Quarter 1 Midterm Study Topics - Ch 2, 3, 4

Vocabulary study cards covering the Enlightenment, the American Revolution, the Early Republic, and the Civil War for the Quarter 1 Midterm examination.

“Common Sense”

A 1776 pamphlet written by Thomas Paine that advocated for the American colonies' independence from Great Britain.

Stamp Act

A 1765 British law that imposed a direct tax on printed materials in the American colonies, prompting significant colonial resistance.

Enlightenment

An 18th-century intellectual movement emphasizing reason, individualism, and natural rights that profoundly shaped the American Revolution and founding documents.

Townshend Acts

A series of British laws enacted in 1767 that placed duties on goods imported into the American colonies, such as glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea.

Boston Tea Party

A 1773 political protest in which American colonists disguised as Mohawk Indians dumped hundreds of chests of British tea into Boston Harbor to oppose the Tea Act.

Boston Massacre

A 1770 confrontation in Boston in which British soldiers fired into a crowd of colonists, resulting in the deaths of five people.

Federalism

A system of government where sovereignty and power are divided between a national central government and individual state governments.

Declaration of Independence

The formal document issued in 1776 announcing the separation and independence of the thirteen North American colonies from Great Britain.

Intolerable Acts

A series of punitive laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 to punish Massachusetts following the Boston Tea Party and reassert British authority.

John Locke

An Enlightenment philosopher whose writings on natural rights (life, liberty, and property) and the social contract heavily influenced the American Declaration of Independence.

1st Great Awakening

A Christian religious revival that swept through the American colonies in the 1730s and 1740s, fostering spiritual independence and unity across colonial borders.

Bill of Rights

The first ten amendments to the United States Constitution, ratified to guarantee personal freedoms and limit the power of the federal government.

Federalists vs. Anti- Federalists

The debate between Federalists, who supported ratification of the Constitution and a strong central government, and Anti-Federalists, who opposed it and demanded a Bill of Rights.

Articles of Confederation

The first constitution of the United States, which established a national government with strictly limited powers and gave dominant authority to individual states.

Separation of Church and State

The legal and constitutional principle that public government and religious institutions must remain independent of one another.

Establishment Clause

The First Amendment clause forbidding the government from creating, supporting, or endorsing an official state religion.

Free Exercise Clause

The First Amendment clause that protects citizens' rights to hold religious beliefs and practice their religion freely without undue government interference.

Marbury v. Madison

The landmark 1803 Supreme Court ruling that established the principle of judicial review under Chief Justice John Marshall.

Judicial Review

The doctrine under which the judicial branch has the authority to examine legislative and executive acts and declare them unconstitutional.

Monroe Doctrine

An 1823 policy statement declaring that further European colonization or interference in the Western Hemisphere would be treated as an act of aggression against the United States.

Differences in the economies of the North and South

The economic contrast between the North, which relied on manufacturing, commerce, and free labor, and the South, which relied on agriculture, plantation crops, and enslaved labor.

Causes of the Civil War

Sectarian conflicts between Northern and Southern states driven by the expansion of slavery, conflicting economic interests, state sovereignty disputes, and the 1860 presidential election.

Popular Sovereignty

The political doctrine asserting that the inhabitants of a territory should vote to decide whether slavery would be permitted within their borders.

Dred Scott v. Sandford

An 1857 Supreme Court ruling stating that enslaved and free Black people were not citizens and that Congress had no power to prohibit slavery in federal territories.

Emancipation Proclamation

An 1863 executive order by President Abraham Lincoln declaring that all enslaved individuals held within the rebellious Confederate states were free.

Gettysburg Address

A brief 1863 address by Abraham Lincoln dedicating a national cemetery and framing the Civil War as a struggle to ensure government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish.

Andrew Johnson

The 17th President of the United States who took office after Lincoln's assassination and oversaw Reconstruction, clashing repeatedly with Radical Republicans in Congress.

Frederick Douglass

An African American abolitionist, writer, and orator who escaped slavery and became a prominent national leader advocating for emancipation and civil rights.

Jim Crow Laws

State and local statutes enacted in the American South after Reconstruction that enforced racial segregation and stripped Black citizens of civil rights.

Reconstruction plans (Lincoln, Republicans, Congressional plan)

Competing federal proposals for reintegrating Southern states and securing the status of freedmen, ranging from Lincoln's lenient 10% plan to strict Congressional Reconstruction with military oversight.

13th, 14th, 15th Amendments

The Civil War and Reconstruction amendments that officially abolished slavery (13th), guaranteed citizenship and equal protection (14th), and protected the right to vote regardless of race (15th).