AP U.S. History Figures You Must Know

Presidents

George Washington
  • 1st President. Commander of the Continental Army.
John Adams
  • Federalist 2nd President. Led movement for independence. Negotiated the treaty of peace in the Revolutionary War.
Thomas Jefferson
  • Democratic-republican 3rd President. Attacking Federalist policies. Wrote the Declaration of Independence. Louisiana Purchase.
James Madison
  • Democratic-republican 4th President. Major contribution to the ratification of the Constitution. Federalist Papers. “Father of the Constitution.”
James Monroe
  • Democratic-republican 5th President. Negotiation of the Louisiana Purchase. Acquired Florida from Spain. Monroe Doctrine - opposed European colonialism in the Western Hemisphere.
Andrew Jackson
  • Democratic 7th President. A major general in the War of 1812. Paid off the national debt. Strengthened foreign relations. Gained Alabama.
Abraham Lincoln
  • Republican 16th President. Preserved the Union. Abolition of Slavery.
Woodrow Wilson
  • Democratic 28th President. Leader of the Progressive Movement. WW1 Leadership. Federal Reserve and Trade Commission. Clayton Antitrust Act.
Jefferson Davis
  • Confederate’s 1st and only President during the Civil War.

Abolitionist

Frederick Douglass
  • Abolitionist. Escaped from slavery. National leader of the abolitionist movement. The book “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.”
William Lloyd Garrison
  • Abolitionist. Anti-slavery newspaper, The Liberator.
John Brown
  • Abolitionist. Fought in Bleeding Kansas. Harpers Ferry raid, the largest Federal arsenal. Believed in aggressive action.
John Jay
  • Abolitionist and Federalist. First chief justice of the United States. Five Federalist Papers. Gradual Abolition Law - Children of slaves were to be free.
Angelina Grimke
  • Abolitionist. Women’s rights movement. Daughter of wealthy slave owner. Spoke publicly against slavery and gender norms.
Harriet Beecher Stowe
  • Abolitionist. Best-selling book “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” about anti-slavery.

Other Figures

Henry Clay
  • Whig. Authored the American system - the federal government should take an active role in the economy. Responsible for the Missouri Compromise.
John Locke
  • Whig. Founder of a school of thought known as British Empiricism. Three natural rights: Life, liberty, and property.
John C. Calhoun
  • Defender of slavery. United the South against the abolitionists’ attack on slavery. Opposing admittance of Oregon and California to the Union as free states.
John Marshall
  • Federalist Supreme Court Justice. Established the power and prestige of the judiciary department. Paved the way f or the expansion of the federal government.
Alexander Hamilton
  • Federalist. Fought in American Revolutionary War. Helped draft the Constitution. Served as the first secretary of the treasury. Federalist Papers.
Anne Hutchinson
  • Puritan. Changed male authority and gender roles. First women to fight publicly for religious freedom and for women’s rights. Broke the 5th Commandment and was banished from Massachusetts.
John Winthrop
  • Early Puritan leader. Created the basis for an established religion. Started the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Roger Williams
  • Puritan minister. Founded Providence Plantations (Rhode Island). Advocated for separation of church and state.
Sam Adams
  • Democratic-republican. Key role in the defense of colonial rights. Leader of the Sons of Liberty. Provoked the Boston Tea Party.
Benjamin Franklin
  • Democratic. Drafting the Declaration of Independence. Negotiated Treat of Paris. Signed all three documents that freed America from Britain. Lightning rod.
Jonathan Edwards
  • Democrat. Shaped the First Great Awakening, spirituality and religious devotions were revived.
Patrick Henry
  • Anti-federalist. Second Virginia Convention “Give me liberty, or give me death!”
William Penn
  • Quaker. Founded the Province of Pennsylvania, in which he made a place for freedom of religion.
Eugene Debs
  • Socialist. Founding member of the Industrial Workers of the World. Labor movement during WWI.