Key Concepts in Early American History and Society

Neomercantilism

A system in which state governments actively supported economic growth by aiding private businesses and encouraging trade.

Panic of 1819

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

Commonwealth System

A system where state governments funded private businesses to promote economic development and the public good.

Sentimentalism

A Romantic-era belief that emphasized emotion, sympathy, and feeling over reason.

Companionate Marriage

A marriage based on love, mutual respect, and partnership rather than strict male dominance.

Demographic Transition

A decline in birthrates starting in the 1790s due to cultural change, birth control, and westward migration.

Republican Motherhood

The belief that women should raise their children to be patriotic and virtuous citizens.

Manumission

The legal freeing of enslaved people.

Herrenvolk Republic

A society where democracy and freedom applied only to whites.

American Colonization Society

An organization that promoted freeing enslaved people and sending them to Africa.

Missouri Compromise

An 1820 agreement that kept a balance between free and slave states and limited where slavery could expand.

Established Church

A church officially supported by the government through taxes.

Voluntarism

A system where churches were funded by members instead of the government.

Unchurched

People who were not members of any church.

Second Great Awakening

A wave of religious revivals that increased church membership and inspired reform movements.

John Jacob Astor

A fur trader and real-estate investor who became one of America's first great businessmen.

Benjamin Rush

A reformer who promoted education and believed women should raise virtuous republican citizens.

Henry Clay

A political leader who supported compromise and colonization as a solution to slavery.

Richard Allen

A formerly enslaved man who founded the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Lyman Beecher

A religious leader who taught that people could choose salvation through free will.

Emma Willard

A pioneer of women's education who founded schools for girls.