Pontiacs Rebellion: a series of Indian attacks on American forts like Fort Pitt

Proclamation of 1763: banned colonists from moving west of the Mississippi River
Boston Massacre: the killing of five colonists by British guards
Boston Tea Party: a political protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, dumped tea into the harbor
Common Sense: pamphlet that challenged the authority of the British government and the royal
monarchy
Taxation w/o Representation: a slogan that showed the colonists wanted a say in their taxation
Stamp Act: British put stamp tax on any printed documents
Crisis Papers: a collection of articles written by Thomas Paine during the American
Revolutionary War
Quartering Act: requires colonists to house and supply British soldiers if asked to
Townshend Acts: taxes imports in the colony
Tea Act: reduced the massive amount of tea held by the financially troubled British East India
Company in its London warehouses and to help the struggling company survive
Sugar Act: British tax on many imports, mainly sugar
Coercive/ Intolerable Acts: a series of laws that were meant to punish the Massachusetts
colonists
Sons of Liberty: group of colonists that outwardly protested British rule
Virtual Representation: the British response to the First Continental Congress in the American
colonies
Gaspee Affair: a British customs ship, ran aground in Rhode Island and a Sons of Liberty group
attacked and set fire to the ship
Stamp Act Congress: a meeting held in New York City, consisting of representatives from some
of the British colonies in North America
First/Second Continental Congress: gathered the vote by colony and declared the Intolerable Acts
null and void
Olive Branch Petition: appeal written by John Dickinson to the king that begged him to stop
fighting colonists
Declaratory Act: an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain, which accompanied the repeal of the
Stamp Act 1765 and the changing and lessening of the Sugar Act
Writs of Assistance: written order instructing a law enforcement official to do a certain task

Port Acts: closed the port of Boston because of the Boston Tea Party
Ma Govt Act: abrogated the Massachusetts Charter of 1691 of the Province of Massachusetts
Bay, and gave its royally-appointed governor wide-ranging powers
Committees of Correspondence: committee that alerted colonists to new dangers from British
government
Quebec Act: an act of the Parliament of Great Britain setting procedures of governance in the
Province of Quebec
Enlightenment: the action of enlightening or the state of being enlightened
Administration of Justice Act: one of the measures that were designed to secure Britain's
jurisdiction over the Americans
Deism: belief in the existence of a supreme being, specifically of a creator who does not
intervene in the universe
Rationalism: a belief or theory that opinions and actions should be based on reason and
knowledge rather than on religious belief or emotional response
John Locke: Enlightened thinker that wrote Two Treatises of Government
Jean Jacques Rousseau: a Francophone Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer of the 18th
century
Non-Importation Agreements: a series of commercial restrictions adopted by American colonists
to protest British revenue policies prior to the American Revolution
Thomas Paine: wrote the pamphlet Common Sense that urged colonists to realize King George
III was responsible for all colonists troubles
Patrick Henry: gave famous "no taxation without representation" and "give me liberty or give me
death!" phrases
Samuel Adams: organized the Sons of Liberty
James Otis: attorney hired to fight the writs of assistance in courts
Lord Fredrick North: was Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1770 to 1782, led Great Britain
through most of the American War of Independence
Crispus Attucks: black colonist first to be killed in Boston Massacre
Paxton Boys: group that took revenge on lack of frontier protection by massacring peaceful
Susquehannock Indians
Loyalists/Tories: British sympathizers
Declaration of Independence: a restatement of John Locke's contract theory of government that
established America's independence from the British control

