Commonly Appearing Terms

1607-1763

Indentured Servants
People who came to America and was placed under contract to work for another over a period of time, especially during the
17th and 19th centuries (ex. redemptioners, victims of religious or political persecution, people kidnapped, convicts and
paupers)
Proprietary, Royal, Charter Colonies
Proprietary colony: any of certain colonies, as Maryland and Pennsylvania, that were granted to an individual group by the
British crown and that were granted full rights of self-government
Royal colony: a colony, as New York, administered by a royal governor and council appointed by the British crown, and
having a representative assembly elected by the people
Charter colony: a colony, as Virginia, Massachusetts, Connecticut, or Rhode Island, chartered to an individual, trading
company, etc., by the British crown
Pilgrims/Separatists
Pilgrims: a person who journeys, esp. a long distance, to some sacred place as an act of religious devotion
Separatists: a person who separates, withdraws, or secedes, as from an established church
Trade and Navigation Acts
A series of laws which restricted the use of foreign shipping for trade between England and its colonies, started in 1651
Peter Zenger trial
He printed a document that criticized William Cosby, the Governor of New York; shortly afterwards, Cosby had Zenger
arrested on a charge of seditious libel; later found innocent of the seditious libel
House of Burgesses
The elected lower house in the legislative assembly in the New Worldestablished in the Colony of Virginia in 1619
Mayflower Compact
The first governing document of Plymouth Colony, written by the colonists
King Phillip's War
An armed conflict between Native American inhabitants of present-day southern New England and English colonists and
their Native American allies from 1675–1676.
Anne Hutchinson
A pioneer settler in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Netherlands and the unauthorized minister of a dissident
church discussion group
Held Bible meetings for women that soon had great appeal to men as well; eventually, she went beyond Bible study to
proclaim her own theological interpretations of sermons, some of which offended the colony leadership; major controversy
ensued, and after a trial before a jury of officials and clergy, she was banished from her colony
Roger Williams
An English theologian, a notable proponent of religious toleration and the separation of church and state and an advocate for
fair dealings with Native Americans.
In 1644, he received a charter creating the colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, named for the principal island
in Narragansett Bay and the Providence settlement which provided a refuge for religious minorities.
Credited for originating either the first or second Baptist church established in America, which he is known to have left soon
afterwards, exclaiming, "God is too large to be housed under one roof."
George Whitefield
An Anglican itinerant minister who helped spread the Great Awakening in Great Britain and, especially, in the British North
American colonies. His ministry had tremendous impact on American ideology
William Bradford
Plymouth Governor; a pilgrim that lived in a north colony called Plymouth Rock in 1620. He was chosen governor 30 times.
He also conducted experiments of living in the wilderness and wrote about them; well known for "Of Plymouth Plantation"
Great Puritan Migration
When any Puritans immigrated to North America in the 1620-1640s because they believed that the Church of England was
beyond reform
Great Awakening 1730s-1740s
Started by John Edwards to bring people back to the church; revitalized American religion, first spontaneous mass movement
of Americans, encouraged missionary work among Indians and blacks, founding of "new light" learning centers
French and Indian War (Seven Year's War or War of the Conquest) 1754-1763
The fourth such colonial war between the nations of France and Great Britain, resulting in the British conquest of Canada and
French Louisiana from France and Florida from Spain
France's colonial presence north of the Caribbean was reduced to the tiny islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, confirming
Britain's position as the dominant colonial power in North America
New England Confederation
Political and military alliance of the British colonies of Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven
established May 19, 1643, its primary purpose was to unite the Puritan colonies against theNative Americans
Thomas Hobbes
An English philosopher, remembered today for his work on political philosophy.
His 1651 book Leviathan established the foundation for most of Western political philosophy from the perspective of social
contract theory
John Locke
An English physician and philosopher regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers
Locke's theory of mind is often cited as the origin of modern conceptions of identity and the self
Locke was the first to define the self through a continuity of consciousness. He postulated that the mind was a blank slate
or tabula rasa
Freedom of Conscience
The freedom of an individual to hold or consider a fact, viewpoint, or thought, independent of others' viewpoints
Mercantilism
Where nations seek to increase their wealth and power by obtaining large amounts of gold and silver and by establishing a
favorable balance of trade (exporting more than you import)
Iroquois Confederacy
The Iroquois, also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an indigenous people of North
America. In the 16th century or earlier, the Iroquois came together in an association known as the Iroquois League
Jonathan Edwards
Hellfire and brimstone method of preaching, preached complete dependence on God's grace
Bacon's Rebellion
In 1676, Bacon, a young planter led a rebellion against people who were friendly to the Indians. in the process he torched
Jamestown, Virginia and was murdered by Indians
Headright System
Way to attract immigrants; gave 50 acres of land to anyone who paid their way and/or any plantation owner that paid an
immigrants way; mainly a system in the southern colonies
Halfway Covenant
A Puritan church document
In 1662, the Halfway Covenant allowed partial membership rights to persons not yet converted into the Puritan church; it
lessened the difference between the "elect" members of the church from the regular members; women soon made up a larger
portion of Puritan congregations
Harvard College
1636 - College at Cambridge, the intellectual center of New England, mainly to make better Christians
Salutary Neglect
An undocumented, though long standing British policy of avoiding strict enforcement of parliamentary laws, meant to keep
the American colonies obedient to Great Britain
Salem Witch Trials
A series of hearings before local magistrates followed by county court trials to prosecute people accused
of witchcraft in Essex, Suffolk, and Middlesex counties of colonial Massachusetts, between February 1692 and May 1693
Middle Passage
Middle segment of the forced journey that slaves made from Africa to America throughout the 1600's; it consisted of the
dangerous trip across the Atlantic Ocean; many slaves died on this segment of the journey
Albany Plan
Proposed by Benjamin Franklin at the Albany Congress in 1754 in Albany, New York
It was an early attempt at forming a union of the colonies "under one government as far as might be necessary for defense
and other general important purposes" during the French and Indian War
Franklin's plan of union was one of several put forth by various delegates of the Albany Congress
City on the Hill
A phrase derived from the metaphor of Salt and Light in the Sermon on the Mount of Jesus given in the Gospel of Matthew
this phrase entered the American lexicon early in its history, with John Winthrop's sermon "A Modell of Christian Charity"
(sic), given in 1630. Winthrop warned the Puritan colonists of New England who were to found the Massachusetts Bay
Colony that their new community would be a "city upon a hill," watched by the world
Phyllis Wheatly
Poet; slave girl brought to Boston at age 8 and then England at age 12, no formal education and published book of poetry
James Oglethorpe
Founded Georgia in 1733 as a haven for people in debt because of his interest for reform and almost single-handedly kept
Georgia afloat
William Penn
An English founder and "Absolute Proprietor" of the Province of Pennsylvania, the English North American colony and the
future U.S. State of Pennsylvania. He was known as an early champion of democracy and religious freedom and famous for
his good relations and his treaties with the Lenape Indians. Under his direction, Philadelphia was planned and developed

1763-1775 

Proclamation of 1763
Issued October 7, 1763, by King George III following Great Britain's acquisition of French territory in North America after
the end of the French and Indian War. The purpose of the proclamation was to organize Great Britain's new North American
empire and to stabilize relations with Native North Americans through regulation of trade, settlement, and land purchases on
the western frontier
Thomas Paine/Common Sense/Crisis Papers
Thomas Paine published the pamphlet Common Sense in 1776 where he urged America to stop fighting a war of
inconsistency. In it he also stated that nowhere in the universe did a smaller body control a larger one. It pointed to all the
advantages America would gain if it were independent such as it would allow free trade and foreign aid and it could give
equal social and economic opportunities to all. Almost 500,000 copies were sold and this pamphlet helped sway America
Crisis Papers were pamphlets written by Thomas Paine that encouraged Americans not to be summer soldiers but sunshine
patriots
Stamp Act Congress
A meeting in the building that would become Federal Hall in New York City on October 19, 1765 consisting of delegates
from 9 of the 13 colonies that discussed and acted upon the recently passed Stamp Act. The colonies that did not send
delegates were Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, and New Hampshire, and those from New York were delegates of
particular counties within the colony, not the colony itself
Olive Branch Petition
July 1775, the Second Continental Congress adopts and sends to Britain. Professed America's loyalty to the crown and asked
George III for compromise and an end to fighting. King George III refused to accept the petition
Pontiac's Rebellion
A war launched in 1763 by a loose confederation of elements of Native American tribes primarily from the Great Lakes
region, the Illinois Country, and Ohio Country who were dissatisfied with British policies in the Great Lakes region after the
British victory in the French and Indian War
Quartering Act
Created in 1765, it required certain colonies to provide food and quarters for British troops
Townshend Acts
A series of acts passed beginning in 1767 by the Parliament of Great Britain relating to the British colonies in North America
Five laws are frequently mentioned: the Revenue Act of 1767, the Indemnity Act, the Commissioners of Customs Act, the
Vice Admiralty Court Act, and the New York Restraining Act
Boston Tea Party
A direct action by colonists in Boston, Massachusetts, against the British government
December 16, 1773, after officials in Boston refused to return three shiploads of taxed tea to Britain, a group of colonists
boarded the ships and destroyed the tea by throwing it into Boston Harbor
Coercive/Intolerable Acts
A series of four laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 relating to Britain's colonies in North America
Four of the acts were issued in direct response to the Boston Tea Party of December 1773
Loyalists/Tories
American colonists who remained loyal to the Kingdom of Great Britain (and the British monarchy) during and after
the American Revolutionary War
Sons of Liberty
Secret committees formed to protest the Stamp Act
Used petitions, public meetings and violence to protest
Samuel Adams was a leader in Boston
Daughters of Liberty was also created
First/Second Continental Congress
First Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from twelve of the thirteen North American colonies (except
Georgia) that met on September 5, 1774, at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, early in the American Revolution.
Called in response to the passage of the Coercive Acts (also known as Intolerable Acts by the Colonial Americans) by
the British Parliament, the Congress was attended by 56 members appointed by the legislatures of twelve colonies present
Second Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that met beginning on May 10, 1775,
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, soon after warfare in the American Revolutionary War had begun. The second Congress
managed the colonial war effort, and moved slowly towards independence, adopting the United States Declaration of
Independence on July 2, 1776. By raising armies, directing strategy, appointing diplomats, and making formal treaties, the
Congress acted as the de facto national government of what became the United States. With the ratification of the Articles of
Confederation in 1781, the Congress became known as the Congress of the Confederation
Boston Massacre
A clash in Boston between Americans and British Soldiers and became a symbol of British tyranny in America and used for
propaganda. Five Americans were killed, Crispus Attucks, an African American, was the first to die.
Paxton Boys
A vigilante group that murdered at least twenty Native Americans in events sometimes called the Conestoga Massacre.
Backcountry Presbyterian Scots-Irish frontiersmen from central Pennsylvania, near Paxton Church, Paxtang, Pennsylvania,
now Dauphin County, formed a vigilante group in response to the American Indian uprising known as Pontiac's Rebellion.
The Paxton Boys felt that the government of colonial Pennsylvania was negligent in providing them protection
Tea Act
An Act of the Parliament of Great Britain to expand the British East India Company's monopoly on the tea trade to all British
Colonies, selling excess tea at a reduced price; passed on May 10, 1773
Battle of Saratoga
A turning point in the American Revolution
The battles were fought eighteen days apart on the same ground, nine miles south of Saratoga, New York. Burgoyne,
whose campaign to divide New England from the southern colonies had started well but slowed due to logistical problems,
won a small tactical victory over General Horatio Gates and the Continental Army in the September 19 Battle of Freeman's
Farm at the cost of significant casualties. His gains were erased when he again attacked the Americans in the October 7 Battle
of Bemis Heights and the Americans captured a portion of the British defenses. Burgoyne was therefore compelled to retreat,
and his army was surrounded by the much larger American force at Saratoga, forcing him to surrender on October 17. News
of Burgoyne's surrender was instrumental in formally bringing France officially into the war as an American ally
"No taxation without representation"
A slogan in the period 1763–1776 that summarized a primary grievance of the British colonists in the Thirteen Colonies
Stamp Act
A law enacted by government that requires a tax to be paid on the transfer of certain documents
Non-importation Agreements
A series of commercial restrictions, against British goods, adopted by American colonists to protest British revenue policies
prior to the American Revolution; was a stride toward a Union. It spontaneously united the American people for the first time
in common action.
Virtual Representation
Virtual representation means that a representative is not elected by his constituents, but he resembles them in his political
beliefs and goals. Actual representation means that a representative is elected by his constituents. The colonies only had
virtual representation in the British government.
Gaspee Affair
The Gaspee was a British customs ship that succeeded in catching a number of smugglers. It was then ran aground off the
shore of Rhode Island. Colonists disguised as Native Americans ordered the crew ashore and set fire to the ship. Britain
ordered a commission to investigate and brig guilty individuals to Britian for trial.
Sugar Act 1764
Replaced the ineffective Molasses Act of 1733
Reduced the duties on imported sugar, which made smuggling less profitable

