments
Boston Tea Party
On the night of December 16, 1773, Samuel Adams and the Sons of Liberty boarded three ships in the Boston harbor and threw 342 chests of tea overboard. This resulted in the passage of the punitive Coercive Acts in 1774 and pushed the two sides closer to war.
Coercive / Intolerable Acts
The Intolerable Acts were the American Patriots’ term for a series of punitive laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 after the Boston Tea Party. They were meant to punish the Massachusetts colonists for their defiance in throwing a large tea shipment into Boston Harbor.
Pontiac’s Rebellion
was a war that was launched in 1763 by a loose confederation of elements of Native American tribes primarily from the Great Lakes region, the Illinois Country, and Ohio Country who were dissatisfied with British postwar policies in the Great Lakes region after the French Indian War
Proclamation of 1763
The Royal Proclamation of 1763 was issued October 7, 1763, by King George III following Great Britain’s acquisition of French territory in North America after the end of the French and Indian War/Seven Years’ War, which forbade all settlement past a line drawn along the Appalachian Mountains.
Seven Years War / French Indian War
The Seven Years’ War was a world war fought between 1754 and 1763, the main conflict occurring in the seven-year period from 1756 to 1763. The French and Indian War (1754–1763) comprised the North American theatre of the worldwide Seven Years’ War of 1756-1763. The war pitted the colonies of British America against those of New France, with both sides supported by military units from their parent countries of Great Britain and France, as well as by Native American allies. The costly expense of the war would mark a shift in how the British ruled its colonies from a pre-war stance of relative indifference that permitted colonial autonomy, to one of direct intervention so as to alleviate their massive war debt
John - Jacques Rousseau
His political philosophy, particularly his formulation of social contract theory and ideals of popular sovereignty, influenced the Enlightenment across Europe, as well as aspects of the American and French Revolutions and the overall development of modern political and educational thought.
Continental Congress
a meeting of delegates from twelve of the Thirteen Colonies that met on September 5 to October 26, 1774 at Carpenters’ Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, early in the American Revolution. The Congress met briefly to consider options, including an economic boycott of British trade; rights and grievances; and petitioned King George III for redress of those grievances.
Olive Branch Petition
drafted on July 5, 1775, was a letter to King George III, from members of the Second Continental Congress, which represents the last attempt by the moderate party in North America to avoid a war of independence against Britain.
Declaration of Independence
defined as the formal statement written by Thomas Jefferson declaring the freedom of the thirteen American colonies from Great Britain. An example of the Declaration of Independence was the document adopted at the Second Continental Congress on July 4th, 1776
Lexington and Concord
The first battle of the Revolutionary War, fought in Massachusetts on April 19, 1775, when British troops had moved from Boston toward Lexington and Concord to seize the colonists’ military supplies and arrest revolutionaries.
The Battle of Saratoga
A major battle of the Revolutionary War, fought in 1777 in northern New York state. Benedict Arnold, who had not yet turned traitor, was a leader of the American offensive, which forced the surrender of British troops under General John Burgoyne. As a result France, Spain, and Holland aided the Americans.
The Battle of Yorktown
The last major battle of the Revolutionary War, fought in 1781 near the seacoast of Virginia. There the British general— Lord Cornwallis surrendered his army— to your boy: General George Washington
Articles of Confederation
An agreement among the thirteen original states, approved in 1781, that provided a loose federal government before the present Constitution went into effect in 1789.
Thomas Paine’s Common Sense
a very influential pamphlet written by Thomas Paine in 1775–76 advocating independence from Great Britain to people in the Thirteen Colonies.
Shay’s Rebellion
An uprising led by a former militia officer, Daniel Shays, which broke out in western Massachusetts in 1786. Shays’s followers protested the foreclosures of farms for debt and briefly succeeded in shutting down the court system. It influenced the elite to seek a more powerful central government, as the one in place proved impotent to address the unrest in Massachusetts.
James Madison
A leader in the drafting of the Constitution,(known as the “Father of the Constitution” he worked tirelessly for its adoption by the states, contributing several essays to The Federalist Papers. He served as president from 1809 to 1817, after Thomas Jefferson.
