Semester Exam Vocabulary

Abolitionism

Abolitionism

the principle or policy of abolition, especially ending slavery as an institution in the U.S. and emancipating African Americans.

Abraham Lincoln

became the United States' 16th President in 1861, issuing the Emancipation Proclamation that declared forever free those slaves within the Confederacy in 1863.

Alexander Hamilton

First Secretary of the Treasury during President Washington's administration.

American Revolution

an epic political and military struggle waged between 1765 and 1783 when 13 of Britain's North American colonies rejected its imperial rule.

American System

financial support for roads, canals, bridges

Anaconda Plan

military strategy proposed by Union General Winfield Scott early in the American Civil War

Anti-Federalists

a late-18th-century political movement that opposed the creation of a stronger U.S. federal government and which later opposed the ratification of the 1787 Constitution. The previous constitution, called the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, gave state governments more authority.

Antietam

one of the key turning points of the American Civil War

Appomattox

Gen. Robert E. Lee, the Confederacy's most respected commander, surrendered only his Army of Northern Virginia to Union Gen. Ulysses S.

Articles of Confederation

the written document that established the functions of the national government of the United States after it declared independence from Great Britain.

Battle of Yorktown

joint Franco-American land and sea campaign that entrapped a major British army on a peninsula at Yorktown, Virginia, and forced its surrender.

Lexington & Concord

the famous 'shot heard 'round the world', marked the start of the American War of Independence

Bleeding Kansas

Three distinct political groups occupied Kansas: pro-slavery, Free-Staters and abolitionists

Bull Run

the first full-scale battle of the Civil War

Civil Rights Cases

combined five different cases that revolved around the 1875 Civil Rights Act, which guaranteed all persons the enjoyment of transportation facilities, in hotels and inns and in theaters and places of public amusement regardless of race, color or previous condition of servitude.

Common Sense

a 47-page pamphlet written by Thomas Paine in 1775–1776 advocating independence from Great Britain to people in the Thirteen Colonies.

Compromise of 1850

called for the admission of California as a "free state," provided for a territorial government for Utah and New Mexico, established a boundary between Texas and the United States, called for the abolition of slave trade in Washington, DC, and amended the Fugitive Slave Act.

Compromise of 1877

also known as the Wormley Agreement or the Bargain of 1877, was an unwritten political deal in the United States to settle the intense dispute over the results of the 1876 presidential election, ending the filibuster of the certified results and the threat of political violence

Crittenden Compromise

introduced legislation that would reinstate the Missouri Compromise line, forbid the abolition of slavery on federal land in slaveholding states, compensate owners for runaway slaves, and other amendments to support the institution of slavery.

Dawes Severalty Act

allowed the federal government to break up tribal lands

Declaration of Independence

states the principles on which our government, and our identity as Americans, are based

Declaration of Sentiments

dramatize the denied citizenship claims of elite women during a period when the early republic's founding documents privileged white propertied males.

Dred Scott

An enslaved Black man who sued his owner for his freedom. Led to the Dred Scott v Sandford Case.

Emancipation Proclamation

declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free.

Enlightenment

an intellectual and cultural movement in the eighteenth century that emphasized reason over superstition and science over blind faith.

Farewell Address

exhorted Americans to set aside their violent likes and dislikes of foreign nations, lest they be controlled by their passions

Federalists

came into being between 1789 and 1790 as a national coalition of bankers and businessmen in support of Hamilton's fiscal policies. These supporters worked in every state to build an organized party committed to a fiscally sound and nationalistic government.

Fort Sumter

marked the official beginning of the American Civil War

French and Indian War

The French and Indian War was the North American conflict in a larger imperial war between Great Britain and France known as the Seven Years' War. The French and Indian War began in 1754 and ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1763.

Fugitive Slave Act

required that slaves be returned to their owners, even if they were in a free state.

George Washington

First American president, commander of the Continental Army, president of the Constitutional Convention, and farmer

Gettysburg

The Gettysburg Address declared that the United States had to stand as a country where all men are created equal and should be treated as equals.

The Battle of Gettysburg was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, by Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War.

Ghost Dance

a religious revitalization uniting Indians to restore ancestral customs, the disappearance of whites, and the return of buffalo.

Grandfather clauses

laws put in place in the South after the U.S. Civil War to prevent African Americans from voting.

