Early American History Review

A set of 39 vocabulary flashcards covering major people, events, and ideas from early American history through Reconstruction.

Pequot War

1636–1637 conflict in New England that ended with English settlers massacring Pequot people

Maryland Act of Toleration (1648)

Colonial law granting limited religious freedom to both Catholics and Protestants in Maryland

Rice (South Carolina cash crop)

Labor-intensive staple that flourished in the swampy lowlands of colonial South Carolina

Scots-Irish

Frontier settlers of Gaelic heritage who distrusted English authority and shaped rural culture in the middle and southern colonies

“Lost Colony” of Roanoke

1587 English settlement that disappeared without trace, giving Roanoke its famous nickname

Puritans

Calvinist New England colonists who prized literacy and enforced strict religious conformity

Tobacco

Cash crop promoted by John Rolfe that became the economic mainstay of colonial Virginia

Maroon Communities

Settlements of escaped slaves in Georgia and Florida backwoods that sometimes allied with the Seminoles

Halfway Covenant (1662)

Puritan policy baptizing children of baptized adults, granting them partial church membership

Francisco Pizarro

Spanish conquistador who conquered the Inca Empire in the Andes

Georgia Colony

Last of the original 13 colonies, founded as a haven for European debtors

Deism

Belief in a creator god who set the universe in motion and then allowed human free will to determine events

First Great Awakening

1730s-1740s evangelical revival, influenced by German Pietism, that emphasized emotional Christianity

William Pitt

British statesman who masterminded strategy during the French and Indian War

Amerindian

Collective term for all indigenous peoples of the Americas before European colonization

Edward Braddock

British general whose poor leadership in 1755 hurt early campaigns in the Ohio River Valley

Middle Passage

Transatlantic voyage that forcibly carried enslaved Africans to plantations in the Americas

Treaty of Tordesillas (1494)

Papal-sanctioned agreement dividing New World lands between Spain (west) and Portugal (east, including Brazil)

Shays’s Rebellion

1786–1787 uprising of indebted Massachusetts farmers protesting harsh debt collection

Loyalists

American colonists—white and Black—who remained loyal to Britain during the Revolutionary War

Articles of Confederation

America’s first national framework; allowed war and treaties but created no national judiciary or taxing power

Northwest Ordinance of 1787

Law that set rules for statehood in the Northwest Territory and banned slavery north of the Ohio River

Sedition Act (1798)

Federalist law criminalizing criticism of the U.S. government, seen by Republicans as an attack on free speech

Judicial Review

Power of courts, established in Marbury v. Madison (1803), to void laws that violate the Constitution

Virginia Dynasty

Consecutive presidencies of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe (1801-1825), all Virginians and Democratic-Republicans

Barbary Coast

North African region (Tripoli, Derna, etc.) whose corsair states fought the United States in early 1800s

American System

Henry Clay’s program of protective tariffs, a national bank, and federally funded infrastructure

Trail of Tears

Forced removal of Southeastern tribes—Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, etc.—to Indian Territory; considered genocidal

Seminole Resistance

Series of wars in which the Seminole people fought U.S. removal efforts and remained in Florida

Panic of 1837

Severe economic depression triggered by British credit cutoffs and Jacksonian financial policies

Benevolent Empire

Network of 1820s-30s Protestant reform societies promoting temperance, Sabbath laws, and aid to the poor

Manifest Destiny

1840s belief that Americans were divinely destined to expand across North America to the Pacific

Fire-Eaters

Radical pro-secession Southern politicians agitating for separation after Lincoln’s 1860 election

Free Soil Party

1848–1854 political party that opposed the expansion of slavery into western territories

Crittenden Compromise

1860 proposal to protect slavery south of 36°30′ in hopes of averting Civil War; it failed

Anaconda Plan

Union naval blockade strategy designed to squeeze and isolate the Confederacy

Fourteenth Amendment

1868 amendment granting citizenship and equal protection of the laws to all persons born or naturalized in the U.S.

Freedmen’s Bureau

1865 federal agency that provided food, education, and limited land assistance to former slaves

Battle of Antietam Creek

1862 Civil War clash that became the bloodiest single day in U.S. history and led Lincoln to remove McClellan