1775-1825

Monroe Doctrine
A United States policy that was introduced on December 2, 1823, which said that further efforts by European governments to
colonize land or interfere with states in the Americas would be viewed by the United States of America as acts of aggression
requiring US intervention
 Asserted that the Western Hemisphere was not to be further colonized by European countries, and that the United States
would not interfere with existing European colonies nor in the internal concerns of European countries

Embargo Act of 1807

A bill that banned trade between the United States of America and other nations
The bill also prevented any ships from leaving American ports thus hindering exploration efforts. It was created at the request
of President Thomas Jefferson in an attempt to prevent American involvement in the Napoleonic Wars. The bill proved
unpopular and unenforceable and was repealed in 1808
Louisiana Purchase
The acquisition by the United States of America of 828,800 square miles of the French territory Louisiana in 1803
The U.S. paid a total cost of 15 million dollars for the Louisiana territory
Tecumseh
Native American leader of the Shawnee and a large tribal confederacy that opposed the United States and allied with the
British during Tecumseh's War and the War of 1812. Died in the Battle of Thames
Jay Treaty
Treaty between the United States and Great Britain which averted war, solved many issues left over from the American
Revolution, and opened ten years of largely peaceful trade in the midst of the French Revolutionary Wars. It was hotly
contested by Jeffersonians but was ratified by Congress and became a central issue in the formation of the First Party System.
The treaty was signed in November 1794, but was not proclaimed to be in effect until February 29, 1796
Whiskey Rebellion
Popular uprising that had its beginnings in 1791 and culminated in an insurrection in 1794 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in
the Monongahela Valley. During George Washington's presidency, the government decided to tax whiskey in order to pay off
the national debt. This infuriated the citizenry and led to the rebellion
Gabriel Prosser's Rebellion
A slave that planned a revolt to make Virginia a state for Blacks
He organized about 1,000 slaves who met outside Richmond the night of August 30, 1800. They had planned to attack the
city, but the roads leading to it were flooded. The attack was delayed and a slave owner found out about it. Twenty-five men
were hanged, including Gabriel.
Annapolis Convention
A precursor to the Constitutional Convention of 1787
A dozen commissioners form New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Virginia met to discuss reform of
interstate commerce regulations, to design a U.S. currency standard, and to find a way to repay the federal government's
debts to Revolutionary War veterans. Little was accomplished, except for the delegates to recommend that a further
convention be held to discuss changes to the form of the federal government
Orders in Council
British laws which led to the War of 1812
Orders-in-council passed in 1807 permitted the impressments of sailors and forbade neutral ships from visiting ports from
which Britain was excluded unless they first went to Britain and traded for British goods.
Hartford Convention
December 1814 - A convention of New England merchants who opposed the Embargo and other trade restriction, and the
War of 1812
They proposed some Amendments to the Constitution and advocated the right of states to nullify federal laws. They also
discussed the idea of seceding from the U.S. if their desires were ignored. The Hartford Convention turned public sentiment
against the Federalists and led to the demise of the party.
American Colonization Society
Formed in 1817, it purchased a tract of land in Liberia and returned free Blacks to Africa
Republicanism/Democracy
Conservative about federal spending, liberal about personal freedoms; believed in a balanced budget and lower taxes, but not
in getting rid of existing social and economic legislation
Interchangeable parts
1799-1800 - Eli Whitney developed a manufacturing system which uses standardized parts which are all identical and thus,
interchangeable. Before this, each part of a given device had been designed only for that one device; if a single piece of the
device broke, it was difficult or impossible to replace. With standardized parts, it was easy to get a replacement part from the
manufacturer. Whitney first put used standardized parts to make muskets for the U.S. government.
Henry Clay
Helped heal the North/South rift by aiding passage of the Compromise of 1850, which served to delay the Civil War
Washington's Farewell Address
Warned against the dangers of political parties and foreign alliances
Connecticut/Great Compromise
 An agreement between large and small states reached during the Philadelphia Convention of 1787 that in part defined the
legislative structure and representation that each state would have under the United States Constitution. It proposed
a bicameral legislature, resulting in the current United States Senate and House of Representatives

Barbary Pirates
Group of fighters who attacked American ships along the Barbary Coast of northern Africa at in the first few years of the
19th Century
Undeclared Naval War

Treaty of Alliance 1778

Defensive alliance between France and the United States of America, formed in the midst of the American Revolutionary
War, which promised military support in case of attack by British forces indefinitely into the future
Treaty of Paris 1783
Formally ended the American Revolution War between Britain and the United States
Acknowledging the 13 colonies to be free, sovereign and independent States, and that the British Crown and all
heirs and successors relinquish claims to the Government, propriety, and territorial rights of the same, and every part
thereof
Establishing the boundaries between the United States and British North America
Granting fishing rights to United States fishermen in the Grand Banks, off the coast of Newfoundland and in
the Gulf of Saint Lawrence
Recognizing the lawful contracted debts to be paid to creditors on either side
The Congress of the Confederation will "earnestly recommend" to state legislatures to recognize the rightful owners
of all confiscated lands "provide for the restitution of all estates, rights, and properties, which have been confiscated
belonging to real British subjects [Loyalists]"
United States will prevent future confiscations of the property of Loyalists
Prisoners of war on both sides are to be released and all property left by the British army in the United States
unmolested (including slaves)
Great Britain and the United States were each to be given perpetual access to the Mississippi River
Territories captured by Americans subsequent to treaty will be returned without compensation
Ratification of the treaty was to occur within six months from the signing by the contracting parties
Corrupt bargain
In the election of 1824, no candidate was able to secure the required number of the electoral votes, thereby putting the
outcome in the hands of the House of Representatives. To the surprise of many, the House elected John Quincy Adams over
rival Andrew Jackson. Henry Clay, the Speaker of the House at the time, convinced Congress to elect Adams, who then made
Clay his Secretary of State. Supporters of Jackson (who won a plurality of the popular as well as the greatest number of
electoral votes) denounced this as a "corrupt bargain"
Loose/Strict Constructionism
Loose (Hamilton) – Unless the constitution says not to do it, it is legal
Strict (Jefferson and Madison) – Unless the constitution says it, it is illegal
Lewis and Clark
1804–1806, was the first overland expedition undertaken by the United States to the Pacific coast and back. The expedition
team was headed by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark and assisted by Sacajawea and Toussaint Charbonneau. The
expedition's goal was to gain an accurate sense of the resources being exchanged in the Louisiana Purchase. The expedition
laid much of the groundwork for the westward expansion of the United States
Gibbons v Ogden
A case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that the power to regulate interstate commerce was granted
to Congress by the Commerce Clause of the Constitution
Treaty of Ghent
Peace treaty that ended the War of 1812 between the United States and Britain and Ireland
The treaty largely restored relations between the two countries to status quo ante bellum. Due to the slow speed of
communication, it took weeks for news of the peace treaty to reach America, well after the Battle of New Orleans had begun
Land Ordinance of 1785
Under the Articles of Confederation, Congress did not have the power to raise revenue by direct taxation of the inhabitants of
the United States. Therefore, the immediate goal of the ordinance was to raise money through the sale of land in the largely
unmapped territory west of the original colonies acquired from Britain at the end of the Revolutionary War
Critical Period
The period of time following the end of the Revolutionary War in 1783 to the inauguration of George Washington in 1789
During this time, the newly independent former colonies were beset with a wide array of foreign and domestic problems
XYZ Affair
 March of 1797 to 1800, three French agents, publicly referred to as X, Y, and Z, demanded major concessions from
the United States as a condition for continuing bilateral peace negotiations. The concessions demanded by the French
included 50,000 pounds sterling, a $12 million loan from the United States, a $250,000 personal bribe to French foreign
minister Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, and a formal apology for comments made by U.S. President John Adams

War Hawks
Term originally used to describe members of the House of Representatives of the Twelfth Congress of the United States who
advocated waging war against Great Britain in the War of 1812
Cotton gin/Eli Whitney
Eli Whitney was an American inventor best known as the inventor of the cotton gin. A cotton gin is a machine that quickly
and easily separates the cotton fibers from the seeds, a job previously done by hand
Articles of Confederation
The first constitution of the United States of America and legally established the union of the states. The Second Continental
Congress appointed a committee to draft the Articles in June 1776 and sent the draft to the states for ratification in November
1777. The ratification process was completed in March 1781; legally federating the sovereign and independent states, already
cooperating through the Continental Congress, into a new federation styled the "United States of America". Under the
Articles the states retained sovereignty over all governmental functions not specifically relinquished to the central
government
Three-fifths Compromise
Compromise between Southern and Northern states in which three-fifths of the population of slaves would be counted
regarding both the distribution of taxes and the apportionment of the members of the United States House of Representatives
Deism
A religious and philosophical belief that a supreme being created the universe, and that this (and religious truth in general)
can be determined using reason and observation of the natural world alone, without a need for either faith or organized
religion
Revolution of 1800 AKA United States Presidential Election of 1800
Vice President Thomas Jefferson defeated incumbent president John Adams
Election was a realigning election that ushered in a generation of Democratic-Republican Party rule and the eventual demise
of the Federalist Party in the First Party System
Full Funding/Assumption

Virginia/New Jersey Plans

Virginia Plan was a proposal by Virginia delegates, drafted by James Madison. Notable for its role in setting the overall
agenda for debate in the convention and, in particular, for setting forth the idea of population-weighted representation in the
proposed National Legislature
New Jersey Plan was proposed by William Paterson on June 15, 1787. The plan was created in response to the Virginia Plan's
call for two houses of Congress, both elected with proportional representation according to population or direct taxes paid.
The less populous states were adamantly opposed to giving most of the control of the national government to the larger
states, and so proposed an alternate plan that would have given one vote per state for equal representation under one
legislative body 
Samuel Slater
"Father of the American Industrial Revolution" or "Father of the American Factory System"
Was apprenticed as an engineer and in 1789 violated a British emigration law that prohibited the spread of British
manufacturing technology to other nations. When he left for New York, he had memorized the plans for the mill and offered
to sell his knowledge to American industrialists
Federalist/First American Party System
1792 -1824, it featured two national parties competing for control of the presidency, Congress, and the states: the Federalist
Party (Alexander Hamilton) and the Democratic-Republican Party (Thomas Jefferson and James Madison)
Benjamin Banneker
A free African American astronomer, mathematician, surveyor, almanac author and farmer
Marbury v Madison
Case resulted from a petition to the Supreme Court by William Marbury, who had been appointed by President John
Adams as Justice of the Peace in the District of Columbia but whose commission was not subsequently delivered. Marbury
petitioned the Supreme Court to force Secretary of State James Madison to deliver the documents, but the court, with John
Marshall as Chief Justice, denied Marbury's petition, holding that the part of the statute upon which he based his claim,
the Judiciary Act of 1789, was unconstitutional. Marbury v. Madison was the first time the Supreme Court declared
something "unconstitutional," and established the concept of judicial review in the U.S.
Bank of the United States

Yeomen farmers
Those middling white United States Southerners of the 19th century who owned their own land but few or no slaves
Virginia-Kentucky Resolutions
Written anonymously by Jefferson and Madison in response to the Alien and Sedition Acts, they declared that states could
nullify federal laws that the states considered unconstitutional.

