Hist 1302 Schulze Exam 2

Second Continental Congress

• Governed colonies 1775–1781 during the Revolution • Created the Continental Army, appointed Washington as commander • Adopted the Declaration of Independence (1776) • Operated under the Articles of Confederation

Common Sense

• Pamphlet by Thomas Paine, January 1776 • Argued monarchy was irrational; made the case for full independence • Sold 100,000+ copies in 3 months • Shifted colonial public opinion toward revolution

Battle of Bunker Hill

• June 17, 1775 near Boston (fought on Breed's Hill) • Colonists repelled British twice before running out of ammo • British won but suffered 1,000+ casualties • Proved colonists could fight professional soldiers

Loyalists

• Colonists who stayed loyal to the British Crown (~15–20% of white population) • Included royal officials, merchants, clergy, some enslaved people and Indigenous peoples • ~60,000 fled to Canada/Britain after the war • Property often confiscated

Joseph Brant

• Mohawk leader (Thayendanegea), 1743–1807 • Allied with Britain, believing it would protect Indigenous land • Led raids on NY and PA frontier settlements • After the war, negotiated land rights for Iroquois in Canada

Yorktown

• Final major battle of the Revolution, October 1781 in Virginia • Washington + French forces besieged British General Cornwallis • Cornwallis surrendered ~8,000 troops on October 19 • Ended major combat; led directly to peace negotiations

Articles of Confederation

• First U.S. constitution, ratified 1781, replaced 1789 • Created a weak central government: no power to tax or regulate commerce • No executive branch, no federal courts; each state had one vote • Failures (Shays' Rebellion, war debts) led to the Constitutional Convention

"Gradual Emancipation"

• Northern states' post-Revolution approach to ending slavery slowly • Pennsylvania's 1780 law: freed children born to enslaved mothers at age 28 • Those already enslaved remained so for life • Criticized for delaying freedom by decades

American Colonization Society

• Founded 1816; promoted sending free Black Americans to West Africa • Founded Liberia in 1822 • Most free Black Americans opposed it as racist removal • Reflected white anxiety about a large free Black population

Northwest Ordinance

• Passed 1787 under the Articles of Confederation • Governed territory north of the Ohio River (OH, IN, IL, MI, WI) • Banned slavery in the territory; guaranteed civil liberties • Provided a path to statehood; precedent for admitting new states as equals

Shays' Rebellion

• Armed uprising 1786–87 in western Massachusetts • Led by Daniel Shays; poor farmers facing debt and foreclosure • Marched on the Springfield federal arsenal; suppressed by state militia • Exposed weakness of the Articles of Confederation; accelerated push for new Constitution

Virginia and New Jersey Plans

• Two competing proposals at the 1787 Constitutional Convention • Virginia Plan: representation proportional to population (favored large states) • New Jersey Plan: equal representation per state (favored small states) • Resolved by the Great Compromise: proportional House + equal Senate

Battle of Fallen Timbers

• August 20, 1794 near present-day Toledo, Ohio • General Anthony Wayne defeated a multi-tribe Native confederation • Led to the Treaty of Greenville (1795) • Tribes ceded most of Ohio and parts of Indiana; opened Northwest Territory to settlement

Bill of Rights

• First 10 amendments to the Constitution, ratified 1791 • Drafted by Madison to satisfy Anti-Federalist demands • Protects: free speech/religion/press (1st), right to bear arms (2nd), due process (5th), jury trial (6th) • Addressed fears of an overly powerful federal government

Toussaint Louverture

• Formerly enslaved leader of the Haitian Revolution • Led the only successful slave revolt in history • Unified Hispaniola and abolished slavery • Arrested by Napoleon in 1802; died in prison; Haiti became the first Black republic (1804)

Judith Sargent Murray

• American essayist and early feminist, 1751–1820 • Essay "On the Equality of the Sexes" (1790) argued women's inferiority was due to lack of education, not nature • Advocated for women's economic independence • One of the most important early American feminist thinkers

