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42 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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cotton gin
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The Cotton Gin was an invention created by Eli Whitney. He created the Cotton Gin in 1793. This invention was a quicker alternative to picking seed out of cotton by hand. The machine had spiked teeth on a boxed revolving cylinder to pick the seeds.
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West Point
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role in our nation's history dates back to the Revolutionary War, when both sides realized the strategic importance of the commanding plateau on the west bank of the Hudson River. General George Washington considered West Point to be the most important strategic position in America. Washington personally selected Thaddeus Kosciuszko, one of the heroes of Saratoga, to design the fortifications for West Point in 1778, and Washington transferred his headquarters to West Point in 1779. Continental soldiers built forts, batteries and redoubts and extended a 150-ton iron chain across the Hudson to control river traffic. Fortress West Point was never captured by the British, despite Benedict Arnold's treason. West Point is the oldest continuously occupied military post in America. Prestigious military academy for the US.
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The Louisiana Purchase
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France' offer to sell the vast Louisiana Purchase to the United States in 1803 sparked a constitutional dilemma. President Thomas Jefferson wanted to purchase the territory, which would double the size of the United States. But Jefferson also favored a narrow interpretation of the Constitution—and nowhere did it provide for acquiring additional territory. Because of the need to act quickly on the deal, there was no time to amend the Constitution. Instead, the Jeffersonian Democratic-Republicans in Congress passed legislation that gave the President permission to sign a treaty to receive the territory, and Congress appropriated the money to pay for it.
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Aaron Burr
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vice president for Thomas Jefferson under his first term and fatally shooting his political rival Alexander Hamilton.
Burr ran and won a seat in the Senate in 1791 beating General Philip Schuyler. This started a bitter rivalry between him and Schuyler’s son-in-law Alexander Hamilton. After 6 years in the Senate Burr lost re-election to Schuyler which he blamed on a smear campaign by Hamilton. In 1800, Burr ran for president against Thomas Jefferson and the decision went to the House of Representatives. In the session of the House Hamilton voiced his approval for Jefferson and disapproval of Burr. Burr loses the election and is named vice president. As he ended his term as vice president he ran for governor of New York and lost again. Blaming Hamilton for these losses, he challenged him to a dual and shot and killed him. The public cried murder, but no charges were filed and he completed his term as vice president quietly. The controversy caused Jefferson to drop him. |
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Trafalgar
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The Battle of Trafalgar was one of the most decisive naval battles in history. General Lord Nelson saw the French-Spanish fleet preparing an attack against them and mobilized the ships. Outnumbered, Nelson divided the fleet to prepare to engage the enemy. In the end, the British fleet of 27 ships defeated a combined 33 French and Spanish fleet off the coast of Spain in a five hour battle. Thwarting, forever, an invasion of Britain by Napoleon. They lost the beloved General Nelson who was memorialized with a monument to him and square named after the region in Spain where the battle was won.
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War of 1812
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While the French and British were warring all trading between the countries was prohibited. America capitalized on being neutral and traded with both countries.
During this time, Britain was practicing a cruel but effective way of combating the manpower shortage in their navy: impressment. Impressment, or “press gang” as it was more commonly known, was recruitment by force. they literally would take over vessels and force them to fit on their behalf. It was a practice that directly affected the U.S. as some 6,000 vessels claiming they were American were impressed by by the British by 1811. |
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Missouri Compromise
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In the years leading up to the Missouri Compromise of 1820, tensions began to rise between pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions within the U.S. Congress and across the country. They reached a boiling point after Missouri’s 1819 request for admission to the Union as a slave state, which threatened to upset the delicate balance between slave states and free states. To keep the peace, Congress orchestrated a two-part compromise, granting Missouri’s request but also admitting Maine as a free state. It also passed an amendment that drew an imaginary line across the former Louisiana Territory, establishing a boundary between free and slave regions that remained the law of the land until it was negated by the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854.
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Election of 1812
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While the French and British were warring all trading between the countries was prohibited. America capitalized on being neutral and traded with both countries.
