history exam study

Enlightenment

An intellectual movement promoting ideas of rights, education, and self-governance.

Thomas Paine

Author of Common Sense, advocating for American independence from Britain.

George Washington

First president of the United States and military leader during the Revolutionary War.

John Smith

A leader who helped the Jamestown colony survive.

John Rolfe

Introduced tobacco as a cash crop to Jamestown, ensuring its profitability.

Nat Turner

Led a significant slave rebellion, resulting in stricter slave laws.

Sons of Liberty

A radical colonist group protesting British taxation. most commonly known for the boston tea party.

Salem Witch Trials

A 1692 occurrence of mass witchcraft accusations in Puritan society.

City Upon a Hill

A Puritan concept of their community as a moral example to the world.

Plymouth Colony

A settlement established by Pilgrims in 1620, governed by the Mayflower Compact, the Mayflower was the ship that brought the Pilgrims to North America.

Quakers

A religious group advocating for equality and peace, established in Pennsylvania.

Jamestown

The first permanent English settlement in America, founded in 1607.

Sugar Act (1764)

A law imposing a tax on sugar to help pay British war debts from the French and Indian War.

Stamp Act (1765)

A tax on paper goods that sparked colonial outrage over representation.

Intolerable Acts

British laws punishing Massachusetts and limiting self-government after the Boston Tea Party.

Mercantilism

Economic policy contributing to tensions leading to the Revolutionary War.

John Brown

abolitionist known for his attempt to incite a slave rebellion. stoped before action was taken

Stephen Austin

Key figure in leading American settlement in Texas under Mexican rule.

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, highlighting the horrors of slavery.

Sam Houston

Leader of Texas during its independence and first president of the Republic of Texas.

Andrew Jackson

President known for being “for the common man” and enforcing Indian removal.

Abraham Lincoln

President during the Civil War who aimed to preserve the Union and end slavery.

Emancipation Proclamation

1863 order freeing slaves in Confederate states during the Civil War.

Gettysburg Address

Lincoln's speech defining the Civil War as a struggle for equality.

House Divided Speech

Lincoln's assertion that the nation could not endure half slave and half free.

Monroe Doctrine

A policy stating the Americas were closed to further European colonization.

Missouri Compromise

Legislation balancing free and slave states in the Union. all states above the line of 36’ 30’ will be free states.

Fort Sumter

spark of the Civil War.

Star-Spangled Banner

The national anthem of the United States, written during the War of 1812 by Francis Scott Key.

Era of Good Feelings

Period of political harmony in the U.S. following the War of 1812.

War of 1812

Conflict caused by British impressment and trade restrictions against America.

Segregation

separation of races, especially enforced through Jim Crow laws.

Black Panthers

A militant group advocating for self-defence and community rights for African Americans. They policed the police and had the slogan “Black is beautiful”.

13th Amendment

Constitutional amendment abolishing slavery in the United States.

Freedmen’s Bureau

An agency created to assist formerly enslaved people with education and employment, sending northern educators to the South.

W.E.B. Du Bois

Civil rights activist who championed immediate equality for African Americans. niagara movement, NAACP, pan africanism.

Booker T. Washington

Educator advocating for employment for Black Americans. “fingers on a hand”

Emmett Till

His murder galvanized the civil rights movement in the U.S.

Rosa Parks

Her refusal to relinquish her bus seat sparked the Montgomery bus boycott.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Leader known for his nonviolent activism for civil rights.

Earl Warren

Chief Justice known for advancing civil rights.

Joseph Simmons

Revived the Ku Klux Klan in 1915 as the white-collar Klan, promoting white supremacy.

Plessy v. Ferguson

Supreme Court ruling that upheld segregation under 'separate but equal'.

Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg

Court case that desegregated schools.

Military Reconstruction Bill

Legislation dividing the South into 5 military districts for civil rights enforcement.

Harlem Renaissance

A cultural movement celebrating Black arts and literature in Harlem N.Y. Mecca of black america

Ho Chi Minh

Communist leader of North Vietnam during the Vietnam War.

Senator Joseph McCarthy

Famous for leading anti-communism measures during the Cold War, with televised court cases.

Truman Doctrine

U.S. policy aimed at containing communism globally.

Richard Nixon

President associated with the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal.

Robert Kennedy

Attorney General, assassinated in 1968. Brother of JFK.

Wilson’s neutrality

U.S. policy to remain uninvolved in World War I initially.

Bay of Pigs

Unsuccessful U.S.-led invasion of Cuba aiming to overthrow Castro.

Cuban Missile Crisis

confrontation over Soviet missiles in Cuba, nearly leading to nuclear war.

Vietnam War protests

Public opposition involving demonstrations and draft dodging.

Chemical weapons in Vietnam

Napalm and Agent Orange

Tet Offensive

A major surprise attack by North Vietnam that changed U.S. public opinion.

Mount Suribachi

Flag raised during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II, famously depicted in a photograph.

Excuse for atomic bombs

Dropped to swiftly conclude WWII and minimize American casualties.

Deep Throat

Key informant exposing the Watergate scandal.

Red Scare

Period of heightened fear of communism leading to widespread paranoia.