apush unit 6 vocab part 1

social history

Native American vs. European views of the environment

saw the land as sacred and while they modified it, they did not exploit the land of its resources vs. believed people should exploit the land

Native American vs. European views of property

did not believe individuals could own the land and did not believe in private land, believed in communal land vs. believed in private land rights and that the land could be owned

Native American vs. European views of gender relations

believed women should do the farming and work the land, while men hunted, women had a political voice vs. believed farming was men’s work and women should remain in the home, women had no political voice

Mestizos

• many spanish men had relationships with Indigenous women

• Children produced from these relationships were called this

Bartolomé de las Casas

• The Spanish Crown passed antislavery laws in 1542 based in part on the arguments of him

• a Spanish priest

Anthony and Mary Johnson

• among the first enslaved people in 1619, they were sold to a Virginia planter

• more like indentured servants

• completed their indenture and bought a 250-acre farm in Virginia

Virginia’s Hereditary Slavery Law

• stated that “all children borne in this country shall be bond or free only according to the condition of the mother.”

• This law ensured that enslavers would benefit from assaulting their female slaves and continue to add to their labor source by having children with their slaves

• This law broke with English precedent which gave children the status of the father

Bacon’s Rebellion

the first major armed uprising in the American colonies, pitting a multiracial coalition of frontiersmen, indentured servants, and enslaved people against the colonial government of Virginia

Squanto

• had been kidnapped and enslaved by English soldiers in 1614

• He was eventually enslaved in Spain, but managed to escape to England and convinced English fishermen to take him back to Massachusetts

• When he returned home he found that most of his people had died from plague after disease was brought by English or French fishermen in 1617

• learned English during his time in Europe so he astonished the Pilgrims when he began speaking to them

• taught the Pilgrims how to plant corn and where to fish and hunt

Pequot War (1637)

• a massacre rather than a war

• the first major armed conflict between English settlers and Native Americans in New England

• pitted the tribe against an alliance of the Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Connecticut colonies, alongside the Narragansett and Mohegan tribes

King Philip’s War/ Metacom’s War (1675-1676)

• began in 1675 after New Englanders executed three Wampanoag Indians

• Wampanoags responded with an attack on the Puritans and the war broke out

• the bloodiest war per capita in American history as both sides suffered huge losses

• Puritans won the war, driving Native Americans into the interior of New England

Women’s rights under English common law (coverture)

• a married woman could not own property, make contracts, sue or be sued

• In marriage women gave up their last names, any property they owned, and any property they inherited

• Women had no legal rights to their earnings

• It was illegal to have a child out of wedlock and women could be imprisoned for doing so, although they were more often fined

• Women could not appear in court as a witness

• Women did not have the right to vote

Anne Hutchinson

• an important example of what happened to women who challenged societal expectations

• was an antinomian, meaning she believed anybody could communicate directly with God, rather than having to communicate through a puritan minister, this threatened the puritan authority

• was put on trial and while testifying she quoted scriptures to support her position and showed she was just as knowledgeable about the Bible as Puritan leaders

• was also viewed as a threat because she challenged the traditional family order and gender roles

• was declared a heretic and banished from the colony, going to Rhode Island

Middle Passage

• usually lasted 2-3 months

• Most slaver captains used “tight packing” on these ships

• more enslaved people died due to disease, but it meant a greater profit for the slavers because more enslaved people would be sold in the Caribbean at the end of the journey

• Some slavers used “loose packing” which ensured a lower rate of death, but also meant fewer enslaved people would be sold at the end of the crossing

• enslaved people often leaped into the ocean and drowned leading slaver crews to place nets alongside the ships to prevent these escapes

• In order to prevent rebellions, enslaved males were chained together and separated from women and children

• It is estimated that about one-third of enslaved people died during the journey

Germantown Petition Against Slavery

• the first antiracist document written by European colonists

• written by Pennsylvania quakers

Benjamin Lay

• a leading abolitionist

• he stood just over four feet tall due to dwarfism

• born in England in 1682 and became a sailor

• His work in Barbados exposed him to the evils of slavery and inspired him to become an abolitionist

• eventually moved to Pennsylvania in 1732, becoming friends with Benjamin Franklin

• In solidarity with enslaved people, he made his own clothes and grew his own food, refusing to purchase or use any product made by slave labor

New York City slave revolt (1712)

• in 1712, twenty-seven enslaved Africans sought revenge for being overworked

• They set fire to a building and when white men came to put out the fire, the enslaved rebels attacked them with muskets, hatchets, and swords killing nine white men and wounding six

• militia members captured the rebels

• Six of the rebels killed themselves and twenty-one were executed

New York City slave revolt (1741)

a conspiracy to set fire to the city was uncovered, leading to the executions of thirty Black people along with four whites convicted of assisting the Black rebels