The Federalist Papers
a collection of 85 articles and essays written (under the pseudonym Publius) by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay promoting the ratification of the United States Constitution
Alien and Sedition Acts
were four bills passed by the Federalist-dominated 5th United States Congress and signed into law by President John Adams in 1798. Although they were aimed at making the Federalists more powerful, their blatant disregard for the 1st Amendment led to a public uproar that brought about the demise of the party
Constitutional Convention
(Philadelphia) The gathering that drafted the Constitution of the United States in 1787; all states were invited to send delegates. The convention, meeting in Philadelphia, designed a government with separate legislative, executive, and judicial branches.
Checks and Balances
counterbalancing influences by which an organization or system is regulated, typically those ensuring that political power is not concentrated in the hands of individuals or groups.
Virginia Plan
a plan, unsuccessfully proposed at the Constitutional Convention, providing for a legislature with proportional representation and executive and judicial branches to be chosen by the legislature.
New Jersey Plan
a plan, unsuccessfully proposed at the Constitutional Convention, providing for a single legislative house with equal representation for each state.
Connecticut Plan/Great Compromise
Great Compromise- a compromise adopted at the Constitutional Convention, providing the states with equal representation in the Senate and proportional representation in the House of Representatives
3/5 Compromise
The Three-Fifths Compromise outlined the process for states to count slaves as part of the population in order to determine representation and taxation for the federal government. Slaves would be counted as 3/5 of a person
Whiskey Rebellion
also known as the Whiskey Insurrection, was a tax protest in the United States beginning in 1791, during the presidency of George Washington. The so-called “whiskey tax” was the first tax imposed on a domestic product by the newly formed federal government
Revolution of 1800
referred to as the “Revolution of 1800,” Vice President Thomas Jefferson defeated President John Adams. The election was a realigning election that ushered in a generation of Democratic-Republican Party rule and the eventual demise of the Federalist Party in the First Party System
XYZ Affair
- a political and diplomatic episode in 1797 and 1798, early in the administration of John Adams, involving a confrontation between the United States and Republican France over allegations of bribery that led to an undeclared war called the Quasi-War
Bill of Rights
first 10 amendments of the Constitution
Republican Motherhood
a historical term for an attitude toward women’s domestic roles present in the emerging United States before, during, and after the American Revolution. If the new republic were to succeed, women must be schooled in virtue so they could teach their children
Louisiana Purchase
With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States purchased approximately 828,000,000 square miles of territory from France, thereby doubling the size of the young republic
Tecumesh
American Indian chief of the Shawnee tribe. He attempted to unite western Indian tribes against the White people, but was defeated at Tippecanoe (1811). He was killed while fighting for the British in the War of 1812
Battle of Tippecanoe
a conflict between the confederacy of native warriors led by Tecumseh, a Shawnee tribe member, and United States armed forces under the leadership of General William Henry Harrison
John Marshall
The 4th, and longest-serving Chief Justice in U.S. Supreme Court history, Marshall dominated the Court for over three decades (34 years) and played a significant role in the development of the American legal system. Most notably, he reinforced the principle that federal courts are obligated to exercise judicial review, and worked to ensure a stronger federal government
The Marshall Court
refers to the Supreme Court of the United States from 1801 to 1835, when John Marshall served as the fourth Chief Justice of the United States.The Marshall Court played a major role in increasing the power of the judicial branch, as well as the power of the national government
Judicial Review
review by the US Supreme Court of the constitutional validity of a legislative act
Marbury v. Madison
a landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the Court formed the basis for the exercise of judicial review in the United States under Article III of the Constitution
Battle of New Orleans
American victory in a battle that never had to happen. American forces under General Andrew Jackson defeated British forces on January 8, 1815, several weeks after the signing of the Treaty of Ghent, which had officially ended the War of 1812
Hartford Convention
a series of meetings from December 15, 1814 – January 5, 1815 in Hartford, Connecticut, in which the New England Federalist Party met to discuss their grievances concerning the ongoing War of 1812 and the political problems arising from the federal government’s increasing power. There were even radical outcries among Federalists for New England secession and a separate peace with Great Britain
Lewis and Clark Expedition
A journey made by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, during the presidency of Thomas Jefferson, to explore the American Northwest, newly purchased from France, and some territories beyond
Era of Good Feelings
the name applied to the period in the United States corresponding with the term of President James Monroe, from 1817 to 1825 when there was one political party and a sense of national purpose
Henry Clay’s American System
consisted of three mutually reinforcing parts: a tariff to protect and promote American industry; a national bank to foster commerce; and federal subsidies for roads, canals, and other “internal improvements” to develop profitable markets for agriculture.
