Period 4 Essential Vocabulary (1800-1848)

Flashcards defining key political, economic, legal, and social vocabulary from AP U.S. History Period 4 (1800-1848).

Revolution of 1800

The election where Democratic-Republicans Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr defeated Federalist John Adams, tied each other, and the House of Representatives chose Jefferson; led to the 12th Amendment and transferred power peacefully between parties.

Thomas Jefferson

The 3rd President of the U.S. and leader of the Democratic-Republicans who favored strict constitutional interpretation, reduced government spending, a less aristocratic presidency, and declared 'We are all Federalists, we are all Republicans.'

Marbury v. Madison (1803)

Supreme Court case resulting from John Adams's midnight judges controversy in which Chief Justice John Marshall established judicial review, allowing the Supreme Court to declare laws unconstitutional.

John Marshall

Federalist Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court whose decisions expanded federal power over state power and established the judiciary as an equal branch to the legislative and executive branches.

Cohens v. Virginia (1821)

Supreme Court case in which Chief Justice John Marshall asserted the Supreme Court's right to review decisions made by state supreme courts, strengthening federal power.

McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)

Supreme Court decision in which John Marshall declared the Bank of the United States constitutional and ruled that states had no power to tax or destroy a federal institution.

Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)

Supreme Court ruling that reasserted that Congress holds the sole power under the Constitution to regulate interstate commerce.

Louisiana Purchase (1803)

The acquisition of the territory extending from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains from Napoleon for $15\text{ million}$, providing control of the Mississippi River and New Orleans, which Jefferson justified using loose construction.

Embargo Act (1807)

A law cutting off American exports worldwide to punish Britain and France for trade interference, which caused a domestic economic downturn and was ridiculed in New England as 'O-Grab-Me.'

James Madison

The 4th President of the U.S., leader of the Democratic-Republicans, and 'Father of the Constitution' who drafted the Virginia Plan, authored Federalist Papers, and introduced the Bill of Rights.

War of 1812

A conflict between the U.S. and Great Britain caused by impressment, ship seizures, and British aid to western Indians; included the burning of Washington, D.C., the Treaty of Ghent, and the Battle of New Orleans.

Hartford Convention

A meeting of New England merchants opposed to the Embargo and War of 1812 who proposed constitutional amendments, asserted state nullification, discussed secession, and caused the demise of the Federalist Party.

Tecumseh

A Shawnee chief who formed an Indian alliance with his brother The Prophet; his league was defeated at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811, and he was killed fighting for the British at the Battle of the Thames in 1813.

Era of Good Feelings

The period encompassing President James Monroe's two terms marked by strong nationalism, economic growth, territorial expansion, and a lack of partisan conflict following the demise of the Federalist Party.

Monroe Doctrine (1823)

A foreign policy written by John Quincy Adams declaring that European nations must not interfere in Western Hemisphere affairs or attempt to re-colonize independent New World nations.

Missouri Compromise

An 1820 compromise crafted by Henry Clay that admitted Missouri as a slave state, Maine as a free state, and banned slavery in remaining Louisiana territory north of latitude $36^\circ 30'$.

King Cotton

A phrase illustrating the Southern cotton economy's dominance and Northern dependence on it, emphasized in 1858 by Senator James Hammond's statement: 'You daren't make war against cotton!…Cotton is king!'.

Frederick Douglas

A self-educated escaped slave who became a preeminent abolitionist speaker and published the anti-slavery newspaper the North Star.

Second Great Awakening

A wave of religious revivals starting in 1801 emphasizing salvation through good deeds, led by Charles Finney, which attracted women and African-Americans and spurred abolition, temperance, and prison reform.

Harriet Tubman

An escaped slave who served as a conductor on the Underground Railroad, leading 60 to 70 enslaved individuals to freedom through secret safe houses.

Denmark Vesey Conspiracy (1822)

A planned slave revolt in Charleston, South Carolina, aiming to seize control and escape to Haiti; the plot was betrayed by other slaves and resulted in the execution of 75 conspirators.

Nat Turner (1831)

A slave rebellion in Virginia where a group of 60 slaves killed nearly 60 Whites, causing Southern states to pass stricter black codes, enforce fugitive slave laws, and restrict abolitionist publications.

David Walker

A free black author who published Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World in 1829, calling for an armed rebellion to end slavery and demanding fair treatment as Americans.

William Lloyd Garrison

A militant abolitionist who published The Liberator in Boston, using inflammatory rhetoric against slaveholders and moderates and advocating northern secession.

Gag rule

A procedural rule passed by pro-Southern representatives in 1836 that prohibited the introduction or debate of any anti-slavery petitions in the House of Representatives.

Hinton Helper

Southern author of 'Impending Crisis of the South', which argued that non-slaveholding whites suffered the most economic damage from the institution of slavery.

The Corrupt Bargain

The claim by Andrew Jackson's followers that John Quincy Adams secured the presidency in the 1824 House election by appointing Henry Clay as Secretary of State in exchange for his support.

Henry Clay

A nationalist leader, founder of the Whig Party, and 'Great Compromiser' behind the Missouri Compromise, Compromise Tariff of 1833, Compromise of 1850, and the American System.

