A.P. United States History Comprehensive Exam Terms

Vocabulary-style flashcards covering major eras in United States history from the Colonial period through the late 20th century, as listed in the provided lecture notes.

Huguenots

French Protestants who often sought refuge in the American colonies during the 17th and 18th centuries.

House of Burgesses

The first elected legislative assembly in the New World, established in the Colony of Virginia.

Headright System

A land grant program that gave 50 acres of land to settlers who paid their own passage or the passage of others to Virginia.

Mayflower Compact

The first governing document of Plymouth Colony, signed by the Pilgrims to establish a self-governing community.

City on a Hill

John Winthrop's vision for the Massachusetts Bay Colony as a model Puritan society for the world.

Maryland Toleration Act

A 1649 law that guaranteed religious freedom to all Christians in Maryland, specifically to protect Catholics.

Salutary Neglect

The British policy of relaxed enforcement of parliamentary laws in the colonies in exchange for economic loyalty.

Albany Plan of Union

A 1754 proposal by Benjamin Franklin to create a unified government for the thirteen colonies.

Common Sense

A pamphlet written by Thomas Paine that argued for American independence from Great Britain.

Articles of Confederation

The first written constitution of the United States, creating a weak central government and strong state powers.

Northwest Ordinance 1787

Federal legislation that established a process for admitting new states to the Union and prohibited slavery in the Northwest Territory.

Great Compromise

An agreement reached during the Constitutional Convention that established a bicameral legislature with proportional and equal representation.

Marbury v. Madison

A landmark Marshall Court case that established the principle of judicial review.

Monroe Doctrine

A U.S. policy opposing European colonialism in the Americas, stating that further efforts by European nations to colonize land would be viewed as acts of aggression.

Trail of Tears

The forced relocation of the Cherokee nation to Oklahoma following the Indian Removal Act of 1830.

Seneca Falls Convention

The first women's rights convention in the U.S., which discussed the social, civil, and religious rights of women.

Lowell System

A labor and production model for manufacturing textile goods centered on young, single women living in company-owned housing.

Manifest Destiny

The 19th-century belief that the expansion of the United States throughout the American continents was both justified and inevitable.

Wilmot Proviso

A proposed law to ban slavery in territory acquired from Mexico as a result of the Mexican-American War.

Dred Scott v. Sanford

A Supreme Court ruling that African Americans were not citizens and that Congress had no power to forbid slavery in U.S. territories.

Emancipation Proclamation

An executive order issued by Abraham Lincoln freeing all enslaved people in Confederate-held territory.

Freedmen’s Bureau

A government agency established after the Civil War to provide aid, education, and legal assistance to former slaves.

Plessy v. Ferguson

The 1896 Supreme Court decision that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation under the "separate but equal" doctrine.

Social Darwinism

The application of biological concepts of natural selection and "survival of the fittest" to sociology and economics.

Muckrakers

Progressive Era journalists, such as Jacob Riis and Ida Tarbell, who exposed corruption and social injustices.

Harlem Renaissance

An intellectual and cultural revival of African American music, dance, art, and literature in the 1920s.

New Deal

President Franklin D. Roosevelt's series of programs and reforms intended to provide relief, recovery, and reform during the Great Depression.

Containment

A Cold War foreign policy proposed by George Kennan aimed at stopping the spread of communism.

Great Society

President Lyndon B. Johnson's domestic initiatives designed to end poverty and racial injustice.

Reagonomics

Economic policies promoted by Ronald Reagan, characterized by supply-side economics and tax cuts.