| Term | Definition |
|---|
| slavery | abolished by the 13th amendment |
| Abraham Lincoln | 16th President of the United States, Emanicpation Proclamation, 10% plan, Gettysburg Address |
| John Quincy Adams | 6th President, corrupt bargain |
| Susan B. Anthony | Woman who played pivotal role in women's rights to secure suffrage, first women on US currency |
| John Jacob Astor | Prominent fur trader, owner of the American Fur company |
| Clara Barton | Woman who organized the American Red Cross |
| James Buchanan | 15th President, Dred Scott decision, Confederacy formed |
| John Brown | An abolitionist who attempted to lead a slave revolt by capturing Armories in southern territory and giving weapons to slaves, was hung in Harpers Ferry after capturing an Armory |
| John C. Calhoun | 7th Vice President to Jackson (resigned), advocate of state's rights, limited government, and nullification |
| Henry Clay | Founder/leader of the Whig Party, a War Hawk, Created many compromises |
| Jefferson Davis | President of the Confederacy |
| Emily Dickinson | Women who was an American poet |
| Dorothea Dix | American activist for the menatally ill, and prison reform served in Civil War as a nurse. |
| Frederick Douglas | African American abolitionist, wrote The North Star newspaper |
| Ralph Waldo Emerson | Leader of the Transcendentalist movement |
| Stephen A. Douglas | Illinois senator. Ran against Abraham Lincoln for office, 1860 |
| John C. Fremont | American military officer led the Bear Flag revolt, first candidate of the Republican Party for the President |
| Robert Fulton | American inventor who designed the first commercially successful steamboat(Clermont) and the first steam warship (1765-1815) |
| William Lloyd Garrison | Wrote the antislavery newspaper, the Liberator |
| Ulysses S. Grant | Union military leader who became 18th president during reconstruction |
| Rutherford B. Hayes | 19th President, ended reconstruction by removing federal troops, disputed Tilden/Hayes election resulted in the Compromise of 1877 |
| William Henry Harrison | 9th President, Hero of Tippecanoe (War of 1812) |
| Sam Houston | First president of the Republic of Texas, Alamo |
| Andrew Jackson | 7th President, Trail of Tears, let the charter for the US bank run out |
| Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson | Confederate general during the Civil War killed by friendly fire |
| Thomas Jefferson | 3rd President, Louisana Purchase, Embargo Act |
| Andrew Johnson | 17th President upon Lincoln's death, first impeached president |
| Robert E. Lee | General of the Confederates, surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House |
| Lewis and Clark | Two explorers sent by Jefferson to explore the Louisiana Purchase |
| Francis Lowell | Owned textile mill in Massachusetts, "Lowell girls" |
| Dolly Madison | president James Madison wife, she had to flee the white house during war of 1812 saved important presidentail keepsakes |
| James Madison | 4th President, War of 1812 |
| Horace Mann | United States educator, significantly altered the system of public education (1796-1859) |
| John Marshall | Chief Justice during Jackson's presidency, Marbury v. Madison |
| James Monroe | 5th President, Era of Good Feelings |
| Samuel Morse | American Inventor of the telegraph and the morse code |
| James K. Polk | 11th President, mexican War, Manifest Destiny |
| Sacajawea | Native American woman who served as a guide an interpreter for the Lewis and Clark expedition |
| Santa Anna | General who defated Americans at Alamo, signed a treaty recognizing Texas as an independent country |
| Dred Scott | United States slave who sued for liberty after living in a non-slave state, this decison ruled the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional |
| William T. Sherman | Union general, March to the Sea, Total War |
| Samuel Slater | a textile worker who illegally left England and brought manufacturing secrets to America |
| Joseph Smith | Founder and leader of the Mormons |
| Elizabeth Cady Stanton | Co-founded the 1848 Women's Rights Convention held in Seneca Falls, New York |
| Thaddeus Stevens, Charles Sumner | One of the leaders of the Radical Republicans |
| Harriet Beecher Stowe | Author of the antislavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin |
| Zachary Taylor | Mexican War general,12th President |
| Tecumseh | Famous chief of the Shawnee who tried to unite Indian tribes against the increasing white settlement (1768-1813) |
| Henry David Thoreau | Author of Walden Pond who practiced ideas of transcendentalism |
| Sojourner Truth | Former slave who became an abolitionist and womens right activist, "Ain't i a woman"speech |
