Spring Terms APUSH

Virginia colony (Jamestown)

English settlement founded in 1607 for economic profit and to establish English presence in the New World under leaders like John Smith and John Rolfe

New England colony (Plymouth)

Puritan separatist colony founded in 1620 for religious freedom led by William Bradford and the Pilgrims

Mayflower Compact

1620 agreement signed by Pilgrim settlers establishing self-governance and majority rule in Plymouth colony

Puritan beliefs

Religious ideology emphasizing a covenant with God - City on a Hill as a model Christian community - elected officials chosen by church members - and John Winthrop as first governor of Massachusetts Bay

Deism

Enlightenment belief that God created the universe but does not intervene in human affairs - favored by many Founding Fathers

House of Burgesses

First representative legislative assembly in colonial America established in Virginia in 1619

John Rolfe (tobacco economy)

English colonist who introduced tobacco cultivation to Virginia making it economically profitable and saving the Jamestown colony

Mercantilism

Economic theory that colonies exist to enrich the mother country by providing raw materials and serving as markets for finished goods

Salutary neglect

British policy of loosely enforcing colonial laws allowing colonies to develop self-governance during the 1600s-1700s

Great Awakening

Religious revival movement in the 1730s-1740s led by preachers like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield that emphasized emotional faith

Colonial assemblies

Elected governing bodies in each colony that handled local legislation and taxation representing colonial self-rule

Albany Congress

1754 meeting of colonial representatives proposing Benjamin Franklin's Plan of Union to coordinate defense against the French and Native Americans

French and Indian War

1754-1763 conflict between Britain and France over North American territory that increased colonial tensions with Britain due to taxation to pay war debts

Navigation Acts

British laws requiring colonial trade to be conducted only on English ships and primarily with England to enforce mercantilism

Pontiac's Rebellion

1763 Native American uprising led by Ottawa chief Pontiac against British forts and settlements following the French and Indian War

Proclamation of 1763

British decree forbidding colonial settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains to avoid conflicts with Native Americans - angering colonists

Stamp Act Congress (1765)

Meeting of colonial delegates to protest the Stamp Act asserting that only colonial assemblies had the right to tax colonists

Townshend Act (1767)

British law placing taxes on imported goods like glass and tea leading to colonial boycotts and increased tensions

Coercive Acts or Intolerable Acts (1773)

Punitive British laws passed after the Boston Tea Party that closed Boston Harbor and restricted Massachusetts self-governance

Republic

Form of government where citizens elect representatives to make decisions on their behalf - the system the Founders chose for the United States

First Continental Congress

1774 meeting of colonial delegates in Philadelphia to coordinate resistance to the Intolerable Acts

Second Continental Congress

1775 meeting of colonial delegates that managed the Revolutionary War and eventually adopted the Declaration of Independence

Common Sense - Thomas Paine

1776 pamphlet by Thomas Paine arguing for American independence from Britain using plain language to persuade common people

Declaration of Independence

1776 document drafted by Thomas Jefferson declaring the colonies independent from Britain citing natural rights and a list of grievances

Saratoga

1777 turning point battle of the Revolutionary War in which American forces defeated the British convincing France to ally with the Americans

Treaty of Paris of 1783

Agreement ending the Revolutionary War in which Britain recognized American independence and ceded territory east of the Mississippi River

Articles of Confederation

First governing document of the United States creating a weak central government with no power to tax or regulate commerce

Northwest Ordinance of 1787

Law establishing a process for admitting new states from the Northwest Territory and banning slavery in that region

Shays Rebellion

1786-1787 armed uprising by Massachusetts farmers protesting debt and foreclosures that exposed the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation

US Constitution

1787 document creating the framework of the American government with plans debated at the Constitutional Convention and compromises like the Great Compromise and Three-Fifths Compromise

Anti-Federalists

Those who opposed ratification of the Constitution fearing a strong central government would threaten individual liberties

Federalist Papers

Series of essays written by Hamilton - Madison and Jay arguing for ratification of the Constitution

Bill of Rights

First ten amendments to the Constitution added in 1791 to protect individual liberties and satisfy Anti-Federalist concerns

Hamilton's Federalists vs. Jefferson's Democratic-Republicans

Political divide between Hamilton who favored a strong federal government and national bank versus Jefferson who favored states' rights and an agrarian society