Whiskey Rebellion

• 1794 armed uprising in western Pennsylvania against a federal whiskey tax • First major domestic test of federal authority under the Constitution • Washington personally led ~13,000 troops to suppress it (only sitting president to do so) • Collapsed without battle; asserted federal supremacy over states

Jay's Treaty

• 1794 treaty with Britain negotiated by Chief Justice John Jay • Britain agreed to vacate Northwest Territory forts; allowed limited U.S. Caribbean trade • U.S. accepted British definitions of neutral shipping rights • Deeply divisive: Federalists supported it, Democratic-Republicans opposed it

Pinckney's Treaty

• 1795 treaty with Spain (Treaty of San Lorenzo) • Spain recognized 31st parallel as U.S. southern boundary • Granted Americans free navigation of the Mississippi River and right of deposit at New Orleans • Major diplomatic win; enormously popular with western farmers

XYZ Affair

• 1797–98 diplomatic crisis with France • French agents (X, Y, Z) demanded a $250,000 bribe before negotiations could begin • Americans refused; Adams released the dispatches, outraging the public • Led to the undeclared Quasi-War with France (1798–1800)

Alien and Sedition Acts

• Four laws passed by Federalist Congress in 1798 • Alien Acts: allowed deportation of foreigners; extended citizenship residency to 14 years • Sedition Act: criminalized criticism of the government • Jefferson and Madison responded with Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions (states' rights/nullification)

Gabriel's Rebellion

• Planned slave revolt in Richmond, Virginia, August 1800 • Organized by Gabriel, an enslaved blacksmith; recruited hundreds • Plan: march on Richmond, seize arsenal, take Governor Monroe hostage • Foiled by a storm and informants; Gabriel and 26 others executed; led to stricter slave codes

Marbury v. Madison

• 1803 Supreme Court case decided by Chief Justice John Marshall • Marshall ruled a federal law unconstitutional, establishing judicial review • Judicial review = Court's power to strike down laws that violate the Constitution • Foundation of American constitutional law; elevated the judiciary's power

Louisiana Purchase

• 1803 purchase of ~828,000 sq miles from France for $15 million • Doubled the size of the U.S.; stretched from Mississippi River to Rocky Mountains • Jefferson acted quickly despite strict constructionist views • Raised constitutional questions; fueled debate over slavery in new territories

Sacajawea

• Lemhi Shoshone woman, c. 1788–1812 (or 1884) • Served as interpreter and guide for Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–06) • Her geographic knowledge and ability to communicate with western tribes were crucial • Her presence (with infant son) signaled peaceful intent to Native peoples encountered

Tecumseh

• Shawnee leader, c. 1768–1813 • Built a pan-tribal confederation to resist American expansion • Argued land belonged to all Indigenous peoples collectively and couldn't be sold by one tribe • Allied with Britain in the War of 1812; killed at Battle of the Thames (1813); death ended the confederation

War of 1812

• War between U.S. and Britain, 1812–1815 • Causes: British impressment of sailors, interference with trade, support for Native resistance • Key events: burning of D.C., Jackson's victory at New Orleans, death of Tecumseh • Treaty of Ghent (1814) restored pre-war borders; boosted American nationalism

Jemima Wilkinson

• American religious leader, 1752–1819 • After illness in 1776, declared herself reborn as genderless "Publick Universal Friend" • Refused gendered pronouns; preached across New England and Pennsylvania • Founded a utopian community in NY; one of the first gender-nonconforming public figures in U.S. history

Adams-Onís Treaty

• 1819 treaty between U.S. and Spain (Transcontinental Treaty) • Spain ceded Florida to the U.S. • Defined a transcontinental boundary line to the Pacific Ocean • Gave the U.S. its first legal claim to Pacific coast territory

Missouri Compromise

• 1820 legislative deal over slavery's expansion • Missouri admitted as slave state; Maine admitted as free state (balanced Senate) • Slavery banned in Louisiana Purchase territory north of 36°30' parallel • Held sectional tensions for 30+ years until repealed by Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)