Panic of 1819
the first major peacetime financial crisis in the United States caused by the 2nd Bank of the US, followed by a general collapse of the American economy persisting through 1821
Eli Whitney’s Interchangeable Parts
parts (components) that are, for practical purposes, identical. They are made to specifications that ensure that they are so nearly identical that they will fit into any assembly of the same type
Cotton Gin
an invention of Eli Whitney that greatly increased the profitability of growing cotton
Market Revolution
a term used by historians to describe the expansion of the marketplace that occurred in early nineteenth-century America, prompted mainly by the construction of new roads and canals to connect distant communities together for the first time, and the growing dominance of factories.
McCulloch v. Maryland
A U.S. Supreme Court case in which Chief Justice John Marshall established that the federal government has “implied powers” to carry out, without state interference, any and all rights given by the Constitution
Missouri Compromise
an effort by Congress to defuse the sectional and political rivalries triggered by the request of Missouri late in 1819 for admission as a state in which slavery would be permitted. Maine was admitted to balance the addition of a slave state, and slavery was prohibited in new territories above the 36th parallel
Monroe Doctrine
a principle of US policy, originated by President James Monroe in 1823, that any intervention by external powers in the politics of the Americas (Western Hemisphere) is a potentially hostile act against the US. the best known U.S. policy toward the Western Hemisphere. Buried in a routine annual message delivered to Congress by President James Monroe in December 1823, the doctrine warns European nations that the United States would not tolerate further colonization or puppet monarchs.
Nativists
the political position of supporting a favored status for certain established inhabitants of a nation- particularly Protestants- as compared to claims of newcomers or immigrants. In times past they were adamantly anti-Catholic, while today they are critical of non-Western faiths, i.e., Donald Trump
Tammany Hall
a Democratic political organization in New York City that drew heavily upon the patronage of Irish immigrants. Founded in 1789 as a fraternal benevolent society (Tammany Society), and associated especially in the late 1800s and early 1900s with corruption and abuse of power
King Cotton
The phrase King Cotton came to mean the reliance the American South had one its largest crop, and how that influenced major issues in American history
Nat Turner
an enslaved African American who led a rebellion of slaves and free blacks in Southampton County, Virginia on August 21, 1831, that resulted in the deaths of 55 to 65 white people
Commonwealth v. Hunt
a case in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on the subject of legalizing labor unions. Prior to Hunt the legality of labor combinations in America was uncertain. Legalized labor unions
Cyrus McCormick
- was an American inventor and founder of the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, which became part of International Harvester Company in 1902.
John Deere
American industrialist, manufacturer of agricultural implements, b. Rutland, Vt. He was one of the pioneers of the steel plow industry. A blacksmith by trade, he established (1837) a shop at Grand Detour, Ill. Contributed significantly to improving the output of agriculture with technology
Irish Potato Famine
A famine in Ireland in the nineteenth century caused by the failure of successive potato crops in the 1840s. Many in Ireland starved, and many emigrated. More than a million Irish came to the United States during the famine
Know-Nothing Party
political party that was established with Protestant nativism sentiments to address the large influx of Irish and German immigrants, many who were Catholic. Because their platform was based largely upon hate, they met in private so as to shield their hater-negativity from public criticism. They planed how to vote in private, and when asked by an outsider about what their party advocated and their plans, members would shield their organization by replying that they “knew nothing.”
Indian Removal Act
signed into law by President Andrew Jackson on May 28, 1830, authorizing the president to grant unsettled lands west of the Mississippi in exchange for Indian lands within existing state borders. A few tribes went peacefully, but many resisted the relocation policy
Cherokee Nation v Georgia
a United States Supreme Court case. The Cherokee Nation sought a federal injunction against laws passed by the U.S. state of Georgia depriving them of rights within its boundaries, but the Supreme Court did not hear the case on its merits. It ruled that it had no original jurisdiction in the matter, as the Cherokees were a dependent nation, with a relationship to the United States like that of a “ward to its guardian,” as said by Justice Marshall
The Trail of Tears
a series of forced removals of Native American nations from their ancestral homelands in the Southeastern United States to an area west of the Mississippi River that had been designated as Native Territory
Nicholas Biddle
an American financier who served as the third and last president of the Second Bank of the United States
Bank War
to the political struggle that developed over the issue of rechartering the Second Bank of the United States (BUS) during the Andrew Jackson administration (1829–1837).