During this time, Britain was practicing a cruel but effective way of combating the manpower shortage in their navy: impressment. Impressment, or “press gang” as it was more commonly known, was recruitment by force. they literally would take over vessels and force them to fit on their behalf. It was a practice that directly affected the U.S. as some 6,000 vessels claiming they were American were impressed by by the British by 1811. In addition to impressments, Americans were dismayed by British agitation of the native population on the western frontier. Ultimately, congress declared war on the British June 18, 1812. The War of 1812 ended in a stalemate. |
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Missouri Compromise
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In the years leading up to the Missouri Compromise of 1820, tensions began to rise between pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions within the U.S. Congress and across the country. They reached a boiling point after Missouri’s 1819 request for admission to the Union as a slave state, which threatened to upset the delicate balance between slave states and free states. To keep the peace, Congress orchestrated a two-part compromise, granting Missouri’s request but also admitting Maine as a free state. It also passed an amendment that drew an imaginary line across the former Louisiana Territory, establishing a boundary between free and slave regions that remained the law of the land until it was negated by the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854.
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Election of 1824
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[Context: Prior to this point, the Federalist party dissolved, and it was a one-party system with the Thomas Jefferson-founded Democratic-Republicans dominating government.] Four candidates ran for President (including John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson, the two main candidates), causing no candidate to receive the majority of electoral votes. Jackson carried most of the middle and southern states and therefore won the popular election, but still did not get the majority of the electoral college votes. This caused the election to be decided by the House of Representatives. Henry Clay (at the time the Speaker of the House) did behind the scenes negotiation to ensure that JQ Adams won so that he could appoint Clay as the Secretary of State. This deal was called the Corrupt Bargain and it splintered the Dem-Republican Party into two: The Democratic Party (led by Jackson) and the National Republicans (Whigs) led by JQ Adams and Clay.
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John Marshall
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Served from 1801 to 1835 and is tied with Earl Warren as the best Supreme Court Chief Justice ever (in my head). He and his Supreme Court augmented the power of the Judicial Branch by establishing the process of judicial review (ruling laws constitutional or unconstitutional, and if they are unconstitutional, strike the laws) through Marbury vs. Madison. Judicial Review was a major force in strengthening the power of the federal government during this formative time. Also Marshall helped establish the use of precedent and constitutional interpretation.
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McCulloch v. Maryland
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Case involving the State of Maryland tried to impose a tax on the Second Bank of the United States (a federal institution), which operated in Maryland. The court, led by John Marshall, ruled that Congress had implied powers through the Necessary and Proper Clause which allowed the Federal government to pass laws not expressly provided for in the Constitution's list of express powers, provided those laws are “in useful furtherance” (ex: of the express powers of Congress under the Constitution.
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Monroe Doctrine
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A pillar of US Foreign Policy since its proclamation. Established during the Monroe Administration that stated that further efforts by European nations to colonize land or interfere with states in North or South America would be viewed as acts of aggression, requiring U.S. intervention. At the same time, the US would not intervene in European affairs or existing colonies in the North American continent. One of the first examples of isolationist policy, yet it has been used to justify American hegemony and expansion throughout the continent. Latin American revolutionary leaders, however, were inspired by this message and saw it as a warning against further colonization in the New World.
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Spoils System
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also called patronage system, practice in which the political party winning an election rewards its campaign workers and other active supporters by appointment to government posts and by other favours. The spoils system involves political activity by public employees in support of their party and the employees’ removal from office if their party loses the election. A change in party control of government necessarily brings new officials to high positions carrying political responsibility, but the spoils system extends personnel turnover down to routine or subordinate governmental positions.
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Nullification
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The process by which a state can nullify or invalidate federal laws which they deem unconstitutional. Nullification has been routinely rejected by Federal Courts. Federal Courts find under the Supremacy Clause have the authority to make final decision on the constitutionality of federal laws.
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Roger Taney
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the 5th Chief Justice of SCOTUS. He was a federalist who supported the Democratic-Republican party and Andrew Jackson. He supported the primary federal power but acknowledged there was a clear line where political authority should be vested in the states. This belief in states rights was central to the hallmark decision of the Taney court in Dred Scott vs. Sanford. While he was not a defender of slavery he ruled that African Americans were “ of an inferior order and not citizens of states, therefore unfit to associate with members of the white race. The decision and it’s inflammatory language left Republicans furious and when Lincoln was elected he defied a Taney decision to suspend Habeas Corpus in portions of Maryland. After his death the SCOTUS was at a low point and Taney vilified.
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Democratic Party
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The democratic party was born out of a faction of anti-federalists, mainly Jefferson and Madison. They favored the state’s rights and adherence to the constitution and opposed the influence of moneyed interests and the National Bank. Democrats were divided during the Civil War; Copperheads were against the war and war democrats supported a Lincolns policies. The democratic party we know today promotes a socially liberal/progressive platform consistent with the New Deal ( labor unions, civil rights, regulation and social welfare) Liberalism ushered in by Roosevelt.
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Whig Party
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The Whig Party was active between during 1830-1850. They championed economic protectionism (regulated foreign trade over free-markets) and modernization (industrialization and universal education). The Whigs were inspired by the Americans Whigs of 1776 who were the revolutionaries that fought for the independence of the thirteen colonies from British Rule. The Whigs developed as a response to the Democratic policies of Andrew Jackson. This marked the development of a second party system. The Whigs advocated for the supremacy of Congress over the Executive, thus rejecting any threat of tyranny. There were 4 Whig Presidents; two were Vice Presidents (John Tyler and Millard FIllmore) replacing Presidents (William Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor) who died while in office. Ultimately the party was fractured by the expansion of slavery. The Whigs from the North felt that it wasn’t compatible with free labor, free market principles.
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Eerie Canal
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Constructed from 1817-1825, from Albany to Buffalo. Allowed for a water route from the Atlantic Ocean (NYC by way of the Hudson River) to the Great Lakes (Lake Erie). This resulted in more expansion to Western NY and increased trade.
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Nativism
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In general, opposing immigration, or putting the people already living in a country in a superior position while fearing the other or unknown immigrants. The Alien and Sedition Acts (1798) and the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) are examples of this, limited French and Irish or banning Chinese immigration, respectively.
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Railroads
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Railroads were a part of the Industrial Railroad, and like canals, an important part of increasing trade and expanding west. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first major one in the US, and construction on it began in 1828.
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Telegraph
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In 1837, Samuel Morse invented the telegraph. Although it took some time to get Federal funding, in 1844 a line was established between Washington, DC and Baltimore, after which more lines started being developed between other major areas.
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Samuel Morse
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Painter and Inventor, more commonly known for the “single-wire” telegraph system and co-inventing the Morse code. He had anti-federalist beliefs. Morse was a leader in the anti-Catholic and anti-immigration movement of the mid-19th century. A successful painter, he was commissioned for paintings relevant to the US Government including President John Adams, President James Monroe, and other depictions that hang along the halls in Congress. Morse switches his focus from painting to electricity. Morse invented a telegraph system that was a practical and commercial success. The Morse code was developed so that operators could translate the indentations marked on the paper tape into text messages. 1838 became the first public demonstration. 1844 the line was officially opened.
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Nat Turner
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American Slave; led the Slave Rebellion; Highly religious and spiritual, he was dubbed “The Prophet.” Nat believed he received a message from God initiated his preparation for a rebellion against the slave owners. In 1831 the Rebellion included 70 freed and enslaved Blacks traveling from house to house. Turner thought that revolutionary violence would serve to awaken the attitudes of whites to the reality of the inherent brutality in slave-holding. November 5, 1831, he was tried for "conspiring to rebel and making insurrection", convicted and sentenced to death. Turner was hanged on November 11 in Jerusalem, Virginia. Before the Nat Turner Revolt, there was a small but ineffectual antislavery movement in Virginia. Although it only lasted a few days, it recorded the highest number of fatalities caused by any slave uprising in the South.
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Walt Whitman
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was an American poet, essayist, journalist, and humanist. “The Father of Free Verse.” He was labeled to be a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism. Whitman's collection of poems, Leaves of Grass, stands among the masterpieces of world literature.
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Ralph Waldo Emerson
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was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. Emerson published his first essay, Nature, on September 9, 1836. A year later he delivered his now-famous Phi Beta Kappa address, "The American Scholar.’ He was labeled as an atheist due to comments he made at a graduation ceremony.
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Henry David Thoreau
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(born July 12, 1817, Concord, Massachusetts, U.S.—died May 6, 1862, Concord), American essayist, poet, and practical philosopher, renowned for having lived the doctrines of Transcendentalism as recorded in his masterwork, Walden (1854), and for having been a vigorous advocate of civil liberties, as evidenced in the essay “Civil Disobedience” (1849).
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Mormons
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member of any of several denominations that trace their origins to a religion founded by Joseph Smith, Jr. (1805–1844), in the United States in 1830. The term Mormon, often used to refer to members of these churches, comes from the Book of Mormon, which was published by Smith in 1830. Now an international movement, Mormonism is characterized by a unique understanding of the Godhead, emphasis on family life, belief in continuing revelation, desire for order, respect for authority, and missionary work. Mormons also obey strict prohibitions on alcohol, tobacco, coffee, and tea and promote education and a vigorous work ethic.
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William Lloyd Garrison
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(born December 10/12, 1805, Newburyport, Massachusetts, U.S.—died May 24, 1879, New York, New York), American journalistic crusader who published a newspaper, The Liberator (1831–65), and helped lead the successful abolitionist campaign against slavery in the United States. In 1832 he helped form the New England Antislavery Society. When the Civil War broke out, he continued to blast the Constitution as a pro-slavery document. When the civil war ended, he at last saw the abolition of slavery. He died May 24, 1879 in New York City.
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Abolitionists
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The abolitionist movement took shape in 1833, when William Lloyd Garrison, Arthur and Lewis Tappan, and others formed the American Anti-Slavery Society in Philadelphia. The group issued this manifesto announcing the reasons for formation of the society and enumerating its goals. The goal of the abolitionist movement was the immediate emancipation of all slaves and the end of racial discrimination and segregation. Advocating for immediate emancipation distinguished abolitionists from more moderate anti-slavery advocates who argued for gradual emancipation, and from free-soil activists who sought to restrict slavery to existing areas and prevent its spread further west. Radical abolitionism was partly fueled by the religious fervor of the Second Great Awakening, which prompted many people to advocate for emancipation on religious grounds. Abolitionist ideas became increasingly prominent in Northern churches and politics beginning in the 1830s, which caused egional animosity.
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Frederick Douglass
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Born as Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey-later changing his name to FD when he married in New York in 1838-to a ‘slave mother and an unknown white man.’ He learned the alphabet from the mistress of his first plantation at 7 and he took it upon himself to continue to learn to read and write from the neighborhood boys. At 15 he was hired to work on a farm with gruesome conditions, planned on escaping in 1836 and was jailed for his idea to do so. 1838 he escaped Baltimore to NY by impersonating a sailor, married, and followed William Lloyd Garrison, a white abolition activist. He gave his first speech at the MA Anti-Slavery Society in 1841 and continued in the Society as a lead spokesperson for 3 years; from there he wrote 3 autobiographies, traveled internationally to speak on anti-slavery, published his own newspaper, was an advisor to Abe Lincoln, ‘first black citizen to hold high rank’ as an abolitionist.
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Manifest Destiny
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This was a rapid westward continental expansion/territorial growth in the U.S. that was based on the idea of ‘self-advancement’ and had motives of promoting religion, money, nationalism, territory, and dominating the country. The U.S. was experiencing increased immigration, higher birth rates, and suffered 2 economic depressions (1818, 1839) which initiated the idea of ‘national mission’ to expand for fear that the republic would be weakened. There was a race to occupy territory to the west of the Mississippi due to the following factors: a) technological advancements (steamboats & railroads-creating commercial routes for markets; telegraph communication). b) Southern states were eager to expand their states- creating a larger slave empire. c) Apprehension to Great Britain’s claim to Pacific NW and its ties to Mexico.
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The Alamo
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Originally named, Mision San Antonio de Valero, the Alamo served as home to missionaries and their Indian converts 1724-1798. In 1835, ‘Texas' war for independence from Mexico,’ a group of Texan volunteer soldiers occupied the Alamo. 1836, a Mexican force led by General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna began a siege of the fort. 200 defenders (some of which volunteers from a surrounding community) held out for 13 days before the Mexican invaders overpowered them. The Battle of the Alamo ensured the success of Texan independence. Santa Anna, who had been taken prisoner, came to terms to end the war by signing the Treaty of Velasco. In 1845, the U.S. annexed TX. 1883, the TX purchased the Alamo, later acquiring property rights to all the surrounding grounds.
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Mexican War
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War between the ‘U.S.’ and Mexico stemming from the United States’ annexation of TX in 1845 when Mexico also severed relations with the U.S. The war resulted in the U.S.’s acquisition of more than 500,000 sq. mi. of Mexican territory extending westward from the Rio Grande to the Pacific. JK Polk sent troops to Mexico in 1846 when Mex. Pres. Herrera refused to ‘pay American claims’ and Mexican troops attacked American troops on ‘American soil.’ Thus in the Southwest favored the conflict but abolitionists saw the war as an attempt by the slave states to extend slavery and enhance their power. Despite some Mexican resistance, there were a series of victories; the fall of the Mexican capital ended the military phase of the conflict.
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Guadalupe Hidalgo
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(Feb. 2, 1848), treaty between the United States and Mexico that ended the Mexican War. It was signed at Villa de Guadalupe Hidalgo, which is a northern neighbourhood of Mexico City. The treaty drew the boundary between the United States and Mexico at the Rio Grande and the Gila River; for a payment of $15,000,000 the United States received more than 525,000 square miles (1,360,000 square km) of land (now Arizona, California, western Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, and Utah) from Mexico and in return agreed to settle the more than $3,000,000 in claims made by U.S. citizens against Mexico. With this annexation, the continental expansion of the United States was completed except for the land added in the Gadsden Purchase (1853).
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Gold Rush of 1849
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The discovery of gold nuggets in the Sacramento Valley in early 1848 sparked the Gold Rush, arguably one of the most significant events to shape American history during the first half of the 19th century. James Marshall found gold while working for John Sutter at his ranch in northern California on January 24, 1848. As news spread of the discovery, thousands of prospective gold miners traveled by sea or over land to San Francisco and the surrounding area; by the end of 1849, the non-native population of the California territory was some 100,000. A total of $2 billion worth of precious metal was extracted from the area during the Gold Rush, which peaked in 1852.
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Republican Party
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the Republicans were the party of free working white men; they were opposed to the spread of slavery because they did not want to compete against unpaid labor in the lands opening in the West. They were no particular friends of the blacks, slave or free. Further, the Republicans were purely a sectional party; they did not attempt to run candidates in the slave states. Their plan was to gain complete political control in the North;
1. Repeal of the Kansas-Nebraska Act—the Republican opposition to the extension of slavery was based more on economic concerns than moral ones 2. Support of the central route for the construction of the transcontinental railroad 3. Support of a Homestead Acts, which would ease the process for settlers to own western lands 4. Support of high protective tariffs and liberal immigration laws—both were attractive to Northern manufacturers. |
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Bleeding Kansas
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(1854–59), small civil war in the United States, fought between proslavery and antislavery advocates for control of the new territory of Kansas under the doctrine of popular sovereignty ( the people of the state decide if it will be a free state or not). Sponsors of the Kansas–Nebraska Act (May 30, 1854) expected its provisions for territorial self-government to arrest the “torrent of fanaticism” that had been dividing the nation regarding the slavery issue. Instead, free-soil forces from the North formed armed emigrant associations to populate Kansas, while proslavery advocates poured over the border from Missouri.
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Dred Scott case
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1857. Two landmark rulings :African Americans were not citizens and thus had no standing to sue in federal court AND the federal government had no power to regulate slavery anywhere that was acquired after the creation of the United States. African Americans are not us citizens and thus not protected by the Constitution. Dred Scott was a slave that asked US Circuit Court to award him his freedom because he lived somewhere where slavery had been banned.
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John Brown
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abolitionist. Believed in armed insurrection to overthrow slavery in the US. Led volunteers during the Bleeding Kansas crisis. Believed insurrection would punish the slave owners for owning slaves. Very dissatisfied with pacifism. Led an unsuccessful raid on the army’s federal armory Harper’s Ferry that ended with his capture. He was tried and sentenced to death by hanging.
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Election of 1860
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During the 1850s the country had been divided on issues of slavery and the expansion of slavery. These issues broke the Democratic Party into Northern and Southern factions, and a new Constitutional Union Party appeared. The republican party dominated in the North and secured enough electoral votes to put Lincoln in the White House.
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Lewis & Clark
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The Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery Expedition, was commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson shortly after the Louisiana Purchase in May 1803, consisting of a select group of U.S. Army volunteers under the command of Meriwether Lewis and his close friend William Clark. Their task was to explore and map the new territory, find a route to the Pacific Ocean, and set up American territories before Britain and other Europeans could get there.
President Jefferson set the goal to find "the most direct & practicable water communication across this continent, for the purposes of commerce." The campaign's secondary objectives were to study the area's plants, animal life, and geography, and establish trade with local Indian tribes along the way. |
