AMERICAN HISTORY VOCAB

Topic 7: Vocabulary

Industrial Revolution- the change from manual production to machine production to machine-powered factory production that started in England in the late 18th century and spread to other places and brought a transformation in economy, society, and technology

Capital- money invested in a business venture

Capitalist - a person who invests in a business to make a profit

Supply- the amount of goods or resources in stock, on hand, or available in the market to sell

Scarcity- a shortage, lack, or insufficient supply

interchangeable parts- identical, machine-made parts for a tool or an instrument

Lowell girls- young women who worked in the lowell mills in massachusetts during the industrial revolution 

Urbanization-the movement of population from farms to cities

Artisan-  a skilled worker 

trade union- association of workers in a specific trade, or line of work, formed to gain higher wages and better working conditions

Strike- the refusal by workers to do their jobs until their demands are met

Famine- a severe food shortage

Nativist- an american who sought to limit immigration and preserve the country for native-born white protestants

Know-Nothing Party- a political party of the 1850s that was anti-catholic and anti-immigrant

Discrimination- a policy or practice that denies equal right to certain groups of people

Cultivate- to prepare and work soil for planting and growing crops

Boom- a period of rapid economic growth

“cottonocracy”-a group amongst the upper class consisting of those members whose wealth comes from the cotton trade.

slave code- laws that controlled the lives of enslaved africans and african americans and denied them basic rights

extended family-  a family group that includes grandparents, parents, children, aunts, uncles, and cousins 

American Colonization Society- an organization in the early `800s that proposed to end slavery by helping african americans to move to africa

Abolitionist- a person who wanted to end slavery

The Liberator- the most influential anti slavery newspaper begun by william lloyd garrison in 1831

Underground Railroad- a network of abolitionists who secretly helped african americans to escape to freedoms

civil disobedience- the refusal to obey unjust laws usinG non violent means

social reform - an organized attempt to improve what is unjust or imperfect in society

Second Great Awakening a wide spread religious movement in the united states in the early 1800s

Debtor a person who cannot pay money he or she owes

temperance movement-  the campaign against alcohol consumption

Seneca Falls Convention an 1848 meeting at which activists called for equal rights for women, often seen as the birthplace of the women rights movements

women’s rights movement- an organized campaign to win legal, educational, employment, and other rights for women

Hudson River School a group of american artists based in new york who developed a unique style of landscape panting in the mid-1800s

Transcendentalist -one of a group of new england writers and thinkers who believed that the most important 

Individualism the belief in the uniqueness and importance of each individual