Spoils System
in the politics of the United States, a spoils system (also known as a patronage system) is a practice in which a political party, after winning an election, gives government jobs to its supporters, friends and relatives as a reward for working toward victory, and as an incentive to keep working for the party—as opposed to a merit system, where offices are awarded on the basis of some measure of merit, independent of political activity
Corrupt Bargain
In the 1824 election, even though Jackson won the popular vote had had the most electoral points, without an absolute majority, the 12th Amendment dictated that the Presidential election be sent to the House of Representatives, whose Speakerand candidate in his own right, Henry Clay, gave his support to John Quincy Adams, and was then selected to be his Secretary of State
Revolution of 1828
The Election of 1828 was a transforming event from several perspectives. Andrew Jackson’s victory broke the line of presidents from Virginia and Massachusetts, and to many citizens represented the triumph of the common man
Peggy Eaton Affair
Margaret O’Neale (Peggy) Eaton (1799-1879) was the wife of John Eaton, President Andrew Jackson’s Secretary of War from 1829 to 1831, and the focus of a Washington sex scandal that divided the Jackson administration. The daughter of a Washington, D.C. tavern keeper, Peggy Eaton earned a reputation as a beauty
Nullification Crisis
- ensued after South Carolina declared that the federal Tariffs of 1828 and 1832 were unconstitutional and therefore null and void within the sovereign boundaries of the state
Whigs
political party active in the middle of the 19th century in the United States that was started by henry Clay to stand up to “King Andrew Jackson”
Long Cabin and Hard Cider Campaign
the nickname given to William Henry Harrison’s 1840 presidential campaign. Democrats characterized him as a man who preferred to sit in his log cabin and drink hard cider than run a country
Utopian Communities
An ideally perfect place, especially in its social, political, and moral aspects. A work of fiction describing a utopia. An impractical, idealistic scheme for social and political reform
Horace Mann
an American politician and educational reformer. A Whig devoted to promoting speedy modernization, he served in the Massachusetts State legislature
Temperance
moderation in or abstinence from the use of alcoholic beverages
Liberia
African nation formed by Americans to serve the purpose of moving salves back to Africa
Fredrick Douglass
an African-American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became a national leader of the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts and New York
Harriet Tubman
- an American abolitionist, humanitarian, and an armed scout and spy for the United States Army during the American Civil War. Born into slavery, Tubman escaped and subsequently made some thirteen missions to rescue approximately seventy enslaved families and friends,using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad
Antebellum
the pre-American Civil War period in the United States
Romanticism
an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement that originated towards the end of the 18th century. characterized by its emphasis on emotion and individualism as well as glorification of all the past and nature
Transcendentalism
a philosophical movement that developed in the late 1820s and 1830s in the eastern United States. It arose as a reaction to or protest against the general state of intellectualism and spirituality at the time
Ralph Waldo Emerson
an American essayist, lecturer, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century
Henry David Thoreau
an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading transcendentalist, he is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay “Civil Disobedience”, an argument for disobedience to an unjust state
Second Great Awakening
a Protestant religious revival movement during the early 19th century in the United States. The movement began around 1790, gained momentum by 1800 and, after 1820, membership rose rapidly among baptists and methodists
Mormons
a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement of Restorationist Christianity, which began with Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s who introduced the Book of Mormon which detailed the story of Jesus in America
Cult of Domesticity
a prevailing value system among the upper and middle classes during the nineteenth century in the United States[2] and Great Britain. This value system emphasized new ideas of femininity, the woman’s role within the home and the dynamics of work and family. The cult of domesticity revolved around the women being the center of the family; they were considered “The light of the home”.
