AP U.S. History: Chapters 13, 14, and 15 - The Market Revolution, Jacksonian Democracy, and Reform

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards reviewing the political, economic, and social developments of the early to mid-nineteenth century, including Jacksonian Democracy, the Market Revolution, and antebellum reform movements.

Interchangeable parts

Machine-made identical components popularized by Eli Whitney that can replace damaged parts easily, paving the way for assembly-line manufacturing, consumerism, and mass production.

Ecological imperialism

The aggressive exploitation and depletion of the Western frontier's natural wildlife and resources, resulting in the virtual decimation of beaver, bison, and sea-otter populations for the fur trade.

Know-Nothing Party

A secretive nativist political party formed out of the 1849 Order of the Star-Spangled Banner that agitated against Catholic immigrants and championed strict immigration restrictions and deportations.

Cotton gin

A mechanical device invented by Eli Whitney that separated cotton seeds from raw fiber, dramatically increasing the profitability of cotton cultivation and reviving the demand for slavery in the American South.

Limited liability

A legal concept that protects corporate investors from financial ruin by ensuring they risk no more money than the value of their own individual shares of stock.

Boston Associates

One of the earliest and most prominent investment companies in the United States, illustrating the emergence of pooled capital and corporate enterprise during early industrialization.

Commonwealth v. Hunt (1842)

A landmark Massachusetts Supreme Court decision establishing that labor unions are not illegal conspiracies, provided their methods and organizational objectives are peaceful.

Cult of domesticity

A nineteenth-century cultural ideal that elevated a married woman's role as a moral homemaker within a separate domestic sphere while discouraging women from pursuing wage-earning occupations outside the home.

Domestic feminism

The growing authority and autonomy exercised by women within the household, particularly concerning family planning, reduced family sizes, and child-centered upbringing.

Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge

An 1837 Supreme Court case where Chief Justice Roger B. Taney ruled that community interests and public welfare outweigh exclusive corporate charter rights, actively encouraging market competition.

Erie Canal

A state-funded New York waterway completed in 1825 connecting Buffalo to New York City, which drastically dropped shipping costs, boosted land values, and stimulated national manufacturing commerce.

Second Great Awakening

A widespread wave of religious revivals starting around 1800 that spread via outdoor camp meetings, fostered denominational shifts, and directly inspired antebellum social reform movements.

Peter Cartwright

A prominent frontier Methodist circuit rider and traveling preacher who converted thousands of individuals to Christianity across the western frontier.

Charles Grandison Finney

A celebrated revivalist speaker of the Second Great Awakening who devised the 'anxious bench' and explicitly connected religious conversion to social reforms such as abolitionism.

Burned-over district

A nickname for western New York during the Second Great Awakening, descriptive of the area being thoroughly swept over by repeated, fiery religious revivals and preaching.

Dorothea Dix

A tireless nineteenth-century reformer whose reports on the horrific conditions endured by the mentally ill shifted public policy toward compassionate treatment and mental health reform.

Maine Law of 1851

A pioneering temperance statute sponsored by Neal S. Dow that prohibited the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquor within the state of Maine.

Transcendentalism

A literary and philosophical movement originating in Boston that argued truth transcends sensory perception, rejecting rigid authority and emphasizing individualism, self-reliance, and direct communion with the divine.

Corrupt Bargain of 1824

The controversial political agreement alleged by Andrew Jackson's supporters wherein Speaker Henry Clay threw his support to John Quincy Adams in the House election in exchange for being named Secretary of State.

Spoils system

The governmental policy, widely defended and instituted by Andrew Jackson, of rewarding party loyalists and campaign supporters with federal and public offices.

Tariff of Abominations

The derogatory Southern name for the Tariff of 1828, an unprecedentedly high protective tariff that prompted Southern outrage over perceived economic discrimination and federal overreach.

South Carolina Exposition

A political pamphlet written secretly by Vice President John C. Calhoun asserting that the Tariff of 1828 was unconstitutional and that individual states retained the right to nullify federal statutes.

Compromise Tariff of 1833

A compromise measure brokered by Henry Clay that gradually reduced the tariff rates of 1832 by 10% over several years, defusing the South Carolina Nullification Crisis.

Force Bill

Legislation passed by Congress in 1833 authorizing the president to deploy the United States army and navy to enforce federal tariff collection duties.

Indian Removal Act (1830)

A federal law mandating the compulsory relocation of Native American tribes east of the Mississippi River to designated lands in the west, leading to the devastating Trail of Tears.

Bank War

The bitter political conflict between Andrew Jackson and supporters of the Second Bank of the United States, initiated when Henry Clay and Daniel Webster submitted an early recharter bill in 1832.

Pet banks

State-level banking institutions into which Andrew Jackson transferred federal government deposits in an effort to systematically bleed dry and dismantle the Second Bank of the United States.

Specie Circular

An executive decree issued by Andrew Jackson requiring all public lands to be paid for in metallic specie (gold and silver), which contributed directly to the financial panic of 1837.

Whig Party

A broad anti-Jackson political party that emerged in the 1830s, uniting supporters of Henry Clay's American System, federal internal improvements, public education, and social reforms.

Divorce Bill

A policy pursued by President Martin Van Buren that separated the federal government from the private banking system by storing public funds inside independent treasury vaults.

Battle of the Alamo

A pivotal thirteen-day siege in 1836 where Mexican forces under Santa Anna wiped out nearly all Texan defenders, galvanizing American and Texan resolve during the Texas Revolution.