voca flashcards unit 1

# AP US History Vocabulary Flashcards

## Colonial Period

- Cash crop: Agricultural products grown for sale rather than personal use (tobacco, cotton, rice)

- Cereal crop: Grain crops like wheat, corn, and rye that were common in Middle Colonies

- Plantation agriculture: Large-scale farming system using slave labor, common in Southern colonies

- Mercantilism: Economic theory where colonies exist to benefit the mother country

- Salutary Neglect: British policy of loose enforcement of colonial regulations before 1763

- Navigation Acts: British laws controlling colonial trade

- Proclamation of 1763: British law prohibiting colonial settlement west of Appalachians

- Quartering Act: Required colonists to house and supply British soldiers

- Stamp Act: Tax on printed materials in colonies

## Revolutionary Period

- Common Sense: Thomas Paine's pamphlet advocating independence

- Natural Rights: Enlightenment concept of inherent human rights (life, liberty, property)

- Social Contract: Theory that people consent to be governed in exchange for protection of rights

- Gradual Emancipation: Slow process of ending slavery, adopted by some Northern states

- Abolition: Movement to end slavery

## Early Republic

- Articles of Confederation: First U.S. government system (1781-1789)

- Shays' Rebellion: 1786-87 uprising of farmers in Massachusetts

- Critical Period: 1781-1787, years under Articles of Confederation

- Constitutional Convention: 1787 meeting to create new government

- Great Compromise: Agreement for bicameral legislature

- Electoral College: System for selecting president

- 3/5ths Compromise: Counting slaves as 3/5 person for representation

- Federalism: Division of power between federal and state governments

- Checks and Balances: System where branches limit each other's power

- Separation of Powers: Division of government into three branches

- Republicanism: Government by elected representatives

- Unicameral: One-house legislature

- Bicameral: Two-house legislature

- Bill of Rights: First 10 amendments to Constitution

- Enumerated powers: Powers specifically listed in Constitution

- Reserved powers: Powers kept by states

- Necessary and Proper Clause: Allows Congress to make laws needed to execute its powers

## Political Parties & Early Politics

- First Party System: Federalists vs. Democratic-Republicans

- National Bank: Created by Hamilton to manage federal finances

- Whiskey Rebellion: 1794 uprising against whiskey tax

- Hamilton's Financial Plan: Program to establish nation's economic system

- Strict Constructionism: Narrow interpretation of Constitution

- Loose Constructionism: Broad interpretation of Constitution

- Judicial Review: Supreme Court's power to declare laws unconstitutional

- Implied Powers: Powers suggested by Constitution but not explicitly stated

## Jacksonian Era

- Franchise: Right to vote

- Mass Democracy: Expansion of voting rights to more white males

- Universal male suffrage: Voting rights for all adult white males

- Corrupt bargain of 1824: Agreement making John Quincy Adams president

- Second Party System: Democrats vs. Whigs

- Nullification: State's claimed right to void federal laws

- Bank War: Jackson's fight against Second Bank of U.S.

- Spoils System: Giving government jobs to political supporters

- American System: Henry Clay's economic program

## Pre-Civil War

- Missouri Compromise: 1820 agreement on slavery in territories

- Compromise of 1850: Series of bills addressing slavery issues

- Fugitive Slave Act: Required Northern help returning escaped slaves

- Free Soil Party: Opposed slavery in territories

- Dred Scott v Sanford: Supreme Court case on slave rights

- Kansas-Nebraska Act: Allowed popular sovereignty on slavery

- Bleeding Kansas: Violence over slavery in Kansas Territory

- Popular sovereignty: Letting voters decide on slavery

## Civil War & Reconstruction

- Confederate States of America: Southern seceded states

- Border States: Slave states that stayed in Union

- Emancipation Proclamation: Freed slaves in rebel states

- Presidential Reconstruction: Lincoln/Johnson's lenient policies

- Congressional Reconstruction: Radical Republican policies

- Freedmen's Bureau: Agency helping former slaves

- Black Codes: Southern laws restricting African American rights

- Sharecropping: Post-war farming system

- Compromise of 1877: Ended Reconstruction

## Post-Reconstruction

- Jim Crow Segregation: System of racial separation

- Literacy Tests: Voting restriction targeting African Americans

- Convict Leasing: System of forced prison labor

- Separate but Equal: Doctrine allowing segregation

- Party Bosses: Local political leaders

- Political Machines: Organizations controlling city politics

- Credit Mobilier: Railroad construction scandal

## Progressive Era

- Clayton Antitrust Act: Strengthened business regulation

- Sherman Antitrust Act: First federal anti-monopoly law

- Laissez-Faire: Government non-interference in economy

## New Deal Era

- AAA: Agricultural Adjustment Administration

- WPA: Works Progress Administration

- NRA: National Recovery Administration

- SEC: Securities and Exchange Commission

- FDIC: Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

## Civil Rights Era

- Brown v. Board: Ended school segregation

- Executive Order 9981: Desegregated military

- Little Rock 9: Arkansas school integration crisis

- Freedom Rides: Civil rights bus protests

- Civil Rights Act of 1964: Banned segregation

- Voting Rights Act: Protected voting rights

- Title IX: Banned education discrimination

## Modern Era

- Watergate: Nixon administration scandal

- Credibility Gap: Public distrust of government

- Affirmative Action: Programs favoring minorities

- Moral Majority: Conservative religious movement

- Sun Belt: Southern/Western states

- Rust Belt: Industrial Northeast/Midwest

## Study Tips

1. Group terms by era

2. Connect terms to major themes

3. Use terms in practice essays

4. Create examples for each term

5. Link terms to specific historical events