| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Leif Erickson | leader of the first Europeans to visit the Americas |
| Christopher Colombus | Italian explorer in service with Spain who arrived in the Americas in 1492. |
| Queen Elizabeth I | Queen of England who unofficially fought with Spain to keep control of England |
| Amerigo Vespucci | the first man to realize that the Americas were a "New World" |
| John Smith | was an English soldier, sailor, and author. He is remembered for his role in establishing the first permanent English settlement in North America at Jamestown, Virginia, and his brief association with the Native American girl Pocahontas. |
| pocahantas | Her name meant "Little Wanton"/ married John Rolfe |
| John Rolfe | married pocahontas; discovered tobacco grows well in other areas |
| pilgrim | colonists from England who sailed to America on the Mayflower and founded the colony of Plymouth in New England in 1620 |
| William Penn | Englishman and Quaker who founded the colony of Pennsylvania (1644-1718) |
| Peter Zenger | (October 26, 1697 – July 28, 1746) was a German-born American printer, publisher, editor and journalist in New York City. His indictment, trial and acquittal on sedition and libel charges against the Governor William Cosby of the New York Colony in 1735[1] were important contributing factors to the development of freedom of the press in America. The Zenger decision helped clarify the beliefs of early Colonial life and lay the groundwork for the responsibilities of both media and government in a functioning democracy. |
| Dolly Madison | presidents wife, she had to flee the white house before they set it on fire; saved valuable papers including Washington's portrait |
| Susan B. Anthony | leader of woman suffrage movement, who helped to define the movement's goals and beliefs and to lead its actions |
| sons of liberty | secret society made mostly of lawyers, artisans, & merchants supported moves for American independence |
| Samuel Adams | American Revolutionary leader and patriot revived the Boston committee of correspondence |
| minutemen | Men ready to fight at minute's notice |
| George Washington | 1st President of the United States, Commander of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War |
| King George III | King of England during Revolution |
| Paul Revere | American silversmith remembered for his midnight ride (celebrated in a poem by Longfellow) to warn the colonists in Lexington and Concord that British troops were coming (1735-1818) |
| Thomas Jefferson | 3rd President of the United States, wrote the declaration of independence |
| patriot | A person who supported the colonists during the American Revolution |
| loyalist | A person who supported the British during the American Revolution |
| John Paul Jones | American naval commander in the American Revolution (1747-1792)/ father of the navy |
| James Madison | 4th President of the United States, Strict constructionist, father of the Constitution, leads nation through War of 1812 |
| Federalists | supporters of the stronger central govt. who advocated the ratification of the new constitution |
| Anti-Federalists | opponents of a strong central government who campaigned against the ratification of the Constitution in favor of a confederation of independant states |
| Benjamin Franklin | printer whose success as an author led him to take up politics -Ex. he helped draw up the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution; he played a major role in the American Revolution and negotiated French support for the colonists; as a scientist he is |
| Speaker of the House | the leader of the majority party who serves as the presiding officer of the House of Representatives |
| President pro tempore | Officer of the Senate selected by the majority party to act as chair in the absence of the vice president |
| House of Representatives | As described in Article I of the US Constitution, this is one part of the bicameral (two-part) legislature, with the number of representatives from each state being elected according to the number of people in each state, at a minimum age of 25 years, for a term of two years. |
| Senate | part of congrees-upper house based equality-2senates from each state.eachsenator represensents the entire home state.the senaters from New York are Charles Schumar and Hilary Clinton |
| President | the office of the United States head of state |
| Vice President | Term- 4 years, requirements- replace the president if he dies, and presides over the senate, |
| Commander in Chief | term for the president as commander of the nation's armed forces |
| Chief Justice | the judge who presides over a Supreme Court |
| Supreme Court | the highest federal court in the United States |
| Alexander Hamilton | United States statesman and leader of the Federalists; as the first Secretary of the Treasury he establish a federal bank |
| Federalist Party | a major political party in the United States in the early 19th century;founded by Alexander Hamilton; favored a strong centralized government |
| Democratic Republican Party | political party founded in the1790s that sought to preserve the power of the state governments and promote agriculture. |
| John Adams | Patriot leader during the American Revolution and Second President of the United States. |
| Democratic Party | currently one of the main political parties; in the beginning of political parties wanted more power for states and less for national |
| Sequoyah | Cherokee who created a notation for writing the Cherokee language (1770-1843) |
| Meriwether Lewis | United States explorer and soldier who lead led an expedition from St. Louis to the mouth of the Columbia River (1774-1809) |
| William Clark | United States explorer who (with Meriwether Lewis) led an expedition from St. Louis to the mouth of the Columbia River |
| Sacagawea | Native American woman that helped Lewis and Clark |
| John Marshall | as chief justice of the Supreme Court he established the principles of United States constitutional law |
| Simon Bolivar | Venezuelan statesman who led the revolt of South American colonies against Spanish rule |
| James Monroe | 5th President of the United States author of Monroe Doctrine |