Proclamation of Neutrality

1793 declaration by Washington that the US would not take sides in the war between Britain and France

Pinckney's Treaty

1795 treaty with Spain granting Americans navigation rights on the Mississippi River and access to New Orleans

Whiskey Rebellion

1794 uprising by Pennsylvania farmers protesting a federal tax on whiskey that was suppressed by Washington demonstrating federal authority

Alien and Sedition Acts

1798 laws passed under John Adams that made it harder to become a citizen and criminalized criticism of the government

Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions

Documents written by Jefferson and Madison arguing that states could nullify unconstitutional federal laws

Louisiana Purchase

1803 purchase of French territory doubling the size of the US - opening the Mississippi River for commerce and raising questions about slavery's expansion

Marbury vs. Madison

1803 Supreme Court case establishing the principle of judicial review giving the Court power to strike down unconstitutional laws

Embargo Act of 1807

Law passed under Jefferson banning American ships from trading with foreign nations to avoid entanglement in European wars - but hurt the American economy

Hartford Convention

1814-1815 meeting of New England Federalists who opposed the War of 1812 - its outcome weakened the Federalist Party

Treaty of Ghent

1814 treaty ending the War of 1812 with no major territorial changes

American System

Henry Clay's economic plan including a national bank - protective tariffs and internal improvements to unify and strengthen the national economy

Missouri Compromise

1820 agreement admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state and banning slavery north of the 36°30' line

Monroe Doctrine

1823 foreign policy statement declaring that the Western Hemisphere was closed to further European colonization

Jacksonian democracy

Political movement under Andrew Jackson emphasizing the power of common white men - expanded voting rights - and opposition to elite privilege

Occurrences during Andrew Jackson's presidency

Major events included the Nullification Crisis in which South Carolina challenged federal tariffs and Jackson's veto of the Second Bank of the United States

Nullification

Doctrine asserting that states have the right to reject federal laws they deem unconstitutional - championed by John C. Calhoun during the tariff crisis

Bank of the US Veto

Jackson's 1832 veto of the recharter of the Second Bank of the United States arguing it favored the wealthy elite

Second Great Awakening

Religious revival of the early 1800s that spurred reform movements including abolitionism and temperance

American Colonization Society

Organization founded in 1816 to relocate free Black Americans to Africa - resulting in the founding of Liberia

William L. Garrison

Radical abolitionist who founded The Liberator newspaper and the American Anti-Slavery Society demanding immediate emancipation

Transcendentalists

Intellectual movement of the 1830s-1840s emphasizing individualism and the spiritual connection between humans and nature - led by Emerson and Thoreau

Frederick Douglass

Escaped enslaved man who became a leading abolitionist orator and writer and author of a famous autobiography exposing the horrors of slavery

Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments

1848 women's rights document modeled on the Declaration of Independence demanding equality and women's suffrage - drafted by Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Temperance

Reform movement seeking to reduce or ban alcohol consumption - leading eventually to Prohibition

Manifest Destiny

19th century belief that Americans were divinely destined to expand across the North American continent

Oregon Treaty

1846 agreement with Britain dividing the Oregon Territory at the 49th parallel giving the US the present-day Pacific Northwest

Mexican Cession

Territory including California and the Southwest that Mexico gave to the US after the Mexican-American War under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

Compromise of 1850

Package of laws admitting California as a free state allowing popular sovereignty in new territories and strengthening the Fugitive Slave Act

Popular sovereignty

Principle allowing residents of a territory to vote on whether to allow slavery rather than having Congress decide

Kansas Nebraska Act

1854 law creating Kansas and Nebraska territories and allowing popular sovereignty on slavery effectively repealing the Missouri Compromise

Dred Scott v. Sanford

1857 Supreme Court ruling that enslaved people were not citizens had no right to sue and that Congress could not ban slavery in the territories

Republican Party (1850s)

Political party formed in 1854 in opposition to the expansion of slavery composed of Northern Whigs and anti-slavery Democrats

John Brown's Raid - Harpers Ferry

1859 raid led by abolitionist John Brown on a federal arsenal in Virginia intended to spark a slave rebellion - he was captured and executed

Wilmot Proviso

1846 proposal to ban slavery in any territory gained from Mexico - it passed the House but failed in the Senate deepening sectional tensions

