APUSH Period 4 (1800-1848) Vocabulary Review

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the major political, economic, and social developments of APUSH Period 4 (1800-1848).

Jeffersonian republicanism

A vision calling for a reduction in the power of federal government, favoring a society of independent farmers and localism with a government that "governs least."

Election of 1800

The first moment in American history where a transfer of power occurred between parties; resulted in Thomas Jefferson becoming President after a tie in the Electoral College required 36 votes in the House of Representatives.

Louisiana Purchase

The $1803$ acquisition of $828,000$ square miles of territory from Napoleon for $15 million, which more than doubled the size of the United States.

Embargo Act of 1807

A law that prohibited all exports and prevented American vessels from clearing for foreign ports; it was intended to stop impressment but caused U.S. exports to fall from $108 million to $22 million by $1808$.

Judicial review

The power of the Supreme Court to invalidate federal laws that conflict with the Constitution, established by John Marshall in the case of Marbury v. Madison ($1803$).

McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)

A landmark Supreme Court case where John Marshall ruled that a state could not tax a federal institution, asserting that federal laws are supreme over state laws.

Tariff of 1816

The first protective tariff passed explicitly to protect the nation's infant industries, such as textiles, from overseas competition following the War of $1812$..

Missouri Compromise

An $1820$ agreement that admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state, while prohibiting slavery in the Louisiana Territory north of latitude $36^{\circ}30'$.

American System

Henry Clay’s economic program designed to unify the nation through federal subsidies for transportation (roads, canals), a protective tariff, and a second national bank.

Impressment

The British policy of forcibly pressing American citizens into service on British warships; an estimated $3,000$ to $6,000$ Americans were taken between $1803$ and $1812$.

War Hawks

Democratic-Republican members of Congress, such as Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun, who pushed for a declaration of war against Great Britain in $1812$.

Monroe Doctrine

An $1823$ policy declaring that the American continents were not subjects for future colonization by European powers and that any European interference would be viewed as a threat to U.S. peace and safety.

Adams-Onís Treaty

Also known as the Transcontinental Treaty, it resulted in the U.S. obtaining Florida from Spain for $5 million and Spanish claims to the Oregon Territory.

Market Revolution

The first industrial revolution in the U.S., characterized by technological innovations (textile machinery, steam engines, telegraph) and a shift toward organized manufacture for distant markets.

Lowell Mills

Textile mills in Massachusetts that utilized mass-production and recruited young farm women who were housed in strictly supervised company dormitories.

Cotton Gin

An $1793$ invention by Eli Whitney that easily separated seeds from cotton fibers, increasing production from $3,000$ bales in $1790$ to $400,000$ bales by the $1820s$.

Interchangeable Parts

A system devised by Eli Whitney in $1801$ for making rifles that allowed unskilled workers to produce weapons quickly and at a lower cost, forming the basis for mass production.

Nativism

The fear or hatred of immigrants, rooted in arguments that they were racially inferior, politically dangerous, or stealing jobs from the "native" workforce.

Cult of domesticity

A $19th$-century ideal that women should remain in the domestic sphere to raise children and keep the home, while men navigated the "dangerous" outer sphere of employment and politics.

Universal white male suffrage

The expansion of the right to vote to all adult white males regardless of property ownership, a trend that saw $8$ out of $10$ white adult males eligible to vote by $1860$.

Second Party System

The political framework operating from $1828$ to $1854$ consisting of the Democrats (following Andrew Jackson) and the Whigs (led by Henry Clay).

Ordinance of nullification

A $1832$ action by South Carolina declaring federal tariff duties void and authorizing the state to raise an army to prevent their collection.

Indian Removal Act (1830)

A law mandating that the Five Civilized Tribes move from their lands in the Southwest to territories west of the Mississippi River.

Worcester v. Georgia (1832)

A Supreme Court ruling that Indian nations were "domestic dependent nations" that should be dealt with by the federal government, a decision Andrew Jackson famously ignored.

Hudson River School

The first great school of American painters who sought to capture the power of "wild nature" by portraying landscapes like the Hudson River Valley.

Transcendentalists

An intellectual movement emphasizing individualism and the belief that people can stretch beyond their known capabilities; key figures include Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.

Second Great Awakening

A religious revival from $1801$ to the mid-$1830s$ that promoted the achievement of salvation through faith and good works as a response to rationalism and the Market Revolution.

Temperance Movement

The most widely supported reform movement of the era, aimed at reducing alcohol consumption and succeeding in passing the first prohibition law in Maine in $1851$.

The Liberator

An abolitionist newspaper established in $1831$ by William Lloyd Garrison, who advocated for the immediate end to slavery.

Seneca Falls Convention

The first women's rights convention, held in $1848$ in New York, where 100 people signed the Declaration of Sentiments calling for equal treatment and voting rights.

Nat Turner’s Rebellion

An $1831$ uprising in Virginia by enslaved African Americans that killed $75$ whites, leading Southerners to tighten repressive slave codes.

Necessary evil vs. Positive good

The shift in Southern pro-slavery arguments from viewing slavery as an unfortunate necessity to defending it as a beneficial system for both the enslaved and the masters.

Second Middle Passage

The massive internal slave trade that sold more than $2$ million slaves between $1820$ and $1860$ as plantations moved to the Deep South, often tearing families apart.