| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Charter | This is a grant or guarantee of rights or privileges from the sovereign power (ruler) of a state or country. |
| Magna Carta | 1215. The "great charter" of English liberties that granted freedom of church and protected certain rights of citizens. It was forced from King John by the English barons in 1215. It's the most famous document of British constitutional history, |
| Roanoke | Late 1500s. Aka "the lost colony." This people of this colony wanted to establish a permanent English settlement in the Virginia Colony. No one knows what happened to them. |
| Joint-stock company | 1606. A type of corporation that issues stocks (certificates of ownership), and allows the stockholders to sell their stock at any time. This limited the risk and made it affordable to support early colonists. Famous joint-stock companies include the Virginia Company, the Plymouth Company, and the East India Company. |
| Jamestown | 1607. A village in E. Virginia. The first permanent English settlement in North America. This colony was financed by the Virginia Company. |
| Mayflower Compact | 1620. An agreement signed by all the Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower, promising to set up a government and follow its laws. |
| New England Colonies | The group of colonies made up of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Connecticut Colony, Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations and Province of New Hampshire. |
| French-Indian War | 1754-1763. War between the British and the French (and the Indians allied with each side.) They disagreed about territory & religion. Both countries claimed the Ohio Territory and parts of Canada. France was Catholic; Britain and its 13 colonies were Protestant. When France lost, it gave up control of Canada. |
| Proclamation of 1763 | 1763. A proclamation made by King George III after Britain won the French-Indian War. The purpose of the proclamation was to organize Britain new territory and improve relations with the Indians. |
| No taxation without representation | 1763-1776. This slogan was used by people of the 13 colonies from to express their main complaint against Britain. They believed the lack of direct representation in the British government was an illegal denial of their rights as Englishmen. |
| Boston Massacre | 1770. The colonists riot in Boston to protest the British troops quartered in the city. The troops fired on the mob and killed several protesters. |
| Boston Tea Party | 1773. A raid on three British ships in Boston Harbor. The colonists, disguised as Indians, threw the contents of several hundred chests of tea into the harbor to protest British taxes on tea and the monopoly granted to the East India Company. |
| Minuteman | 1774. Member of a group of men pledged to take up arms at a minute's notice during and immediately before the American Revolution. |
| Revolutionary War | 1775 - 1783. Britain declared war on the rebelling colonies in 1775. The colonies renamed themselves the United States of America. The U.S. won with help from France and others. The war ended 1783 when a treaty recognized the U.S. as a sovereign nation. |
| Common Sense | 1776. A pamphlet written during the Revolutionary War by Thomas Paine. It persuaded many colonists that they should try to become independent from British rule. |
| Declaration of Independence | 1776. A statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the 13 colonies (already at war with Britain) were now independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. Written primarily by Thomas Jefferson. |
| Articles of Confederation | 1776. The first constitution of the United States, drafted in 1776. Some said it was flawed, because it gave big and small states equal power and made the central government so weak that it couldn't even levy taxes. Replaced in 1788 by our current Constitution. |
| Isolationism | 1776 to the early 1900s. The U.S. policy of staying out of European alliances and wars. Thomas Paine praised isolationism in his 1776 pamphlet "Common Sense." The U.S. practiced isolationism throughout the 1800s. |
| Treaty of Paris | 1783. Treaty (signed in Paris) that formally ended the American Revolutionary War between the Britain and the U.S. (1775-1783). |
| Sovereign nations | Nations that are free from external control. |
| Great Compromise | 1787. Aka. "Connecticut Compromise." This agreement between large and small states was reached during the Philadelphia Convention of 1787. It said that Congress should have both a Senate and a House, and larger states would have more representatives in the House than smaller ones. |
| 3/5ths Compromise | 1787. This compromise between Southern and Northern states was reached during the Philadelphia Convention of 1787. It said that a slave would count as 3/5 of a person for census purposes. This affected the distribution of taxes and the number of representatives granted to each state. |
| Bill of Rights | 1791. The first ten amendments to the United States Constitution; grants fundamental rights to U.S. citizens; ratified in 1791. Includes. freedom of religion and speech, the right to bear arms, right to a jury trial, and more. |