Articles of Confederation: the original constitution of the US, ratified in 1781, which was
replaced by the US Constitution in 1789
Battle of Saratoga: marked the climax of the Saratoga campaign giving a decisive victory to the
Americans over the British in the American Revolutionary War which made the French join the
Americans
Treaty of Paris: Formal end of the American Revolution which was fought between the US and
Britain
Valley Forge: the military camp 18 miles northwest of Philadelphia where the American
Continental Army spent the winter of 177778 during the American Revolutionary War
Continentals: a member of the colonial army in the American Revolution
Absolute Monarchy: a monarchical form of government in which the monarch has absolute
power among his or her people
Battle of Yorktown: a decisive victory by a combined force of American Continental Army
troops led by General George Washington and French Army troops led by the Comte de
Rochambeau over a British Army commanded by British lord and Lieutenant General Charles
Cornwallis
Unicameral Legislature: the practice of having one legislative or parliamentary chamber
Treaty of Alliance: an alliance between the US and France after the American Revolution. It was
annulled after the death of the King during the French Revolution
Shays Rebellion: a revolt that occurred in Massachusetts between 1786 and 1787. They were
rebelling against what they felt a unfair taxes and debtor's prisons
Mt Vernon Conference: a meeting of delegates from Virginia and Maryland
Annapolis Convention: the counties of Maryland joined to gather in an assembly as a united
whole during the revolutionary period to form a revolutionary war
Constitutional Convention: at the Annapolis Convention, delegates from five states called for a
Constitutional Convention in order to discuss possible improvements to the Articles of
Confederation
Framers of Constitution: delegates to the Constitutional Convention that helped draft the
Constitution of the United States
Checks and Balances: counterbalancing influences by which an organization or system is
regulated, typically those ensuring that political power is not concentrated in the hands of
individuals or groups
Virginia Plan: wanted a national legislature based on population
NJ/RI Plan: wanted a legislature based on equal rights

Great Compromise: an agreement between large and small states during the Constitutional
Convention. It proposed a bicameral legislature
3/5 Compromise: an agreement between the north and south which stated that slaves would be
counted as 3/5 of a person for the distribution of taxes and power in the House of
Representatives
House of Representatives: the most representative body in the federal government. House seats
are apportioned relative to each state's population
Senate: the smaller upper assembly in the US Congress, most US states, France, and other
countries
Electoral College: a body of people representing the states of the US, who formally cast votes for
the election of the president and vice president
Federalists: a supporter of federal government; especially: a supporter of the U.S. Constitution
Anti-Federalists: a movement that opposed the creation of a stronger U.S. federal government
and which later opposed the ratification of the 1787 Constitution
Federalists Papers: a collection of 85 articles and essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James
Madison, and John Jay promoting the ratification of the United States Constitution
Bill of Rights: the first ten amendments to the Constitution written by James Madison. The antifederalists demanded it in order for ratification of the constitution
Amendments: an article added to the US Constitution
Legislative Branch: made up of the two houses of Congressthe Senate and the House of
Representatives, makes laws
Congress: the national legislative body of a country
Executive Branch: the president
Cabinet: a body of advisers to the president, composed of the heads of the executive departments
of the government
Judicial Branch: interprets the meaning of laws, applies laws to individual cases, and decides if
laws violate the Constitution
Judiciary Act: article III of the Constitution established a Supreme Court, but left to Congress the
authority to create lower federal courts as needed
Supreme Court: the highest federal court in the US, consisting of nine justices and taking judicial
precedence over all other courts in the nation
Republicanism/Democracy: a type of government where the governing is carried out by the
people or the people decide who has the power to govern