Shay's Rebellion
Occurred in the winter of 1786-1787
Poor, indebted landowners in Massachusetts blocked access to courts and prevented the government from arresting or
repossessing the property of those in debt. The federal government was too weak to help Boston remove the rebels, a sign
that the Articles of Confederation wasn't working effectively.
Northwest Ordinance
Set up the framework of a government for the Northwest Territory
The Ordinance provided that the territory would be divided into 3 to 5 states, outlawed slavery in the Territory, and set
60,000 as the minimum population for statehood.
Lowell/Walthan System/Lowell girls
Francis Cabot Lowell established a factory in 1814 at Waltham, Massachusetts. It was the first factory in the world to
manufacture cotton cloth by power machinery in a building
Erie Canal
1825 - The Erie Canal was opened as a toll waterway connecting New York to the Great Lakes. The canal was approved in
1817 with the support of New York's Governor, Dewitt Clinton
Along with the Cumberland Road, it helped connect the North and the West.
Impressments
The act of compelling men to serve in a navy by force and without notice
Declaration of Independence
Signed by the Second Continental Congress on July 4 and it dissolved the colonies' ties with Britain, listed grievances against
King George III, and declared the colonies to be an independent nation.
Missouri Compromise
Agreement passed in 1820 between the slavery and anti-slavery factions in the United States Congress, involving primarily
the regulation of slavery in the western territories. It prohibited slavery in the former Territory north of the parallel 36°30'
north except within the boundaries of the proposed state of Missouri
Adams-Onis Treaty
Spain gave up Florida to the U.S. and the U.S./Mexico border was set so that Texas and the American Southwest would be
part of Mexico
American System
Proposed after the War of 1812, it included using federal money for internal improvements (roads, bridges, industrial
improvements, etc.), enacting a protective tariff to foster the growth of American industries, and strengthening the national
bank
Bill of Rights
First ten amendments to the Constitution, which guarantee basic individual rights
Judicial Review
Doctrine in democratic theory under which legislative and executive action is subject to invalidation by the judiciary
Specific courts with judicial review power may annul the acts of the state when it finds them incompatible with a higher
authority, such as the terms of a written constitution. Judicial review is an example of the functioning of separation of
powers in a modern governmental system
Era of Good Feelings
Period in United States political history in which partisan bitterness abated
Citizen Genet
French ambassador to the United States during the French Revolution
Citizen Genêt affair began in 1793 when he was dispatched to the United States to promote American support for France's
wars with Spain and Britain. Genêt organized American volunteers to fight Britain's Spanish allies in Florida. After raising a
militia, Genêt set sail toward Philadelphia, stopping along the way to marshal support for the French cause and arriving
on May 18. He encouraged Democratic-Republican Societies, but President Washington denounced them and they quickly
withered away. His actions endangered American neutrality in the war between France and Britain, which Washington had
pointedly declared in his Neutrality Proclamation of April 22. When Genêt met with Washington, he asked for what
amounted to a suspension of American neutrality. When turned down by Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson and informed
that his actions were unacceptable, Genêt protested. Meanwhile, Genêt's privateers were capturing British ships, and his
militia was preparing to move against the Spanish. Genêt continued to defy the wishes of the United States government,
capturing British ships and rearming them as privateers. Washington sent Genêt an 8,000-word letter of complaint on
Jefferson's and Hamilton's advice – one of the few situations in which the Federalist Alexander Hamilton and
the Democratic-Republican Jefferson agreed. Genêt replied obstinately. The Jacobins, having taken power in France by
January 1794, sent an arrest notice which asked Genêt to come back to France. Genêt, knowing that he would likely be sent
 to the guillotine, asked Washington for asylum. It was Hamilton – Genêt's fiercest opponent in the cabinet – who convinced
Washington to grant him safe haven in the United States

Alien and Sedition Acts

Four bills passed in 1798 by the Federalists in the 5th United States Congress, who were waging an undeclared naval war
with France, later known as the Quasi-War. Proponents claimed the acts were designed to protect the United
States from alien citizens of enemy powers and to stop seditious attacks from weakening the government. The Democratic-
Republicans attacked them as being both unconstitutional and designed to stifle criticism of the administration, and as
infringing on the right of the states to act in these areas
Pinckney Treaty
Established intentions of friendship between the United States and Spain
It also defined the boundaries of the United States with the Spanish colonies and guaranteed the United States navigation
rights on the Mississippi River. It also gave U.S. citizens the right to trade with New Orleans

1825-1865

Seneca Falls Convention

July, 1848 - Site of the first modern women's right convention
At the gathering, Elizabeth Cady Staton read a Declaration of Sentiment listing the many discriminations against women, and
adopted eleven resolutions, one of which called for women's suffrage
Dorothea Dix
A reformer and pioneer in the movement to treat the insane as mentally ill, beginning in the 1820's, she was responsible for
improving conditions in jails, poorhouses and insane asylums throughout the U.S. and Canada. She succeeded in persuading
many states to assume responsibility for the care of the mentally ill. She served as the Superintendant of Nurses for the Union
Army during the Civil War.
John C. Calhoun
Formerly Jackson's vice-president, later a South Carolina senator. He said the North should grant the South's demands and
keep quiet about slavery to keep the peace. He was a spokesman for the South and states' rights.
Oregon Territory
The territory comprised what are now the states of Oregon and Washington, and portions of what became British Columbia,
Canada. This land was claimed by both the U.S. and Britain and was held jointly under the Convention of 1818.
Stephen Douglas
A moderate, who introduced the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 and popularized the idea of popular sovereignty.
Wilmot Proviso
When President Polk submitted his Appropriations Bill of 1846 requesting Congress' approval of the $2 million indemnity to
be paid to Mexico under the Treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo, Pennsylvania Representative David Wilmot attached a rider which
would have barred slavery from the territory acquired. The South hated the Wilmot Proviso and a new Appropriations Bill
was introduced in 1847 without the Proviso. It provoked one of the first debates on slavery at the federal level, and the
principles of the Proviso became the core of the Free Soil, and later the Republican, Party.
John Deere
American blacksmith and manufacturer who founded Deere & Company— the largest agricultural and construction
equipment manufacturers in the world
Invented the first commercially successful steel plow in 1837
Maine Laws
Passed in 1851 in Maine, was one of the first statutory implementations of the developing temperance movement in the
United States
Mexican American War
Causes: annexation of Texas, diplomatic ineptness of U.S./Mexican relations in the 1840's and particularly the provocation of
U.S. troops on the Rio Grande. The first half of the war was fought in northern Mexico near the Texas border, with the U.S.
Army led by Zachary Taylor. The second half of the war was fought in central Mexico after U.S. troops seized the port of
Veracruz, with the Army being led by Winfield Scott. 
Results: U.S. captured Mexico City, Zachary Taylor was elected president, Santa Ana abdicated, and Mexico ceded large
parts of the West, including New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada and California, to the U.S
Abolitionists
A person who advocated or supported the abolition of slavery in the U.S
Bleeding Kansas AKA Kansas Border War
Following the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, pro-slavery forces from Missouri, known as the Border Ruffians, crossed
the border into Kansas and terrorized and murdered antislavery settlers. Antislavery sympathizers from Kansas carried out
 reprisal attacks, the most notorious of which was John Brown's 1856 attack on the settlement at Pottawatomie Creek. The war
continued for four years before the antislavery forces won. The violence it generated helped precipitate the Civil War.

Horace Mann
American education reformer, and a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1827-1833
He served in the Massachusetts Senate from 1834-1837. In 1848, after serving as Secretary of the Massachusetts State Board
of Education since its creation, he was elected to the House of Representatives. Mann was a brother-in-law to author
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Commonwealth v Hunt
Established that trade unions were not necessarily criminal or conspiring organizations if they did not advocate violence or
illegal activities in their attempts to gain recognition through striking. This legalized the existence of trade organizations,
though trade unions would continue to be harassed legally through anti-trust suits and injunctions.

Transcendentalism
A philosophy pioneered by Ralph Waldo Emerson in the 1830's and 1840's, in which each person has direct communication
with God and Nature, and there is no need for organized churches. It incorporated the ideas that mind goes beyond matter,
intuition is valuable, that each soul is part of the Great Spirit, and each person is part of a reality where only the invisible is
truly real. Promoted individualism, self-reliance, and freedom from social constraints, and emphasized emotions.
Webster-Ashburton Treaty
1842 - Established Maine's northern border and the boundaries of the Great Lake states.
Lincoln-Douglas debates
A series of debates
The two argued the important issues of the day like popular sovereignty, the Lecompton Constitution and the Dred Scott
decision. Douglas won these debates, but Lincoln's position in these debates helped him beat Douglas in the 1860 presidential
election.
Freeport Doctrine
During the Lincoln-Douglas debates, Douglas said in his Freeport Doctrine that Congress couldn't force a territory to become
a slave state against its will.
James K. Polk
11th President of the United States and known for promoting Manifest Destiny
Apologist's View of Slavery

Force Act
Passed by the Congress of the United States shortly after the American Civil War helped protect the voting rights of African-
Americans
Mainly aimed at limiting the activities of the Ku Klux Klan
Homestead Act
1862 - Provided free land in the West to anyone willing to settle there and develop it. Encouraged westward migration.
Lucretia Mott
An early feminist, she worked constantly with her husband in liberal causes, particularly slavery abolition and women's
suffrage. Her home was a station on the underground railroad. With Elizabeth Cady Stanton, she helped organize the first
women's rights convention, held in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848.
Independent Treasury
System for the retaining of government funds in the United States Treasury and its sub-treasuries, independently of the
national banking and financial systems. In one form or another, it existed from 1846 to 1921.
Nashville Convention
Meeting twice in 1850, its purpose was to protect the slave property in the South.
Morrill Land Grant Act 
1862 - Set aside public land in each state to be used for building colleges.
Compact theory
States should be the final judges of whether the national government had overstepped the boundaries of the "compact".
Trail of Tears
A minority of the Cherokee tribe, despite the protest of the majority, had surrendered their Georgia land in the 1835 Treaty of
New Echota. During the winter of 1838 - 1839, troops under General Winfield Scott evicted them from their homes in
Georgia and moved them to Oklahoma Indian country. Many died on the trail; the journey became known as the "Trail of
Tears".
Emancipation Proclamation
 September 22, 1862 - Lincoln freed all slaves in the states that had seceded, after the Northern victory at the Battle of
Antietam. Lincoln had no power to enforce the law.
Hinton Helper/Impending-Crisis
Hinton Helper of North Carolina spoke for poor, non-slave-owning Whites in his 1857 book, which as a violent attack on
slavery. It wasn't written with sympathy for Blacks, who Helper despised, but with a belief that the economic system of the
South was bringing ruin on the small farmer.