American System

An economic program promoted by Henry Clay consisting of protective tariffs to stimulate domestic manufacturing, federally funded internal improvements, and a strong national bank.

Democratic Party (1828)

A political party formed by Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren that championed states' rights, protected slavery, catered to the 'common man,' and drew support from the South and West.

Revolution of 1828

The election of Andrew Jackson as the first non-aristocratic president, which ushered in the 'Age of Jackson' following the elimination of property qualifications for white male voters.

Nullification Crisis

A constitutional showdown led by John C. Calhoun when South Carolina declared federal tariffs null and void and threatened secession, prompting Jackson to prepare military force before a compromise tariff was reached.

Five Civilized Tribes

Native American nations (such as the Georgia Cherokee) that adopted aspects of white culture, including Christianity, English literacy, intermarriage, and plantation slavery, to preserve their lands.

Indian Removal Act (1830)

A federal law enabling states to override federal treaties and providing funds for the forced relocation of Native Americans to western territories, producing the Trail of Tears despite Worcester v. Georgia.

Bank War

Andrew Jackson's political offensive against the Bank of the United States, in which he vetoed its re-charter bill and transferred federal deposits into state-level 'pet banks,' destroying the institution.

Panic of 1837

A major financial crisis caused by reckless land speculation via pet banks and Jackson's Specie Circular; led to bank failures, cotton price declines, business bankruptcies, and mass unemployment.

Whig Party

An anti-Jackson political party led by Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun that favored the Bank of the United States, protective tariffs, and national internal improvements, drawing broad support in the North.

Transportation Revolution

A period of rapid acceleration in the speed, convenience, and reach of transport driven by the construction of turnpikes, canals, steamboats, and early railroads.

National Road (Cumberland Road)

The first federally funded interstate highway, built between 1811 and 1837, stretching from Pennsylvania to Illinois and linking the Northeast with the Western frontier.

Erie Canal

A state-funded toll waterway championed by Governor Dewitt Clinton and completed in 1825, connecting the Hudson River to the Great Lakes and facilitating commerce between the Northeast and West.

Market revolution

The transformation of the U.S. economy defined by improved transportation networks, commercial agriculture for cash markets, power-driven factory industrialization, and telegraph communication.

Samuel Slater

Known as the 'father of American industry'; memorized British textile mill machinery blueprints while an apprentice and reconstructed them in America to establish the nation's first cotton mill.

Lowell factory System

A Massachusetts textile manufacturing system established in the 1820s that relied on mechanized production staffed almost entirely by young, unmarried farm women who received lower wages than men.

Eli Whitney

The inventor of the cotton gin who introduced interchangeable parts in firearms manufacturing, an innovation termed by the British as the 'American System of Manufacture.'

Mechanical Reaper

An agricultural machine invented by Cyrus McCormick in 1831 that accelerated the grain harvesting process, illustrating industrial technology's impact on farming.

Cult of Domesticity

A prevailing nineteenth-century cultural value system that elevated and confined women's societal roles to the domestic sphere as homemakers and moral guardians.

Transcendentalism

A philosophical and intellectual movement urging personal self-reliance, nonconformity, and individual spiritual intuition, championed by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.

Irish Immigration

The mass migration of millions of Irish fleeing the potato famine to Boston and New York, where they took low-wage jobs, lived in poor conditions, and encountered anti-Catholic nativist hostility.

Nativism

An anti-immigrant reaction among native-born Americans who feared that incoming Irish and German immigrants would take jobs, lower wages, and undermine American culture.

American Party (Know Nothings)

A nativist political organization formed in opposition to foreign immigration and Catholicism, operating under the political slogan 'American's must rule America!'.

Social Reform Movement

A nineteenth-century reform impulse inspired by the Second Great Awakening and guided by middle-class women addressing societal ills through temperance, abolition, and women's rights.

Dorthea Dix

A humanitarian reformer who led a nationwide crusade to expose the mistreatment of the mentally ill, leading to the creation of professional mental health institutions.

Horace Mann

An educational reformer who led the common school movement, advocating for tax-funded mandatory schooling, extended academic terms, and rigorous teacher training.

American Temperance Society

An organization established in 1826 by Lyman Beecher that recruited 1.5 million members across 8,000 chapters who pledged total abstinence from alcohol.

American Colonization Society

An organization founded in 1817 that bought land in Liberia to establish a colony for the resettlement of free African-Americans outside the United States.

Seneca Falls Convention

The first women's rights convention held in 1848, organized by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton; drafted the Declaration of Sentiments demanding women's suffrage and equal opportunity.

Utopian Communities

Experimental communal societies established by reformers who withdrew from the competitive, sinful world to construct cooperative alternative models of living.

Oneida Community

A socio-religious perfectionist community established in New York by Joseph Humphrey-Noyes that practiced communal property, shared child-rearing, and complex marriage (polygamy).

Mormons

A religious group founded by Joseph Smith in 1830 that faced persecution for practicing polygamy, ultimately led by Brigham Young to establish a settlement near the Great Salt Lake in Utah.