Land Ordinance of 1785: under the Articles of Confederation territory west of the Appalachian
Mountains and east of the Mississippi River and divided it into ten states
Northwest Ordinance: was an act that was passed by the Congress in 1787. It organized the
territory northwest of the Ohio River and admitted new states
National Debt: war debt owed to France
Tariffs: a tax or duty to be paid on a particular class of imports or exports
National Bank: a commercial bank that is chartered under the federal government and is a
member of the Federal Reserve System
Excise Taxes: taxes paid when purchases are made on a specific good, such as gasoline
Jays Treaty: signed in the hopes of settling the growing conflicts between the U.S. and Britain;
dealt with the Northwest posts and trade on the Mississippi River; unpopular with most
Americans because it did not punish Britain for the attacks on neutral American ships
Proclamation of Neutrality: a formal announcement issued by U.S. President George Washington
on April 22, 1793, declaring the nation neutral in the conflict between France and Great Britain
Full Funding/Assumption: under Hamilton's financial plan in which the federal government took
over the states' debt
French Revolution: a period of far-reaching social and political upheaval in France that lasted
from 1789 until 1799, and was partially carried forward by Napoleon during the later expansion
of the French Empire
Whiskey Rebellion: farmers in Pennsylvania rebelled against Hamilton's excise tax on whiskey,
in October, 1794, the army, led by Washington, put down the rebellion; showed that the new
government under the Constitution could react swiftly and effectively to such a problem
Pinckney Treaty: treaty between the U.S. and Spain which gave the U.S. the right to transport
goods on the Mississippi river and to store goods in the Spanish port of New Orleans
Democratic-Republicans: political party in the 1790s of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison
formed in opposition to the centralizing policies of the Federalist Party
Washingtons Farewell Address: warned Americans not to get involved in European affairs, not
to make permanent alliances, not to form political parties and to avoid sectionalism
Federalist Era: ran from roughly 1789-1801, a time when the Federalist Party was dominant in
American politics
Political Parties: an organized group of people with at least roughly similar political aims and
opinions that seeks to influence public policy by getting its candidates elected to public office
Permanent Alliances: may apply to any connection entered into for mutual benefit. League
usually suggests closer combination or a more definite object or purpose. Confederation applies
to a permanent combination for the exercise in common of certain governmental functions

Precedents: an earlier event or action that is regarded as an example or guide to be considered in

subsequent similar circumstances
Two-Term Tradition: a tradition that prevailed until Franklin Roosevelt's presidency, after which
the 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified in 1951 formally establishing in law
the two-term limit
XYZ Affair: incident of the late 1790s in which French secret agents demanded a bribe and a
loan to France in lieu of negotiating a dispute over the Jay Treaty and other issues
Undeclared Naval War: an undeclared war fought mostly at sea between the United States and
French Republic from 1798 to 1800; caused by the seizing of American ships trading with
Britain by France which required the rebirth of the United States Navy to protect the expanding
American merchant shipping
Alien and Sedition Acts: acts passed by federalists giving the government power to imprison or
deport foreign citizens and prosecute critics of the government
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
Revolution of 1800: Jefferson's election changed the direction of the government from Federalist
to Democratic- Republican, so it was called a "revolution"
Louisiana Purchase: territory in western United States purchased from France in 1803 for $15
million
Judicial Review: the power of the Supreme Court to declare laws and actions of local, state, or
national governments unconstitutional
Marbury v Madison: the 1803 case in which Chief Justice John Marshall and his associates first
asserted the right of the Supreme Court to determine the meaning of the U.S. Constitution; the
decision established the Court's power of judicial review over acts of Congress
Loose/Strict Constructionism: courts should read the Constitution expansively and should not
limit themselves to what is explicitly stated
Quids: a lump of tobacco for chewing
Embargo Act: issued by Jefferson forbade American trading ships from leaving the U.S; meant to
force Britain and France to change their policies towards neutral vessels by depriving them of
American trade; difficult to enforce because it was opposed by merchants and everyone else
whose livelihood depended upon international trade; also hurt the national economy
Impressment: British practice of taking American sailors and forcing them into military service
Chesapeake-Leopard Affair: a naval engagement that occurred between the British warship HMS
Leopard and American frigate USS Chesapeake, when the crew of Leopard pursued, attacked
and boarded the American frigate looking for deserters from the Royal Navy

