19th Century US History Vocabulary Review

Vocabulary practice cards focusing on key political expansion, economic shifts, social reform movements, and the conflict leading through the American Civil War.

Republican simplicity

The governing stance of Jefferson’s Administration characterized by a smaller government, plain living, and a reduction in government expenditures and taxes.

Marbury v Madison

The $1803$ Supreme Court decision regarding the Judiciary Act of $1789$ that established the principle of judicial review.

Judicial review

The power of federal courts to declare executive and legislative acts unconstitutional.

Haitian Revolution

A slave rebellion in the French colony of Saint-Domingue from $1791$ to $1804$ that resulted in the first independent Black nation.

Louisiana Purchase

The $1803$ purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France by Thomas Jefferson for $15$ million dollars.

Barbary pirates

North Africans who waged war on the United States after President Jefferson refused to pay bribes to protect American shipping.

Embargo Act of 1807

A law promoted by Jefferson that prohibited American ships from leaving for foreign ports to protect them from British and French attacks, resulting in economic disaster.

Battle of Tippecanoe

An $1811$ battle in northern Indiana between United States troops and Indigenous warriors led by Tenskwatawa.

Treaty of Ghent

The $1814$ agreement between Britain and the United States that ended the War of $1812$ and restored the status quo antebellum.

Hartford Convention

Secret meetings of New England Federalists to protest the War of $1812$ and propose limiting presidents to a single term, which ultimately weakened the Federalist Party.

Gabriel’s Rebellion

A planned $1800$ slave rebellion in Richmond led by a literate enslaved man who believed the election of Jefferson would lead to his freedom.

Lewis and Clark Expedition

A journey from St. Louis to the Pacific and back, accompanied by Sacagawea, for which Congress appropriated $\$2500$.

12th Amendment

Ratified on June $15$, $1804$, it requires electors to use separate ballots to vote for the president and vice president.

Burr Conspiracy

A treasonous plan from $1805$ to $1807$ led by Aaron Burr to annex the Louisiana Territory or Spanish Mexico to form an independent empire.

Act Prohibiting the Importation of Slaves of 1807

Legislation committing to ending the slave trade by punishing anyone smuggling enslaved people into the United States.

Peaceable Coercion

Jefferson's policy of using trade embargos to force Great Britain and France to stop harassing neutral United States ships.

Market Economy

A system of large-scale manufacturing and commercial agriculture guided by the laws of supply and demand rather than government intervention.

Clermont

The first commercial steamboat, which utilized wood-fired engines to make two-way river traffic possible.

Erie Canal

A project led by Governor DeWitt Clinton that connected the Great Lakes and the Midwest to the Hudson River and New York City.

Clipper ships

Tall, fast ships used in the China tea trade and the California gold rush, known for navigating around Cape Horn.

Telegraph system

An electromagnetic communication device developed by Samuel F.B. Morse utilizing Morse Code.

Industrial Revolution

An economic shift centered on water, coal, and steam-powered machinery; the biggest development since the invention of agriculture.

Cotton gin

A hand-operated machine invented by Eli Whitney in the $1800$s that removed seeds from cotton bolls, enabling mass production.

Lowell System

Model New England factory communities that provided young female employees with housing, meals, and educational opportunities.

Nativists

Native-born Americans who viewed immigrants as a threat to their jobs and way of life.

Know-Nothings

A nativist, anti-Catholic third party organized in $1854$ in response to large-scale Irish and German immigration.

2nd Bank of the US (BUS)

Established in $1816$ to stabilize the economy by creating a national currency and regulating the ability of state banks to issue paper money.

Tariff of 1816

Taxes on imported items intended to protect emerging American iron and textile industries from British competition.

Convention of 1818

An agreement with Great Britain that established the boundary between the United States and Canada at the $49^{th}$ parallel.

American System

Economic plan by Henry Clay featuring federal tariffs, a national bank, and federally financed internal improvements like roads and canals.

Panic of 1819

A three-year economic crisis triggered by reduced European demand for American cotton, declining land values, and reckless banking practices.