Dred Scott v Sanford

A Missouri slave sued for his freedom, claiming that his four year stay in the northern portion of the Louisiana Territory
made free land by the Missouri Compromise had made him a free man
The U.S, Supreme Court decided he couldn't sue in federal court because he was property, not a citizen.
Bank War
Controversy over the Second Bank of the United States and the attempts to destroy it by then-president Andrew Jackson
Mexican Cession
Some of Mexico's territory was added to the U.S. after the Mexican War: Arizona, New Mexico, California, Utah, Nevada &
Colorado
Cyrus McCormick
Built the reaping machine in 1831, and it make farming more efficient. Part of the industrial revolution, it allowed farmers to
substantially increase the acreage that could be worked by a single family, and also made corporate farming possible
Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo
This treaty required Mexico to cede the American Southwest, including New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada and
California, to the U.S. U.S. gave Mexico $15 million in exchange, so that it would not look like conquest
John Slidell
Went to Mexico to pay for disputed Texas and California land but the Mexican government was still angry about the
annexation of Texas and refused to talk to him
Free Soldiers

Second Great Awakening

A series of religious revivals starting in 1801, based on Methodism and Baptism
Stressed a religious philosophy of salvation through good deeds and tolerance for all Protestant sects
The revivals attracted women, Blacks, and Native Americans
Worcester v Georgia
1832 - Expanded tribal authority by declaring tribes sovereign entities, like states, with exclusive authority within their own
boundaries. President Jackson and the state of Georgia ignored the ruling
Charles River Bridge case
1837 - The Charles River Bridge Decision, delivered by Roger B. Taney, modified C.J. Marshall's ruling in the Darmouth
College Case of 1819, which said that a state could not make laws infringing on the charters of private organizations. Taney
ruled that a charter granted by a state to a company cannot work to the disadvantage of the public. The Charles River Bridge
Company protested when the Warren Bridge Company was authorized in 1828 to build a free bridge where it had been
chartered to operate a toll bridge in 1785. The court ruled that the Charles River Company was not granted a monopoly right
in their charter, and the Warren Company could build its bridge. Began the legal concept that private companies cannot injure
the public welfare
Cult of domesticity/true womanhood
While many women were in favor of the women's movement, some were not. Some of these believed in preserving the values
of "true womanhood": piety, domesticity, purity and submissiveness. These opponents of the women's movement referred to
their ideas as the "Cult of True Womanhood."
Republican Party/3rd American Party System
1860 platform: free soil principles, a protective tariff. 
Supporters: anti-slavers, business, agriculture. 
Leaders: William M. Seward, Carl Shulz
Whigs/2nd American Party System
Whigs were conservatives and popular with pro-Bank people and plantation owners. They mainly came from the National
Republican Party, which were once largely Federalists. They took their name from the British political party that had opposed
King George during the American Revolution. Among the Whigs were Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and, for a while,
Calhoun. Their policies included support of industry, protective tariffs, and Clay's American System. They were generally
upper class in origin
Detocqueville/Democracy in America

William Seward
 1867 - An eager expansionist, he was the energetic supporter of the Alaskan purchase and negotiator of the deal often called
"Seward's Folly" because Alaska was not fit for settlement or farming
Fugitive Slave Law
Laws passed by the United States Congress in 1793 and 1850 to provide for the return of slaves who escaped from one state
into another or into a public territory
Removal of Deposits

Harriet Beecher Stowe

She wrote the abolitionist book, Uncle Tom's Cabin
Brighan Young
1847 - Brigham Young let the Mormons to the Great Salt Lake Valley in Utah, where they founded the Mormon republic of
Deseret
Believed in polygamy and strong social order
(Others feared that the Mormons would act as a block, politically and economically)
Specie Circular
1863 - The Specie Circular, issued by President Jackson July 11, 1836, was meant to stop land speculation caused by states
printing paper money without proper specie (gold or silver) backing it. The Circular required that the purchase of public lands
be paid for in specie. It stopped the land speculation and the sale of public lands went down sharply
Crittenden Compromise
A desperate measure to prevent the Civil War, introduced by John Crittenden, Senator from Kentucky, in December 1860
The bill offered a Constitutional amendment recognizing slavery in the territories south of the 36º30' line, noninterference by
Congress with existing slavery, and compensation to the owners of fugitive slaves. Republicans, on the advice of Lincoln,
defeated it
Lecompton Constitution
The pro-slavery constitution suggested for Kansas' admission to the union. It was rejected
Perpetual Union
A feature of the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, which established the United States of America as a national
entity
Under American constitutional law, this concept means that states are not permitted to withdraw from the Union
Compromise of 1850
Called for the admission of California as a free state, organizing Utah and New Mexico without restrictions on slavery,
adjustment of the Texas/New Mexico border, abolition of slave trade in District of Columbia, and tougher fugitive slave laws
Its passage was hailed as a solution to the threat of national division
Nullification
The failure or refusal of a U.S. state to aid in enforcement of federal laws within its limits, esp. on Constitutional grounds
William Lloyd Garrison/Liberator
A militant abolitionist, he became editor of the Boston publication, The Liberator, in 1831. Under his leadership, The
Liberator gained national fame and notoriety due to his quotable and inflammatory language, attacking everything from slave
holders to moderate abolitionists, and advocating northern secession.
Spoils System/Rotation in Office
"To the victor go the spoils" - the winner of the election may do whatever they want with the staff
Popular Sovereignty
The doctrine that stated that the people of a territory had the right to decide their own laws by voting
Gadsden Purchase
1853 - After the Treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgowas signed, the U.S. realized that it had accidentally left portions of the
southwestern stagecoach routes to California as part of Mexico. James Gadsen, the U.S. Minister to Mexico, was instructed
by President Pierce to draw up a treaty that would provide for the purchase of the territory through which the stage lines ran,
along which the U.S. hoped to also eventually build a southern continental railroad. This territory makes up the southern parts
of Arizona and New Mexico
American Anti-slavery Society
Formed in 1833, a major abolitionist movement in the North
Irish Immigration
Arriving in immense waves in the 1800's, they were extremely poor peasants who later became the manpower for canal and
railroad construction
Trent Affair AKA Mason and Slidell Affair
An international diplomatic incident that occurred during the American Civil War
On November 8, 1861, the USS San Jacinto, commanded by Union Captain Charles Wilkes, intercepted the British mail
packet Trent and removed two Confederate diplomats, James Mason and John Slidell. The envoys were bound for the United
Kingdom (then the most powerful nation in the world) and France to press the Confederacy’s case for diplomatic recognition
by Europe
Know Nothing/American Party
 Opposed immigration and Catholic influence
They answered questions from outsiders about the party by saying "I know nothing"
Mormons
Term used to describe the adherents, practitioners, followers or constituents of certain denominations within the Latter Day
Saint movement
Prigg v Pennsylvania 
1842 - A slave had escaped from Maryland to Pennsylvania, where a federal agent captured him and returned him to his
owner. Pennsylvania indicted the agent for kidnapping under the fugitive slave laws. The Supreme Court ruled it was
unconstitutional for bounty hunters or anyone but the owner of an escaped slave to apprehend that slave, thus weakening the
fugitive slave laws
Kansas-Nebraska Act
1854 - This act repealed the Missouri Compromise and established a doctrine of congressional nonintervention in the
territories
Popular sovereignty (vote of the people) would determine whether Kansas and Nebraska would be slave or free states.
Manifest Destiny
Phrase commonly used in the 1840s-1850s. It expressed the inevitableness of continued expansion of the U.S. to the Pacific.
Clayton-Bulwer Treaty
1850 - Treaty between U.S. and Great Britain agreeing that neither country would try to obtain exclusive rights to a canal
across the Isthmus of Panama
Abrogated by the U.S. in 1881
Gag Rule

Tariff of Abominations AKA Tariff of 1828

Raised the tariff on imported manufactured goods
The tariff protected the North but harmed the South; South said that the tariff was economically discriminatory and
unconstitutional because it violated state's rights. It passed because New England favored high tariffs
Ostend Manifesto
The recommendation that the U.S. offer Spain $20 million for Cuba
It was not carried through in part because the North feared Cuba would become another slave state
Antebellum Period
Time period in America from after the birth of the United States to the start of the American Civil War
Battle of Antietam
Battle sites of the Civil War. Gettysburg - 90,000 soldiers under Meade vs. 76,000 under Lee, lasted three days and the North
won. Vicksburg - besieged by Grant and surrendered after six months. Antietam - turning point of the war and a much-
needed victory for Lincoln. Appomattox - Lee surrendered to Grant
Uncle Tom's Cabin
It helped to crystallize the rift between the North and South. It has been called the greatest American propaganda novel ever
written, and helped to bring about the Civil War
Neal Dow
In 1838, Dow founded the Maine Temperance Union. As mayor of Portland, Maine, Dow secured in 1851 the state's passage
the Maine Law, which forbade the sale or manufacture of liquor
Sumner-Brooks Affair
1856 - Charles Sumner gave a two day speech on the Senate floor. He denounced the South for crimes against Kansas and
singled out Senator Andrew Brooks of South Carolina for extra abuse. Brooks beat Sumner over the head with his cane,
severely crippling him. Sumner was the first Republican martyr
Underground Railroad
A secret, shifting network which aided slaves escaping to the North and Canada, mainly after 1840
National Banking Act
United States federal law that established a system of national charters for banks, encouraged development of a national
currency based on bank holdings of U.S. Treasury securities, the so-called National Bank Notes, established the Office of the
Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) as part of the Department of the Treasury. This was to establish a national security
holding body for the existence of the monetary policy of the state. The Act, together with Abraham Lincoln's issuance of
"greenbacks," raised money for the federal government in the American Civil War by enticing banks to buy federal bonds
and taxing state bank issued currency out of existence. The law proved defective and was replaced by the National Bank Act
of 1864. The money was used to fund the Union army in the fight against the Confederacy. This authorized the OCC to
examine and regulate nationally-chartered banks
Nature of the Union

1865-1900
New immigrants
The second major wave of immigration to the U.S. between 1865-1910, 25 million new immigrants arrived
Mostly from Southern and Eastern Europe, fleeing persecution and poverty
Language barriers and cultural differences produced mistrust by Americans
Black codes
Laws passed on the state and local level in the United States to limit the civil rights and civil liberties of African Americans

Populist (People's) party

A short-lived political party in the United States established in 1887
The party did not remain a lasting feature most probably because it had been so closely identified with the free
silver movement which was not meaningful for urban voters
Molly McGuires
Members of a secret Irish organization
Many historians believe the "Mollies" were present in the anthracite coal fields of Pennsylvania in the United States from
approximately the time of the American Civil War until a series of sensational arrests and trials in the years 1876−1878
Evidence that the Molly Maguires were responsible for coalfield crimes and kidnapping in the U.S. rests largely upon
allegations of one powerful industrialist, and the testimony of one Pinkerton detective. Fellow prisoners also testified against
the alleged Molly Maguires, but some believe these witnesses may have been coerced or bribed
American Federation of Labor
One of the first federations of labor unions in the United States
Sharecropping
A system of agriculture in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crop produced on the
land
Booker T. Washington
The dominant figure in the African American community in the United States from 1890 to 1915
Representing the last generation of black leaders born in slavery, and speaking for those blacks who had remained in the New
South in an uneasy modus vivendi with the white Southerners, Washington was able throughout the final 25 years of his life
to maintain his standing as the black leader because of the sponsorship of powerful whites, substantial support within the
black community, his ability to raise educational funds from both groups and his skillful accommodation to the social
realities of the age of segregation
Dawes Act
Provided for the division of tribally held lands into individually-owned parcels and opening "surplus" lands to settlement by
non-Indians and development by railroads
Sherman Anti-Trust Act
Requires the United States Federal government to investigate and pursue trusts, companies and organizations suspected of
violating the Act
Settlement House Movement

William Jennings Bryan

The Democratic Party nominee for President of the United States in 1896, 1900 and 1908
A supporter of popular democracy, a critic of banks and railroads, a leader of the silverite movement in the 1890s, a leading
figure in the Democratic Party, a peace advocate, a prohibitionist, an opponent of Darwinism, and one of the most prominent
leaders of populism in the late 19th and early 20th century. Because of his faith in the goodness and rightness of the common
people, he was called "The Great Commoner"
Battle of Jennings Bryan

Turner/Frontier Thesis
The argument advanced by historian Frederick Jackson Turner in 1893 that the origin of the distinctive aggressive, violent,
innovative and democratic features of the American character has been the American frontier
Pragmatism (William James)
The truth of an idea needed to be tested to prove its validity
Tenure of Office Act
Denied the President of the United States the power to remove from office anyone who had been appointed by a past
President without the advice and consent of the United States Senate, unless the Senate approved the removal during the next
full session of Congress
William Randolph Hearst
An American newspaper magnate and leading newspaper publisher
Yellow journalism — sensationalized stories of dubious veracity
Granger Laws
A series of laws passed in western states of the United States after the American Civil War to regulate grain elevator and
railroad freight rates and rebates and to address long- and short-haul discrimination and other railroad abuses against farmers
John Dewey
An American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social
reform
Thomas Nast
 A German-born American caricaturist and editorial cartoonist who is considered to be the "Father of the American Cartoon"