Denmark Vesey

Free Black man who planned a major slave revolt in Charleston South Carolina in 1822 - the plot was discovered and he was executed

Nat Turner

Enslaved man who led a violent slave rebellion in Virginia in 1831 resulting in the deaths of over 50 white people and heightened Southern fears

Harriet Tubman

Escaped enslaved woman who became the most famous conductor of the Underground Railroad helping dozens of enslaved people escape to freedom

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Author of Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) a novel that dramatized the cruelty of slavery and shifted Northern public opinion against it

Emancipation Proclamation

1863 executive order by Lincoln declaring enslaved people in Confederate states to be free - transforming the Civil War into a fight against slavery

Sharecropping

Post-Civil War labor system in which freedmen and poor white farmers worked land in exchange for a share of crops - kept many in a cycle of debt

Freedmen's Bureau

Federal agency established in 1865 to assist formerly enslaved people and poor whites in the South with food - education and labor contracts

13th 14th 15th Amendments

Constitutional amendments abolishing slavery (13th) granting citizenship and equal protection (14th) and protecting voting rights for Black men (15th)

Black Codes

Southern laws passed after the Civil War severely restricting the rights and freedoms of Black Americans to maintain a system similar to slavery

Jim Crow Laws

State and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the South following Reconstruction lasting until the Civil Rights era

Hayes-Tilden Compromise (Election of 1876)

Disputed presidential election resolved by giving Hayes the presidency in exchange for withdrawing federal troops from the South ending Reconstruction

Dawes Act (1887)

Law breaking up Native American tribal lands into individual allotments aimed at assimilating Native Americans - resulting in massive loss of tribal lands

Homestead Act

1862 law granting 160 acres of public land to settlers who would farm it for five years - encouraging westward migration

The Grange vs. Farmers' Alliance

Agrarian organizations formed to address farmers' economic grievances - the Grange focused on cooperation and education while the Farmers' Alliance was more politically active

Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896)

Supreme Court ruling upholding racial segregation under the doctrine of separate but equal

Why was the railroad so important

Railroads connected the nation economically enabling mass transportation of goods and people stimulating industrialization and western settlement

Cornelius Vanderbilt

Industrialist who built a railroad empire and was one of the wealthiest Americans of the Gilded Age

J.P. Morgan

Powerful banker and financier who organized major corporations including US Steel and played a key role in stabilizing the American economy

Andrew Carnegie

Steel magnate who built Carnegie Steel into the world's largest steel company and advocated the Gospel of Wealth arguing the rich had a duty to give to society

Gospel of Wealth

Carnegie's philosophy arguing wealthy industrialists had a responsibility to use their fortunes for the public good

John D. Rockefeller

Founder of Standard Oil who used horizontal integration to monopolize the oil refining industry

Labor unions

Organizations formed by workers to collectively negotiate for better wages and working conditions

Knights of Labor

Early labor union open to workers of all races and genders that peaked in the 1880s

AFL

American Federation of Labor - a union of skilled workers led by Samuel Gompers that focused on bread and butter issues like wages and hours

Labor strikes - Pullman

1894 national railroad strike in response to wage cuts at the Pullman Company disrupted rail traffic nationwide until federal troops ended it

Labor strikes - Haymarket

1886 Chicago labor rally that turned violent when a bomb exploded harming the public image of the labor movement

Labor strikes - Homestead

1892 violent strike at Carnegie Steel's Homestead plant in which private Pinkerton agents clashed with striking workers

Industrial Workers of the World

Radical labor union (Wobblies) founded in 1905 that sought to organize all workers regardless of skill into one big union

Thomas Nast vs. Boss Tweed (Tammany Hall)

Political cartoonist Thomas Nast used illustrations to expose the corruption of Boss Tweed and the Tammany Hall political machine in New York City

Progressives

Reform movement of the early 1900s made up largely of educated middle-class Americans who sought to address the social and political problems caused by industrialization

DuBois (Niagara Movement) vs. Washington (Atlanta Compromise)

W.E.B. DuBois demanded full civil rights and founded the Niagara Movement while Booker T. Washington argued Black Americans should focus on economic self-improvement and accept segregation temporarily

Charles Darwin

British scientist whose theory of evolution by natural selection influenced Social Darwinism which was used to justify inequality and laissez-faire economics