Seneca Falls Convention
the first women’s rights convention. It advertised itself as “a convention to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of woman”. Held in Seneca Falls, New York, it spanned two days over July 19–20, 1848. They produced the Declaration of Rights and Sentiments, a document signed in 1848 by 68 women and 32 men—100 out of some 300 attendees at the first women’s rights convention to be organized by women
Manifest Destiny
a widely held belief in the United States that its settlers were destined to expand across North America
Samuel Morse
Morse contributed to the invention of a single-wire telegraph system, and co-developer of the Morse code, and helped to develop the commercial use of telegraphy
Wilmot Proviso
proposed by Congressman David Proviso as an American law to ban slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico in the Mexican War. The conflict over the proviso was one of the major events leading to the American Civil War
Bear Flag Republic
short-lived, unrecognized breakaway state that, for twenty-five days in 1846, militarily controlled the area to the north of the San Francisco Bay in the present-day state of California
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
the peace treaty signed on February 2, 1848, in the Villa de Guadalupe Hidalgo (now a neighborhood of Mexico City) between the United States and Mexico that ended the Mexican–American War (1846–48). It ceded large amounts of land from Mexico to the US
Mexican Cession
a historical name in the United States for the region of the modern day southwestern United States that Mexico ceded to the U.S. in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848
Zachery Taylor
12th President of the United States, serving from March 1849 until his death in July 1850. Before his presidency, Taylor was a career officer in the United States Army, rising to the rank of major general, and famous for his role in the Mexican-American War
Free Soil Movement
third party and a single-issue party that largely appealed to and drew its greatest strength from New York State. The party leadership consisted of anti-slavery former members of the Whig Party and the Democratic Party
Bleeding Kansas
a series of violent political confrontations in the United States involving anti-slavery “Free-Staters” and pro-slavery “Border Ruffian”, or “southern yankees” elements in Kansas between 1854 and 1861
Popular Soverignty
the principle that the authority of a state and its government is created and sustained by the consent of its people. A highly controversial approach to slavery in the territories as propounded by senator Stephen A. Douglas. It meant that local residents of a territory would be the ones to decide if slavery would be permitted, and it led to bloody warfare in Bleeding Kansas as violent proponents and enemies of slavery flooded Kansas territory in order to decide the elections
Compromise of 1850
a package of five separate bills passed by the United States Congress in September 1850, which defused a four-year political confrontation between slave and free states regarding the status of territories acquired during the Mexican–American War(1846–1848). The compromise, drafted by Whig Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky and brokered by Clay and Democratic Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois, reduced sectional conflict
Stephen A. Douglas
an American politician from Illinois and the designer of the Kansas–Nebraska Act. He was a U.S. representative, a U.S. senator, and the Democratic Party nominee for president in the 1860 election, losing to Republican Abraham Lincoln
Kansas-Nebraska Act
created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska and was drafted by Democratic Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois and President Franklin Pierce. The popular sovereignty clause of the law led pro- and anti-slavery elements to flood into Kansas with the goal of voting slavery up or down, resulting in Bleeding Kansas
Secession
the withdrawal of a group from a larger entity, especially a political entity (a country), but also any organization, union or military alliance. Threats of secession can also be a strategy for achieving more limited goals
Fugitive Slave Laws
law passed by the United States Congress in 1793 and 1850 to force the return of slaves who escaped from one state into another state or territory
Underground Railroad
a network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century enslaved people of African descent in the United States in efforts to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause
Dred Scott v. Sandford
imply as the Dred Scott case, was a landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court on US labor law and constitutional law. It held that “a negro, whose ancestors were imported into [the U.S.], and sold as slaves”, whether enslaved or free, could not be an American citizen and therefore had no standing to sue in federal court, and that the federal government had no power to regulate slavery in the federal territories acquired after the creation of the United States.
Lincoln Douglas Debates
(also known as The Great Debates of 1858) were a series of seven debates between Abraham Lincoln, the Republican candidate for the United States Senate from Illinois, and incumbent Senator Stephen Douglas, the Democratic Party candidate
John Brown
an American abolitionist who believed armed insurrection was the only way to overthrow the institution of slavery in the United States
Harpers Ferry Raid
an effort by white abolitionist John Brown to initiate an armed slave revolt in 1859 by taking over a United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel “helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War”
Jefferson Davis
president of the Confederacy during the Civil War, and just like “Robert E. Lee” and “Stonewall Jackson” a HISD school named to identify the school as a “white” school, as opposed to a “black” school like “Jack Yates” or “Booker T. Washington.”