Sherman Silver Purchase Act

Increased the amount of silver the government was required to purchase every month
Passed in response to the growing complaints of farmers and mining interests, farmers had immense debts that could not be
paid off due to deflation caused by overproduction, and they urged the government to pass the Sherman Silver Purchase Act
in order to boost the economy and cause inflation, allowing them to pay their debts with cheaper dollars
Mining companies, meanwhile, had extracted vast quantities of silver from western mines; the resulting oversupply drove
down the price of their product, often to below the point where it was profitable to mine it. They hoped to enlist the
government to artificially increase demand for, and thus the price of, silver
Pendleton (Civil Service) Act
Placed most federal government employees on the merit system and marked the end of the so-called spoils system
The act provided for some government jobs to be filled on the basis of competitive exams
Salvation Army
Established by “General” William Booth, uniformed volunteers provided food, shelter, and employment to families, attracted
poor with lively preaching and marching bands in order to instill middle-class virtues
Munn v Illinois
Private property subject to government regulation when property is devoted to public interest; against railroads
Interstate Commerce Act
A federal law designed to regulate the monopolistic railroad industry
Required that railroads publicize shipping rates and charge no more for short hauling than for long hauling
Railroads were also prevented from practicing price discrimination against smaller markets
Louis Sullivan
Known as the father of the skyscraper because he designed the first steel-skeleton skyscraper
Mentor of Frank Lloyd Wright
Long Drives

John Peter Altgeld

A leading figure of the Progressive movement, Altgeld improved workplace safety and child labor laws, pardoned three of
the men convicted of the Haymarket Affair, and rejected calls in 1894 to break up the Pullman strike with force
J.P. Morgan
An American financier, banker and art collector who dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation during his
time
Chief Joseph
The chief of the Wal-lam-wat-kain (Wallowa) band of Nez Perce during General Oliver O. Howard's attempt to forcibly
remove his band and the other "non-treaty" Nez Perce to a reservation in Idaho
For his principled resistance to the removal, he became renowned as a humanitarian and peacemaker
Henry George (Progress and Poverty)
An American writer, politician and political economist, who was the most influential proponent of the land value tax, also
known as the "single tax" on land
His most famous work is Progress and Poverty written during 1879; it is a treatise on inequality, the cyclic nature of
industrial economies and possible remedies
Old Immigrants
Someone who came to the United States from Northern or Western Europe (i.e. Britain, France, Germany or Scandinavia)
during the first wave of immigration following American independence
13th, 14th, 15th amendments
13th: abolished and continues to prohibit slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime
14th: provides a broad definition of citizenship; recognize substantive due process rights, such as parental and marriage rights,
and procedural due process rights; requires states to provide equal protection under the law to all people within their
jurisdictions
15th: prohibits each government in the United States from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's
"race, color, or previous condition of servitude"
Bread and Butter Unionism
 Higher wages, shorter hours, better conditions
Spanish-American War
1898 – McKinley reluctant; armed intervention to free Cuba from Spain; Roosevelt’s “Rough Riders” made attack on
Spanish at Cuba
National Labor Union
Founded by William Sylvis in 1866
Supported 8-hour workday, convict labor, federal department of labor, banking reform, immigration restrictions to increase
wages, women
Excluded blacks

Helen Hunt Jackson

An American writer who became an activist to improve United States government treatment of Native Americans
1882 – She published A Century of Dishonor, about the adverse effects of government actions, and sent a copy to each
member of the US Congress
Gained the widest public with her novel Ramona, dramatizing the ill treatment by the United States (US) government of
Native Americans in Southern California
Social Gospel
A Protestant Christian intellectual movement that was most prominent in the late 19th century and early 20th century
The movement applied Christian ethics to social problems
Jingoism
"Extreme patriotism in the form of aggressive foreign policy"
Refers to the avocation of the use of threats or actual force against other countries in order to safeguard what they perceive as
their country's national interests, and colloquially to excessive bias in judging one's own country as superior to others – an
extreme type of nationalism
Alfred Thayer Mahan
A United States Navy flag officer, geostrategic, and educator, who has been called "The most important American strategist
of the nineteenth century”
Horizontal Integration
Consolidating with competitors to monopolize a market (highly detrimental)
Freedmen's Bureau
Main focus was to provide food and medical care, to help the freedmen to resettle, to ensure justice for the freedmen, to
manage abandoned or confiscated property, to regulate labor, and to establish schools
Sioux Wars
A series of conflicts between the United States and various subgroups of the Sioux people that occurred in the latter half of
the 19th century
Gilded Age
The era of rapid economic and population growth in the United States during the post-Civil War and post-Reconstruction
eras of the late 19th century
Coined by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner in their 1873 book, The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today
Haymarket Incident
Bomb thrown at protest rally, police shot protestors, caused great animosity in employers for workers’ unions
Scalawags
A nickname for southern whites who supported Reconstruction following the Civil War
Compromise of 1877
An informal, unwritten deal that settled the disputed 1876 U.S. Presidential election and ended Congressional Reconstruction
Republican Rutherford B. Hayes was awarded the White House over Democrat Samuel J. Tilden on the understanding that
Hayes would remove the federal troops that were propping up Republican state governments in South
Carolina, Florida and Louisiana
Atlanta Compromise
Speech made by Booker T. Washington to ease whites’ fears of integration, assuring them that separate but equal was
acceptable, ideas challenged by DuBois
"Waving the Bloody Shirt"
Refers to the demagogic practice of politicians referencing the blood of martyrs or heroes to inspire support or avoid criticism
Seward's Folly AKA Alaska Purchase
The purchase of Alaska by the United States from the Russian Empire in 1867
Edward Bellamy (Looking Backward)
State-run economy to provide conflict-free society
Boss Tweed
An American politician most famous for his leadership of Tammany Hall, the Democratic Party political machine that played
a major role in the politics of 19th century New York
 At the height of his influence, Tweed was the third-largest landowner in New York City, a director of the Erie Railway,
the Tenth National Bank, and the New-York Printing Company, as well as proprietor of the Metropolitan Hotel
Convicted for stealing between $40 million and $200 million from New York City taxpayers through political corruption
Died in the Ludlow Street Jail
Chautaugua Movement
An adult education movement in the United States, highly popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries
Brought entertainment and culture for the whole community, with speakers, teachers, musicians, entertainers, preachers and
specialists of the day
"Forty Acres and a Mule"
A practice in 1865 of providing arable land to Black former slaves who became free as Union armies occupied areas of
the Confederacy

Coxey's Army
Coxey and unemployed followers marched on Washington for support in unemployment relief by inflationary public works
program
Chinese Exclusion Act
A United States federal law signed into law by Chester A. Arthur on May 8, 1882, following revisions made in 1880 to
the Burlingame Treaty of 1868
Allowed the U.S. to suspend immigration, and Congress subsequently acted quickly to implement the suspension of Chinese
immigration, a ban that was intended to last 10 years
Andrew Carnegie
Achieved an abnormal rise in class system (steel industry), pioneered vertical integration, opposed monopolies
Crédit Mobilier Scandal
1872 – Involved the Union Pacific Railroad and the Crédit Mobilier of America construction company
The distribution of Crédit Mobilier stocks by Congressman Oakes Ames along with cash bribes to congressmen took place
during the Andrew Johnson presidency in 1868
The revelation of the congressmen who received cash bribes or stocks in Crédit Mobilier took place during the Ulysses S.
Grant administration in 1872
Teller Amendment
An amendment to a joint resolution of the United States Congress, enacted on April 19, 1898, in reply to President William
McKinley's War Message
Placed a condition of the United States military in Cuba
According to the clause, the U.S. could not annex Cuba but only leave "control of the island to its people"
Wounded Knee Massacre
The last armed conflict between the Great Sioux Nation and the United States of America and of the Indian Wars
Radical Reconstruction

Plessy v Ferguson
Supreme Court legalized the “separate but equal” philosophy
Joseph Pulitzer
A Hungarian-American publisher best known for posthumously establishing the Pulitzer Prizes and for originating yellow
journalism along with William Randolph Hearst
Knights of Labor
Founded by Uriah Stephens in 1869
Excluded corrupt and well-off
Equal female pay, end to child/convict labor, employer-employee relations, proportional income tax
Crop Lien System
A credit system that became widely used by farmers in the United States in the South from the 1860s to the 1920s
A Century of Dishonor – 1881
By Helen Hunt Jackson
Chronicles the experiences of Native Americans in the United States, focusing on examples of injustices
Gospel of Wealth
An essay written by Andrew Carnegie in 1889 that described the responsibility of philanthropy by the new upper class of
self-made rich
The central thesis of Carnegie's essay was the peril of allowing large sums of money to be passed into the hands of persons or
organizations ill-equipped mentally or emotionally to cope with them
As a result, the wealthy entrepreneur must assume the responsibility of distributing his fortune in a way that it will be put to
good use, and not wasted on frivolous expenditure
Yellow Journalism
A type of journalism that presents little or no legitimate well-researched news and instead uses eye-catching headlines and
sensationalized stories to sell more newspapers
Social Darwinism
Applied Darwin's theory of natural selection and "survival of the fittest" to human society -- the poor are poor because they
are not as fit to survive. Used as an argument against social reforms to help the poor.
Vertical Integration
Controlling every aspect of production; control quality, eliminate middlemen (Rockefeller)
Cult of Domesticity
Victorian standards confined women to the home to create an artistic environment as a statement of cultural aspirations
Boxer Rebellion
Took place in China between 1898 and 1901
Took place in response to imperialist expansion, growth of cosmopolitan influences and missionary evangelism

Samuel Gompers
An American labor union leader and a key figure in American labor history
Founded the American Federation of Labor (AF of L), and served as that organization's president from 1886 to 1894 and
from 1895 until his death in 1924
Civil Rights Act of 1866
A federal law in the United States that made everyone born in the U.S. full citizens
Farmers’ Alliances
An organized agrarian economic movement amongst U.S. farmers that flourished in the 1880s
One of its goals was to end the adverse effects of the crop-lien system on farmers after the Civil War
Jim Crow Laws
State and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965
They mandated racial segregation in all public facilities, with a supposedly "separate but equal" status for Blacks but in
reality, this led to treatment and accommodations that were usually inferior to those provided for Whites, systematizing a
number of economic, educational and social disadvantages
Redemption (Redeemers)
A political coalition in the Southern United States during the Reconstruction era, who sought to oust the Republican coalition
of freedmen, carpetbaggers and scalawags
The southern wing of the Bourbon Democrats, who were the conservative, pro-business wing of the Democratic Party
Bland-Allison Act
An 1878 act of Congress requiring the U.S. Treasury to buy a certain amount of silver and put it into circulation as silver
dollars
Vetoed by President Rutherford B. Hayes, the Congress overrode Hayes' veto on February 28, 1878 to enact the law
Edwin Stanton
An American lawyer and politician who served as Secretary of War under the Lincoln Administration during the American
Civil War from 1862-1865
Stanton's effective management helped organize the massive military resources of the North and guide the Union to victory
The Grange AKA The National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry
Founded in 1867 after the Civil War, it is the oldest surviving agricultural organization in America
A fraternal organization for American farmers that encourages farm families to band together for their common economic
and political well-being
Young Men's Christian Association AKA YMCA
Provided housing and recreation to city youth, imposing Protestant morals, unable to reach out to all youth
Open Range

Pullman Strike
Nationwide conflict between labor unions and railroads that occurred in the United States in 1894
Frederick Olmstead
An American journalist, landscape designer and father of American landscape architecture
Famous for designing many well-known urban parks, including Central Park and Prospect Park in New York City
Injunction
An equitable remedy in the form of a court order, whereby a party is required to do, or to refrain from doing, certain acts
The party that fails to adhere to the injunction faces civil or criminal penalties and may have to pay damages or accept
sanctions for failing to follow the court's order
"Crime of '73" AKA Coinage Act of 1873
Enacted by the United States Congress in 1873 and embraced the gold standard and de-monetized silver
Horatio Alger
 A prolific 19th-century American author, most famous for his novels following the adventures
of bootblacks, newsboys, peddlers, buskers, and other impoverished children in their rise from humble backgrounds to lives
of respectable middle-class security and comfort
Platt Amendment
U.S. would ensure that Cuba would be protected from European powers and maintain a place in Cuban affairs; provided coal
and naval stations
John D. Rockefeller
Standard Oil Company, ruthless business tactics (survival of the fittest)
 

