C's Flashcards
John Cabot
In 1497, sponsored by the king of England in search of a Northwest Passage, he became the first European since the Viking voyages more than four centuries earlier to reach the mainland of North America, which he claimed for England
John C. Calhoun
A South Carolina Representative in the House, a South Carolina Senator, Vice President in the Adams administration, and Secretary of State in the Tyler administration
California
A former Spanish territory that essentially lost ties to any government after the Mexicans gained independence from Spain in 1821 and paid little attention to it; California experienced substantial immigration of Americans, especially in the 1830s and beyond; along with New Mexico and Mexico, its status in relation to American expansion and the issue of slavery became a source of concern by American politicians
California Trail
A branch from the Oregon Trail that turned southwest in the Rockies and crossed Nevada along the Humboldt River
Carolina
A proprietary colony including all land south of Virginia and north of Spanish Florida that the king of England granted in 1663 to eight loyal noblemen who planned for it an ultimately unworkable hierarchical - almost feudal - society
Carpetbaggers
The Southern name for Northerners who came to the South to participate in Reconstruction governments
Jacques Cartier
Authorized by the king of France, he led three expeditions (1534-1542) to the area of the St. Lawrence River as far as Montreal, which he believed might be the Northwest Passage
Cerror Gordo
What has been called “the most important single battle of the [Mexican-American] war,” in which General Winfield Scott soundly defeated a superior Mexican force in a seemingly impregnable position, after which he went on to win several more battles and enter Mexico City
Charles River Bridge vs Warren Bridge
An 1837 case whose decision was delivered by Andrew Jackson’s new Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Roger Taney, who ruled that a state could abrogate a grant of monopoly if that original grant had ceased to be in the best interests of the community
Chattel
Lifelong slaves whose status was inherited by their children
Chesapeake Colonies
Colonies that had less stable societies than those of New England, partly because of the large number of indentured servants, who were disproportionately men, and had short lifespans as a result of mistreatment by their masters
“Chesapeake - Leopard” Affair
The 1807 incident in which the British ship H.M.S. “Leopard” stopped the U.S.S. “Chesapeake” off the coast of Virginia, and four alleged British deserters were taken off the ship
Christmas night 1776
The night on which General George Washington and his small army, which was melting away as demoralized soldiers deserted, boldly crossed the Delaware River and defeated the Hessians at Trenton
“Civil Disobedience”
An essay written by Henry David Thoreau, who was jailed for his refusal to pay his taxes in protest of the Mexican-American War
Civil War
The bloody conflict (1850-1860) between the North and the South
Henry Clay
Speaker of the House of Representatives who formulated a package that both the House and the Senate could accept regarding the admission of Missouri as a state in the Union
Coercive Acts
The British Parliament’s response to the 1773 incident in which Bostonians, who were thinly disguised as Indians, boarded British Royal Navy ships and threw the ships’ cargo, tea, into Boston Harbor
“Common Sense”
A pamphlet written by Thomas Paine that called for the immediate independence of the American colonies
Compromise of 1850
Henry Clay’s eight-part proposal intended to lessen the ongoing friction between the North and the South
Compromise of 1877
An agreement whereby Rutherford Hayes promised to show consideration for Southern interests, end Reconstruction, and withdraw the remaining federal troops from the South in exchange for Democratic acquiescence in his election
Concord
The Massachusetts town in which General Thomas Gage led 700 British troops on a 1775 mission to find and destroy a reported stockpile of colonial arms and ammunition, sparking the Battles of Lexington and Concord, beginning the American War of Independence
Concurrent Majority
The concept that, according to John C. Calhoun in 1828, a federal law deemed harmful to the interests of an individual state could be declared null and void within that state; later, in 1836, Calhoun expanded this concept to extend to a dual presidency that would ensure that the South would be independent of Northern dominance and would forever keep majority rule at bay`
Confederate States of America
The states that had seceded from the Union
Connecticut
A colony founded by the Puritans who had slight religious disagreements with the leadership of Massachusetts
