stuff Flashcards
abolitionists
people who were strongly opposed to slavery in the US and believed that all slaves should be freed
Charles Francis, Sr. Adams
President Lincoln’s Ambassador to Great Britain during the Civil War who warned Europeans to not interfere. Britain remained neutral and other European countries (France) etc. followed its lead
John Adams
Federalist and second president of the US
American Society for Promotion of Temperance
a group organized in 1826 that advocated the abstinence of intoxicating liquors; strongly supported by Protestants; strongly opposed by new Catholic immigrants
Antifederalists
those opposing the Constitution in the struggle over its ratification
Benedict Arnold
A general who served brilliantly with the American army in the War of Independence, but then later joined the British and led their troops against the Americans (traitor)
John Jacob Astor
the first American millionaire - made his money from the profits of the American Fur Company after establishing a fur post at the mouth of the Columbia River. Challenged British claim to the northwest and lobbied Congress to pass trade restrictions against British furs.
Vasco Nunez de Balboa
A Spanish conquistador who, in 1513, crossed the Isthmus of Panama and became the first European to see the Pacific Ocean
W.W. Belknap
President Grant’s Secretary of War, who accepted bribes from corrupt agents involved in his department’s administration of Indian Affairs.
Daniel Boone
A frontiersman who explored parts of the western trans-Appalachian frontier
John cabot
Sponsored by king of England in search of a Northwest Passage. In 1497, became first European since Viking voyages more than four centuries earlier to reach the mainland of North America. 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
Carpetbaggers
The Southern name for Northerners who came to the South to participate in Reconstruction governments
Jacques Cartier
Authorized by king of France. 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
Chattel
Lifelong slaves who status was inherited by their children
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
conquistadores
independent Spanish adventurers who led the powerful Spanish army to conquer the Americas for Spain
Copperheads
Northerners who opposed the war and denounced Lincoln as a tyrant and would-be dictator
Lord Charles Cornwallis
The British General who first served under General William Howe and later continued the Southern Campaign.
Vasquez de Coronado
a Spanish conquistador who led an expedition (1540-1542) from Mexico, north across the Rio Grande and through New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas; he and some of his men were the first Europeans to see the Grand Canyon.
Hernando Cortes
A Spanish conquistador who, in 1519, led a dramatic expedition against the Aztecs of Mexico that destroyed the Aztec empire and won enormous riches for Spain
Crackers (also called sandhillers)
Second half of 19th century. Around half a million white, underclass Southerners who lived on the edge of the agrarian economy in varying degrees of poverty. Sometimes in conditions worse than slaves; occupied barren soils of the red hills or sandy bottoms
Jefferson Davis
the U.S. senator from Mississippi who was elected president of the Confederate States of America.
William Dawes
a dispatch rider who spread the news through the countryside of the movement of General Gage’s troops on their way to destroy a reported stockpile of colonial arms and ammunition in Concord
Hernando de Soto
a Spanish conquistador who led a 600-man expedition (1539-1541) through what is now the southeastern US, going as far west as Oklahoma and discovering the Mississippi River
Doughface President
A president who is a Northern man with Southern principles, President Franklin Pierce being the first
Frederick Douglass
a former slave who had escaped from his Maryland owner, became a fiery orator for the abolitionist movement, and published his own newspaper, “The North Star.”
Francis Drake
an English sea captain who sailed around South America and raided Spanish settlements on the Pacific coast of Central America before continuing north to California, which he claimed for England
Ralph Waldo Emerson
a mid 19th century American essayist and lecturer who authored “Nature and Self-Reliance.”
Federalists
THOSE FAVORING THE CONSTITUTION in the struggle over its ratification; after the formation of the U.S. government, members of one of two political parties, led by Alexander Hamilton, who favored a strong central government and interpreted the Constitution as having vested extensive powers in the federal government
forty-niners
minders who moved to California in 1849 in search of gold
Benjamin Franklin
the most notable Enlightenment man in America, whose renown spread to Europe, due to both the wit and wisdom of his “Poor Richard’s Almanac” and his scientific experiments
Freedman’s Bureau
an agency created by Congress in 1865 to provide food, clothing, and education, and generally look after the interests of former slaves
John C. Fremont
the Republican nominee for president in 1856 who was a former officer in the army’s Cors of Topographical Engineers and was known as “the Pathfinder” because of his explorations in the Rockies and the Far West; he carried most of the Northern states and was narrowly defeated, thereby making clear that the Republicans, not the Know-Nothings, would replace the Whigs as the other major party, along with the Democrats
Sir Humphrey Gilbert
An English nobleman who obtained a charter in 1578 that allowed him to found a colony in North America with his own funds and guarantee prospective colonists all the rights of those born and residing in England, thus setting an important precedent for future colonial charters
General Ulysses S. Grant
first, the overall commander of Union forces in the West. Then, the commander of all Union armies, and then the president of the US.
