APUSH 1800-1848

Marbury v. Madison (1803)

A Supreme court case that established the principle of judicial review. Marked the first time that the supreme court assumed legal authority to overrule acts of other government branches.

Louisiana Purchase

The 1803 purchase of French territory that nearly doubled the size of the United States. The purchase required Jefferson to use powers not explicitly granted to him in the constitution.

Embargo Act (1807)

Prohibited American ships from sailing to foreign ports in an effort to protect American interests and to avoid getting drawn into the Napoleonic Wars between Britain and France.

Lewis and Clark Expedition

1803 expedition that explored the new Louisiana Territory and established a route to the Pacific. Helped to map western territories and laid the foundation for further westward expansion.

McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)

A Supreme Court case that denied the right of states to tax the Second Bank of the United States, thereby asserting the dominance of national over state statutes.

Gradual Emancipation

The practice of ending slavery in the distant future while recognizing white property rights to the slaves they owned. Only applied to enslaved laborers born after the passage of statues.

Franchise

The right to vote. Between 1820 and 1860, most states modified their constitutions to allow all adult white males the right to vote.

Missouri Compromise

Maine entered the union as a free state while Missouri entered as a slave state preserving the balance in the Senate between the North and South.

American System

The mercantilist system of national economic development introduced by Henry Clay with a national bank, protective tariffs, and a nationally funded system of railroads and canals.

Panic of 1819

First major economic crisis of the United States. Farmers and planters faced a 30% drop in prices and they were unable to pay their debts; causing frequent bankruptcies.

Impressment

The practice of forcibly recruiting sailors into a navy, particularly associated with British ships taking American sailors during the early 19th century.

Chesapeake Affair (1807)

A conflict where a British warship attacked an American warship, the Chesapeake, resulting in casualties and impressment of American sailors, contributing to rising tensions.

War Hawks

Politicians in the early 19th century, particularly in the lead-up to the War of 1812, who advocated for aggressive and militant foreign policies, especially against Britain.

Treaty of Ghent

The treaty signed on Christmas Eve 1814 that ended the War of 1812. It retained the prewar borders of the United States.

Hartford Convention

A series of secret meetings held by New England Federalists during the War of 1812 to discuss grievances and possible secession from the United States, but it ultimately had limited impact.

Monroe Doctrine

The 1823 declaration by President James Monroe that the Western Hemisphere was closed to any further colonization or interference by European powers.

Neomercantilism

System of government-assisted economic developed embraced by state legislatures in the Northeast during the 19th century. Encouraged entreprenuers to enhance the public welfare.

Erie Canal

A 364-mile waterway connecting the Hudson River and Lake Erie. Brought prosperity to the entire Great Lakes region, and prompted others to create more canals.

Market Revolution

The dramatic increase between 1820 and 1850 in the exchange of goods and services in the market transaction. Reflected increased outputs of farms and called for an advanced transportation network.

Industrial Revolution

A burst of major inventions and economic expansion based on water and steam power, reorganized work routines and completely reformed industries such as cotton, textiles, and iron.

Cotton Complex

The economic system that developed in the first half of the nineteenth century binding together southern cotton production with northern clothmaking, shipping, and capital.

National (Cumberland) Road

First federally funded road in the United States. A major east-west route that ran from Cumberland, Maryland to Vandalia, Illinois. It was paved with stone and could be used in any weather.

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad

First chartered railroad in the United States. Received charter in 1827 and began operation in 1830.

Labor Theory of Value

Theory that the value of a commodity can be objectively measured by the average number of labor hours required to produce that commodity.

Gang-Labor System

The idea that enslaved workers would work all day (traditionally, from sunrise to sunset) under the supervision of an overseer.

Lowell System

Factory system that employed large numbers of young, single women to work in textile mills and was characterized by strict discipline and long working hours.

Social Mobility

The ability of individuals to move up or down the social and economic ladder.

Nativism

The policy of protecting the interests of native-born citizens against those of immigrants.

Cult of Domesticity

System of cultural beliefs that encouraged women to prioritize their roles in the household over working outside of it.

Era of Good Feelings

The time period of 1815-1825. Characterized by a sense of national purpose and a desire for unity among Americans in the aftermath of the War of 1812.

Second Party System

Political party system from 1828-1854. Characterized by a rivalry between Parties. The rivalry began during Andrew Jackson's administration, which lasted from 1829 to 1837.

Spoils System

Practice in which a political party, after winning an election, gives government jobs to its supporters, friends, and relatives.

Albany Regency

Prominent and influential group of politicians in New York state during the early 19th century. It was led by Martin Van Buren, and his allies.

