American History: Expansion and Reform Vocabulary

Nathaniel (Nat) Turner

African American preacher who led a brutal Virginia slave revolt in 1831; captured and hanged after the revolt failed.

Missouri Compromise

A compromise put forth by Henry Clay whereby Maine would enter the Union as a Free State and Missouri would enter as a Slave State while maintaining the balance in the Senate. Established the 36° 30′ line for future expansion.

Henry Clay

Senator from Kentucky; known as the Great Compromiser; accused by Jackson of giving votes to John Q. Adams in return for a post as Secretary of State; endorsed the American System to promote economic growth; advocate of the Compromise of 1850.

American System

Plan developed by Henry Clay in the early 1800s for sectional cooperation on legislation.

"Corrupt Bargain"

An illegitimate agreement between politicians.

Mudslinging

Attempt to ruin an opponent's reputation with insults.

Spoils System

Practice of handing out government jobs to supporters, replacing government employees with the winning candidate's supporters.

Secede

To leave or withdraw.

John C. Calhoun

Senator from South Carolina; Jackson's Vice President; and main advocate for States' Rights.

Nullification

Theory that states have the right to declare a federal law invalid.

Daniel Webster

Senator from Massachusetts whose orations advocated defense of the Union.

Nativism

Hostility toward immigrants.

William Lloyd Garrison

White leader of the radical abolition movement based in Boston; founded The Liberator in 1831 to work for the immediate end to slavery.

Emancipation

The act or process of freeing enslaved persons.

Lucretia Mott

Women's rights leader; helped organize the first women's convention in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848.

Frederick Douglass

African American abolitionist leader who spoke eloquently for abolition in the United States and Britain before the Civil War.

Sojourner Truth

Abolitionist and women's rights advocate before the Civil War; as a formerly enslaved person, she spoke effectively and authentically to white audiences on abolition issues.

Know Nothings

Name given to members of the Native American Party during the 1850s.

Second Great Awakening

Protestant revival that rejected the Calvinist idea that only a chosen few were predestined for salvation, replacing it with salvation by admitting God and Christ into a person's daily life.

Joseph Smith

Founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, known as the Mormons.

Transcendentalism

A philosophy stressing the relationship between human beings and nature, spiritual things over material things, and the importance of the individual conscience.

Utopia

Community based on a vision of a perfect society sought by reformers.

Dorothea Dix

Advocate for prison reform and of special institutions for the mentally ill in Massachusetts before the Civil War.

Benevolent Society

An association focusing on spreading the word of God and combating social problems.