War Hawks: Southerners and Westerners who were eager for war with Britain; they had a strong
sense of nationalism, and they wanted to takeover British land in North America and expand
War of 1812: a military conflict that lasted from June 18, 1812 to February 18, 1815, fought
between the United States of America and the United Kingdom, its North American colonies, and
its Native American allies
Old Ironsides: USS Constitution
Star Spangled Banner: the national anthem of the United States
Battle of New Orleans: an engagement fought between January 8 and January 18, 1815,
constituting the final major battle of the War of 1812, and the most one-sided battle of that war
Treaty of Ghent: ended the War of 1812 and restored the status quo; for the most part, territory
captured in the war was returned to the original owner; also set up a commission to determine the
disputed Canada/U.S. border
Hartford Convention: meeting of Federalists near the end of the War of 1812 in which the party
listed its complaints against the ruling Republican Party; these actions were largely viewed as
traitorous to the country and lost the Federalist much influence
Era of Good Feelings: a newspaper term used to describe the two terms of President James
Monroe; during this period, there was only one major political party, the democratic-republicans;
it was therefore assumed that political discord had evaporated
Sectionalism: restriction of interest to a narrow sphere; undue concern with local interests or
petty distinctions at the expense of general well-being
Nationalism: patriotic feeling, principles, or efforts
Tariff of 1816: the first tariff passed by Congress with an explicit function of protecting U.S.
manufactured items from foreign competition
Protective Tariff: a duty imposed on imports to raise their price, making them less attractive to
consumers and thus protecting domestic industries from foreign competition
American System: an economic regime pioneered by Henry Clay which created a high tariff to
support internal improvements such as road-building; this approach was intended to allow the
United States to grow and prosper by themselves
Second Bank of U.S.: was the second federally authorized Hamiltonian national bank in the
United States during its 20-year charter from February 1816 to January 1836
Panic of 1819: banks throughout the country failed; mortgages were foreclosed, forcing people
out of their homes and off their farms. Falling prices impaired agriculture and manufacturing,
triggering widespread unemployment
Implied Powers: a set of so-called implied powersthat is, powers not explicitly named in the
Constitution but assumed to exist due to their being necessary to implement the expressed
powers that are named in Article I

McCulloch v Maryland: a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the United States. The
state of Maryland had attempted to impede operation of a branch of the Second Bank of the
United States by imposing a tax on all notes of banks not chartered in Maryland
Gibbons v Ogden: regulating interstate commerce is a power reserved to the federal government
Dartmouth College v Woodward: a landmark decision in United States corporate law from the
United States Supreme Court dealing with the application of the Contract Clause of the United
States Constitution to private corporations
Tallmadge Amendment: a proposed amendment to a bill requesting the Territory of Missouri to
be admitted to the Union as a free state
Missouri Compromise: the compromise set it up so that Maine joined as a free state and Missouri
joined as a slave state; Congress also made a line across the southern border of Missouri saying
except for the state of Missouri, all states north of that line must be free states or states without
slavery
Rush-Bagot Agreement: a treaty between the United States and the United Kingdom limiting
naval armaments on the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain, following the War of 1812
Monroe Doctrine: a statement of foreign policy which proclaimed that Europe should not
interfere in affairs within the United States or in the development of other countries in the
Western Hemisphere
Treaty of 1818: an international treaty signed in 1818 between the United States and the United
Kingdom. Signed during the presidency of James Monroe, it resolved standing boundary issues
between the two nations
Florida Purchase Treaty: a treaty between the United States and Spain in 1819 that ceded Florida
to the U.S. and defined the boundary between the U.S. and New Spain
Lancaster Turnpike: the first long-distance paved road built in the United States
Cumberland Road: the first major improved highway in the United States built by the federal
government
Yeomen Farmers: majority of Southern white society; small farmers with little or no slaves, had
fertile lands but no access to marketplaces
Gabriel Prossers Rebellion: a literate black slave that lived in the Richmond area launched a
large scale slave revolt; Governor Monroe quickly crushed the rebellion
Critical Period: term used by historians to describe the United States under the Articles of
Confederation
Erie Canal: a canal between the New York cities of Albany and Buffalo, completed in 1825; the
canal, considered a marvel of the modern world at the time, allowed western farmers to ship
surplus crops to sell in the North and allowed northern manufacturers to ship finished goods to
sell in the West