| Nat Turner | United States slave and insurrectionist who in 1831 led a rebellion of slaves in Virginia |
| John Tyler | Elected Vice President and became the 10th President of the United States when Harrison died (1790-1862) |
| Harriet Tubman | Former slave who helped slaves escape on the Underground Railroad, women's rights |
| Martin Van Buren | 8th President of the United States (1782-1862) |
| Eli Whitney | Invented the cotton gin and interchangable parts |
| Brigham Young | United States religious leader of the Mormon Church after the assassination of Joseph Smith |
| 13th Amendment | Abolished slavery; Ratified in 1865 |
| 14th Amendment | Declares that all persons born in the U.S. are citizens and are guaranteed equal protection of the laws |
| 15th Amendment | Citizens cannot be denied the right to vote because of race, color , or previous condition of servitude |
| Abolition | Movement to outlaw slavery |
| Adams-Onis Treaty | Settled a border dispute between the US and Spain over Florida 1819 |
| Alamo | Site of battle where 200 Texans are surrounded and slaughtered by 600 Mexican forces |
| Appomattox Courthouse | Virginia town where Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant in 1865, ending the Civil War |
| Barbary States | Semi independant states(African coast) that ran attacks and seized American ships |
| Battle of Antietam | Civil War battle in which 25,000 men were killed or wounded, "bloodiest battle" |
| Battle of Bull Run | 1st major battle, proved war was going to be long and costly |
| Battle of Gettysburg | Turning point of war, Union victory, ends with Pickett's (Confederate) charge |
| Battle of New Orleans | Jackson defends city against British frontal attack, becomes national hero (War of 1812) |
| Battle of Tippecanoe | Tecumseh and the Prophet attack, but General Harrison crushes them in this battle (War of 1812) |
| Bleeding Kansas | Nickname given to the Kansas Territory because of the bloody violence between anti and pro slavery forces |
| Border States | slave states that remained with the Union |
| Cabinet | The body of men constituting the official advisors of the executive (President) head of a nation. |
| California Gold Rush | Triggered by discovery at Sutter's Mill, leads to mass migration to California |
| Carpetbaggers | Notherners who moved to the South after the war for economic gain |
| Civil War | American War between the Union and Confederacy from 1861-1865 |
| Compromise of 1850 | Allowed California in as a free state however; it instituted the Fugitive Slave Act. |
| Compromise of 1877 | Compromise that enables Hayes to take office in return for the end of Reconstruction ( withdrawal of federal troops) |
| Confederate States of America | Southern states that seceded from the United States in 1861 |
| Cotton Gin | Machine that separates the seeds from raw cotton fibers |
| Democratic Party | Older of two major political parties in the United States (Jackson's party) |
| Democratic-Republican Party | Founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in 1792. Dominant party until the 1820s. |
| Dred Scott Decision | Landmark court decision that ruled that slaves were property and antislavery laws were unconstitutional |
| Election of 1824 | John Quincy Adams won after Henry Clay gave his support to Adams, securing his Presidency. When Adams appointed Clay as his secretary of state, Jackson's supporters raged that a corrupt bargain had cheated Jackson of presidency. |
| Emancipation Proclamation | Issued by Lincoln on September 22, 1862 it declared that all slaves in the confederate states would be free January 1863 |
| Embargo Act of 1807 | Prohibited all American trade with foreign nations during Jefferson's term |
| Era of Good Feelings | Monroe's presidency was marked by this era of nonpartisanship |
| Erie Canal | an artificial waterway connecting the Hudson river at Albany with Lake Erie at Buffalo |
| Excise Tax | Tax on goods produced within the country |
| 54th Massachusetts Infantry | First all-black army unit that saw combat during the Civil War |
| Fort Sumter | Where first shots were fired in the Civil War |
| Freedmen's Bureau | Set up to help former slaves with food, healthcare, jobs etc... |
| Free Soil Party | Political party dedicated to stopping the expansion of slavery |
| Fugitive Slave Act | Law that provided for harsh treatment for escaped slaves and for those who helped them, part of Compromise of 1850 |
| Gadsden Purchase | Purchase of land from Mexico in 1853 that established the present U.S.-mexico boundary |
| Habeas Corpus | Person can't be held in prison without first being charged with a crime, Lincoln suspended this right in the border states during the civil war |
| Harpers Ferry | Location of federal arsenal that John Brown raided to get guns to arm slaves, 1859 |