Tariff of Abomination

A tariff enacted in 1828 that raised taxes significantly on imported raw materials, textiles, and iron goods. It enraged the South, which had no industries that needed protection.

Nullification

The constitutional argument advanced by John C. Calhoun that a state legislature could void a congressional law.

Panic of 1837

Triggered by a sharp reduction in English capital and credit flowing into the US, the cash shortage caused a panic while the collapse of credit led to a depression.

Specie Circular

Executive order in 1836 that required the Treasury Department to accept only gold and silver in payment for land in the national domain.

Bank Battle

President Andrew Jackson vetoed a bill to recharter the bank and began a campaign to destroy it. The war ended with the bank's shutdown and replacement by state banks.

Indian Removal Act (1830)

A U.S. law signed by President Andrew Jackson that authorized the removal of Native American tribes from their ancestral lands in the southeastern United States to lands west of the Mississippi River.

Trail of Tears

The forced relocation of thousands of Native Americans, particularly the Cherokee Nation, from their southeastern homelands to lands west of the Mississippi River in the late 1830s.

Worcester v. Georgia (1832)

A Supreme Court case in which the Court ruled that the state of Georgia could not regulate the Cherokee Nation's territory, recognizing Native American sovereignty.

Compromise Tariff (1833)

A bill that gradually lowered tariff rates over a decade until they reached 20% also ended the Nullification Crisis.

Transcendentalism

The belief that spirituality cannot be achieved through reason and rationalism, but instead through self-reflection and intuition.

Second Great Awakening

Series of evangelical Protestant revivals extending from the 1790s to 1830s that prompted thousands of conversions and widespread optimism about Americans' capacity for progress and reform.

Romanticism

European philosophy rejected the ordered rationality of the Enlightenment and instead embraced human passion, spiritual quest, and self-knowledge. Strongly influenced transcendentalism.

American Temperance Society

Social movement organization founded in 1826 to convince people to abstain from drinking.

Seneca Falls Convention

The first women's rights convention in the United States. It was held in Seneca Falls, New York on July 19–20, 1848.

Declaration of Sentiments

Similar to the list of grievances in the Declaration of Independence, outlined the grievances of women and their demands for equal rights and opportunities.

American Colonization Society

Group founded in 1816 with the goal of relocating free African Americans from the United States to the West African coast.

American Anti-Slavery Society

First interracial social justice movement in the US, which advocated the immediate, unconditional end of slavery on the basis of human rights, without compensation to slave masters.

Peculiar Institution

A phrase used to refer to slavery in the South. Called "peculiar" because it represented a deeply entrenched system of labor and racial oppression where slaves were considered property.

Task System

A system of labor common in the rice-growing regions of South Carolina in which a slave was assigned a daily task to complete and was allowed to do as he wished upon its completion.

Vesey Slave Conspiracy

Vesey and his followers planned to seize weapons and attack the city's armory, and then mobilize other enslaved Africans and free blacks to join in the rebellion.

Nat Turner's Rebellion

Deadliest slave revolt, launched in 1831 when Nat Turner killed his owner. With followers, they went to other plantations killing 55 whites but eventually being put down by the militia.

Underground Railroad

An informal network of whites and free blacks in the South that assisted fugitive slaves to reach freedom in the North.

Free African Societies

Organizations in northern free black communities that sought to help community members and work against racial discrimination, inequality, and slavery.

David Walker's Appeal

A radical 1829 pamphlet by free African American David Walker in which he protested slavery and radical oppression, called for solidarity among people of African descent and warned of revolt.

Abolitionism

The social reform movement to end slavery immediately and without compensation that began in the United States in the 1830s.

Gag Rule

A procedure in the House of Representatives from 1836 to 1844 by which antislavery petitions were automatically tabled when they were received so that they could not become the subject of debate.

Liberty Party

An antislavery political party that ran its first presidential candidate in 1844, controversially challenging both the Democrats and Whigs.

Republican Aristocracy

The Old South gentry who envisioned themselves as an American aristocracy and feared federal government interference with their slave property.

Costal Trade

Domestic slave trade routes along the Atlantic Coast that sent thousands of slaves to sugar plantations in Louisiana and cotton plantations in the Mississippi Valley.

Positive Good

In 1837, South Carolina Senator John C. Calhoun argued that slavery was not a necessary evil, but a positive good.

Paternalism

The ideology held by slave owners who considered themselves committed to the welfare of their slaves.

King Cotton

The most commonly used phrase describing the growth of the American economy in the 1830s and 1840s.