Missouri Compromise

An $1820$ legislative decision admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state, while prohibiting slavery north of the $36^\circ 30'$ parallel.

Era of Good Feelings

The period during James Monroe's presidency characterized by economic and geographical growth and a lack of political strife.

Transcontinental Treaty

Also called the Adams-Onís Treaty of $1819$, it arranged the transfer of Florida from Spain to the United States.

Monroe Doctrine

An $1823$ policy barring further European colonization in the Western Hemisphere and pledging non-interference with existing colonies.

Corrupt bargain

Scandal following the election of $1824$ where Henry Clay allegedly secured John Quincy Adams's victory in exchange for the role of secretary of state.

Nullification

The right claimed by some states to veto federal laws they deemed unconstitutional, notably used during the movement led by John C. Calhoun.

Force Bill

An $1833$ law authorizing the president's use of the army to compel states to comply with federal law during the nullification crisis.

Indian Removal Act

An $1830$ law permitting the forced relocation of Indigenous peoples to federal lands west of the Mississippi River.

Trail of Tears

The forced $800$ mile journey from $1838$ to $1839$ of Indigenous people from the southern Appalachians to Indian Territory in Oklahoma.

Whig Party

A political party founded in $1834$ in opposition to Andrew Jackson that supported a national bank, high tariffs, and internal improvements.

Panic of 1837

A financial calamity caused by a British economic slowdown, falling cotton prices, and reckless state banks.

Independent Treasury Act

An $1840$ system created by Martin Van Buren that moved federal funds to the U.S. Treasury to be handled only in gold or silver.

Racial capitalism

A profit-making system based on forced labor and large-scale agricultural production that created extreme inequalities while fostering racial superiority among whites.

Planters

Owners of large Southern farms worked by $20$ or more enslaved people and supervised by overseers.

Nat Turner’s Rebellion

An $1831$ insurrection in Virginia led by a Black overseer that resulted in the deaths of slave owners and led to stricter slave codes.

Second Great Awakening

A religious revival movement reacting to secularism that spurred the growth of Baptist and Methodist denominations and emphasized spiritual equality.

Transcendentalism

A philosophy involving New England writers like Ralph Waldo Emerson that advocated for personal spirituality, self-reliance, and harmony with nature.

Temperance

A reform movement led by Christians focused on reducing the consumption of alcoholic beverages.

American Colonization Society (ACS)

Established in $1816$ with the mission of sending freed Black Americans to Africa.

Seneca Falls Convention

An $1848$ meeting organized by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton to promote women’s rights.

Manifest Destiny

The belief coined by John L. O’Sullivan in $1845$ that the United States was divinely destined to expand across the continent to the Pacific.

Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo

The peace treaty ending the Mexican War where Mexico ceded territory to the U.S. in exchange for $15$ million dollars.

Wilmot Proviso

An $1846$ proposal that declared slavery would not exist in any territory obtained from the Mexican War.

Popular sovereignty

A legal concept where white male settlers in a territory would vote to decide whether to permit slavery.

Compromise of 1850

A package of five bills intended to reduce tensions between the North and South, which included the Fugitive Slave Act.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

Controversial legislation that allowed residents of Kansas and Nebraska to decide on the status of slavery through popular sovereignty.

Dred Scott v Sandford

A Supreme Court ruling that stated enslaved people were not U.S. citizens and that Congress could not prohibit slavery in the territories.

Anaconda Plan

The Union’s primary Civil War strategy involving a naval blockade and gaining control of the Mississippi River to divide the Confederacy.

Contrabands

Freedom seekers who sought refuge in Union military camps or lived in Confederate areas under Union control during the Civil War.

Emancipation Proclamation

The $1863$ military order issued by Abraham Lincoln that freed enslaved people in areas still controlled by the Confederacy.

Homestead Act

An $1862$ law granting $160$ acres of government land to settlers who agreed to work it for at least $5$ years.

13th Amendment

The constitutional amendment that ended slavery and freed all enslaved people across the United States.