AP U.S. History Key Terms: Jacksonian Era, Market Revolution, and Antebellum Reform

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering political developments of the Jacksonian era, the technological and economic transformations of the Market Revolution, and antebellum cultural, religious, and social reform movements.

National nominating convention

New, circus-like method of nominating presidential candidates that involved wider participation but usually left effective control in the hands of party bosses

Anti-Masonic Party

Small, short-lived third political party that originated a new method of nominating presidential candidates in the election campaign of 1831–1832

Corrupt bargain

Contemptuous Jacksonian term for the alleged political deal by which Clay threw his support to Adams in exchange for a high cabinet office

Old Hickory

Andrew Jackson's popular nickname, signaling his toughness and strength

Spoils system

The arrangement under which public offices were handed out on the basis of political support rather than qualifications

Tariff of Abominations

Scornful southern term for the high Tariff of 1828

Nullification

Theory promoted by John C. Calhoun and other South Carolinians that said states had the right to disregard federal laws to which they objected

Bank of the United States

The "moneyed monster" that Clay tried to preserve and that Jackson killed with his veto in 1832

Masons

Ritualistic secret societies that became the target of a momentarily powerful third party in 1832

Evangelicals

Religious believers, originally attracted to the Anti-Masonic party and then to the Whigs, who sought to use political power for moral and religious reform

Cherokee and Choctaw

Any two of the southeastern Indian peoples who were removed to Oklahoma

Trail of Tears

The sorrowful path along which thousands of southeastern Indians were removed to Oklahoma

Black Hawk War

Conflict of 1832 in which the Sauk and Fox Indians of Illinois and Wisconsin were defeated by federal troops and state militias

Panic of 1837

Economic crisis that precipitated an economic depression and doomed the presidency of Martin Van Buren

Log cabin and hard cider

Popular symbols of the flamboyant but effective campaign the Whigs used to elect "poor-boy" William Henry Harrison over Martin Van Buren in 1840

Tammany Hall

New York Democratic machine organization that exemplifies the growing power of Irish immigrants in American politics

Ancient Order of Hibernians

Semisecret Irish organization that became a benevolent society aiding Irish immigrants in America

Forty-Eighters

Liberal German refugees who fled failed democratic revolutions and came to America

Know-Nothings

Popular nickname of the secretive, nativist American Party that gained considerable, temporary success in the 1850s by attacking immigrants and Catholics

Industrial Revolution

The transformation of manufacturing that began in Britain about 1750

Cotton gin

Whitney’s invention that enhanced cotton production and gave new life to black slavery

Limited liability

Principle that permitted individual investors to risk no more capital in a business venture than their own share of a corporation’s stock

London World's Fair (or Great Exhibition)

Major European exposition in 1851 that provided a dazzling showcase for the American inventions of Samuel Morse, Cyrus McCormick, and Charles Goodyear

Commonwealth v. Hunt

Massachusetts Supreme Court decision of 1842 that overturned the widespread doctrine that labor unions were illegal conspiracies in restraint of trade

Cult of domesticity

Term for the widespread nineteenth-century cultural creed that glorified women’s roles as wives and mothers in the home

Mechanical reaper

Cyrus McCormick’s invention that vastly increased the productivity of the American grain farmer

Cumberland Road (or National Road)

The only major highway constructed by the federal government before the Civil War

Clermont

The name of Robert Fulton’s first steamship that sailed up the Hudson River in 1807

Erie Canal

Clinton’s Big Ditch that transformed transportation and economic life across the Great Lakes region from Buffalo to Chicago

Pony Express

Short-lived but spectacular service that carried mail from Missouri to California in only ten days

Deism

A rationalist liberal religious belief held by key Founders like Paine, Jefferson, and Franklin

Second Great Awakening

A frontier-to-eastward religious revival sparking American evangelicalism

Methodists and Baptists

Denominations that grew significantly from the early 19th-century revivals

Mormons (or Latter-day Saints)

Founded by Joseph Smith, later establishing a Utah commonwealth

Burned-over District

Western New York region known for intense religious revivals and new sects

Seneca Falls Convention

The 1848 New York meeting for women's rights modeled on the Declaration of Independence

Oberlin College

An Ohio evangelical college that pioneered the admission of women and Black students

Brook Farm

A brief Massachusetts intellectual commune focused on "plain living and high thinking"

Monticello

Thomas Jefferson's self-designed Virginia home and architectural model

Shakers

A communal group founded by Mother Ann Lee practicing simple living and celibacy

Transcendentalism

A New England literary and philosophical movement influencing early 19th-century writers

Civil Disobedience

Thoreau's doctrine of resistance that later influenced Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Leaves of Grass

Walt Whitman's innovative poetry collection celebrating democracy and sexual liberation

Moby-Dick

Herman Melville's novel detailing Captain Ahab's pursuit of a white whale

Minstrel shows

19th-century musical entertainment featuring performers in blackface