Railroads: a means of conveyance of passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails,
also known as tracks. It is also commonly referred to as train transport
Steamboats: a boat in which the primary method of marine propulsion is steam power, typically
driving propellers or paddlewheels
Cotton Gin: a machine for cleaning the seeds from cotton fibers, invented by Eli Whitney in
1793
Interchangeable Parts: Eli Whitney developed a manufacturing system which uses standardized
parts which are all identical and thus, interchangeable; 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
Corporations: a company or group of people authorized to act as a single entity and recognized
as such in law
Corrupt Bargain: refers to the presidential election of 1824 in which Henry Clay, the Speaker of
the House, convinced the House of Representatives to elect Adams rather than Jackson
Lowell Mills/Factory System/Textile Mills: a paternalistic textile factory system of the early 19th
century that employed mainly young women from New England farms to increase efficiency,
productivity and profits in ways different from other methods
Industrialization: the process by which an economy is transformed from primarily agricultural to
one based on the manufacturing of goods
Specialization: a method of production where a business, area or economy focuses on the
production of a limited scope of products or services to gain greater degrees of productive
efficiency within an overall system
Unions: unions are active in politics and often devote considerable resources to encourage
members to vote
Market Revolution: a term used by historians to describe the expansion of the marketplace that
occurred in early nineteenth-century America, prompted mainly by the construction of new roads
and canals to connect distant communities together for the first time
Transportation Revolution: railroads were faster, cheaper, and had greater range than canals, but
still grew only gradually at first. The transportation revolution produced the rapid growth of
towns and cities
Communication Revolution: a series of technological innovations dramatically reshaped the way
people communicated at a global level. New means of communication speeded the pace of life,
and increased trade and the exchange of ideas
Industrial Revolution: the transition to new manufacturing processes in the period from about
1760 to sometime between 1820 and 1840

American Colonization Society: a society that thought slavery was bad; they would buy land in
Africa and get free blacks to move there; one of these such colonies was made into what now is
Liberia; most sponsors just wanted to get blacks out of their country
Adams-Onis Treaty: an 1819 agreement in which Spain gave over control of the territory of
Florida to the United States
Haitian Rebellion: a number of complex events set the stage that culminated in the most
significant revolt in the history of enslaved Africans
Republican Motherhood: it elevated women as keepers of the national conscience because they
were entrusted with the moral education of the young
National Republicans: supporters of a strong central government who favored road building and
supported the Bank of the United States to shape the nation's economy; many were farmers or
merchants
Urbanization: a word for becoming more like a city. When populations of people grow, the
population of a place may spill over from city to nearby areas
Irish Potato Famine: a period of mass starvation, disease, and emigration in Ireland between
1845 and 1852 where people relied on potatoes
Old Northwest: the post-American Revolutionary War Territory Northwest of the River Ohio,
more commonly known as the Northwest Territory encompassing most of the pre-war territory of
the Ohio Country
Immigration: the action of coming to live permanently in a foreign country
Nativists: the policy of protecting the interests of native-born or established inhabitants against
those of immigrants
American Party: a conservative party in the United States. The party adheres to its Permanent
Principles
King Cotton: an expression much used by southern authors and orators before the Civil War
Slave Codes: state laws established to determine the status of slaves and the rights of their
owners. Slave codes placed harsh restrictions on slaves' already limited freedoms, often in order
to preempt rebellion or escape, and gave slave owners absolute power over their slaves
Free African Americans: had a hard time maintaining their freedom
Great Plains: the broad expanse of flat land, much of it covered in prairie, steppe and grassland
that lie west of the Mississippi River tallgrass prairie states and east of the Rocky Mountains in
the United States and Canada
The West: land past the Mississippi river
Environmental Damage: damage done towards the environment

