US History Lexicon Flashcards

This set of flashcards provides definitions for the key historical terms, figures, and events listed in the lecture notes, from the early 19th-century compromises to the conclusion of the Vietnam War.

Missouri Compromise

An $1820$ legislative agreement that maintained the balance of power between slave and free states by admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state.

Federalism vs. states' rights

The ongoing political debate regarding the balance of power between the national government and individual state governments.

Henry Clay

A prominent statesman known as the "Great Compromiser" and a primary advocate for the American System.

American System

Henry Clay's nationalistic economic plan consisting of a high protective tariff, a national bank, and internal improvements like roads and canals.

Corrupt Bargain

Allegation made by Jackson supporters regarding the Election of $1824$, claiming Henry Clay traded his support for John Quincy Adams for the position of Secretary of State.

Tariff of Abominations

A very high protective tariff passed in $1828$ that was vehemently opposed by Southern states due to its negative impact on their economy.

Indian Removal Act

An $1830$ law signed by Andrew Jackson that authorized the forced relocation of Native American tribes to territory west of the Mississippi River.

Andrew Jackson

The seventh U.S. President, whose administration was marked by the expansion of white male suffrage, the Indian Removal Act, and a strong stance against the national bank.

Internal improvements

Federal or state-funded infrastructure projects, such as the construction of roads, canals, and bridges.

German immigration

Wave of mid-$19\text{th}$ century immigrants who often arrived with some resources and settled as farmers in the Midwest.

Irish immigration

Wave of mid-$19\text{th}$ century immigrants fleeing the Great Famine, typically settling in Northern cities and working in low-skilled industrial or domestic jobs.

Second Great Awakening

A religious revival movement in the early $19\text{th}$ century that emphasized individual salvation and fueled various social reform movements.

Industrial Revolution

The transition to new manufacturing processes in the $19\text{th}$ century, characterized by the move from hand production to machines and factories.

Transportation Revolution

A period of rapid growth in the speed and convenience of travel, driven by the development of steamboats, canals, and early railroads.

Communication Revolution

The period of rapid innovation in information sharing, most notably marked by the invention of the telegraph.

Market Revolution

The expansion and integration of markets in the U.S. during the early $19\text{th}$ century, shifting the economy from local subsistence to national commerce.

Urban political machines

Highly organized political groups in cities that traded services and patronage for votes, often led by a local "boss."

Cult of domesticity

A $19\text{th}$ century cultural creed that limited women's sphere to the home, emphasizing their roles as moral guardians of the family.

Temperance movement

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

Cotton gin

Eli Whitney's invention that automated the removal of seeds from cotton fiber, dramatically increasing the profitability of cotton and the demand for slave labor.

Radical abolitionism

A movement that sought the immediate, uncompensated end of slavery and often advocated for equal rights for African Americans.

Abolitionism

The general movement or belief system dedicated to the legal and social termination of slavery in the United States.

Colonization

The proposal to solve the issue of slavery by emancipating enslaved people and sending them to established colonies in Africa, such as Liberia.

Seneca Falls

The site of the $1848$ convention where the Declaration of Sentiments was issued, demanding equal rights for women, including suffrage.

Mountain whites

Independent, small-scale farmers in the Appalachian valleys who typically held few or no slaves and often remained loyal to the Union.

Cotton belt

A region of the Southern United States where cotton was the primary cash crop and the foundation of the plantation economy.

Nat Turner's rebellion

A violent slave uprising in Virginia in $1831$ that resulted in the deaths of over $50$ white people and led to harsher slave codes across the South.

Southern social structure before the Civil War

A rigid hierarchy topped by a small planter elite, followed by small farmers, landless whites, and enslaved African Americans.

Northern economy

A diversified economic system based on industrial manufacturing, commercial banking, and small-scale free labor agriculture.

Southern economy

An agrarian economic system heavily dependent on slave labor and the production of cash crops, primarily cotton.