Greenbacks
fiat paper currency issued by the United States during the American Civil War that was green on the back. They were legal tender by law, but were not backed by gold or silver, only the credibility of the U.S. government. US money has characteristically had green backsides since
Homestead Act
several United States federal laws that gave an applicant ownership of land, typically called a “homestead”, at little or no cost. In all, more than 270 million acres of public land, or nearly 10% of the total area of the U.S., was given away free to 1.6 million homesteaders; mostly west of the Mississippi River
Anaconda Plan
planned blockade of the Southern ports, and called for an advance down the Mississippi River to cut the South in two. The blockade was likened to the coils of an anaconda suffocating its victim. The snake image caught on, giving the proposal its popular name
Gettysburg
1863 - Battle that marked the high tide of the South’s advance, and after suffering a crushing defeat, Lee’s Army thereafter was in a state of retreat
Vicksburg
1863 - Battle that captured the last strong hold of the South on the Mississippi River, and effectively gave control of the river to the North, and split the Confederacy
Sherman’s March
led by General Sherman across the South using scorch earth warfare. The high point of the campaign was the destruction and burning of Atlanta
Habeas Corpus
the legal concept from Western tradition that one is innocent until proven guilty. During the Civil War Lincoln suspended this right to arrest anti-union / pro-confederate advocates in border states, so as to secure them for the Union
Emancipation Proclamation
a presidential proclamation and executive order issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863. It purported to change the federal legal status of more than 3 million enslaved people in the designated areas of the South from “slave” to “free”.
13th Amendment
outlawed slavery
Draft Riots
New York City draft riots (July 13–16, 1863), were violent disturbances in New York City that were the culmination of working-class discontent with new laws passed by Congress that year to draft men to fight in the ongoing American Civil War. The riots remain the largest civil and racial insurrection in American history
Copperheads
Northern Peace Democrats who opposed the American Civil War
14th Amendment
addresses citizenship rights and equal protection of the laws, and was proposed in response to issues related to former slaves following the American Civil War. The amendment was bitterly contested, particularly by the states of the defeated Confederacy, which were forced to ratify it in order to regain representation in Congress
15th amendment
prohibits the federal and state governments from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen’s “race, color, or previous condition of servitude”. It was ratified on February 3, 1870, as the third and last of the Reconstruction Amendments
Jim Crow Laws
state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Enacted after the Reconstruction period, these laws continued in force until 1965.
Credit Mobiler
scandal of 1872-1873 damaged the careers of several Gilded Age politicians. Major stockholders in the Union Pacific Railroad formed a company, the Crédit Mobilier of America, and gave it contracts to build the railroad. They sold or gave shares in this construction to influential congressmen
William “Boss” Tweed
widely known as “Boss” Tweed—was an American politician most notable for being the “boss” of Tammany Hall, the Democratic Party political machine that played a major role in the politics of 19th century New York City and State. Tweed was convicted for stealing an amount estimated by an aldermen’s committee in 1877 at between $25 million and $45 million from New York City taxpayers through political corruption, although later estimates ranged as high as $200 million
Thomas Nast
editorial cartoonist considered to be the “Father of the American Cartoon”. He was central to exposing the crimes “Boss” Tweed and the Tammany Hall Democratic party political machine through cartoons. Among his notable works were the creation of the modern version of Santa Claus and the political symbol of the elephant for the Republican Party (GOP)
Compromise of 1877
unwritten deal that settled the intensely disputed 1876 U.S. presidential election. It resulted in the national government pulling the last federal troops out of the South, and formally ended the Reconstruction Era, ushering in the era of “Jim Crow” all so that Republican Rutherford B. Hayes would be awarded the White House through the electoral college
Reconstruction
refers to the period following the Civil War of rebuilding the United States. It was a time of great pain and endless questions. On what terms would the Confederacy be allowed back into the Union? Who would establish the terms, Congress or the President?