| John Quincy Adams | 6th President of the United States |
| Henry Clay | United States politician responsible for the Missouri Compromise between free and slave states (1777-1852) |
| Andrew Jackson | 7th president of the US successfully defended New Orleans from the British in 1815; expanded the power of the presidency (1767-1845) |
| Father Miguel Hidalgo | led the first march for Mexican Independence in 1810; Grito de Dolores; “Father of Mexican Independence” |
| Francis Scott Key | United States lawyer and poet who wrote a poem after witnessing the British attack on Baltimore during the War of 1812 - poem became The Star Spangled Banner |
| Tecumseh | a famous chief of the Shawnee who tried to unite Indian tribes against the increasing white settlement (1768-1813) |
| Eli Whitney | United States inventor of the mechanical cotton gin (1765-1825) |
| Samuel Morse | United States portrait painter who patented the telegraph and developed the Morse code (1791-1872) |
| Cyrus McCormick | United States inventor and manufacturer of a mechanical harvester (1809-1884) |
| Yeomen | farmers who did not own slaves; made up majority of the population |
| Elizabeth Cady Stanton | Leader in the abolitionist and women's rights movements. |
| Horace Mann | first state Board of Education in United States |
| Martin Van Buren | 8th President of the United States (1782-1862) |
| William Henry Harrison | 9th President of the United States caught pneumonia during his inauguration and died shortly after (1773-1841) |
| John Tyler | elected Vice President and became the 10th President of the United States when Harrison died (1790-1862) |
| Stephen F. Austin | Original settler of Texas, granted land from Mexico on condition of no slaves, convert to Roman Catholic, and learn Spanish |
| Sam Houston | United States politician and military leader who fought to gain independence for Texas from Mexico and to make it a part of the United States (1793-1863) |
| Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna | Mexican general who tried to crush the Texas revolt and who lost battles to Winfield Scott and Zachary Taylor in the Mexican War (1795-1876) |
| William Lloyd Garrison | United States abolitionist who published an anti-slavery journal (1805-1879) |
| Harriet Tubman | United States abolitionist born a slave on a plantation in Maryland and became a famous conductor on the Underground Railroad leading other slaves to freedom in the North (1820-1913) |
| Abraham Lincoln | 16th President of the United States saved the Union during the Civil War and emancipated the slaves; was assassinated by Booth (1809-1865) |
| Frederick Douglass | United States abolitionist who escaped from slavery and became an influential writer and lecturer in the North (1817-1895) |
| Wilmot Proviso | Bill that would ban slavery in the territories acquired after the War with Mexico |
| Harriet Beecher Stowe | United States writer of a novel about slavery that advanced the abolitionists' cause (1811-1896) |
| John Brown | abolitionist who was hanged after leading an unsuccessful raid at Harper's Ferry, Virginia (1800-1858) |
| Stephen Douglas | Senator from Illinois, author of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Freeport Doctrine, argues in favor of popular sovereignty |
| Dred Scott | United States slave who sued for liberty after living in a non-slave state caused the Supreme Court to declare the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional (1795?-1858) |
| Charles Sumner | Radical Republican against the slave power who insults Andrew Butler and subsequently gets caned by Preston Brooks |
| Preston Brooks | Responsible for beating radical republican Charles Sumner with his cane |
| Republican Party | Political party that believed in the non-expansion of slavery and comprised of Whigs, Northern Democrats, and Free-Soilers, in defiance to the Slave Powers |
| Roger Taney | supreme court justice, appointed by Jackson to replace Marshall, thought that blacks were inferior |
| Jefferson Davis | an American statesman and politician who served as President of the Confederate States of America for its entire history from 1861 to 1865 |
| Johnny Reb | 'johnny' was applied as a nickname for Confederate soldiers by the Federal soldiers in the American Civil War 'grayback' derived from their gray Confederate uniforms |
| Billy Yank | nickname distuingishing the Union side |
| Robert E. Lee | Confederate general who urged Southerners to accept defeat and reunite when some wanted to fight on after Appomattox |
| Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson | general in the Confederate Army during the Civil War whose troops at the first Battle of Bull Run stood like a stone wall (1824-1863) |
| George B. McClellan | General of the Union Army; fired by Lincoln for being too cautious |
| Ulysses S. Grant | Commander of the Union army who was nicknamed "Unconditional Surrender" |
| David Farragut | Commander of the union navy, captured New Orleans |
| Copperheads | Democrats who opposed the civil war |
| Clara Barton | Nurse during the Civil War; started the American Red Cross |
| William Tecumseh Sherman | United States general who was commander of all Union troops in the West he captured Atlanta and led a destructive march to the sea that cut the Confederacy in two (1820-1891) |
| Matthew Brady | photographer of Civil War |
| John Locke | an English philosopher who believed the government had a duty to protect certain natural rights and should only stayin power if they do so (from enlightenment) |
| Army of the Potomac | It was the major Union army in the eastern front. It fought many battles and ultimately won the war. |
| John Wilkes Booth | United States actor and assassin of President Lincoln (1838-1865) |
| Andrew Johnson | 17th President of the United States was elected Vice President and succeeded Lincoln when Lincoln was assassinated; was impeached but acquitted by one vote (1808-1875) |
| Rutherford B. Hayes | governor of ohio who ran for president as a republican in the election of 1876 |
| carpetbaggers | northern whites who moved to the south and served as republican leaders during reconstruction |
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