Stono Rebellion (1739)

• consisted of approximately one hundred enslaved people who rose up against their masters, took weapons, killed several white people, and attempted to escape to Florida

• defeated by the South Carolina militia and those involved were executed

Hector Saint John de Crevecoeur and Letters From an American Farmer

• a French-American author described life in frontier America to European readers

• became the first publishing success by an American author in Europe

• argued that Americans were a new people that lived simply and were dedicated to equal opportunity and freedom

• spoke of the American population as a unified country rather than a group of separate colonies

• His work helped spell out the idea of the “American Dream”

“Frontier of exclusion”

• white colonists developed a “melting pot” of culture and society that was impacted by Africans and Native Americans, but mostly tried to exclude these groups

• creation of a new, unified white American identity purposefully excluded Native Americans, Africans, and African Americans

• Despite this, many white enslavers were having children with female slaves leading to a biracial population

Mulatto

used to describe people of European and African ancestry

Daughters of Liberty

• supported the boycott by encouraging women not to buy British goods

• asked women to make their family’s clothing and housewares as a patriotic act

Molly Pitcher

• Many women who joined their husbands in battle helped to cool the cannons by getting buckets or pitchers of cold water

• The wives who cooled the cannons were collectively nicknamed this, so when water was needed the soldiers yelled for women to run to get a pitcher of water

Women in the Revolutionary War

• enlisted in the continental army under assumed names

• served the revolutionary cause as spies

• were not suspected of being spies because so little was thought of their political awareness or interest

Dunmore’s Proclamation

offered freedom to any enslaved person who fought for the British

Phillis Wheatley

• one of the best known advocates for independence once the war began

• brought to the colonies as a slave in 1761 at the age of seven

• She became literate in English and Latin and began writing poetry, completing a book of her poetry

• Colonial publishers refused to publish the book because it would upset southerners to have an enslaved African American author

• enslavers took her to England where the book was published in 1773

• lived with her former enslavers until they died and they freed her

• Many credit her with convincing Washington to allow Black men to serve in the Continental Army

Mumbet / Elizabeth Freeman

• Inspired by the rhetoric of the Revolutionary War, an enslaved woman challenged the legality of slavery

• husband fought and died during the Revolutionary War and if the war was about freedom, how could slavery remain legal?

• wanted to sue for her freedom

• the jury decided that, based on the new Massachusetts Constitution, John Ashley did not have the right to enslave her

• Other enslaved people also sued for their freedom

Three-Fifths Compromise

determined that enslavers would be taxed for owning enslaved people (as property) and that enslaved people would be counted as a fraction of a person for representation purposes

Slave trade

• another controversy during the Constitutional Convention

• Southern states wanted to continue it permanently to guarantee a constant supply of enslaved labor for plantation agriculture

• Northern states opposed doing so for two reasons–northerners feared that it would continue to guarantee the South’s advantage in population and representation in Congress and others were morally opposed to it

• Meanwhile, the South feared that national government control over interstate trade might lead to the abolition of it

• The North and South reached a compromise allowing it to continue for 20 years

Fugitive Slave Law

• included within the various compromises made over slavery at the Constitutional Convention

• guaranteed that runaway slaves would not be freed if they escaped to a northern state

• This law would become the center of major controversy as some northern states began passing “personal liberty laws” and stopped enforcing this law during the antebellum era

Quaker abolitionist petitions

• called for the end of the slave trade

• the second asked Congress to abolish slavery, claiming slavery was not compatible with the values of the Revolutionary War

• The second one could not be ignored because it was signed by Benjamin Franklin, as a result the house had to debate it

Little Turtle

• Native Americans were led by a Miami Indian in the Indian wars 1790-93

• formed a pan-Indian movement called the Western Confederacy, unifying Native Americans in the Ohio River Valley against the invading United States

• his Western Confederacy of 500 men inflicted the worst defeat of the U.S. army by Native Americans in U.S. history

Treaty of Greenville (1795)

• General Wayne defeated the Western Confederacy, composed of 2,000 men, at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, leading to this

• ended the Northwest Indian War, forcing Native American tribes to cede most of modern-day Ohio and strategic areas in Indiana, Michigan, and Illinois to the U.S. Signed after the Battle of Fallen Timbers

“Empire for liberty”

a foundational U.S. foreign policy concept, coined by Thomas Jefferson, describing the expansion of American democratic ideals and territory as a benevolent project

Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa

• created a pan-Indian movement to resist U.S. expansion into the Ohio River Valley

• also led a social movement that attempted to preserve Native American cultures from assimilation

• one was taught how to read and write in English by a white family when he was young

• believed that only armed resistance would stop the U.S. from moving west, he asked the British for assistance in 1808

• the other had been an alcoholic, but once while he was drinking he had a vision that God told him to save his people