Freedman’s Bureau
a U.S. federal government agency established in 1865 to aid freedmen (freed slaves) in the South during the Reconstruction era of the United States, which attempted to change society in the former Confederacy
Radical Republicans
a wing of the Republican Party organized around an uncompromising opposition to slavery before and during the Civil War and a vigorous campaign to secure rights for freed slaves during Reconstruction
Johnson Impact
After passing the Tenure of Office Act (1867) that denied the Johnson powers used by previous presidents, Republicans set up President Johnson to break the law, and then by tried him for impeachment. Driven by wide dislike for Johnson’s sympathy for fellow Southern Democrats and ex-Confederates. He avoided conviction by just 1 vote
Carpet baggers
- a Northerner who moved to the South after the American Civil War, during the Reconstruction era (1863–1877). Many white Southerners denounced them fearing they would loot and plunder the defeated South and be politically allied with the Radical Republicans
Sharecropping
a new system that replaced slavery, but kept many poor farmers (black and white alike) in poverty. residents of land used their work to pay for their livelihoods
Ku Klux Klan
an extreme reaction to Reconstruction in the South that gave rise to a secret organization that use terror tactics to undue the influence of the North, the rise of opportunity for freed slaves, and to preserve the white/Protestant social structure of the South
American Railroad
America’s first big buisness
Vanderbilt
American business magnate and philanthropist (Vanderbilt University) who built his wealth in railroads and shipping. After sucess in the inland water trade, he invested in the rapidly growing railroad industry, most importantly the New York Central Railroad
Transcontinental Railroad
built over the last third of the 19th century, it created a nationwide transportation network that united the country by rail, creating the world’s first transcontinental railroad when it opened in 1869. Helped open up unpopulated interior regions of America to exploration and settlement that would not otherwise have been feasible; formed the backbones of cross-country passenger and freight transportation networks
Andrew Carnegie
a Scottish immigrant industrialist who led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century. He is often identified as one of the richest Americans ever, and with his money he built a leadership role as a philanthropist
Vertical Integration
an arrangement in which the supply chain of a company is owned by that company
Holding Company
a kind of company is created to own and control diverse companies. Pioneered by JD Rockefeller, JP Morgan also managed such a company that orchestrated the management of companies it acquired in various industries, such as banking, rail transportation, and steel
US Steel
founded by financier J. P. Morgan and his attorney by combining 3 companies, including Andrew Carnegie’s Carnegie Steel Company, for $492 million ($14.16 billion today). At one time, U.S. Steel was the largest steel producer and largest corporation in the world
JD Rockefeller
an American oil industry business magnate and philanthropist, who is considered to be the wealthiest American of all time by virtually every source, and—largely—the richest person in modern history
Horizontal Integration
the process of a company controlling production of goods or services at the same part of the supply chain. A company may do this via internal expansion, acquisition or merger. The process can lead to monopoly if a company captures the vast majority of the market for that product or service
Standard Oil Trust
an American oil producing, transporting, refining, and marketing company. Established in 1870 by John D. Rockefeller as a corporation in Ohio, it was the largest oil refiner in the world of its time
JP Morgan
an American financier and banker who dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation in late 19th and early 20th Century United States. When he died, however, his personal fortune, relatively “small” to his business endeavors, which has led historians to believe he was merely an American point man for international banking, likely the Rothschild’s that his father worked for. This prompted John D. Rockefeller to say: “and to think, he wasn’t even a rich man.”
Second Industrial Revolution
also known as the Technological Revolution, was a phase of rapid industrialization in the final third of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th
Bessemer process
a steel-making process, now largely superseded, in which carbon, silicon, and other impurities are removed from molten pig iron by blasts of air
Thomas Edison
an American business man who made his fortune off of patenting inventions
George Westinghouse
an American entrepreneur and engineer who invented the railway air brake and worked with Nikola Tesla to become a pioneer of the electrical industry
Sears and Roebuck
an American department store chain founded in 1886 which uniquely contributed to consumption with their famous mail order catalog (Amazon prime of its day).
RH Macy
Formed one of the first large scale department stores that has a business model of carrying many products under one roof. From the beginning, Macy’s logo has included a star, which comes from a tattoo that Macy got as a teenager when he worked on a Nantucket whaling ship
Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890
was the first Federal act that outlawed monopolistic business practices. The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 was the first measure passed by the U.S. Congress to prohibit trusts
Railroad Strike of 1877
sometimes referred to as the Great Upheaval. At the time, the workers were not represented by labor unions. The city and state governments organized armed militias, aided by national guard, federal troops and private militias organized by the railroads, who fought against the workers. An estimated 100 people were killed in the unrest across the country
Knights of Labor
the largest and one of the most important American labor organizations of the 1880s. The Knights promoted the social and cultural uplift of the workingman, rejected socialism and anarchism, and demanded the eight-hour day. The Haymarket bombing largely discredited the organization
Haymarket Bombing
