HIS 120 Text Readings Study Guide Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering the post-Revolutionary transformation, the Articles of Confederation, and the Market Revolution (1815–1850) from HIS 120.

Treaty of Paris (1783)

The peace treaty ending the American Revolution that defined the U.S. western border at the Mississippi River and ceded Indigenous lands to the U.S. without Native representation.

George Washington's Resignation

The December 1783 resignation of Washington's military commission before Congress in Annapolis, MD, establishing civilian control over the military and a precedent for peaceful power transfer.

The Loyalist Diaspora

The flight of over 80,000 Loyalists, freed Black refugees, and Indigenous allies from the U.S. to locations such as Canada, Sierra Leone, and the Caribbean after property confiscation.

Freetown

A settlement in Sierra Leone founded by approximately 2,000 freed Black allies who left the United States following the Revolutionary War.

Republicanism

A political ideology emphasizing representative democracy governed by elected legislators representing property-holding White men rather than a monarchy.

Articles of Confederation

The first national framework of government (ratified 1781) featuring a single-house legislature without an executive, national courts, or direct taxation powers.

Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom

A 1786 statute authored by Thomas Jefferson that disestablished state support for churches and guaranteed the separation of church and state in Virginia.

Dunmore Proclamation

A 1775 offer by the Royal Governor of Virginia promising freedom to enslaved individuals who fled to serve in the British military.

Coverture

A legal principle under common law that placed a married woman's legal identity under her husband's control, denying her independent property rights and voting rights.

Deborah Sampson

A Revolutionary War figure who disguised herself as a man to fight covertly in the Continental Army.

National (Cumberland) Road

The first federally funded interstate highway (begun 1811) extending from Maryland to Illinois, which lowered transport costs and accelerated western settlement.

Erie Canal

A 363-mile artificial waterway completed in 1825 connecting Buffalo to Albany, cutting freight costs from $100 to $5 per ton and positioning New York City as a chief economic hub.

Robert Fulton

The engineer who commercialized the steamboat in 1807, enabling efficient two-way navigation along the Mississippi and Ohio river systems.

Electromagnetic Telegraph

A communication device developed by Samuel F. B. Morse (first intercity message in 1844) that revolutionized business coordination and railroad logistics.

Penny Press

Cheap, mass-produced newspapers enabled by steam-powered printing presses during the Market Revolution.

Cotton Gin

Eli Whitney's 1793 machine that increased cotton seed-separation productivity 50-fold, transforming cotton into 60% of all U.S. exports by 1860.

Domestic Slave Trade ("Sold South")

The forced internal migration and sale of enslaved workers from the Upper South to the Lower South to sustain growing cotton plantations.

Steel Plow

John Deere's 1837 invention designed to break tough prairie sod, facilitating commercial wheat and corn farming in the Midwest.

Mechanical Reaper

Cyrus McCormick's 1831 agricultural invention that automated wheat harvesting for Midwestern commercial farmers.

Samuel Slater

An industrial pioneer who used British mill designs to build the first water-powered spinning mill in Rhode Island in 1790.

Lowell System

A textile production framework in Massachusetts that recruited young, unmarried farm women and housed them in supervised company dormitories.

Irish Potato Famine (1845)

A major famine in Ireland that triggered mass emigration to Northeastern U.S. cities, where Irish workers performed manual labor and faced anti-Catholic hostility.

Know-Nothing Party

A political organization (the American Party) originating from secret anti-immigrant societies like the Order of the Star-Spangled Banner, aimed at restricting naturalization rights and barring immigrants from holding office.

Compromise of 1850

Admitted California as a free state and passed a strict Fugitive Slave Law, enraging the North and fueling the abolitionist movement.

Fugitive Slave Law (1850)

A key component of the Compromise of 1850 that mandated federal assistance in capturing escaped slaves, inspiring northern anti-slavery resistance.

Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)

Introduced popular sovereignty in northern territories, repealed the Missouri Compromise line, led to 'Bleeding Kansas,' and birthed the Republican Party.

Popular Sovereignty

The political principle allowing residents of a territory to vote directly on whether to permit slavery.

Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)

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

Election of 1860

Abraham Lincoln won without carrying a single Southern state, prompting South Carolina and the Deep South to secede from the Union.

Anaconda Plan

The Union military strategy proposing a naval blockade of the South and control of the Mississippi River to strangle the Confederacy.

Battle of Antietam (1862)

The bloodiest single-day battle in American history; gave Lincoln the political opening to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.

Emancipation Proclamation (1863)

Executive order freeing slaves in Confederate-held areas, transforming the war into a crusade to end slavery and enabling Black military recruitment.

Gettysburg & Vicksburg (1863)

Pivotal dual victories in July 1863 that served as the primary military turning points of the Civil War in favor of the Union.

Sherman's March to the Sea

A total-war military campaign through Georgia that destroyed Southern infrastructure, railways, and economic capacity.

13th Amendment (1865)

Constitutional amendment that permanently abolished slavery and involuntary servitude in the United States.

14th Amendment (1868)

Constitutional amendment granting national citizenship, due process, and equal protection under the law to all born in the U.S.

15th Amendment (1870)

Constitutional amendment prohibiting denial of voting rights based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Radical Reconstruction

Congressional phase of Reconstruction that imposed military rule over the South to enforce Black political rights and override President Johnson.

Black Codes

Southern state laws passed immediately after the Civil War to restrict African Americans' freedom and compel them to work in a labor economy.

Compromise of 1877

Unwritten deal settling the disputed 1876 election; pulled federal troops out of the South and effectively ended Reconstruction.

Laissez-Faire Capitalism

Economic philosophy advocating minimal government intervention or regulation in private business affairs.

American Federation of Labor (AFL)

Labor union founded by Samuel Gompers that focused on skilled workers and 'bread-and-butter' issues like higher wages and shorter hours.

Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)

Federal law prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers; reflected rising anti-immigrant nativism in the Gilded Age.

Dawes Severalty Act (1887)

Law breaking up tribal lands into individual plots to force Native American assimilation into American agricultural society.

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

Supreme Court decision establishing the 'separate but equal' doctrine, legitimizing legal Jim Crow segregation across the South.

Populist Party (People's Party)

Third party formed in 1892 by farmers advocating for free silver coinage, a progressive income tax, and government regulation of railroads.

Spanish-American War (1898)

Conflict sparked by yellow journalism and the sinking of the U.S.S. Maine that resulted in the U.S. acquiring Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines.