Vocab Exam 3

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Mechanical Reapers

Back 1

Tools usually powered by horses or oxen that enabled farmers to harvest twelve acres of wheat a day, compared to the two or three acres a day possible with manual harvesting methods.

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American system

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The practice of manufacturing and then assembling interchangeable parts. A system that spread quickly across American industries, the use of standardized parts allowed American manufacturers to employ cheap unskilled workers.

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Manifest Destiny

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Term coined in 1845 by journalist John L. O’Sullivan to justify American expansion. O’Sullivan claimed that it was the nation’s “manifest destiny” to transport its values and civilization westward. Manifest Destiny framed the American conquest of the West as part of a divine plan.

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Oregon Trail

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Route from Independence, Missouri, to Oregon traveled by American settlers starting in the late 1830s. Disease and accidents caused more deaths along the trail then did Indian attacks, which migrants feared.

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Mormons

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Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints founded by Joseph Smith in 1830. Most Americans deemed the Mormons heretics. After Smith’s death at the hands of an angry mob in 1844, Brigham Young moved the people to Utah in 1846.

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Lone Star Republic

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Independent republic, also known as the Republic of Texas, that was established by a rebellion of Texans against Mexican rule. The victory at San Jacinto in April 1836 helped ensure the region’s independence and recognition by the United States.

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Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

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February 1848 treaty that ended the Mexican-American War. Mexico gave up all claims to Texas north of the Rio Grande and ceded New Mexico and California to the United States. The United States agreed to pay Mexico $15 million and to assume American claims against Mexico.

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California Gold Rush

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Mining rush initiated by James Marshall’s discovery of gold in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in 1848. The hope of striking it rich drew over 250,000 aspiring miners to California between 1849 and 1852 and accelerated the push for statehood.

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Oneida Community

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Utopian community organized by John Humphrey Noyes in New York in 1848. Noyes’s opposition to private property led him to denounce marriage as the root of the problem. The community embraced sexual and economic communalism, to the dismay of its mainstream neighbors.

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Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments

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Declaration issued in 1848 at the first national woman’s rights convention in the United States, which was held in Seneca Falls, New York. The document adopted the style of the Declaration of Independence and demanded equal rights for women, including the franchise.

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American Colonization Society

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An organization dedicated to sending freed slaves and other black Americans to Liberia in West Africa. Although some African Americans cooperated with the movement, others campaigned against segregation and discrimination.

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Underground Railroad

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Network consisting mainly of black homes, black churches, and black neighborhoods that helped slaves escape to the North by supplying shelter, food, and general assistance.

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Marbury v. Madison

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1803 Supreme Court case that established the concept of judicial review in finding that parts of the Judiciary Act of 1789 were in conflict with the Constitution. The Supreme Court assumed legal authority to overrule acts of other branches of the government.

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Louisiana Purchase

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1803 purchase of French territory west of the Mississippi River from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada. The Louisiana Purchase nearly doubled the size of the United States and opened the way for future American expansion west.

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Lewis and Clark Expedition

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1804-1806 expedition led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark that explored the trans-Mississippi West for the U.S. government. The expedition’s mission was scientific, political, and geographic.

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Impressment

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A British naval practice of seizing sailors on American ships under the claim they were deserters from the British navy. Some 2,500 British and American men were taken by force into service, a grievance that helped propel the United States to declare war on Britain.

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Embargo Act of 1807

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Act of Congress that prohibited U.S. ships from traveling to foreign ports and effectively banned overseas trade in an attempt to deter Britain from halting U.S. ships at sea. The embargo caused grave hardships for Americans engaged in overseas commerce.

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Battle of Tippecanoe

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An attack on Shawnee Indians at Prophetstown on the Tippecanoe River in 1811 by American forces headed by William Henry Harrison, Indiana’s territorial governor. The Prophet Tenskwatawa fled with his followers, Tecumseh, his brother, deepened his resolve to make war on the United States.

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War Hawks

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Young men newly elected to the Congress of 1811 who were eager for war against Britain in order to end impressments, fight Indians, and expand into neighboring British territory. Leaders included Henry Clay of Kentucky and John C. Calhoun of South Carolina.

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Creek War

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Part of the War of 1812 involving the Creek nation in Mississippi Territory and Tennessee militiamen. General Andrew Jackson’s forces gained victory at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814, forcing the Creeks to sign away much of their land.

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Battle of New Orleans

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The final battle in the War of 1812, fought and won by General Andrew Jackson and his militiamen against the much larger British army in New Orleans. The celebrated battle made no difference since the peace had already been negotiated.

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Hartford Convention

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A secret meeting of New England Federalist politicians held in late 1814 to discuss constitutional changes to reduce the South’s political power and thus help block policies that injured northern commercial interests.

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Feme Covert

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Legal doctrine grounded in British common law that held that a wife’s civic life was subsumed by her husband’s. Married women lacked independence to own property, make contracts, or keep wages earned. The doctrine shaped women’s status in the early Republic.

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Missouri Compromise

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1820 Congressional compromise engineered by Henry Clay that paired Missouri’s entrance into the Union as a slave state with Maine’s as a free state. The compromise also established Missouri’s southern border as the permanent line dividing slave from free states.

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Bill of Rights

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The first ten amendments to the Constitution, officially ratified by 1791. The First through Eighth Amendments dealt with individual liberties, and the Ninth and Tenth concerned the boundary between federal and state authority.