Planters: people who plant crops on a plantation

Poor Whites: had more freedoms than slaves, were treated poorly
Common Man: the middle class
Universal Male Suffrage: a form of voting rights in which all adult males within a political
system are allowed to vote, regardless of income, property, religion, race, or any other
qualification
King Caucus: beginning in 1796, caucuses of the parties congressional delegations met
informally to nominate their presidential and vice presidential candidates, leaving the general
public with no direct input
Anti-Masonic Party: the first "third party" in the United States. It strongly opposed Freemasonry
as a single-issue party, and later aspired to become a major party by expanding its platform and
positions on other issues
Workingmens Party: established in 1876, was one of the first Marxist-influenced political parties
in the United States. It is remembered as the forerunner of the Socialist Labor Party of America
Spoils System: the practice of a successful political party giving public office to its supporters
Corrupt Bargain: the House elected John Quincy Adams over rival Andrew Jackson. It was
widely believed that Henry Clay, the Speaker of the House at the time, convinced Congress to
elect Adams, who then made Clay his Secretary of State
George Washington: the first President of the United States, the Commander-in-Chief of the
Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, and one of the Founding Fathers of
the United States
Citizen Genet: the French ambassador to the United States during the French Revolution
James Madison: a political theorist, American statesman, and the fourth President of the United
States
Alexander Hamilton: an American statesman. One of the Founding Fathers of the United States,
he was an influential interpreter and promoter of the U.S. Constitution
Henry Knox: a military officer of the Continental Army and later the United States Army, who
also served as the first United States Secretary of War from 1789 to 1794
Edmund Randolph: an American attorney, the seventh Governor of Virginia, the second
Secretary of State, and the first United States Attorney General
Samuel Slater: an early English-American industrialist known as the "Father of the American
Industrial Revolution" and the "Father of the American Factory System"
Lewis and Clark: the first Americans to explore what is now the western portion of the United
States

Henry Clay: a Whig political leader of the early nineteenth century known for his efforts to keep
the United States one nation despite sharp controversy among Americans over slavery
John Adams: an American lawyer, author, statesman, and diplomat. He served as the second
President of the United States, the first Vice President, and as a Founding Father was a leader of
American independence from Great Britain
Thomas Jefferson: an American Founding Father and the principal author of the Declaration of
Independence. He was elected the second Vice President of the United States, serving under John
Adams and in 1800 was elected the third President
Napoleon Bonaparte: a French military and political leader who rose to prominence during the
French Revolution and led several successful campaigns during the Revolutionary Wars
John Marshall: the fourth Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. His court
opinions helped lay the basis for United States constitutional law and many say made the
Supreme Court of the United States a coequal branch of government along with the legislative
and executive branches
James Monroe: the fifth President of the United States, serving between 1817 and 1825. Monroe
was the last president who was a Founding Father of the United States and the last president
from the Virginian dynasty and the Republican Generation
Aaron Burr: an American politician. He was the third Vice President of the United States, serving
during President Thomas Jefferson's first term
James Madison: a political theorist, American statesman, and the fourth President of the United
States
Francis Scott Key: an American lawyer, author, and amateur poet from Georgetown who wrote
the lyrics to the United States' national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner"
Andrew Jackson: an American statesman who served as the seventh President of the United
States from 1829 to 1837
Tecumseh: a Native American leader of the Shawnee and a large tribal confederacy which
opposed the United States during Tecumseh's War and became an ally of Britain in the War of
1812
Eli Whitney: an American inventor best known for inventing the cotton gin. This was one of the
key inventions of the Industrial Revolution and shaped the economy of the Antebellum South
Robert Fulton: an American engineer and inventor who is widely credited with developing a
commercially successful steamboat called Clermont
Daniel Webster: an American statesman who twice served in the United States House of
Representatives, representing New Hampshire and Massachusetts
John Deere: an American blacksmith and manufacturer who founded Deere & Company, one of
the largest and leading agricultural and construction equipment manufacturers in the world

Cyrus McCormick: an American inventor and founder of the McCormick Harvesting Machine
Company, which became part of International Harvester Company in 1902
Germans: served on both sides of the revolution
John Quincy Adams: an American statesman who served as the sixth President of the United
States from 1825 to 1829. He also served as a diplomat, a Senator and member of the House of
Representatives