Manifest Destiny

The $19\text{th}$ century belief that the United States was divinely ordained to expand its territory across the North American continent to the Pacific Ocean.

Texas Rebellion

The $1835-1836$ conflict between American settlers in Texas and the Mexican government, resulting in the establishment of the Republic of Texas.

California Bear Flag Republic

A short-lived independent state declared by American settlers in California in $1846$ during the early stages of the Mexican-American War.

James K. Polk

The $11\text{th}$ U.S. President, known for his expansionist goals and leading the country through the Mexican-American War.

Whig Party

A political party organized in the $1830$s in opposition to Andrew Jackson, favoring a strong federal government and the American System.

Wilmot Proviso

A proposed $1846$ bill meant to prohibit slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico as a result of the war.

Gold Rush of $1848$

The mass migration of thousands of people to California following the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill.

Mexican-American War

The conflict between $1846$ and $1848$ regarding territorial disputes that resulted in the U.S. acquisition of a vast portion of Mexico's northern lands.

Mexican Cession

The land ceded by Mexico to the U.S. in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, including modern-day California, Nevada, and Utah.

Free Soil Party

A political party formed in $1848$ that opposed the expansion of slavery into new Western territories because of the competition it posed to free white labor.

Popular sovereignty

The principle that the residents of a territory should decide for themselves whether to allow or prohibit slavery.

Underground Railroad

A secret network of routes and safe houses used by enslaved African Americans to escape to free states or Canada.

Bleeding Kansas

A series of violent confrontations in the Kansas Territory between pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers following the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

An $1854$ law that repealed the Missouri Compromise and allowed popular sovereignty to determine the status of slavery in Kansas and Nebraska.

Dred Scott v. Sanford

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

John Brown

A radical abolitionist who led a failed raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry in $1859$ to start an armed slave revolt.

Reorganization of two-party system

The mid-$1850$s political realignment that saw the collapse of the Whigs and the emergence of the Republican Party.

Election of Abraham Lincoln

The presidential victory in $1860$ that led several Southern states to secede from the Union, triggering the Civil War.

Secession movement

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

Southern advantages

Strategic benefits held by the Confederacy, including defensive position, superior military leadership, and knowledge of home terrain.

Northern advantages

Strategic benefits held by the Union, including a much larger population, industrial manufacturing capacity, and a superior railway network.

Union war aims

The shifting goals of the North, beginning with the preservation of the Union and evolving to include the total abolition of slavery.

Lincoln's wartime policies

Executive actions during the Civil War, including the suspension of habeas corpus and the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Border states

Slave states that remained in the Union: Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware.

Substitutes and the draft

Provision in conscription laws allowing wealthy men to pay a fee or hire a replacement to serve in their place in the military.

War bonds

Debt securities issued by the government to finance military operations during the Civil War.

Sherman's March to the Sea

General William T. Sherman's destructive military campaign through Georgia in $1864$, designed to destroy Southern supplies and morale.

Reconstruction

The period after the Civil War ($1865-1877$) focused on rebuilding the South and reintegrating seceded states into the Union.

Hard Reconstruction plans

The Congressional approach to Reconstruction which sought to punish the South and mandatorily protect the rights of freedmen.

Soft Reconstruction plans

The presidential approach to Reconstruction, favored by Lincoln and Johnson, which advocated for quick reconciliation and leniency.

Freedmen's Bureau

A federal agency established in $1865$ to provide food, clothing, healthcare, and education to former slaves and poor whites in the South.

Black Codes

Restrictive laws passed by Southern states during Reconstruction to limit the freedoms and control the labor of African Americans.

Carpetbaggers

A derogatory term for Northerners who moved to the South after the Civil War to participate in Reconstruction governments or seek economic gain.

Scallywags

A derogatory term for Southern whites who supported the Republican Party and the Reconstruction policies.

