American History Review Flashcards

A set of 142 vocabulary flashcards covering major themes and events in U.S. history from the Missouri Compromise through the early New Deal.

Missouri Compromise

An 1820 agreement that admitted Maine as a free state and Missouri as a slave state, establishing a boundary for slavery at latitude $36\,30'$.

Federalism vs. states' rights

The ongoing constitutional debate concerning the balance of power between the national government and individual state governments.

Henry Clay

Known as the 'Great Compromiser,' a statesman who advocated for the American System and brokered major legislative compromises.

American System

Henry Clay's economic plan consisting of a high protective tariff, a national bank, and federally funded internal improvements.

Corrupt Bargain

The alleged deal between John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay to secure Adams the presidency over Andrew Jackson in the 1824 election.

Tariff of Abominations

A high 1828 tariff that was deeply hated by Southerners who felt it unfairly favored Northern industry at their expense.

Indian Removal Act

An 1830 law that authorized the forced relocation of Native American tribes from the Southeast to designated territory west of the Mississippi.

Andrew Jackson

The 7th U.S. President, associated with the rise of mass democracy, the Spoils System, and aggressive Native American removal policies.

Internal improvements

The development of infrastructure such as roads, canals, and bridges funded by state or federal governments.

German and Irish immigration

The mid-$19^{th}$ century influx of European migrants seeking economic opportunity or fleeing famine and political unrest.

Second Great Awakening

A period of religious revivalism in the early $19^{th}$ century that sparked numerous social reform movements.

Industrial Revolution

The transition from hand production to machine manufacturing and the rise of the factory system.

Transportation Revolution

A period of rapid growth in the speed and efficiency of travel due to new canals, steamboats, and railroads.

Communication Revolution

The rapid advancement in information sharing, most notably through the invention of the telegraph.

Market Revolution

The fundamental shift in the U.S. economy toward a national commercial network and away from local subsistence farming.

Urban political machines

Highly organized political groups, such as Tammany Hall, that controlled city governments through patronage and immigrant votes.

Cult of domesticity

The $19^{th}$-century belief that a woman's proper role was in the home as the moral guardian of the family.

Temperance movement

A social reform effort aimed at reducing or prohibiting the consumption of alcoholic beverages.

Cotton gin

Eli Whitney's 1793 invention that made cotton production highly profitable and revitalized the institution of slavery.

Radical abolitionism

A sector of the anti-slavery movement that demanded the immediate and uncompensated end of slavery.

Abolitionism, colonization

The early anti-slavery movement that proposed freeing enslaved people and sending them to colonies in Africa, such as Liberia.

Seneca Falls

The site of the 1848 convention where Elizabeth Cady Stanton and others issued the Declaration of Sentiments for women's rights.

Mountain whites

Independent small farmers in the Appalachian valleys who typically opposed the plantation system and remained loyal to the Union.

Cotton belt

The region in the Deep South where cotton was the dominant crop and slave labor was most heavily concentrated.

Nat Turner's rebellion

An 1831 slave uprising in Virginia that resulted in stricter slave codes and heightened Southern fears of insurrection.

Southern social structure before the Civil War

A rigid hierarchy dominated by a small class of wealthy, slave-owning plantation elites.

Northern and southern economies

The economic contrast between the industrial, diversified North and the agrarian, slave-based, single-crop export economy of the South.

Manifest Destiny

The belief that the United States was divinely ordained to expand its territory across the North American continent to the Pacific.

Texas Rebellion

The 1836 conflict in which American settlers in Texas fought for and won independence from Mexico.

California Bear Flag Republic

The short-lived government established by American rebels in California during the Mexican-American War.

James K. Polk

The 11th U.S. President, known for his expansionist policies and leading the nation during the Mexican-American War.

Whig Party

A political party formed in opposition to Andrew Jackson that supported the American System and social reforms.

Wilmot Proviso

A proposed 1846 amendment that sought to prohibit slavery in any territory acquired from the Mexican-American War.

Gold Rush of 1848

The mass migration to California following the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill, leading to rapid statehood.

Mexican-American War

A conflict (1846–1848) between the U.S. and Mexico sparked by territorial disputes over Texas and California.

Mexican Cession

The vast territory surrendered by Mexico to the U.S. in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, including present-day California and the Southwest.

Free Soil Party

A political party dedicated to stopping the expansion of slavery into the western territories.

Popular sovereignty

The principle that the settlers of a given territory should decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery.

Underground Railroad

A secret network of routes and safe houses used by enslaved people to escape to the North or Canada.

Bleeding Kansas

The period of civil unrest and violent conflict between pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers in Kansas Territory.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

An 1854 law that allowed popular sovereignty in Kansas and Nebraska, effectively repealing the Missouri Compromise.

Dred Scott v. Sanford

The 1857 Supreme Court ruling that African Americans were not citizens and that Congress had no power to ban slavery in territories.

John Brown

A radical abolitionist who led a violent raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry in hopes of starting a slave revolt.

Reorganization of two-party system

The political shift in the 1850s that saw the collapse of the Whigs and the rise of the Republican Party over the issue of slavery.

Election of Abraham Lincoln

The 1860 presidential contest that led directly to the secession of the Southern states from the Union.

Secession movement

The formal withdrawal of eleven Southern states from the Union to form the Confederate States of America.

Southern and northern advantages and disadvantages

The comparison of the North's industrial and population strength against the South's defensive position and military leadership.

Union war aims

Original goals focused on preserving the Union, later evolving to include the abolition of slavery.