1900-1918
 
Treaty of Versailles
One of the peace treaties at the end of World War I; it ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers
Required Germany to accept sole responsibility for causing the war
Disarm
Make substantial territorial concessions
Pay reparations
Prove to be a factor leading to later conflicts, notably and directly the World War II
League of Nations
An inter-governmental organization founded as a result of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919–1920, and the precursor to
the United Nations
Committee on Public Information AKA CPI AKA Creel Committee
An independent agency of the government of the United States created to influence U.S. public opinion regarding American
participation in World War I
Muckrakers
Uncovered the “dirt” on corruption and harsh quality of city/working life
Heavily criticized by Theodore Roosevelt
Russo-Japanese War
A conflict that grew out of the rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and Japanese Empire over Manchuria and
Korea
Henry Cabot Lodge
An American statesman, a Republican politician, and a noted historian
Considered to be the first Senate majority leader
Open Door Policy
Sought to eliminate spheres of influence and avoid European monopolies in China; unaccepted by the powers in mind
Fourteen Points
A speech delivered by President Woodrow Wilson to a joint session of Congress on January 8, 1918
The address was intended to assure the country that the Great War was being fought for a moral cause and for postwar peace
in Europe
Panama Canal
Needed to protect new Pacific acquisitions, U.S. took over the project from the French after overcoming Clayton-Bulwer
Treaty (prohibited control of canal) with the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty
Federal Trade Commission
An independent agency of the United States government, established in 1914 by the Federal Trade Commission Act
Its principal mission is the promotion of "consumer protection" and the elimination and prevention of what regulators
perceive to be harmfully "anti-competitive" business practices, such as coercive monopoly
Creel Committee
Committee on Public Information
Aimed to sell America and the world on Wilson’s war goals
Propaganda, censorship, “four minute men” speeches, “Liberty Leagues” (spy on community)
International Workers of the World
Supported Socialists, militant unionists and socialists, advocated strikes and sabotaging politics, aimed for an umbrella union
similar to Knights of Labor, ideas too radical for socialist cause
Federal Reserve System
 The central banking system of the United States
The Federal Reserve is the only entity with the US government's permission to introduce US paper currency into circulation
Irreconcilables

Dollar Diplomacy
The term used to describe the "good chiss effort" of the United States — particularly under President William Howard
Taft — to further its aims in Latin America and East Asia through use of its economic power by guaranteeing loans made to
foreign countries

W.E.B. DuBois (Niagara movement)

Opposed Booker T. Washington’s accommodation policies, called for immediate equality, formed Niagara Movement to
support his ideas
Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty
Negotiated the terms of sale for the building of a Panama Canal and for a Panama Canal Zone surrounding the canal

Woodrow Wilson
Democratic candidate 1912, stood for antitrust, monetary change, and tariff reduction
Far less active than Roosevelt, Clayton Anti-trust Act (to enforce Sherman), Child Labor Act
Progressive Movement
A political attitude favoring or advocating changes or reform
Wobblies AKA Industrial Workers of the World AKA IWW
An international union
Contends that all workers should be united as a class and that the wage system should be abolished
Article X

Reservationalists

Spheres of Influence
An area or region over which a state or organization has significant cultural, economic, military or political influence
Ballinger-Pinchot Affair AKA Ballinger Affair
A dispute between U.S. Forest Service Chief Gifford Pinchot and U.S. Secretary of the Interior Richard Achilles
Ballinger that contributed to the split of the Republican Party before the 1912 Presidential Election and helped to define the
U.S. conservation movement in the early 20th century
16th, 17th amendments
16th: Allows the Congress to levy an income tax without apportioning it among the states or basing it on Census results
17th: Established direct election of United States Senators by popular vote
Upton Sinclair (The Jungle)
Revealed unsanitary nature of meat-packing industry, inspired Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drug Act (1906)
Volstead Act
Reinforced the prohibition of alcohol in the United States
Mann-Elkins Act
Extended the authority of the Interstate Commerce Commission to include communications
Sussex/Arabic Pledges
Promise made in 1916 during World War I by Germany to the United States prior to the latter's entry into the war
Arabic:
Germany would warn non-military ships 30 minutes before they sank them to make sure the passengers and crew
got out safely
Germany broke this pledge on March 24, 1916, when a U-boat torpedoed the French ship Sussex
Sussex:
Passenger ship would not be targeted
Merchant ships would not be sunk until the presence of weapons had been established, if necessary by search of the
ship
Merchant ships would not be sunk without provision for the safety of passengers and crew
Charles and Mary Beard

Anthracite Coal Strike

Threatened to shut down the winter fuel supply to all major cities
Roosevelt became involved and set up a fact-finding commission that suspended the strike
Strike never resumed, as the miners received more pay for fewer hours; the owners got a higher price for coal, and did not
recognize the trade union as a bargaining agent
The first labor episode in which the federal government intervened as a neutral arbitrator
Zimmerman Note
Intercepted by Britain
Germany proposed alliance with Mexico, using bribe of return of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona; Japan included in
alliance
Eugene V. Debs
Led railroad workers in Pullman Strike, arrested; Supreme Court legalized use of injunction (court order) against unions and
strikes
Samuel “Golden Rule” Jones
Different than the other businessmen of the time, he paid decent wages that people could support their families on and in
return he just asked his workers to work hard, be honest, and follow the golden rule
As mayor of Toledo, strove to improve conditions for the working class of his community, opened free kindergartens, built
parks, instituted an eight-hour day for city workers, and reformed the city government
Not well liked by other businessmen, the average citizen supported him
Underwood-Simmons Tariff
Re-imposed the federal income tax following the ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment and lowered basic tariff rates from
40% to 25%, well below the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act of 1909
Bull Moose Party
Party formed from Republican split by Roosevelt, more progressive values, leaving “Republican Old Guard” to control
Republican party
Theodore Roosevelt
First “modern” president, moderate who supported progressivism (at times conservative), bypassed congressional opposition,
significant role in world affairs
Gentlemen’s Agreement
1908 – In response to Japanese discrimination in San Francisco schools; Japanese to stop laborers into U.S.; Californians
forbidden to ban Japanese from public schools
Birth of a Nation/DW Griffith
DW Griffith is best known as the director of the controversial and groundbreaking 1915 film The Birth of a Nation and the
subsequent film Intolerance
The Birth of a Nation made pioneering use of advanced camera and narrative techniques, and its immense popularity set the
stage for the dominance of the feature-length film
Good and Bad Trust

Emilio Aguinaldo
A Filipino general, politician, and independence leader
Played an instrumental role during the Philippines' revolution against Spain, and the subsequent Philippine-American
War that resisted American occupation
Became the Philippines' first President
Black Jack John Pershing
A general officer in the United States Army
Only person to be promoted in his own lifetime to the highest rank ever held in the United States Army—General of the
Armies
Led the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I and was regarded as a mentor by the generation of American
generals who led the United States Army in Europe during World War II, including George C. Marshall, Dwight D.
Eisenhower, Omar N. Bradley, and George S. Patton
Jacob Riis
A Danish American social reformer, muckraking journalist and social documentary photographer
Known for his dedication to using his photographic and journalistic talents to help the impoverished in New York City,
which was the subject of most of his prolific writings and photography
Helped with the implementation of "model tenements" in New York with the help of humanitarian Lawrence Veiller
As one of the most prominent exponents of the newly practicable flash, he is considered a pioneer in photography
Lusitania
British passenger liner secretly carrying ammunition sunk by German u-boat, including American passengers
The sinking of this ship and also the Zimmerman note let to the U.S. entering World War I
Muller v. Oregon
A landmark decision in United States Supreme Court history, as it justifies both sex discrimination and usage of labor laws
during the time period
Upheld Oregon state restrictions on the working hours of women as justified by the special state interest in protecting
women's health
Triple Wall of Privilege

Insurgent’s Revolt
Robert La Follette
Created the Wisconsin Idea
Regulated railroad, direct-primary system, increased corporate taxes, reference library for lawmakers
Big Stick Policy
A form of hegemony and was the slogan describing U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt’s corollary to the Monroe Doctrine
"Speak softly and carry a big stick"
Roosevelt Corollary
U.S. felt it was its duty to “watch out” for the interests of other countries in the Western hemisphere; provided justification
for invasions of Latin America
Keating-Owen Child Labor Act
Sought to address the perceived evils of child labor by prohibiting the sale in interstate commerce of goods manufactured by
children, thus giving an expanded importance to the constitutional clause giving Congress the task of regulating interstate
commerce
Food Administration
Relied on voluntary compliance (no formal laws), propaganda; high prices set on commodities to encourage production,
Prohibition
Insular Cases
Several U.S. Supreme Court cases decided early in the 20th century
Were in essence the court's response to a major issue of the United States presidential election, 1900 and the American Anti-
Imperialist League, summarized by the phrase "Does the Constitution follow the flag?" 
New Nationalism
Theodore Roosevelt's Progressive political philosophy during the 1912 election
Central issue he argued was human welfare versus property rights
Insisted that only a powerful federal government could regulate the economy and guarantee social justice
The concentration in industry was not necessarily bad, if the industry behaved responsibly
Pure Food and Drug Act
Provided federal inspection of meat products and forbade the manufacture, sale, or transportation of adulterated food
products and poisonous patent medicines
Arose due to public education and exposés from Muckrakers such as Upton Sinclair and Samuel Hopkins Adams, social
activist Florence Kelley, researcher Harvey W. Wiley, and President Theodore Roosevelt
Northern Securities Case
Northern Securities Company (JP Morgan and James G. Hill- railroads) seen by Roosevelt as “bad” trust, Supreme Court
upheld his first trust-bust
Lochner v. New York
Held a "liberty of contract" was implicit in the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment
Involved a New York law that limited the number of hours that a baker could work each day to ten, and limited the number
of hours that a baker could work each week to 60
Clayton Anti-trust Act
Enacted to add further substance to the U.S. antitrust law regime by seeking to prevent anticompetitive practices in their
incipiency
New Freedom
The policy of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson which promoted antitrust modification, tariff revision, and reform in banking
and currency matters
Great White Fleet
The popular nickname for the United States Navy battle fleet that completed a circumnavigation of the globe from 16
December 1907 to 22 February 1909 by order of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt
Consisted of 16 battleships divided into four squadrons, along with various escorts
Sought to demonstrate growing American military power and blue-water navy capability

1918-1941

Harlem Renaissance
Authors – Langston Hughes, McKay, Zora Neale Hurston, Countee Cullet
Praise expression of black culture of the time
National Origins Act
1924 – Reduced quota, reduced numbers from Eastern and Southern Europe, Asians banned, Canadians and Latin Americans
exempt
Cultural Isolation

