U.S. History Flashcard Study Guide

A comprehensive reference and review deck covering 64 key flashcards on major concepts, economic policies, and historical figures in early U.S. History.

North American Geography

A continent characterized by diverse regions, climates, and natural resources.

Columbian Exchange

The exchange of plants, animals, people, diseases, and goods between the Americas and Europe/Africa after Columbus's voyages.

Virginia Company

An entity established to create an English settlement in North America and generate a profit.

Starving Time

The harsh winter of 1609–1610 in Jamestown marked by severe food shortages, suffering, and many deaths.

Headright system

A system that granted land to individuals who paid for passage to the colonies or brought others to the colony.

Tobacco

The crop that became the economic foundation and a major cash crop of colonial Virginia.

House of Burgesses

The first representative legislative assembly established in the English colonies.

Navigation Acts system

English laws regulating colonial trade to benefit England and promote mercantilism.

Mercantilism

An economic system in which colonies supplied raw materials and markets for the mother country.

Middling sort

A growing colonial middle class primarily composed of farmers, artisans, and merchants.

Pieces of eight

Spanish silver coins that were widely used in colonial trade.

Wampum

Beads made from shells used by Native Americans for both trade and ceremonial purposes.

Pine tree shilling

A colonial silver coin produced in Massachusetts.

Articles of Confederation

The first national government of the United States, which featured a weak central government.

Shays' Rebellion

A 1786–1787 uprising by Massachusetts farmers protesting debt and taxation.

Constitutional Convention

A meeting called to address the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation.

Alexander Hamilton

A Founding Father who promoted a strong national government and a national financial system.

Public credit plan

Hamilton's plan to strengthen national finances by paying national and state debts and establishing federal financial institutions.

First Bank of the United States

A national bank established under Hamilton's financial program to manage government finances and strengthen public credit.

Compromise of 1790

A political deal where the federal government assumed state debts in exchange for locating the national capital on the Potomac.

Panic of 1792

An early U.S. financial crisis involving speculation, falling prices, and bank-related instability.

Cotton gin

An invention that quickly separated cotton fibers from cotton seeds.

Eli Whitney

The inventor of the cotton gin.

Impact of the cotton gin on slavery

It made short-staple cotton highly profitable, which increased the demand for enslaved labor.

Samuel Slater

An English textile worker who brought textile manufacturing knowledge to the United States.

Francis Cabot Lowell

An American industrialist associated with an integrated textile manufacturing system.

Embargo Act of 1807

A law that restricted American trade with foreign nations to avoid war.

Nullification Crisis

A conflict over whether a state could reject federal tariffs it considered unconstitutional.

Whiskey Rebellion

A 1794 uprising against a federal tax on whiskey that demonstrated the power of the new federal government.

Turnpikes

Privately operated toll roads built to improve transportation.

Cumberland Road

An early federally funded road connecting the East with developing western territories.

Erie Canal

A waterway connecting the Great Lakes with the Hudson River, lowering transportation costs and encouraging western settlement.

Black Ball Line

A shipping packet line that helped make regular transatlantic passenger and mail service faster and more reliable.

Fractional-reserve banking

A banking system where banks keep only part of deposits in reserve and lend out the rest.

Bank run

A situation in which many depositors try to withdraw their money simultaneously.

Second Bank of the United States

A national bank chartered in 1816 to help regulate the nation's money supply and banking system.

Jackson's pet banks

State banks selected by President Andrew Jackson to receive federal deposits after removing them from the Second Bank.

Specie Circular

An 1836 order requiring payment for federal land purchases to be made in gold or silver.

Panic of 1837

A major financial crisis marked by bank failures, unemployment, falling prices, and economic depression.

James Watt

A Scottish inventor whose improvements made the steam engine more practical.

Impact of steam power on transportation

It allowed steamboats and steam-powered transportation to move people and goods more efficiently.

Gibbons v. Ogden

A Supreme Court case that strengthened federal power over interstate commerce.

Treaty of Paris of 1783

The treaty that recognized U.S. independence and ended the American Revolutionary War.

French assistance in the Revolution

France provided military, financial, and naval assistance to the American cause.

Yorktown

The site of an American and French victory that effectively ended major fighting in the Revolutionary War.

Continentals

Paper money issued by the Continental Congress to help finance the Revolutionary War.

Annapolis Convention

A 1786 meeting that called for a broader convention to address problems with the Articles of Confederation.

Adam Smith

An economist who argued for free markets and believed competition and self-interest could organize economic activity.

Role of banking in the early U.S.

Banks provided credit, issued currency, facilitated trade, and helped finance economic activity.

Significance of the steam engine

It provided a powerful source of mechanical energy for factories and transportation.

Tobacco as money

In the Chesapeake colonies, tobacco could be used as a medium of exchange.

Pennsylvania

A colony founded by William Penn associated with religious tolerance and representative government.

William Penn

The Quaker founder of Pennsylvania who promoted religious tolerance.

New Amsterdam

The Dutch settlement that became New York City after the English took control.

New Netherland

The Dutch colony in North America centered on the Hudson River.

Harvard

An institution founded to educate colonial ministers and leaders.

Saugus Ironworks

An early ironworks in Massachusetts that demonstrated colonial manufacturing.

Role of slavery in the colonial economy

Enslaved labor was used extensively in plantation agriculture and contributed to colonial wealth.

Abolitionism

The movement focused on ending slavery.

The Constitution

The document intended to create a stronger federal government with separate powers and checks and balances.