history 7

Potlatch

A ceremonial feast held by Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest where wealth was distributed to show status and strengthen social ties

The Three Sister

Corn, beans, and squash; crops traditionally planted together by many Native American societies because they help each other grow.

Poverty Point

A prehistoric Native American settlement in present-day Louisiana known for its massive earthworks and long-distance trade.

Encomienda

A Spanish labor system that granted colonists the right to demand labor and tribute from Indigenous peoples.

Sistema de Casta

Spain's colonial racial hierarchy that classified people by ancestry.

Bacon's Rebellion

A 1676 uprising in Virginia led by Nathaniel Bacon against Governor William Berkeley over Native American policy and political corruption.

Stono Rebellion

The largest slave uprising in the British colonies before the American Revolution, occurring in South Carolina in 1739.

Royal Proclamation of 1763

A British order that prohibited colonial settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains to reduce conflict with Native Americans.

Townshend Acts

British taxes on imported goods such as glass, paper, paint, lead, and tea that increased colonial resistance.

Coercive Acts (Intolerable Acts)

Punitive laws passed by Britain in 1774 to punish Massachusetts after the Boston Tea Party.

Lord Dunmore's Proclamation

A 1775 proclamation promising freedom to enslaved people who escaped Patriot owners and joined the British.

Battle of Saratoga

A major American victory in 1777 that convinced France to ally with the United States.

Articles of Confederation

The first U.S. national government, creating a weak central government with most power held by the states.

Shays's Rebellion

A 1786–1787 uprising by Massachusetts farmers protesting debt and high taxes, revealing weaknesses in the Articles of Confederation.

Virginia Plan

A proposal for a new government with three branches and representation based on population.

Great Compromise

The agreement creating a bicameral Congress with equal representation in the Senate and population-based representation in the House.

Whiskey Rebellion

A 1794 protest by western Pennsylvania farmers against a federal whiskey tax; President Washington used federal troops to stop it.

Marbury v. Madison

The 1803 Supreme Court case that established the principle of judicial review, allowing courts to declare laws unconstitutional.

Haitian Revolution

A successful slave revolt (1791–1804) that made Haiti the first independent Black republic and ended French rule there.

Three-Fifths Clause

A constitutional compromise counting three-fifths of each enslaved person for representation and taxation.

Monroe Doctrine

An 1823 U.S. policy warning European nations not to establish new colonies or interfere in the Americas.

Erie Canal

A canal completed in 1825 connecting the Great Lakes to the Hudson River, greatly reducing transportation costs and boosting trade.

Doctrine of Separate Spheres

The belief that men belonged in public life (work and politics) while women belonged in the private home.

Panic of 1819

The first major U.S. economic depression, caused by bank failures, falling cotton prices, and land speculation.

American Temperance Society

An organization founded in 1826 that encouraged people to reduce or eliminate alcohol consumption.

Panic of 1837

A severe economic depression caused by bank failures, land speculation, and financial instability.

Indian Removal Act of 1830

A law authorizing the removal of Native American tribes from the Southeast to lands west of the Mississippi River.

Worcester v. Georgia (1832)

A Supreme Court case ruling that states could not impose laws on Cherokee territory, affirming tribal sovereignty.

Declaration of Sentiments

A document written mainly by Elizabeth Cady Stanton at the Seneca Falls Convention that called for equal rights for women, including the right to vote.

Transcendentalism

A philosophical movement that emphasized individual conscience, self-reliance, nature, and spiritual truth over materialism.

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

The 1848 treaty ending the Mexican-American War, in which Mexico ceded vast western territories to the United States.

Fugitive Slave Act of 1850

A law requiring escaped enslaved people to be returned to their enslavers and requiring citizens to assist in their capture.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

Harriet Beecher Stowe's 1852 novel that exposed the cruelty of slavery and increased Northern opposition to it.Kansas-Nebraska Act

Kansas-Nebraska Act

A 1854 law that allowed settlers in Kansas and Nebraska to decide whether to permit slavery through popular sovereignty.

"Bleeding Kansas"

The violent conflict between pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers in Kansas following the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

Caning of Charles Sumner

The 1856 assault on Senator Charles Sumner by Representative Preston Brooks after Sumner criticized slavery and Southern leaders.

Know-Nothing Party (American Party)

A political party that opposed immigration and the influence of Catholics in the United States.

Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)

A Supreme Court decision ruling that African Americans were not U.S. citizens and that Congress could not ban slavery in the territories.

South Carolina's Declaration of Secession

The document issued in 1860 explaining South Carolina's reasons for leaving the Union, primarily over slavery.

Alexander Stephens's "Cornerstone Speech"

An 1861 speech by the Confederate vice president stating that the Confederacy was founded on the belief that slavery and white supremacy were justified.

Emancipation Proclamation

Abraham Lincoln's 1863 order declaring enslaved people in Confederate-controlled territory to be free.

United States Colored Troops (USCT)

African American soldiers who served in the Union Army during the Civil War.

Battle of Antietam

The bloodiest single-day battle in American history; it stopped Confederate invasion of the north, the Union victory allowed Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.

Black Codes

Laws passed by Southern states after the Civil War to restrict the rights and freedoms of formerly enslaved people.

Freedmen's Bureau

A federal agency created in 1865 to assist formerly enslaved people with education, employment, legal aid, and basic necessities.

Enforcement Act

Laws passed in the early 1870s allowing the federal government to protect African Americans' voting rights and combat the Ku Klux Klan.

American Equal Rights Association

An organization founded in 1866 that advocated equal rights and voting rights regardless of race or gender.

Sharecropping

A farming system in which tenants farmed land in exchange for a share of the crop, often trapping them in debt

Convict-Lease System

A practice of leasing prisoners, many of whom were African American, to private businesses for labor.

Panic of 1873

A major economic depression caused by railroad overexpansion, bank failures, and financial speculation.

Fourteenth Amendment

Granted citizenship to all people born or naturalized in the United States and guaranteed equal protection under the law.

Fifteenth Amendment

Prohibited denying the right to vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.