18th, 19th, 20th, 21st Amendments

18th: Established Prohibition in the United States; only amendment to the Constitution that has been repealed
 19th: Prohibits each state and the federal government from denying any citizen the right to vote because of that citizen's sex
20th: Establishes the beginning and ending of the terms of the elected federal offices
21st: Repealed the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which mandated nationwide Prohibition
Andrew Mellon
Secretary of the treasury
Introduced the “trickle-down” economics theory in order to promote business and increase money available for speculation
Neutrality Acts
Laws that were passed by the United States Congress in the 1930s, in response to the growing turmoil
in Europe and Asia that eventually led to World War II
Were spurred by the growth in isolationism and non-interventionism in the US following its costly involvement in World
War I, and sought to ensure that the US would not become entangled again in foreign conflicts
Albert Fall
A United States Senator from New Mexico and the Secretary of the Interior under President Warren G. Harding, infamous
for his involvement in the Teapot Dome scandal
John L. Lewis
An American leader of organized labor who served as president of the United Mine Workers of America from 1920 to 1960
Hoovervilles
The popular name for shanty towns built by homeless people during the Great Depression
Named after President Herbert Hoover because he allegedly let the nation slide into depression
Back to Africa Movement AKA Colonization Movement
Originated in the United States in the nineteenth century, and encouraged those of African descent to return to
the African homelands of their ancestors
Spirit of St. Louis
The custom-built single engine, single seat monoplane that was flown solo by Charles Lindbergh on May 20–21, 1927, on
the first non-stop flight from New York to Paris for which Lindbergh won the $25,000 Orteig Prize
Palmer Raids
Congressional support to raid houses of radicals believed to have connections to communism
“Lost Generation”
New generation of writers outside of Protestantism, resentment of ideals betrayed by society
Fitzgerald (despised materialism, The Great Gatsby), Lewis (against upper class- Babbit and Mainstreet), Faulkner (stream of
consciousness), T.S. Eliot
Keynesian Economics AKA Keynesianism AKA Keynesian Theory
A macroeconomic theory based on the ideas of 20th century British economist John Maynard Keynes
Argues that private sector decisions sometimes lead to inefficient macroeconomic outcomes and therefore, advocates active
policy responses by the public sector, including monetary policy actions by the central bank and fiscal policy actions by the
government to stabilize output over the business cycle
Warren G. Harding
The 29th President of the United States, serving from 1921 until his death from a heart attack in 1923
His conservative stance on issues such as taxes, affable manner, and campaign manager Harry Daugherty's 'make no enemies'
strategy enabled Harding to become the compromise choice at the 1920 Republican National Convention
F. Scott Fitzgerald
An American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigm writings of the Jazz Age
A member of the "Lost Generation" of the 1920s and is widely regarded as one of the 20th century's greatest writers
His most celebrated classic is The Great Gatsby
National Labor Relations Board
An independent agency of the United States government charged with conducting elections for labor union representation
and with investigating and remedying unfair labor practices
National Industrial Recovery Act
An American statute which authorized the President of the United States to regulate industry and
permit cartels and monopolies in an attempt to stimulate economic recovery, and established a national public works program
Huey Long AKA The Kingfish
Noted for his radical populist policies
Created the Share Our Wealth program in 1934
Advocated federal spending on works, public, old age pensions and other social programs
Georgia O’Keeffe
A major figure in American art from the 1920s
Received widespread recognition for her technical contributions, as well as for challenging the boundaries of modern
American artistic style
John Steinbeck Grapes of Wrath
An American writer
The Grapes of Wrath was written in 1939 and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1940. The book is set in the Great Depression and
describes a family of sharecroppers, the Joads, who were driven from their land due to the dust storms of the Dust Bowl
 1962 – Received the Nobel Prize for Literature
Lend-Lease Act
The name of the program under which the United States of America supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet
Union, China, France and other Allied nations with vast amounts of war material between 1941 and 1945 in return for, in the
case of Britain, military bases in Newfoundland, Bermuda, and the British West Indies
Court Packing Scheme
A legislative initiative to add more justices to the Supreme Court proposed by U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt shortly after
his victory in the 1936 presidential election
Indian Reorganization Act
A U.S. federal legislation which secured certain rights to Native Americans, including Alaska Natives
Works Progress Administration (WPA)
The largest New Deal agency, employing millions to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public
buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects

Langston Hughes
An American poet, novelist, playwright, short writer, and columnist
One of the earliest innovators of the new literary art form jazz poetry
Best-known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance
Wrote about the Harlem Renaissance saying that "Harlem was in vogue"
Quota System

NAACP AKA National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

Formed by white progressives, adopted goals of Niagara Movement, in response to Springfield Race Riots
Bonus March
An assemblage of some 43,000 marchers—17,000 World War I veterans, their families, and affiliated groups, who protested
in Washington, D.C., in spring and summer of 1932
Demand for immediate cash-payment redemption of their service certificates
Schenck v. U.S.
Upheld constitutionality of Espionage Act; Congress right to limit free speech during times of war
Phony War
A phase in early World War II that was marked by a lack of major military operations in Continental Europe
Various European powers had declared war on one another but neither side had committed to launching a significant attack,
and there was relatively little fighting on the ground
Sacco and Vanzetti
Prejudiced jury sentenced them to death, caused riots around the world, new trial denied
TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority)
A federally owned corporation in the United States created by congressional charter in May 1933 to
provide navigation, flood control, electricity generation, fertilizer manufacturing, and economic development in
the Tennessee Valley, a region particularly affected by the Great Depression
Henry Ford
The American founder of the Ford Motor Company and father of modern assembly lines used in mass production
Universal Negro Improvement Association
An international self-help organization founded by Marcus Garvey
America First Committee
The foremost non-interventionist pressure group against the American entry into World War II
Kellogg-Briand Pact
A multinational treaty that prohibited the use of war as "an instrument of national policy" except in matters of self-defense
Hundred Days
"The First Hundred Days", the start of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1933 administration, resulting in the New Deal
New Deal
A series of economic programs passed by Congress during the first term of Franklin Delano Roosevelt from 1933 to his
reelection in 1937
The programs were responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call the 3 Rs: relief, recovery and
reform
Calvin Coolidge
The 30th President of the United States
Restored public confidence in the White House after the scandals of his predecessor's administration, and left office with
considerable popularity
Social Security Act
 Drafted during Roosevelt's first term by the President's Committee on Economic Security, under Frances Perkins, and passed
by Congress as part of the New Deal
Fair Labor Standards Act
A United States federal law
Applies to employees engaged in interstate commerce or employed by an enterprise engaged in commerce or in the
production of goods for commerce, unless the employer can claim an exemption from coverage
FLSA established a national minimum wage, guaranteed 'time-and-a-half' for overtime in certain jobs, and prohibited
most employment of minors in "oppressive child labor," a term defined in the statute
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
A United States government corporation created by the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933
Provides deposit insurance, which guarantees the safety of deposits in member banks, currently up to $250,000
per depositor per bank
“Share Our Wealth”
A movement begun during the Great Depression by Huey Long, a governor and later United States Senator from Louisiana
Thomas Hart Benton
An American artist, best known for his political posters

H.L. Menken
An American journalist, essayist, magazine editor, satirist, acerbic critic of American life and culture, and a student of
American English
Known as the "Sage of Baltimore"
Regarded as one of the most influential American writers and prose stylists of the first half of the 20th century
Normalcy
“A return to normalcy” was United States presidential candidate Warren Harding’s campaign promise in the election of 1920
Cash and Carry
Allowed the sale of material to belligerents, as long as the recipients arranged for the transport using their own ships and paid
immediately in cash
Purpose was to hold neutrality between the United States and European countries, while still giving material aid to Britain
(without the need to extend the same such aid to Germany on account of the fact that the Germans had no funds and that
British control of the Atlantic sea lanes also prevented them collecting any material)
Congress of Industrial Organization
Formed to encourage the AFL to organize workers in mass production industries along industrial union lines
Securities and Exchange Commission
An independent agency which holds primary responsibility for enforcing the federal securities laws and regulating
the securities industry, the nation's stock and options exchanges, and other electronic securities markets in the United States
Washington Naval Conference AKA Washington Arms Conference
A military conference called by the administration of President Warren G. Harding in Washington, D.C. from 12 November
1921 to 6 February 1922
Conducted outside the auspices of the League of Nations, it was attended by nine nations having interests in the Pacific
Ocean and East Asia
Soviet Russia was not invited to the conference
First international conference held in the United States and the first disarmament conference in history, and is studied by
political scientists as a model for a successful disarmament movement
Ku Klux Klan
Spread quickly
Opposed everything that was not White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) and conservative, Stephenson’s faults and jail
sentence led to demise
Scottsboro Boys
Nine black defendants in a 1931 Scottsboro, Alabama rape case, which was heard by the United States Supreme Court twice
in Powell v. Alabama and Norris v. Alabama
These decisions established the principles that criminal defendants are entitled to effective assistance of counsel and that
people may not be de facto excluded from juries because of their race
Scopes Trial
Darwinian against Fundamentalist; John Scopes convicted for teaching Darwinism; Scopes found guilty
Schechter v. U.S. (Sick Chicken)
Unconstitutionalized the NRA due to delegation of legislative authority from Congress to executive
Margaret Sanger
An American birth control activist, advocate of eugenics, and the founder of the American Birth Control League
Herbert Hoover
The 31st President of the United States
Tried to combat the ensuing Great Depression with volunteer efforts, none of which produced economic recovery during his
term
Dole

Marcus Garvey
United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA)
“Back to Africa” movement for racial pride and separatism; inspired self-confidence in blacks
Charles Lindberg
Considered a hero for his solo crossing of the Atlantic by plane
Elijah Mohammad (Black Muslims)
An African American Muslim activist, religious leader and leader of the Nation of Islam organization from 1934 until his
death
A mentor to Malcolm X, Louis Farrakhan, and boxer Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr., whom he renamed Muhammad Ali
Stimson Doctrine
A policy of the United States federal government, enunciated in a note of January 10, 1933, to Japan and China, of non-
recognition of international territorial changes that were executed by force
Brain Trust
A term for a group of close advisors to a political candidate or incumbent, prized for their expertise in particular fields

Franklin D. Roosevelt
The 32nd President of the United States 
A central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic
crisis and world war
Sinclair Lewis
An American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright
The first American to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature
Wagner Act
A 1935 United States federal law that limits the means with which employers may react to workers in the private sector that
create labor unions, engage in collective bargaining, and take part in strikes and other forms of concerted activity in support
of their demands
Sit-Down Strike
A form of civil disobedience in which an organized group of workers, usually employed at a factory or other centralized
location, take possession of the workplace by "sitting down" at their stations, effectively preventing their employers from
replacing them with strikebreakers or, in some cases, moving production to other locations
Frank Lloyd Wright
An American architect, interior, writer and educator
Designed more than 1,000 projects and more than 500 completed works
Teapot Dome/Elk Hills Scandals
Teapot Dome Scandal –Albert Fall accused of accepting bribes for access to government oil in Teapot Dome, Wyoming;
Elk Hills Scandal-
Edward Hopper
A prominent American realist painter and printmaker
His urban and rural scenes, his spare and finely calculated renderings reflected his personal vision of modern American life
Ernest Hemmingway
An American writer and journalist
His first novel, The Sun Also Rises, was written in 1924
His distinctive writing style—known as the iceberg theory—characterized by economy and understatement, had an enormous
influence on 20th-century fiction, as did his apparent life of adventure and the public image he cultivated
Destroyer Deal

Bank Holiday

National Recovery Administration

A New Deal agency in the United States
Created under the National Industrial Recovery Act in 1933, it was one of the first major pieces of the New Deal program
of President Franklin D. Roosevelt

1941-1960

Japanese Internment
The forced relocation and internment by the United States government in 1942 of approximately 110,000 Japanese
Americans and Japanese residing along the Pacific coast of the United States to camps called "War Relocation Camps," in the
wake of Imperial Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor
Greensboro Sit-ins
 An instrumental action in the African-American Civil Rights Movement, leading to increased national sentiment at a crucial
period in American history
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

U-2 Incident
An American U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union
The U.S. government at first denied the plane's purpose and mission, but then was forced to admit its role as a
covert surveillance aircraft when the Soviet government produced its remains (largely intact) and surviving pilot, Francis
Gary Powers. Coming just over two weeks before the scheduled opening of an East–West summit in Paris
A great embarrassment to the United States
Prompted a marked deterioration in its relations with the Soviet Union
Marshall Plan
The primary program, 1947–51, of the United States for rebuilding and creating a stronger economic foundation for the
countries of Western Europe
Casablanca Conference
Held at the Anfa Hotel in Casablanca, Morocco, then a French protectorate, from January 14 to 24, 1943
To plan the European strategy of the Allies during World War II
Dumbarton Oaks Conference
An international conference at which the United Nations was formulated and negotiated
Alger Hiss
An American lawyer, civil servant, businessman, author and lecturer
Involved in the establishment of the United Nations both as a U.S. State Department and UN official
Accused of being a Soviet spy in 1948 and convicted of perjury in connection with this charge in 1950
“Long Hot Summers”

Henry Wallace
The 33rd Vice President of the United States(1941–1945), the Secretary of Agriculture (1933–1940), and the Secretary of
Commerce (1945–1946)
In the 1948 presidential election, Wallace was the nominee of the Progressive Party
Baby Boomers
A term that portrays the cohorts born during the middle part of the 20th Century
Jack Kerouac On the Road
An American novelist and poet
Considered a pioneer of the Beat Generation, and a literary iconoclast
On the Road is often considered a defining work of the postwar Beat Generation that was inspired by jazz, poetry,
and drug experiences
Little Rock School Crisis
A group of African-American students who were enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957
The students were initially prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus, and
then attended after the intervention of President Eisenhower
Considered to be one of the most important events in the African-American Civil Rights Movement
GI Bill of Rights
An omnibus bill that provided college or vocational education for returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to
as G.I.s) as well as one year of unemployment compensation
Jackie Robinson
The first African American Major League Baseball (MLB) player of the modern era
Korematsu v. U.S.
A landmark United States Supreme Court case concerning the constitutionality of Executive Order 9066, which
ordered Japanese Americans into internment camps during World War II
Montgomery Bus Boycott
A political and social protest campaign started in 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama
Intended to oppose the city's policy of racial segregation on its public transit system
McCarthyism
The political action of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence
Harry Truman
The 33rd President of the United States
Truman Doctrine
The common name for the Cold War strategy of containment versus the Soviet Union and the expansion of communism
Teheran Conference
The first World War II conference amongst the Big Three (the Soviet Union, the United States, and the United Kingdom) in
which Stalin was present
 The central aim of the conference was to plan the final strategy for the war against Nazi Germany and its allies, and the chief
discussion was centered on the opening of a second front in Western Europe
San Francisco Conference AKA United Nations Conference on International Organization
A convention of delegates from 50 Allied nations that took place from 25 April 1945 to 26 June 1945 in San
Francisco, United States
Resulted in the creation of the United Nations Charter
NSC 68
a 58-page formerly-classified report issued by the United States National Security Council on April 14, 1950, during
the presidency of Harry S. Truman
Written during the formative stage of the Cold War, it has become one of the most significant historical documents of the
Cold War
The strategy outlined in NSC-68 achieved ultimate victory, according to this view, with the collapse of the Soviet power and
the emergence of a "new world order" centered on American liberal-capitalist values
Youngstown Sheet and Tube v. Sawyer AKA The Steel Seizure Case
A United States Supreme Court decision that limited the power of the President of the United States to seize private property
in the absence of either specifically enumerated authority under Article Two of the United States Constitution or statutory
authority conferred on him by Congress
A "stinging rebuff" to President Harry Truman
Douglas MacArthur
An American general and field marshal of the Philippine Army
Received the Medal of Honor for his service in the Philippines Campaign
Sputnik
A series of robotic spacecraft missions launched by the Soviet Union
Beat Generation
A term used to describe a group of American writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, and the cultural phenomena that
they wrote about and inspired
Eisenhower Doctrine
A country could request American economic assistance and/or aid from U.S. military forces if it was being threatened by
armed aggression from another state
Servicemen’s Readjustment Act AKA G.I. Bill
An omnibus bill that provided college or vocational education for returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to
as G.I.s) as well as one year of unemployment compensation
Provided many different types of loans for returning veterans to buy homes and start businesses
The term has come to include other veteran benefit programs created to assist veterans of subsequent wars as well as
peacetime service
New Frontier
Used by John F. Kennedy in his acceptance speech in the 1960 United States presidential election to the Democratic National
Convention at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum as the Democratic slogan to inspire America to support him
Federal Highway Act AKA National Interstate and Defense Highways Act
Appropriating $25 billion for the construction of 41,000 miles (66,000 km) of Interstate Highways over a 20-year period
The largest public works project in American history to that point
Employment Act of 1946
A United States federal law
Main purpose was to lay the responsibility of economic stability onto the federal government
Brown v. Board of Education
A landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that declared state laws establishing separate public schools for
black and white students and denying black children equal educational opportunities unconstitutional
Overturned earlier rulings going back to Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896
Fair Deal
A series of proposed actions in the fields of economic development and social welfare
Containment
A United States policy using military, economic, and diplomatic strategies to temper the spread of communism, enhance
America’s security and influence abroad, and prevent a "domino effect"
Yalta Conference
Wartime meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union—
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and General Secretary Joseph Stalin, respectively—for
the purpose of discussing Europe's postwar reorganization
Intended to discuss the re-establishment of the nations of war-torn Europe
United Nations
An international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international
security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world peace
 Founded in 1945 after World War II to replace the League of Nations, to stop wars between countries, and to provide a
platform for dialogue
Berlin Airlift
Carry supplies to the people in West Berlin
Great Britain's Royal Air Force and the recently formed United States Air Force, flew over 200,000 flights over the time span
of one year that provided 13,000 tons of daily necessities such as fuel and food to the people of Berlin
George Kennan
An American advisor, diplomat, political scientist, and historian, best known as "the father of containment" and as a key
figure in the emergence of the Cold War
Korean War
A military conflict between the Republic of Korea, supported by the United Nations, and the Democratic People's Republic
of Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union
NATO AKA North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Constitutes a system of collective defense whereby its member states agree to mutual defence in response to an attack by any
external party
Taft-Hartley Act
A United States federal law that monitors the activities and power of labor unions
National Defense Education Act
Provided funding to United States education institutions at all levels
Ralph Bunche
An American political scientist and diplomat who received the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize for his late 1940s mediation in
Palestine
Dynamic Conservatism

1960-present

Miranda v. Arizona
A landmark 5-4 decision of the United States Supreme Court
Held that both inculpatory and exculpatory statements made in response to interrogation by a defendant in police custody will
be admissible at trial only if the prosecution can show that the defendant was informed of the right to consult with
an attorney before and during questioning and of the right against self-incrimination prior to questioning by police, and that
the defendant not only understood these rights, but voluntarily waived them
Huey Newton (Black Panthers)
Co-founder and leader of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, an African-American organization established to
promote Black Power, civil rights and self-defense
Jimmy Carter
The 39th President of the United States
Panama Canal Treaty, diplomacy with China, end of recognition of Taiwan
Little accomplished domestically due to conservative opposition, foreigh policy more successful
Washington outsider
Washington Outsiders

Bay of Pigs
CIA attempt to institute Cuba support to overthrow Castro
Cover0up uncovered and became representation of Cuban resistance to American aggression
Economic Opportunity Act
Implemented by the since disbanded Office of Economic Opportunity, the Act included several social programs to promote
the health, education, and general welfare of the poor
Malcolm X
An African-American Muslim minister, public speaker, and human rights activist
One of the greatest and most influential African Americans in history
SALT I Treaty AKA Strategic Arms Limitation Talks
Nixon agreed with USSR to achieve nuclear equality rather than the superiority that threatened the destruction of the world
Further reduced tensions between the two countries
Mayaguez Incident
Marked the last official battle of the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War
Gerald Ford
The 40th Vice President of the United States
Helsinki Accords AKA The Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe
Attempt to improve relations between the Communist bloc and the West
Reagonomics
Capitalism would become productive when uninhibited by taxes and regulations
Voting Rights Act 1965
Prohibiting use of any devices (such as literacy tests) to deny the right to vote and enforced black suffrage rights
Rachel Carson Silent Spring
Effects of pesticides on environment – DDT
Changed the way Americans viewed their impact on nature
War Powers Act
A United States Congress joint resolution providing that the President can send U.S. armed forces into action abroad only by
authorization of Congress or if the United States is already under attack or serious threat
Cuban Missile Crisis
Storage of Soviet missiles in Cuba – threat of nuclear war
Krushchev demanded that U.S. never invade Cuba and remove from Turkey
Mutual compliance with each other’s demands
Stokely Carmichael (Black Power)
A Trinidadian-American black activist active in the 1960s American Civil Rights Movement
Rose to prominence first as a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, pronounced "Snick") and
later as the "Honorary Prime Minister" of the Black Panther Party

Vietnamization (Guam/Nixon Doctrine)

Part of Nixon’s tri-faceted plan to honorably remove troops from Vietnam
Wean the South Vietnamese off of American support, gradually reducing number of American troops present
George Wallace
Appealed to many conservatives, especially Southerners who opposed massive protests and integration
Roe v. Wade
Unconstitutionalized all state laws prohibiting women’s right to have an abortion performed during the first trimester of
pregnancy
War on Poverty
The name for legislation first introduced by United States President Lyndon B. Johnson during his State of the Union address
on January 8, 1964
Warren Commission AKA The Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy
Established to investigate the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy on November 22
Its 888-page final report was presented to President Johnson on September 24, 1964, and made public three days later
Concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the killing of Kennedy and the wounding of Texas Governor John
Connally
Findings have since proven controversial and been both challenged and supported by later studies
Hippies
Originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s, swiftly spreading to other countries
around the world
Bakke v. Board of Regents

Supply Side Economics

Tax cuts to increase population spending – help economy
Drastic cutting back on government programs due to lack of funds
Michael Harrington (The Other America)
An American democratic socialist, writer, political activist, professor of political science, radio commentator and founder of
the Democratic Socialists of America
Stagflation
Ford’s and Carter’s presidencies experienced a recession and inflation simultaneously
Solved by Keynesian economics
Barry Goldwater
a five-term United States Senator from Arizona and the Republican Party's nominee for President in the 1964 election
Credited for sparking the resurgence of the American conservative political movement in the 1960s
Ralph Nader Unsafe At Any Speed
A book detailing resistance by car manufacturers to the introduction of safety features, like seat belts, and their general
reluctance to spend money on improving safety
A pioneering work of attack journalism, openly polemical but containing substantial references and material from industry
insiders
Equal Rights Amendment
A proposed amendment to the United States Constitution which was intended to guarantee that equal rights under any
federal, state, or local law could not be denied on account of sex
John F. Kennedy
 Second youngest president
Entered presidency as tensions of Cold War increased
Unable to get major initiatives through Congress due to conservative bloc
Tax cuts (economic stimulation)
Reluctantly gets involved in civil rights
Emphasizes Space Race
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
Congress authorized President Johnson to repel and prevent aggression against U.S. troops in Vietnam
Used as a blank check and caused protests
Ronald Reagan
The 40th President of the United States
Offered a New Deal of smaller government, reduced taxes and free enterprise
Washington outsider
Martin Luther King Jr.
An American clergyman, activist and prominent leader in the African American civil rights movement
Gideon v. Wainwright
Unanimously ruled that state courts are required under the Sixth Amendment of the Constitution to provide counsel in
criminal cases for defendants who are unable to afford their own attorneys

Great Society
President Johnson’s flood of proposals to Congress for the beautification and amelioration of American Society
Lee Harvey Oswald
According to three government investigations, the assassin of U.S. President John F. Kennedy
Camp David Accords
Peace between Egypt and Israel
Followed years of tension, Israel would leave newly acquired lands from war, Egypt would respect Israel’s other land claims
Accords not completely followed, Sadat (Egypt) assassinated
Affirmative Action
Sets of programs geared toward minorities and often-discriminated populations
Peace Corps – 1961
An example of liberal anticommunism in third world countries
“Reform-minded missionaries of democracy”
Civil Rights Act 1964
Outlawed unequal application of voter registration requirements and racial segregation in schools, at the workplace and by
facilities that served the general public ("public accommodations")
Lyndon Johnson
President that dealt with the Vietnam War
Great Society program for improvement of American society, antipoverty and anti-discrimination programs
Kent State
Kent State University students protesting against invasion of Cambodia
Not allowed to demonstrate violence (ex. murder)
Betty Friedan The Feminine Mystique
Denounced the “house trap” which caused educated women to hold even themselves inferior to men