Harriet Beecher Stowe

published more than 30 books, but it was her best-selling anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin that catapulted her to international celebrity and secured her place in history

Henry Clay

a leader of an anti-British group of Congressmen known as the War Hawks while a U.S. Representative and Speaker of the House from 1811 to 1814.

Homestead Act

provided 160 acres of federal land to anyone who agreed to farm the land

John Burgoyne

a British general during the American Revolution, he is best known for his defeat at the Battle of Saratoga, where he surrendered to the Americans under the Convention of Saratoga.

John Jay

one of the framers of the Constitution, author of five of The Federalist Papers, and the first Chief Justice of the United States.

John Marshall

Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court

Joseph Smith

Bet=st known for his translation of the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ.

Judicial Review

the ability of the Court to declare a Legislative or Executive act in violation of the Constitution

Kansas-Nebraska Act

repealed the Missouri Compromise, created two new territories, and allowed for popular sovereignty

Laws of Primogeniture

a system of inheritance in which a person's property passes to their firstborn legitimate child upon their death.

Literacy Tests

An exam to assess a person’s ability to read and write. It was a method to deter Black men to vote.

Little Big Horn

A battle between the Lakota and Cheyenne and Custer and his men. The Lakota and Cheyenne won.

Louisiana Purchase

A transaction with France that doubled the size of the US, expanding the nation westward.

Loyalist

colonists in the Thirteen Colonies who remained loyal to the British Crown during the American Revolutionary War

Manifest Destiny

the idea that white Americans were divinely ordained to settle the entire continent of North America.

Marbury v. Madison

established the principle of judicial review—the power of the federal courts to declare legislative and executive acts unconstitutional.

Mercantilism

based on the idea that a nation's wealth and power were best served by increasing exports and reducing imports

Mexican Cession

the lands ceded or surrendered to the United States by Mexico at the end of the Mexican–American War.

Mexican-American War

an invasion of Mexico by the United States Army from 1846 to 1848.

Mormons

a religious group (full name Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints) who were followers of Joseph Smith

Nativism

the political policy of promoting the interests of native inhabitants against those of immigrants, including by supporting immigration-restriction measures.

Navigation Acts

A series of laws passed by the British Parliament that imposed restrictions on colonial trade.

Nullification Acts

Stated the protective tariffs were “unauthorized by the Constitution of the US…and are null and void.”

Old World

Europe, Africa, and Asia

Poll Taxes

A way to discriminate against black voters, it required voters to pay a fee in order to enter polling places to cast their ballots.

popular Sovereignty

Government based on the consent of the people.

Plessy v. Ferguson

Established the constitutionality of laws mandating separate but equal public accommodations for African Americans

Reconstruction

Era after the Civil War, where the US grappled with the question of how to integrate millions of newly freed African American into social, political, and labor systems.

Republican Motherhood

Centered on the belief that the patriot’s daughters should be raised to uphold the ideals of republicanism, in order to pass on republican values to the next generation.

Sand Creek

Roughly 700 federal troops attacked a village of 500 Cheyenne and Arapaho on Sand Creek in Colorado.

Second Great Awakening

A protestant revival movement during the early 19th century in the US

Seneca Falls

Important to the 1st women’s rights convention in the United States.

Sharcropping

A system where the landlord/planter allows a tenant to use the land in exchange for a share of the crop.

Stephen Douglas

He wrote the Kansas Nebraska Act

Sumner-Brooks incident

An incident in the Senate where Brooks caned Sumner due to his speech regarding the Bleeding Kansas incident.

Thomas Jefferson

A founding father, wrote the Declaration of Independence, and 3rd president of the U.S. He also bought Louisiana for the United States.

Thomas Paine

An English-American writer and political pamphleteer. He wrote Common Sense and the Crisis Papers, which were important influences to the American Revolution.

Trans-Atlantic slave trade

African tries exchanged captive Africans with European slave traders, who transported them to the Americas under inhumane conditions.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

An anti-slavery novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Talked about the experience of two different slaves, on who was able to escape with his life and one who escaped in his death.

Whigs

emerged in 1830s

opposed Andrew Jackson, pulling together former members of the National Republican Party

Wounded Knee

December 29,1890

The slaughter of approx. 150-300 Lakota Indians by the US Army troops in southwester Dakota. This was the climax of the Army’s efforts to repress the Plains Indians.