Nathaniel Greene
General George Washington’s most able to subordinate, whose brilliant strategy led to a crushing victory over teh British at Cowpens, South Carolina, and a near-victory at Guilford Court House, North Carolina, in 1781.
George Grenville
The strongly anti-American Prime Minister of Great Britain. Took office in 1763. Set out to solve some of the empire’s more pressing problems, including the large national debt and the cost of defending the American frontier.
guerrilla bands
American militia that again gained control of areas in the South after the British army left. Able to deal with those who had expressed loyalty to Britain in the presence of Cornwallis’s army
William Henry Harrison
an American general who destroyed Tecumseh’s village on Tippecanoe Creek. Dashed his hopes for an Indian confederacy. Invaded Canada in 1813 and defeated a combo of British and Indian forces at the Battle of Thames. 1840 - elected 9th president of the US. Died a month after inauguration, serving shortest term in presidential history.
Patrick Henry
a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses who introduced the several resolutions denouncing Stamp Act, denying Parliament’s authority to tax the colonies, four of which were passed.
Hessians
The name given by the colonists to troops from various German principalities that were hired by the British to supplement their own army
house servants
black slaves. usually considered most favored since they were spared the hardest physical labor and enjoyed the most intimate relationship with the owner’s family
Sam Houston
elected as president of the Republic of Texas in 1836 and the leader of the Texas troops who defeated Mexican dictator Santa Anna at San Jacinto that same year, forcing the Mexicans to let Texas go its own way
Richard Howe
brother of General William Howe. British naval commander in the War of Independence.
Henry Hudson
an Englishman who was sent by Holland in 1609 to explore North America in search of a Northwest Passage and who discovered the Hudson River.
Huguenots
French Protestants who attempted to escape persecution in Catholic France by settling in the New World
Anne Hutchinson
a dissident who openly taught things contrary to Puritan doctrine. Banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In 1638, she had her followers founded settlement of Portsmouth near Narragansett Bay.
Washington Irving
(1783-1859) the best-known American writer of his time who excelled in telling folk tales and local color stories
Andrew Jackson
a general in the War of 1812. An unsuccessful presidential candidate in 1824. Elected as president in 1828. Popular with the common man. Used his house to dominate his party and the government.
Thomas Jefferson
The author of the “Declaration of Independence.” Later, an influential member of the Republican Party and the second vice president of the US.
John Paul Jones
the most famous American naval leader during the War of Independence who captured ships and carried out audacious raids even along the coast of Britain itself.
King Philip (Metacomet)
a Wampanoag chief who led a war in 1675 to exterminate the whites in New England
Kitchen Cabinet
a group of partisan supporters who-instead of the appointed cabinet members-had the ear and the confidence of President Andrew Jackson
Ku Klux Klan
a group of Southerners who used violence to intimidate blacks and white Republicans out of voting for Reconstruction government
General Rober E. Lee
overall commander of the Confederate army
Lewis and Clark
the two men authorized by President Jefferson to lead an expedition to explore the Western territory to the Pacific; with forty-eight men and a guide named Sacagawea, they left St. Louis in 1804, and returned two years later with a wealth of scientific and anthropological information, having strengthened the US’s claim to the Oregon territory
Liberal Republicans
a faction of the Republican Party that favored hard money and a laissez-faire approach to economic issues
John Locke
a major English political philosopher of the Enlightenment
Loyalists
American colonists who supported Great Britain and its rule of the colonies
James Madison
“the father of the Constitution” and the fourth president of the US
John Marshall
the Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court and a Federalist, appointed early in 1801
James Monroe
the last of the “Virginia Dynasty,” the president who was handpicked by the retiring President Madison and elected in 1816 with only one electoral vote opposed, a symbol of national unity