| Industrial Revolution | A period in American (and world) history in which society moved to a focus on machines, factories, and industry. People built large factories and machines to do things people used to do by hand. |
| Cotton Gin | 1793. A machine, invented by Eli Whitney, that separates cotton fibers from the seeds. It caused a huge growth in cotton production & increased demand for slaves. |
| Sojourner Truth | 1797-1883. Sojourner Truth fought for women's rights and the abolition of slavery. She was born a slave in New York in 1797. Her birth name was Isabella Baumfree. She escaped in 1826 and changed her name in 1843. |
| Oregon Trail: what was it, during which years was it used? | 1841-1869. This was one of the main overland migration routes in the U.S., leading from locations on the Missouri River to the Pacific Northwest. Use of the trail declined after the first transcontinental railroad was finished in 1869. |
| Louisiana Purchase | 1803. A land purchase from France that doubled the size of the U.S. Thomas Jefferson was president at the time. $15,000,000 bought all the land from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. |
| Lewis and Clark | 1803–1806. These two men were sent by President Jefferson on and expedition to explore the Louisiana Purchase all the way to the Pacific Ocean. |
| Cholera | This was the most common disease of pioneers heading west. A diseases of humans and domestic animals that usually causes severe gastrointestinal symptoms. Caused by bad nutrition and bad water. |
| Start & end years of the Civil War | 1861-1865. |
| 2 Reasons Lincoln decide to go to war against the South | 1861. To preserve the Union and to abolish slavery. |
| Ft. Sumter | 1861. The fort in Charleston Harbor, S. Carolina, where the first shots that began the American Civil War were fired. Later that year it was the site of the Battle of Fort Sumter. |
| Emancipation Proclamation | 1862. President Abraham Lincoln issued this order during the Civil War. It declared the freedom of all slaves in the Southern State that were rebelling against the Union. |
| Gettysburg Address | 1863 (November). A speech by Abraham Lincoln, only 2 minutes long, but now considered one of the greatest speeches in United States history. It was delivered at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on the afternoon of Thursday, No |
| 13th Amendment | 1865. The first of the three Reconstruction Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. It permanently abolished slavery. |
| 15th Amendment | 1870. The last of the three Reconstruction Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. It guarantees citizens the right to vote, regardless of their race, color, or the fact that they previously were slaves. |
| Reconstruction | 1865-. The process the federal government used to re-admit the Confederate states to the Union. The Reconstruction effort included three amendments to the Constitution (13th, 14th, and 15th) |
| Confederate States of America | This is the name the rebelling southern states gave themselves. |
| Abolitionists | People who were against slavery were called this. |
| Border State | 1861. A state that had slaves, but still stayed with the Union. |
| Union Blockade | 1861-. A strategy the North used to weaken the South's economy. |
| 54th Massachusetts Regiment | 1863-. One of the first black regiments in the Union army. They led the attack at the Battle of Fort Wagner. |
| President Lincoln's Reconstruction Plan | 1865. "With malice towards none; charity for all." -- included amnesty to all who would take an oath of loyalty to the U.S. and pledge to obey all federal laws pertaining to slavery. |
| President Johnson's Reconstruction Plan | 1865. "White men alone must manage the South."; -- (1) States decide if blacks should be able to vote. (2) All land returned to southerners who declared loyalty. (3) Presidential pardons for large landowners and southern leaders. |
| Radical Republican Reconstruction Plan | 1865. (1) Divide South into 5 military districts, each run by an army commander (2) Don't allow southern rulers to vote (3) Require southern states to approve 14th Amendment and allow blacks to vote before they can rejoin the union. |
| Impact of the French and Indian war | 1763. Britain was in debt because of the cost of the war; so Britain decided to raise taxes on the colonies. |
| Bull Run | 1861 (July). The first major battle of the Civil War. Near Manassas, Virginia. |
| Gettysburg | 1863 (July). The battle where more people died than in all previous wars combined. The battlefield was dedicated as a national cemetery. |
| 3 Reasons the Civil War is called the First Modern War. (Give three.) | First use of bullet clips, first use of black soldiers in battle, and the first successful submarine attack. |
| Lincoln's Assassination | 1865 (April). John Wilkes Booth did this in a theater. Afterward, Andrew Johnson became president. |
Combine with other sets
Share on Facebook
Share on MySpace