Test 3

Embargo Act of 1807

Trade embargo halting foreign commerce that spurred American merchants to invest in domestic manufacturing.

Antebellum Immigration (1840s–1860s)

Mass influx of Irish and German immigrants who supplied cheap factory labor and sparked job-competition friction with native Northern workers.

Deskilling

Industrial process of breaking artisan crafts into simple, specialized factory tasks, leaving workers easily replaceable.

Eli Whitney

Inventor who created the cotton gin, which rapidly expanded Southern slavery, and pioneered interchangeable parts in manufacturing.

The Steamship

Robert Fulton invented the commercial steamship (1807), enabling two-way river travel independent of wind or water current.

Lowell System

Textile factory system employing young, unmarried farm women housed in strictly monitored company boarding houses.

Jacksonian Suffrage Expansion

Expansion of voting rights to nearly all white men through eliminating property rules, while excluding women, Native Americans, and free Blacks.

The "Corrupt Bargain" (1824)

Controversial political deal where Henry Clay helped John Quincy Adams secure the presidency in exchange for appointment as Secretary of State.

Spoils System

Political practice of rewarding loyal party supporters with federal government jobs.

Whig Party

Political party formed against Andrew Jackson's executive power, favored by wealthy evangelical Protestants and cautious toward western expansion.

John C. Calhoun & Nullification

States' rights theory holding that sovereign states can declare unconstitutional federal laws null and void within their borders.

Indian Removal Act (1830)

Policy driven by white hunger for fertile tribal lands, justified by Jackson's depiction of Native Americans as uncivilized savages.

Trail of Tears (1838)

Forced winter relocation of the Cherokee Nation to Indian Territory in modern Oklahoma, resulting in thousands of deaths.

Lewis and Clark Expedition

Jefferson-commissioned expedition sent to explore and map the Louisiana Purchase territory across to the Pacific Ocean.

Missouri Compromise (1820)

Deal admitting Maine as free and Missouri as slave while banning slavery in Louisiana Purchase territory north of $36^\circ 30'$.

Texas Colonization & Settlement

Mexican policy inviting American settlers to form a buffer zone, attracting white Southerners who built cotton plantations.

Oregon Treaty of 1846

Treaty between the U.S. and Britain dividing the Oregon territory peacefully along the 49th parallel.

California Statehood Controversy

California's petition to enter as a free state threatened Congressional power balance, leading to the Compromise of 1850.

Forty-Niners

Wave of migrants who rushed to California in 1849 following the discovery of gold.

Southern White Unity

Shared commitment to white supremacy that bonded slaveholders and non-slaveholders, who often served on local slave patrols.

Southern Code of Chivalry

Aristocratic Southern code requiring men to defend personal honor through dueling and avoid commercial trade jobs.

Paternalism

Pro-slavery ideology claiming slaveholders were benevolent father figures caring for naturally dependent, childlike enslaved people.

Ostend Manifesto (1854)

Secret proposal urging the U.S. to acquire Cuba from Spain by force, sparking Northern fury over slavery expansion.

Transcendentalism

Philosophical movement led by Ralph Waldo Emerson asserting that truth transcends physical senses and nature reflects the miraculous in the common.

Henry David Thoreau

Transcendentalist author who championed civil disobedience, the nonviolent refusal to obey unjust or immoral laws.

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons)

Religious movement founded by Joseph Smith in 1830; Brigham Young later led members west to Salt Lake City, Utah.

The Shakers

Religious sect that practiced strict celibacy (forbidding marriage and sex) and expressed spiritual release through energetic dancing.

Sylvester Graham

Health reformer who invented the Graham cracker in 1829 to suppress physical and sexual desires.

Phrenology

Popular 19th-century pseudoscience assessing an individual's character and mental faculties by examining skull shape and bumps.

Temperance Movement & Teetotalism

Evangelical campaign against drunkenness, with its radical wing demanding teetotalism, or complete abstinence from alcohol.

American Colonization Society

Organization that advocated sending freed African Americans to West Africa, establishing the nation of Liberia.

Seneca Falls Convention (1848)

First women's rights convention, which issued the Declaration of Sentiments modeled directly on the Declaration of Independence.

William Lloyd Garrison

Radical publisher of The Liberator who demanded immediatism (immediate emancipation) and used moral suasion against slavery.

Sarah and Angelina Grimké

South Carolina sisters who linked the anti-slavery movement with the crusade for women's equality.

Abolitionist

An antebellum reformer dedicated to the immediate or gradual eradication of slavery.

Frederick Douglass

Escaped formerly enslaved man who became an eloquent orator, writer, and foremost abolitionist leader.

Second Great Awakening

Widespread wave of early 19th-century evangelical Protestant revivals that fueled antebellum social reform movements.