U.S. History: Colonial, Slavery, Expansion, and Native Policies

Indentured servitude

A labor system where people worked for a set number of years in exchange for passage to America; eventually replaced by racial slavery.

Bacon's Rebellion

A 1676 uprising of frontier settlers that pushed elites toward racial slavery to prevent alliances between poor whites and Black laborers.

John Punch

An African servant sentenced to lifetime slavery in 1640; his case marked a legal shift toward racial slavery.

Status for an enslaved followed which parent

Colonial law made a child's status follow the mother, ensuring slavery remained hereditary.

Proclamation Line of 1763

British ban on colonial settlement west of the Appalachians to limit conflict with Native nations.

Paxton Boys

A Pennsylvania mob of frontier whites who murdered peaceful Native people in 1763, showing rising anti-Native violence.

Crispus Attucks

A man of African and Native descent considered the first person killed in the Boston Massacre.

Dunmore's Proclamation

A British offer of freedom to enslaved people who fled Patriot masters and joined the British army.

Fate of Loyalist slaves after the Revolution

Many were evacuated by the British to Canada, the Caribbean, or Britain; some were re-enslaved.

Northwest Ordinance of 1787

Organized the Northwest Territory, banned slavery there, and set a model for future expansion.

Changing Native diplomacy after the Revolution

Native nations lost bargaining power as the U.S. replaced Britain and pushed harder for land cessions.

Louisiana Purchase

U.S. purchase of French territory in 1803, doubling the nation and increasing pressure on Native peoples.

Pan-Indian Movements

Native leaders (like Tecumseh) promoting unity among tribes to resist U.S. expansion.

Second Slavery

The expansion and intensification of slavery in the Deep South driven by cotton and new markets after 1800.

Three-Fifths Clause

Counted enslaved people as three-fifths of a person for representation, strengthening Southern political power.

Post-Nati Emancipation

Gradual emancipation laws that freed children born after a certain date, but only after long terms of labor.

Cotton gin

Eli Whitney's 1793 machine that made cotton processing faster and led to massive expansion of slavery.

Domestic slave trade

The forced movement of enslaved people from the Upper South to the Deep South; over 1 million were sold.

Gang system

A labor system using large groups supervised closely, common on cotton plantations.

Task system

Enslaved people were given daily tasks; after finishing, they had some personal time, more common in the Carolinas.

Age and slavery

Enslaved children began work early, and elderly enslaved people often performed light labor.

Gender and slavery

Men and women both did fieldwork; women also faced sexual exploitation.

Slavery and public works

Enslaved labor built roads, canals, and other government projects.

Slavery in cities

Urban enslaved people worked as artisans, dock workers, cooks, and rented-out laborers.

The slave community

Family, religion, and culture formed strong communal bonds despite oppression.

Everyday resistance

Small, daily acts of defiance like slowing work, breaking tools, or feigning illness.

Lying out vs. escaping permanently

Temporary hiding (lying out) vs. long-term escape (fleeing to free states or Canada).

Slave rebellion

Organized violent resistance, such as uprisings led by Nat Turner or Gabriel Prosser.

Western seekers

Americans moving west for land, opportunity, and mobility in the early-mid 1800s.

Mexican-American War

1846-48 war that gave the U.S. huge southwestern territories, intensifying the slavery debate.

Wilmot Proviso

Proposal to ban slavery in land taken from Mexico; it failed but deepened sectional tensions.

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

Ended the Mexican-American War and gave the U.S. the Southwest.

Manifest Destiny

The belief that Americans were destined to expand west across the continent.

The Whitmans

Missionaries in Oregon whose deaths intensified U.S. migration and conflict with Native peoples.

The Oregon Country

The region jointly occupied by the U.S. and Britain until the 1846 boundary agreement.

California Gold Rush

Rapid population growth reshaped the economy and spurred statehood.

The social world of California

Diverse, unstable society marked by violence, racial hierarchy, and rapid change.

The California Genocide

State-supported violence, militia campaigns, and policies that killed thousands of Native Californians.

The Compromise of 1850

Admitted California as a free state and strengthened the Fugitive Slave Act.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

Allowed popular sovereignty on slavery, leading to violent conflict ('Bleeding Kansas').

The Republican Party

Founded in the 1850s to oppose the expansion of slavery.

John Brown

Radical abolitionist who used violence, including the Harpers Ferry raid, to try to end slavery.

Dred Scott v. Sandford

1857 decision declaring enslaved people were not citizens and Congress couldn't ban slavery in territories.

Initial Union war aims

Preserve the Union; not originally to abolish slavery.

Contrabands of War

Enslaved people who fled to Union lines and were treated as seized enemy property.

The Port Royal Experiment

Early wartime attempt at Black landownership, education, and paid labor in South Carolina.

The Emancipation Proclamation

Declared enslaved people in Confederate territory free and made the war about ending slavery.

Special Field Order 15

Sherman's order redistributing land ('40 acres and a mule') to freed families.

Sharecropping

A postwar labor system where freedpeople farmed land for a share of the crop, often trapping them in debt.

Rise of African American officeholding

During Reconstruction, Black men held local, state, and federal offices in large numbers.

Colfax Massacre

1873 attack by white supremacists killing over 100 Black men; symbol of Reconstruction violence.

Bargain of 1877

Ended Reconstruction; federal troops left the South, allowing white supremacist rule to return.

Lynching

Extralegal killings, often of Black Americans, used to enforce racial control.

The Nadir

Period from 1877-early 1900s when Black Americans experienced extreme racism, violence, and loss of rights.

Indigenous sovereignty

The right of Native nations to govern themselves and maintain political independence.

Homestead Act (1862)

Gave settlers free land in the West, accelerating Native dispossession.

Wounded Knee

1890 massacre of Lakota people by the U.S. Army, marking the end of the Indian Wars.

Boarding schools

Institutions that forced Native children to assimilate by removing them from families and culture.

Dawes Act

Broke up tribal land into individual allotments, aiming to force assimilation and open land for white settlement.

Buffalo Bill

Entertainer whose Wild West shows spread myths about Native people and the frontier.

Native American Church

A religious movement blending Christian elements with Native traditions, including sacramental peyote use.