History Chapter 11-12 Test

Noah Webster - Taught millions to read and not one to sin

William McGuffey - Remembered for his reading textbooks

Josiah Holbrook - Founded the Lyceum Movement

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - Part of the Schoolroom poets; only American poet that was honored in England's Westminster Abbey

James Russell Lowell - Distinguished himself through his powerful patriotic verse

Washington Irving - Wrote many exciting tales of Dutch settlers along the Hudson River

James Fenimore Cooper - America's greatest novelist; wrote Leatherstocking Tales

Nathaniel Hawthorne - Wrote the Scarlet Letter

Stephen Foster - Best known American composer

Lowell Mason - Continued the tradition of the "singing school"

Charles Wilson Peale - Helped found the Academy of Fine Arts

Eli Whitney - Invented the first cotton gin

University of North Carolina - The first state university to begin operating

Oberlin College - Where Charles G Finny pioneered higher education for blacks

Wesleyan College - Became the first college to open its doors to women.

Traditional education - Passes the accumulated knowledge of the past to the present generation

Blue-backed Speller - American spelling book

McGuffey’s Readers - Most widely used and distributed series of school books in America

Romantic era - The first half of the 19th century, Romantic era literature emphasized man's aspirations, emotions, individuality, personal experiences, and imaginations

Schoolroom or Fireside Poets - The poetry of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Greenleaf Whittier, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and James Russell Lowell - emphasized family values and patriotism

Hudson River School - Known for landscape paintings of scenes along the Hudson River

Plantation - Used slave labor to produce cash crops

Jedediah Smith - Trapper and hunter who discovered the wagon route South Pass

William Becknell - Frontier trader known as the "Father of the Santa Fe Trail"

Jason Lee - Methodist missionary who was the first to take the gospel to the Indians of the Northwest

Dr Marcus Whitman and Rev. Henry Spaulding - The missionaries to the Indies

John Sutter - Swiss settler who obtained a large grant from the Mexican government of California

William Taylor - Missionary to California; became known as the Street Preacher for his ministry to San Francisco

Santa Anna - Declared himself the military dictator of all Mexico resulting in a civil war

Jim Bowie, Davy Crockett - Inventor of the Bowie knife who died at the Alamo

James K. Polk - Democratic president

Stephen Kearney - General who led American troops overland along the Santa Fe Trail to San Diego in the Bear Flag Revolt

Zachary Taylor - Defeated Santa Anna in the Mexican War; known as "Old Rough and Ready"

James Gadsden - Negotiated the purchase of Gadsden Purchase

South Pass - Wagon route to the Oregon Country

Fort Vancouver - Only sizable settlement in Oregon Country controlled by the British

Independence, Missouri - Starting point for the long trail westward to the Pacific coast

Independence Rock - Granite landmark that westward-bound wagon trains usually reached by July

Alamo - Fortified Spanish mission in San Antonio where Texas soldiers fought to the death for Texas liberty

Lone Star Republic - Republic of Texas

Veracruz - Sight of first major amphibious landing of American forces

Great Migration - A train of 120 wagon with 1,000 pioneers to go to West

Bear Flag Revolt - Won California its independence from Mexico

Battle of San Jacinto - Great Texan victory over Mexico that won Texas its independence

Annexation - To take a land and make it part of one's own country

Mexican War - War between Mexico and the United States fought over the disputed Texas boundary

Battle of Buena Vista - Battle where General Taylor soundly defeated Santa Anna's army in February 1847

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo - It was signed by the Mexican government in 1848

Mexican Cession - Territory gained by the United States including California, Nevada, Utah, and parts of New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Wyoming

Gadsden Purchase - Acquisition of desert land in southern Arizona and New Mexico for the planned Southern Pacific Railroadin 1853, which further solidified the U.S. southern border and facilitated the expansion of railroads in the region.