• became a medicine man and began a religious revival movement urging his followers not to drink and to return to their traditional customs

Battles of Tippecanoe and the Thames

• decisive American victories led by William Henry Harrison against Tecumseh’s Native American Confederacy, significantly reducing British influence in the Northwest Territory

• one destroyed the native center of Prophetstown, while the other resulted in Tecumseh's death, ending the confederacy

Battle of Horseshoe Bend

• During and after this battle, Jackson and his men massacred and cut the noses off of over five hundred fifty Creeks and skinned the dead to create souvenir bridle reins for their horses

• After the victory at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, Jackson forced all Creek nations, including his allies, to surrender twenty-three million acres of their land or else Jackson threatened he would go to war against them

• This opened the southwest to white settlement

• Andrew jackson as a result became a national hero

First Seminole War

• the initial major conflict in a series of three wars between the United States and these Indians in Florida

• refusal to surrender their African American members and creation of a refuge for runaway slaves sparked Jackson’s desire to defeat them

• Triggered by border tensions and the U.S. desire to recapture escaped slaves, the war ultimately led to Spain ceding Florida to the United States

Indian Removal Act (1830)

• targeted the “Five Civilized Tribes.”

• supported by Andrew Jackson

• did not mention force, but it implied that Native Americans who refused to move were to be left under the control of the states

• authorized the federal government to forcibly relocate Native American tribes from the Southeastern U.S. to designated land west of the Mississippi River

Trail of Tears

• policy led to the forced removal of all Native Americans east of the Mississippi River

• Fifteen thousand members of the Cherokee, Seminole, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Creek nations were forcibly removed from their homes

• Approximately 25% of the Native Americans forcibly removed on the journey died in one of the darkest chapters in U.S. history

Black Hawk War (1832)

• began when the leader led the Sac and Fox Indians back from a winter stay in Iowa to Illinois to plant corn

• White squatters claimed they were being invaded and called the Illinois militia and federal troops in for defense

• The troops massacred hundreds of sac and Fox farmers, even after the leader raised a white flag of surrender

Second Seminole War (1835-1842)

• the longest war against Native Americans in U.S. history

• natives were ordered to move west following the Indian Removal Act, but most refused to leave leading to this war

• Over 1,500 died on both sides of the war and Osceola was eventually captured by the U.S. army

• Most natives were taken west by force

“Peculiar Institution”

• white southerners called it this, it was an institution that was distinct to the South

• a euphemistic term for chattel slavery in the Southern United States, coined to describe it as a unique, locally specific, and essential system rather than a universal evil

Slave codes

• enslaved people were not able to own property, to leave plantations without permission, to be out after dark, to gather in groups outside of church, to carry firearms, or to hit white people even in self-defense

• Enslaved African Americans were prohibited from learning to read and write and they could not testify in court against white people

• Enslavers could punish their slaves any way they saw fit and could even kill enslaved people without punishment

• In addition, the one-drop rule defined people as Black if they had any African ancestry

Gabriel’s Rebellion (1800)

• included a plan to take weapons stored in Richmond to kidnap Governor James Monroe and negotiate an end to slavery with one thousand armed enslaved people

• sought white and Native American allies

• Days before the revolt was scheduled to take place, a few enslaved people informed their enslavers of the plot and the Virginia militia arrested those who were part of the planned revolt and executed more than two dozen people, including Prosser

Denmark Vesey

• planned a revolt, with perhaps thousands of supporters

• was freed by his owner in 1800

• He was a carpenter who helped to found the Emanuel AME Church

• Inspired by the French and Haitian Revolutions, he gathered the support of thousands of slaves in 1818

• The plot was kept secret for four years

• As part of the plan, slaves were to kill South Carolina officials in their sleep while armed slaves invaded Charleston and killed opponents of abolition while the city was burned to the ground

• Ship captains were to be used to take the rebels to Haiti or Africa

• a fearful enslaved person revealed the plot to their enslaver and the plot was stopped

Nat Turner’s Rebellion (1831)

• put into action what so many white southerners long feared

• an enslaved religious leader who convinced hundreds of enslaved people to revolt

• him and his supporters managed to arm themselves and began attacking enslavers in Southampton County, Virginia, killing nearly sixty people

• The state militia was called out and ended it the next day

• More than 100 enslaved African Americans were executed in the aftermath

• the only large-scale violent slave revolt of the 19th century to be carried out

Amistad

• Fifty-four enslaved people aboard the ship successfully rebelled against the Spanish crew

• Joseph Cinque led the revolt and tried to sail to Africa before being stopped by a U.S. warship off the coast of Long Island

• While slavery remained legal in the South, the international slave trade was ended back in 1808 so there was a question over what should happen to the fifty-four enslaved people aboard the ship

• Congressman John Quincy Adams defended the enslaved Africans in the Supreme Court, arguing because the international slave trade was illegal, the Africans should not be enslaved

• In November 1841, the Supreme Court ruled Cinque and the others were free

Underground Railroad

• assisted enslaved people in escaping slavery

• was run by Black and white abolitionists throughout the North

• included safehouses, nicknamed “stations” or “depots,” where those seeking freedom stayed and rested during the day before continuing their trip to the next safehouse on their journey to freedom

• Those assisting these freedom-seekers were nicknamed “conductors.”

