Module 1 US History Review Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering core foundational themes in U.S. History, including the Enlightenment, early colonial governments, constitutional principles, expansion movements, and post-Civil War Reconstruction based on lecture notes.

Abolitionism

A reform movement aimed at ending slavery.

Monroe Doctrine

A policy warning European powers to stay out of the Western Hemisphere and not interfere with the Americas or establish new colonies.

Pennsylvania

A Quaker colony established by William Penn that featured religious freedom, equality for women, and a representative assembly.

Senate

The house of Congress supported by small states where each state receives equal representation of two Senators.

House of Representatives

The house of Congress where state representation and membership are based on population.

Redemption

The return of Southern Democrats and ex-Confederates to political power, helping bring Reconstruction to an end.

Bill of Rights

The first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution that protect the individual rights of citizens, originally demanded by Antifederalists.

Rhode Island

A colony founded by Roger Williams that provided complete religious freedom and established separation of church and state.

Cabinet

A group of presidential advisors appointed to assist the President in running executive departments.

Reserved Powers

Powers not specifically granted to the national government, which are reserved for the states.

Enumerated Powers

Powers specifically reserved for the national government under the Constitution.

Puritans

A religiously intolerant group that settled in New England to practice their own form of worship and banished dissenters.

Thirteenth Amendment

A constitutional amendment ratified in 1865 that abolished slavery and involuntary servitude in the United States.

Fourteenth Amendment

A constitutional amendment that defined citizens as people born or naturalized in the U.S., granted citizenship to freed slaves, and guaranteed equal protection under the law.

Fifteenth Amendment

A constitutional amendment guaranteeing African American men the right to vote regardless of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Great Compromise

An agreement establishing a two-house legislature with equal state representation in the Senate and population-based representation in the House.

Three-Fifths Compromise

A constitutional agreement that counted three-fifths of a state's enslaved population for purposes of representation and taxation.

John Locke

An Enlightenment thinker who contributed the concepts of Natural Rights (life, liberty, and property) and the Social Contract to American political thought.

Second Great Awakening

A movement of religious revivals that emphasized individual responsibility for salvation and encouraged social reform movements such as abolitionism and temperance.

Ku Klux Klan

An organization that used violence and intimidation to destroy the Republican Party, throw out Reconstruction governments, and prevent African Americans from exercising political rights.

Sharecropping

A system replacing slave labor where landowners rented land, seed, and tools to farmers who paid off their debt using a small share of their crops.

Reconstruction

The post-Civil War period dedicated to physically, politically, economically, and socially rebuilding the Southern states and restoring them to the Union.

Manifest Destiny

The belief that the United States was ordained by God to expand westward across the North American continent to the Pacific Ocean.

Judicial Review

The power of the courts, specifically the Supreme Court, to declare a law unconstitutional.

Elastic Clause

A provision giving Congress the power to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper to carry out its constitutional powers.

Seneca Falls Convention

An 1848 convention centered on women's rights that specifically called for women's right to vote.

Federalists

Supporters of the new Constitution who favored a stronger national government.

Antifederalists

Opponents of the Constitution who feared a strong central government and demanded a Bill of Rights to protect individual liberties.

Checks and Balances

A governmental system where each branch has specific powers over the other branches to prevent any single branch from abusing its power.

Establishment Clause

A First Amendment clause stating that the government cannot establish a single religion or support one religion over another.

Free Exercise Clause

A First Amendment clause stating that the government cannot prevent people from worshipping or interfere with how they worship.

House of Burgesses

A representative assembly established in Virginia in 1619 made up of two elected citizens from each district to raise taxes and pass legislation.

Mayflower Compact

A 1620 agreement written by Pilgrims establishing self-rule and just and equal laws for Plymouth Colony.