Reconstruction Amendments

The $13\text{th}$, $14\text{th}$, and $15\text{th}$ Amendments to the Constitution, which abolished slavery and expanded civil and voting rights.

$13\text{th}$ Amendment

Constitutional amendment ratified in $1865$ that officially abolished slavery and involuntary servitude in the United States.

$14\text{th}$ Amendment

Constitutional amendment ratified in $1868$ that granted citizenship to all persons born in the U.S. and guaranteed equal protection of the laws.

$15\text{th}$ Amendment

Constitutional amendment ratified in $1870$ that prohibited the denial of the right to vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Ku Klux Klan

A white supremacist secret society that used violence and intimidation to suppress the rights of African Americans and Republican voters.

Redeemer governments

Southern Democratic governments that replaced Reconstruction administrations and sought to restore the pre-war social and political order.

End of Reconstruction

The conclusion of federal oversight in the South, solidified by the Compromise of $1877$ and the removal of Union troops.

Homestead Act

An $1862$ law that provided $160$ acres of public land in the West to any citizen who would settle and cultivate it for five years.

Morrill Land-Grant Act

An $1862$ law that gave federal land to states to establish colleges specializing in agriculture and mechanical arts.

Transcontinental railroads

Railway lines that linked the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the United States, completed in $1869$.

Railroad funding methods

The use of federal land grants and government subsidies to finance the massive cost of building Western rail lines.

Railroad social effects

The transformation of society through increased mobility, the growth of new towns, and the standardisation of time zones.

Railroad economic effects

The creation of a truly national market and the stimulation of industries like steel, coal, and timber.

Railroad cultural effects

The role of the railroad in fostering national identity and fulfilling the vision of westward expansion.

Interstate Commerce Commission

The first federal regulatory agency, established in $1887$ to monitor and regulate railroad practices and rates.

Western economic development

Growth in the American West driven by mining booms, the cattle industry, and commercial farming.

Indian Reservation system

Federal policy of confining Native American tribes to specific, often undesirable, tracts of land.

Dawes-Severalty Act

An $1887$ law intended to assimilate Native Americans by breaking up tribal lands into individual private plots.

Native American "boarding schools"

Educational institutions created to strip Native American children of their culture and force assimilation into Euro-American society.

Assimilation

The process of absorbing one cultural group into the harmony of another, often through force or targeted education.

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 the post-war South where farmers worked land owned by others in exchange for a portion of the harvest, often leading to a cycle of debt.

Jim Crow

A system of state and local laws that enforced racial segregation and disenfranchised African Americans in the South.

Southern voter suppression

Practices such as literacy tests, poll taxes, and grandfather clauses used to prevent African Americans from voting.

Second Industrial Revolution

A phase of rapid industrialization in the late $19\text{th}$ century characterized by the growth of steel, oil, and electricity.

Monopolies

Business entities that have total control over a specific market, eliminating competition.

Trusts

Large business combinations where shareholders transfer their stock to a board of trustees to control an industry.

John D. Rockefeller

Industrialist who founded Standard Oil and dominated the oil industry through the use of trusts and horizontal integration.

Andrew Carnegie

Steel magnate who pioneered vertical integration and later became a leading philanthropist.

J.P. Morgan

A powerful investment banker who orchestrated the consolidation of various industries, including the creation of U.S. Steel.

Horizontal integration

A business expansion strategy that involves acquiring competitive companies in the same industry to eliminate competition.

Vertical integration

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

Criticisms of trusts

Concerns regarding the lack of competition, unfair pricing, and the excessive political power of industrial giants.

Sherman Anti-Trust Act

An $1890$ law that prohibited contracts or conspiracies in restraint of trade, though it was initially weak and difficult to enforce.

Laissez-faire economics

The economic theory that the government should not interfere in the workings of the free market.

Social Darwinism

The application of the "survival of the fittest" concept to human society and business, used to justify wealth inequality.