| Hayes-Tiden Election | 1876 disputed election, that led to the 1877 compromise ending reconstruction with the withdrawal of federal troops from the south |
| Impressment | British practice of taking American sailors and forcing them into military service (War of 1812 cause) |
| Industrial Revolution | Transformation from an agricultural to an industrial nation |
| Judicial Review | Power to declare acts of Congress unconstitutional |
| Kansas-Nebraska Act | Act passed in 1854, repealed the Missouri Compromise, led to "Bleeding Kansas" |
| KKK | Terrorist group of White Supremacists in south |
| Know-Nothing Party | Political party - feared the country was being overwhelmed by immigrants (Nativists) |
| Lincoln-Douglas Debates | Series of debates for an Illinois seat in the US Senate 1858 |
| Lone Star Republic | Name of Texas before annexed to the United States when Texas was its own country. |
| Loose Construction | Belief that the government can do anything that the constitution does not prohibit |
| Louisiana Purchase | Gave the U.S. a large portion of the Midwest, Miss. River to Rocky Mts.,led to debates about slavery |
| Manifest Destiny | The belief that the U.S. should extend all the way to the pacific ocean |
| Marbury vs Madison | Established judicial review of the courts, Chief Justice John Marshall |
| Mexican Cession | Lands gained from Mexico as a result of the Mexican War |
| Mexican War | 1846-1848 conflict between US and Mexico, caused by the annexation of Texas, resulted in the Mexican Cession |
| Missouri Compromise | Set up Maine and Missouri as free and slave states (respectively), instituted 36 30 as the line, slavery prohibited above the line |
| Monitor vs Merrimac | Civil War battle between two ironclad war ships |
| Monroe Doctrine | 1823; Warning no more European colonization in the western hemisphere |
| Nationalism | Love of a country and willingness to sacrifice for it |
| National Road | A federally funded road, stretching from Cumberland, Maryland, to Vandalia, Illinois |
| Nullification Crisis | Dispute over states' rights vs federal power during Jackson's term, a compromise was reached to lower the tariff on imorted goods |
| Oregon Trail | connected Missouri and Oregon, 2000 mile journey |
| Plessy vs Ferguson | Court case that upheld "separate but equal" is constitutional, 1896 |
| Popular Sovereignty | The concept that a States people should vote whether to be a slave state or Free |
| Radical Republicans | Political party that favored harsh punishment of Southern states after civil war, led by Stevens and Sumner |
| Reconstruction | Period after the Civil War in the United States when the southern states were reorganized and reintegrated into the Union |
| Republican Party | Political party formed to oppose extending slavery in the territories, Lincoln first Pres. |
| Republic of Texas- Lone Star | Independent nation that was created after Texans defeated Mexico in the Texas Revolution |
| Scalawags | Southern whites who supported republican policy throughout reconstruction |
| Secession | Formal separation from an alliance or federation |
| Sectionalism | Loyalty to one's own region of the country, rather than to the nation as a whole |
| Segregation | Social system that provides separate facilities for minority groups |
| Seneca Falls Convention | Women's rights convention that results in a declaration of sentiments but not much else |
| Sherman's March to the Sea | Sherman's "total war" march in Georgia |
| Siege of Vicksburg | Surrounding of the city of Vicksburg, Mississippi, by Union forces |
| Spoils System | System of employing friends and supporters of the group in power, jackson "kitchen cabinet" |
| State's Rights | States believe they should have more power than the federal government |
| Strict Construction | Congress has ONLY powers given it by the Constitution |
| Suffrage | The right or prvilege of voting. |
| Tariff of Abominations | Henry Clay's name for an 1828 tariff increase |
| 10% Plan | Lincoln's plan - only 10% of the population had to swear loyality to the union. must abolish slavery |
| Trail of Tears | Long, tragic march where Native Americans were forced to travel westward during Jackson's term. |
| Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo | Treaty that the US forced Mexico to sign in 1848, giving Mexico's northern lands to the US) |
| Union | Northern United States during the Civil War |
| War Hawks | Those who favored war |
| War of 1812 | War that resulted from Britain putting economic limitations on the United States |
| Whig Party | Political party formed in 1834 to oppose policies of Andrew Jackson |
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