Harriet Tubman

• escaped slavery herself and then made nineteen trips to the South to free hundreds of enslaved people

• born into slavery in 1820 on a Maryland plantation

• She was abused for years by her enslaver

• escaped in 1849, when she was threatened with being sold further south

• Later during the Civil War, she organized a spy ring in South Carolina while working as a U.S. army nurse

• During the Civil War, she also led hundreds of enslaved people to freedom

American Colonization Society

• created in 1817

• Members believed the solution to the question of what should happen to free African Americans was to send them to West Africa

• The country of Liberia was founded by the United States for the purpose of colonization

• Eventually, over fourteen hundred former enslaved people went to Liberia

• Most Black Americans had no desire to go to Liberia

• Instead, as Americans, they wanted to make the country match its ideals

David Walker

• wrote The Appeal to Colored Citizens of the World (1829), advocating for enslaved people to rebel against slavery with violence

• a follower of Denmark Vesey

• told enslaved people to arm themselves for another revolutionary war

• made the argument that Black people needed to fight racism

• ended the abolitionist movement of the South, which had advocated colonization, while it radicalized the abolitionist movement in the North

1831

• a turning point in U.S. history

• Nat Turner’s Rebellion led to the death of nearly 60 whites, it was the only large scale slave revolt of the 19th century and it scared southerners

• William Lloyd Garrison, the most famous white abolitionist, began publishing his abolitionist newspaper called Liberator

• There were many important consequences of these events

• Southern states created even more restrictive slave codes

• Meanwhile, Garrison’s newspaper began convincing some northerners of the evils of slavery while inflaming opposition from the South

• Together, these events created more polarization between the North and South over slavery

• These events also changed the way the South defended slavery (necessary evil v. positive good)

Gag Resolution (1836-1844)

• passed in the House of Representatives and prevented any debate over antislavery petitions

• During its existence there was no official public debate over slavery in Congress

• showed how deeply divided the North and South were becoming over slavery

Sojourner Truth

• born into slavery and was originally named Isabella

• owned by a Dutch American so Dutch was her first language

• sold to a man who only spoke English who beat her because she did not understand his commands

• freed in 1827 due to New York’s emancipation law

• became a preacher and fought for abolition and women’s rights

• a powerful orator for both causes

Frederick Douglass

• leading Black abolitionist

• born into slavery in Maryland

• began learning to read and write while he was enslaved but continued to teach himself after escaping enslavement

• escaped slavery in 1838

• went to Europe because he became a target under the Fugitive Slave Law

• returned to the United States in 1847 after purchasing his freedom

• became a powerful public speaker

• began publishing an abolitionist newspaper of his own called North Star in 1847

• also a feminist

William Lloyd Garrison and The Liberator

• began attacking slavery in 1831 with the publication of his abolitionist newspaper

• paper was published for thirty years

• also helped to found the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833

• demanded immediate emancipation and gradual racial equality, causing a break with Frederick Douglass

• opposed fighting slavery through politics because it implied acceptance of the Constitution which this group regarded as illegitimate because it legalized slavery

Lydia Maria Child

• a leading social justice activist in the 19th century

• born to abolitionist parents and was influenced by the Second Great Awakening

• As a writer and journalist, she fought against white supremacy and patriarchy

• worked as a member of the executive board of the American Anti-Slavery Society during the 1830s-1840s

• She believed that progress for women’s rights would only be made after abolition succeeded

• also fought against territorial expansion, instead advocating for the rights of Native Americans

Private vs. public world

• one existed outside the home, in the workplace

• the other referred to the household

• Women were supposed to remain in the home, focused entirely on domestic concerns

• This cementing of the difference between the worlds was joined by the solidifying of the difference in social roles between men and women

Cult of Domesticity

• definition of womanhood during this era

• upheld women in their roles as wives and mothers while at the same time alienating women from the public world

Amelia Bloomer

• in 1851 she designed a new style of clothing for women

• she suggested wearing a short skirt and pants so women could move more easily

• these were largely ridiculed at the time, but became more popular overtime

Women and the Second Great Awakening

• became important leaders in the reform movements of this era

• claimed the right to lead these movements because of their supposed moral superiority

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Seneca Falls Convention (1848)