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Report on Public Credit

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Hamilton’s January 1790 report recommending that the national debt be funded- but not repaid immediately – at full value. Hamilton’s goal was to make the new country creditworthy, not debt free. Critics of his plan complained that it would benefit speculators.

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Report on Manufactures

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A proposal by Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton in 1791 calling for the federal government to encourage domestic manufacturers with subsidies while imposing tariffs on foreign imports. Congress initially rejected the measure.

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Whiskey Rebellion

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July 1794 uprising by farmers in western Pennsylvania in response to enforcement of an unpopular excise tax on whiskey. The federal government responded with a military presence that caused dissidents to disperse before blood was shed.

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Treaty of Greenville

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1795 treaty between the United Sates and various Indian tribes in Ohio. The United States gave the tribes treaty goods valued at $25,000 in exchange, the Indians ceded most of Ohio to the Americans. The treaty brought only temporary peace to the region.

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Jay Treaty

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1795 treaty between the United States and Britain, negotiated by John Jay. It secured limited trading rights in the West Indies but failed to ensure timely removal of British forces from western forts and reimbursement for slaves removed by the British after the Revolution.

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Haitian Revolution

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The 1791-1804 conflict involving diverse Haitian participants and armies from three European countries. At its end, Haiti became a free, independent, black-run country. The Haitian Revolution fueled fears of slave insurrections in the United States.

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Federalists

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Originally the term for the supporters of the ratification of the U.S. Constitution in 1787-1788 in the 1790s. It became the name for one of the two dominant political groups that emerged during that decade. Federalist leaders of the 1790s supported Britain in foreign policy and commercial interests at home. Prominent Federalist included George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and John Adams.

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Republicans

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One of the two dominant groups that emerged in the 1790s. Republicans supported the revolutionaries in France and worried about monarchical Federalists at home. Prominent Republicans included Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.

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XYZ Affair

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1797 incident in which American negotiators in France were rebuffed for refusing to pay a substantial bribe. The incident led the United States into an undeclared war with France, known as the Quasi-War, which intensified antagonism between Federalists and Republicans.

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Alien and Sedition Acts

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1798 laws passed to suppress political dissent. The Sedition Act criminalized conspiracy and criticism of government leaders. The two Alien Acts extended the waiting period for citizenship and empowered the president to deport or imprison without trial any foreigner deemed a danger.

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Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions

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1789 resolutions condemning the Alien and Sedition Acts submitted by the federal government by the Virginia and Kentucky state legislatures. The resolutions tested the idea that state legislatures could judge the constitutionality of federal laws and nullify them.

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Erie Canal

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Canal finished in 1825, covering 350 miles between Albany and Buffalo and linking the port of New York City with the entire Great Lakes region. The canal turned New York City into the country’s premier commercial city.

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Lowell Mills

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Water-powered textile mills constructed along the Merrimack River in Lowell, Massachusetts, that pioneered the extensive use of female laborers. By 1836, the eight mills there employed more than five thousand young women, living in boardinghouses under close supervision.

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Second Bank of the United States

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National bank with multiple branches chartered in 1816 for twenty years. Intended to help regulate the economy , the bank became a major issue in Andrew Jackson’s campaign in 1832, framed in political rhetoric about aristocracy versus democracy.

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Whigs

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Political party that evolved out of the National Republicans after 1834. With a Northeast power base, the Whigs supported federal action to promote commercial development and generally looked favorably on the reform movements associated with the Second Great Awakening.

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Democrats

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Political party that evolved out of the Democratic Republicans after 1834. Strongest in the South and West, the Democrats embraced Andrew Jackson’s vision of limited government, expanded political participation for white men, and the promotion of an ethic of individualism.

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Indian Removal Act of 1830

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Act that directed the mandatory relocation of eastern tribes to territory west of the Mississippi. Jackson insisted his goal was to save the Indians. Indians resisted the controversial act, but in the end most were forced to comply.

Front 43

Trail of Tears

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Forced westward journey of Cherokees from their lands in Georgia to present-day Oklahoma in 1838. Despite favorable legal action, the Cherokees endured a grueling 1,200-mile march overseen by federal troops. Nearly a quarter of the Cherokees died en route.

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Nullification

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Theory asserting that states could nullify acts of Congress that exceeded congressional powers. South Carolina advanced the theory of nullification in 1828 in response to an unfavorable federal tariff. A show of force by Andrew Jackson, combined with tariff revisions, ended the crisis.

Front 45

Second Great Awakening

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Unprecedented religious revival in the 1820s and 1830s that promised access to salvation. The Second Great Awakening proved to be a major impetus for reform movements of the era, inspiring efforts to combat drinking, sexual sin and slavery.

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American Temperance Society

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Organization founded in 1826 by Lyman Beecher that linked drinking with poverty, idleness, ill-health, and violence. Temperance lecturers travelled the country gaining converts to the cause. The temperance movement had considerable success, contributing to a sharp drop in American alcohol consumption.

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New York Female Moral Reform Society

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An organization of religious women inspired by the Second Great Awakening to eradicate sexual sin and male licentiousness. Formed in 1833, it spread to hundreds of auxiliaries and worked to curb male licentiousness, prostitution, and seduction.

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Panic of 1837

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First major economic crisis of the United States that led to several years of hard times from 1837 to 1841. Sudden bankruptcies, contraction of credit, and runs on banks worked hardships nationwide. Causes were multiple and global and not will understood.