Lincoln's wartime policies

Executive actions including the suspension of habeas corpus and the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Border states

The slave states (Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, and Missouri) that did not secede during the Civil War.

Substitutes and the draft

The practice during the Civil War where wealthy draftees could pay for a replacement to serve in their place.

War bonds

Government-issued debt certificates sold to the public to finance the cost of the Civil War.

Sherman's March to the Sea

General William T. Sherman's total war campaign through Georgia intended to destroy Confederate infrastructure and morale.

Reconstruction

The era following the Civil War (1865–1877) focused on reintegrating the South and protecting the rights of freedmen.

Hard and soft Reconstruction plans

The debate between the lenient Ten Percent Plan (Lincoln/Johnson) and the punitive Radical Republican approach.

Freedmen's Bureau

A federal agency created to provide food, medical care, and education to former slaves and poor whites after the war.

Black Codes

Restrictive laws passed by Southern states after the Civil War to limit the freedom and labor of African Americans.

Carpetbaggers and scallywags

Terms for Northerners who moved south for opportunity and Southern whites who supported Republican Reconstruction policies.

Reconstruction Amendments

The $13^{th}$, $14^{th}$, and $15^{th}$ Amendments which abolished slavery, granted citizenship, and guaranteed voting rights.

Ku Klux Klan

A white supremacist secret society that used terrorism and violence to oppose Reconstruction and civil rights for Black Americans.

Redeemer governments

Southern Democratic administrations that sought to oust Republican influence and restore white supremacy at the end of Reconstruction.

End of Reconstruction

Determined by the Compromise of 1877, which removed federal troops from the South.

Homestead Act

An 1862 law that provided 160 acres of public land to settlers who agreed to farm it for at least five years.

Morrill Land-Grant Act

The 1862 act that granted federal land to states to establish colleges specializing in agriculture and mechanical arts.

Transcontinental railroads

The rail link completed in 1869 that connected the eastern United States with the Pacific coast.

Railroad funding methods

The use of massive federal land grants and government loans to encourage private companies to build rail lines.

Railroad effects

The social and economic impacts of rail, including standardized time, national markets, and the near-extinction of the buffalo.

Interstate Commerce Commission

The first federal regulatory agency, established in 1887 to oversee railroad practices and prevent unfair rates.

Western economic development

Growth driven by mining, ranching, and commercial farming following the expansion of the railroad.

Indian Reservation system

Federal policy of confining Native American tribes to specific, often marginal, tracts of land to make room for white settlement.

Dawes-Severalty Act

An 1887 law that broke up tribal lands into individual allotments to encourage private ownership and assimilation.

Native American "boarding schools"

Institutions such as the Carlisle School designed to strip Native children of their culture and force assimilation into white society.

Assimilation

The federal policy of forcing Native Americans to adopt the language, religion, and customs of white Americans.

Turner thesis

Frederick Jackson Turner's argument that the frontier experience was the primary factor in shaping American democracy and character.

Sharecropping

A labor system in which tenant farmers work land owned by another in return for a share of the crops produced.

Jim Crow

A system of state and local laws that mandated racial segregation in all public facilities throughout the South.

Southern voter suppression

The application of poll taxes, literacy tests, and grandfather clauses to disenfranchise African American voters.

Second Industrial Revolution

A period of late $19^{th}$-century expansion focused on steel production, electricity, and chemical manufacturing.

Monopolies

Business entities that gain total control over a specific industry, eliminating competition.

Trusts

Large-scale business combinations managed by a single board of trustees to set prices and dominate markets.

John D. Rockefeller

The industrialist who founded Standard Oil and utilized horizontal integration to control the oil industry.

Andrew Carnegie

The steel magnate who utilized vertical integration and became a leading philanthropist.

J.P. Morgan

A powerful investment banker who reorganized railroads and financed the creation of U.S. Steel.

Horizontal integration

The business strategy of acquiring or merging with competitors in the same stage of production.

Vertical integration

A business model where a single company controls all phases of production, from raw materials to final distribution.

Criticisms of trusts

Concerns over reduced competition, corruption of political officials, and the exploitation of workers.

Sherman Anti-Trust Act

The 1890 federal law that committed the government to opposing monopolies, though it was initially weak.

Laissez-faire economics

The doctrine that the government should not interfere in the operations of the free market.

Social Darwinism

The application of 'survival of the fittest' to human society, used to justify wealth inequality and corporate dominance.

Gospel of Wealth

Andrew Carnegie's belief that the rich have a moral obligation to distribute their wealth for the public good.

Conspicuous consumption

The practice of purchasing luxury goods and services as a public display of wealth and social status.

Growth of labor unions

The formation of organizations like the Knights of Labor and the AFL to advocate for better wages and working conditions.

Labor wars

A series of violent conflicts between workers and industry owners, such as the Homestead and Pullman strikes.

Panic of 1873

A severe economic depression triggered by the failure of Jay Cooke & Company and over-speculation in railroads.

"New" immigrants

The wave of migrants arriving after 1880, largely from Southern and Eastern Europe, who were often Catholic or Jewish.

Nativism

The policy or sentiment of protecting the interests of native-born inhabitants against those of immigrants.

Chinese Exclusion Act

The 1882 law that prohibited all immigration of Chinese laborers, the first major restriction on a specific nationality.

Tenements

Overcrowded and poorly built apartment buildings that housed the urban poor and immigrant populations.

Settlement houses

Community centers, like Jane Addams's Hull House, providing social services and education to the urban poor.

Growth of the middle classes

The emergence of a professional class of managers, accountants, and engineers during the industrial era.