It began as a peaceful rally in support of workers striking for an eight-hour day and in reaction to the killing of several workers the previous day by the police. An unknown person threw a dynamite bomb at police as they acted to disperse the public meeting. The bomb blast and ensuing gunfire resulted in the deaths of seven police officers and at least four civilians; scores of others were wounded
American Federation of Labor
A national labor association that focused on using the skill from a craft as negotiation leverage, and formed as an alliance of craft unions disaffected from the Knights of Labor
Samuel Gompers
founded the American Federation of Labor (AFL), and served as the organization’s president from 1886 until his death in 1924. He promoted thorough organization and collective bargaining to secure shorter hours and higher wages
Pullman Strike
a nationwide railroad strike and a turning point for US labor law. Eugene Debs and the ARU called a massive boycott against all trains that carried a Pullman car. The federal government obtained an injunction against the union, Debs, and other boycott leaders, ordering them to stop interfering with trains that carried mail cars. After the strikers refused, President Grover Cleveland ordered in the Army to stop the strikers from obstructing the trains. Violence broke out in many cities, and the strike collapsed
Eugene Debs
instrumental in the founding of the American Railway Union (ARU), one of the nation’s first industrial unions. As a leader of the ARU, Debs was convicted of federal charges for defying a court injunction against the strike and served six months in prison. Thereafter he was devoted to socialism, became one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or the Wobblies), and five times the candidate of the Socialist Party of America for President
Adam Smith
- economist, philosopher, and author the Wealth of Nations that promoted Laissez-faire capitalism
Laissez Faire Capitalism
is French for “leave alone” which means that the government leaves the people alone regarding all economic activities. It is the separation of economy and state in which transactions between private parties are free from government interference such as regulations, privileges, tariffs, and subsidies
Social Darwinism
the theory that individuals, groups, and peoples are subject to the same Darwinian laws of natural selection as plants and animals. Now largely discredited, social Darwinism was advocated by Herbert Spencer and others in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and was used to justify political conservatism, imperialism, and racism and to discourage intervention and reform
Gospel of Wealth
an article written by Andrew Carnegie in June of 1889 that describes the responsibility of philanthropy by the new upper class of self-made rich
Horatio Alger
a prolific 19th-century American writer, best known for his many young adult novels about impoverished boys and their rise from humble backgrounds to lives of middle-class security and comfort through hard work, determination, courage, and honesty. Many are not aware that he suffered from boanthropy, and could not finish the last books he was writing because he would eat them. He escaped with two fellow inmates from Bridgewater State Hospital, triggering a full-scale manhunt, which ended in him controversially permitting psychometrist Peter Hurkos to use his alleged extrasensory perception to analyze his books to give him greater insight to his cheese carvings
Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882
a United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers.
Barbed Wire
The first patent was issued in 1867, and thereafter the frontier was fenced in which brought about the demise of free range cattle and the era of the cowboy
Homestead Act of 1862
encouraged Western migration by providing settlers 160 acres of public land. In exchange, homesteaders paid a small filing fee and were required to complete five years of continuous residence before receiving ownership of the land
Dawes Act of 1887
- adopted by Congress in 1887, authorized the President of the United States to survey American Indian tribal land and divide it into allotments for individual Indians. Those who accepted allotments and lived separately from the tribe would be granted United States citizenship to stimulate assimilation of them into mainstream American society. The act also provided that the government would classify as “excess” those Indian reservation lands remaining after allotments, and sell those lands on the open market, allowing purchase and settlement by non-Native Americans
John Muir
A naturalist, author, environmental philosopher and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States. Founder of the Sierra Club
Plessy v. Fergeson
a landmark constitutional law case of the US Supreme Court. It upheld state racial segregation laws for public facilities under the doctrine of “separate but equal”
Booker T. Washington
- Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African-American community, and promoted up lifting the black community through improving their economic status. He called for black progress through education and entrepreneurship, rather than trying to challenge directly the Jim Crow segregation and the disenfranchisement of black voters in the South
National Grange Movement
a fraternal organization in the United States that encourages families to band together to promote the economic and political well-being of the community and agriculture. The Grange, founded after the Civil War in 1867, is the oldest American agricultural advocacy group with a national scope. Major accomplishments credited to Grange advocacy include passage of the Granger Laws and the establishment of rural free mail delivery
Granger Laws
a series of laws passed in several midwestern states in the late 1860s and early 1870s with the main goal to regulate rising fare prices of railroad and grain elevator companies.The laws, which upset major railroad companies, were a topic of much debate at the time and ended up leading to several important court cases, such as Munn v. Illinois and Wabash v. Illinois
Interstate Commerce Commision
a regulatory agency created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency’s original purpose was to regulate railroads to ensure fair rates, to eliminate rate discrimination, and to regulate other aspects of common carriers. Created because of the unrest caused by Grangers
