AAM APUSH Vocab Pre-Exam

Headright System

awarded 50 acres to any colonist who paid for his own or another’s passage, so anyone who brought servants or their spouses/kids could get rewarded with land. 

Half-Way Covenant

in rise of younger generations’ declining piety, the Church established the Half-Way Covenant in 1662 to address the problem of Church membership by allowing for the baptism and “half-way” membership for grandchildren of those who arrived in Mass Bay during the great migration.

Deism

Belief among the Enlightenment that the universe was a great clock, created by god, but allowed to operate freely. God, “the watchmaker” was no longer present and could not be communicated with.

Albany Plan of Union

1754 proposal by Ben Franklin to unite 13 colonies under common defense

Virtual Representation

As British parliament was only for white, landowning men, there was a theory that each member represented the empire, not just his own district.

Intolerable Acts

In response to the Boston Tea Party, closed the port of Boston until all the tea was paid for. Curtailed town meetings/local assemblies , military commander Thomas Gage was named governor of Boston. Military commanders lodged soldiers in private homes, all British soldiers & officials immune from prosecution.

Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation

1775 proclamation that offered freedom to slaves who joined the American cause. 5,000 black men enlisted in state militias, Continental army & navy.

Gradual Emancipation

No new slaves/banning slave trade, but existing slaves are still enslaved.

Coverture

Idea that married women possess no property.

Embargo Act

Attempt in 1807 to exert economic pressure by prohibiting all exports from the US, instead of waging war in reaction to continued British impressment of American sailors.

Cult of domesticity

19th century ideology of “virtue” and “modesty” as the qualities that were essential to proper womanhood.

Corrupt Bargain of 1824

Henry Clay let John Quincy Adams win in the House of Representatives vote in exchange for the role of Sec. of State

Worcester v. Georgia 1832

SCOTUS case that held that Native American nations were distinct peoples who could not be dealt with by the states, instead only by the federal government to negotiate

Bank War

Political struggle in the early 1830s between Pres. Jackson and Financier Nicholas Biddle over the renewing of the second national bank’s charter, which ended in 1836. In the 1820s Biddle had used the bank’s power to curb the overissuing of money by local banks, stabilizing the currency. Jackson vetoed.

Paternalism

Moral position which claimed that slaves were deprived liberty “for their own good”, adopted by some slaveowners to justify slavery.

1836 Gag Rule

Adopted by the House of Representatives in 1836, prohibiting consideration of abolitionist petitions.

Dorothea Dix

Important figure in increasing public awareness of the plight of the mentally ill. After a 2-year investigation of the treatment of the mentally ill in Massachusetts, presented her findings and won the support of leading reformers. She eventually convinced 20 states to reform their treatment of the mentally ill.

Wilmot Proviso 1848

Argues that other than Texas, none of the new territories should allow slavery. Defeated in Congress, but gave birth to the Free Soil Movement in the North.

Vertical Integration

Company’s avoidance of intermediaries by producing its own supplies and providing for distribution of its product

Horizontal Integration

Process by which a corporation acquires or merges with its competitors. Control everything in the same stage of production.

Credit Mobilier Scandal

Scandal during Grant’s presidency, a shell company formed by UP Railroad stockholders, oversaw the govt-assisted construction of the railroads. Enabled participants to sign contracts with themselves, make exorbitant profits, and build the railroad line. Politicians received stock as well.

Interstate Commerce Commission (1887)

in response to corrupt railroad practices, ensure that the rates railroads charged farmers and merchants were reasonable and did not offer favourable treatment to some shippers. First fed agency to regulate economic opportunity. Had little power, could only sue companies in court.

Yellow Press

Sensationalism in newspaper publishing that reached a peak in the circulation war between Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World and William Randolph Hearst’s New York Journal in the 1890s

Gentlemen’s Agreement of 1907

1906 SF School Board ordered all Asian students confined to a single school. When the Japanese govt protested, President Theodore Roosevelt persuaded the city to rescind the order. He then negotiated the Gentlemen’s Agreement of 1907, whereby Japan agreed to end migration to the US except for wives and children of men already in the country. 

Dollar Diplomacy

policy under William Howard Taft that promoted the spread of American influence/soft power through loans and economic investment through American banks

Selective Service Act

Law passed in 1917 to quickly increase enlistment in the army for the US entry into WWI, required men to register with the draft.

War Industries Board

established by the fed govt to streamline production, supply chains, prices, during the war

Schenck vs. United States 1919

SCOTUS upheld wartime Espionage and Sedition Acts, undermining civil liberties.

Reconstruction Finance Corporation 1932

established by Hoover to loan money to banks and other institutions to help them avert bankruptcy

Good Neighbor Policy

US repudiated the right to intervene militarily in internal affairs of Latin America. Belated recognition of sovereignty of American neighbours.

National Recovery Administration

Controversial federal agency created in 1933 that brought together business and labour leaders to create “codes of fair competition” and “fair labour” policies, including a national minimum wage. 

CCC

Created in 1933, public work relief program that provided outdoor manual work for unemployed men, rebuilding infrastructure and implementing conservation programs.

Agricultural Adjustment Act

Created in 1933 to improve agricultural prices by limiting market supplies.

Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

Independent agency created by the Wilson administration that replaced the Bureau of Corporations as an even more powerful tool to combat unfair trade practices and monopolies