APUSH Final Exam Prep

Albany Plan

Plan of intercolonial cooperation proposed by prominent colonists including Ben Franklin at a conference in Albany, New York, in 1754. The plan envisioned the formation of a Grand Council of elected delegates from the colonies that would have powers to tax and provide for the common defense. It was rejected by the colonial and British governments, but was a prototype for colonial union.

Bacon’s Rebellion

An armed rebellion in Virginia (1675-1676) led by Nathaniel Bacon against the colony’s royal governor Sir William Berkeley. Although some of his followers called for an end of special privilege in government, Bacon was chiefly interested in gaining a larger share of the lucrative Indian trade.

backcountry

In the 1800s, the edge of settlement extending from western Pennsylvania to Georgia. This region formed the second frontier as settlers moved westward from the Atlantic coast into the nation’s interior.

Adams-Onis Treaty

Signed in 1819, this treaty allowed U.S. annexation of Florida.

antinomianism

Religious belief rejecting traditional moral law as unnecessary for Christians who possesed saving grace and affirming that an individual could experience divine revelation and salvation without the assistance of the clergy (stirred controversy when asserted by Ann Hutchinson in Puritan times)

Antifederalists

Critics of the Constitution who placed states rights above federal power (they became the Democratic-Republican party)

Alien and Sedition Acts

Laws passed in 1798 designed to suppress criticism of the federal government and to curb liberties of foreigners living in the U.S.

judicial review

The Supreme Court’s power to rule on the constitutionality of Congressional acts

Marbury vs. Madison

The Supreme Court case in which the ruling of Chief Justice John Marshall established judicial review.

Franco-American Alliance

Negotiated by Ben Franklin; one of the crucial factors in America winning the Revolutionary war

Common Sense

Pamphlet by Thomas Paine that was bestseller and highly effective propaganda for the cause of the patriots in the Revolution

Loyalists

People who remained loyal to Britain during the Revolution

Louisiana Purchase

Purchase made during Jefferson’s first term doubling the size of the U.S. and gaining the crucial port of New Orleans (as well as control of the Mississippi River)

Aaron Burr

Insane vice president under Jefferson who killed Hamilton and tired to get western states to secede

Embargo Act of 1807

Imposed during Jefferson’s second term due to the French and British hostilities; it created economic mayhem domestically

tobacco

Cultivated in the Chesapeake, it was the first major cash crop in English colonies

House of Burgesses

Created in 1619; any property-holding white male could vote in it

indentured servitude

The means by which thousands of young Englishman arrived the colonies; many died before completing their terms

city upon a hill

Term coined by John Winthrop expressing the Puritan ambition of establishing through their settlement a beacon of light for the rest of the Christian world

Manifest Destiny

Name given to expansionist notion in early 1800s that U.S. would grow to include all land from one sea shore to other

Transcendentalism

Literary and philosophical movement in 1800s stating that individuals could rise above material reality and ordinary understanding via their intuition and connection the over soul (expressed in nature)

Treaty of Tordesillas

Treaty negotiated by pope in 1494 that settled land dispute between Portugal and Spain (divided world along a north-south line in middle of the Atlantic Ocean; gave Spain land west of the line and Portugal lands East of the line)

paternalism

Slave owners’ propagandist idea that blacks are like children who need to be controlled and taken care of by superior white folk

Northwest Ordinance of 1787

Established an orderly method of settling and incorporating territories into U.S. (considered the ONE success of the Articles)

Shay’s Rebellion

Uprising in 1787 that made it clear that the Articles needed to be revised for the union to stay together

corrupt bargain

In election of 1824, Clay supported Q. Adams and was then appointed sectary of state

Election of 1828

The first presidential election to consist of major campaigning and slander of the opposing candidate

nullification

The doctrine that states could ignore Congressional legislation they thought unconstitutional; first expressed in Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions by Jefferson and Madison and later reappeared in South Carolina crisis during Jackson’s presidency

spoils system

Jackson’s habit of trading jobs for political favor; he was the first president widely criticized for this, though not the first to do it

Coercive Acts

Oppressive legislation passed by Parliament to punish colonies for Boston Tea Party

Proclamation of 1763

British government forbade colonists to settle west of rivers running through Appalachians (passed to avoid trouble with Indians)

Pontiac’s Rebellion

Retaliation to British mistreatment of Indians in aftermath of French and Indian War

(1st) Great Awakening

Religious revival in colonies between 1730s and 1760

Johnathan Edwards and George Whitefield

Leaders of (1st) Great Awakening

Salem Witch Trials

In 1692, mass hysteria broke out in Salem and 130 people were jailed or executed in Salem on charges of witchcraft

John Brown

Abolitionist who led the raid on Harper’s Ferry in 1859, greatly agitating sectional strife

abolitionists

Northerners in 1800 who sought to abolish slavery in U.S.

William Lloyd Garrison

Prominent abolitionist; founder of newspaper The Liberator

Bleeding Kansas

Mini-civil war that broke out in Kansas when the antislavery majority resisted the Kansas-Nebraska Act

Know-Nothings or American Party

Nativist, anti-immigrant party in mid-1800s that gained tremendous support in a short amount of time then died out suddenly

Dred Scott v. Sanford

Supreme Court decision in which it was decided that no black person could ever be a citizen and that negated the constitutionality of the Missouri Compromise

Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau

Leaders of transcendentalist movement

Temperance societies

Arose in the early 1800s to put an end to excessive drinking and other immoral behavior

Dorothea Dix

Responsible for tremendous improvement in the conditions of penitentiaries and asylums

Second Great Awakening

Religious revival in early 1800s of Evangelical Protestantism

Gold Rush

Vast migration to California after gold struck in 1848

labor unions

Founded in the mid-1800s to protest poor working conditions (succeed in getting working days down to 10 hours)

cotton gin

Invention by Eli Whitney that would of a huge catalyst of cotton farming (and subsequently slavery) in the South

Panic of 1837

Economic turmoil during Van Buren administration and attributed to complex, international processes

Nat Turner’s Rebellion

Violent slave uprising that agitated Southern slave owners’ fears of slave rebellion

universal white male suffrage

Came about during Jacksonian era

Lewis and Clark

Travelers appointed by Jefferson to explore the newly purchased Louisiana territory

midnight appointments

Adams filled government positions with Federalists shortly before his term ended

Washington’s farewell address

Advocated neutrality in foreign affairs

Monroe Doctrine

Declared Western Hemisphere’s independence from European imperialism

Declaration of Independence

Document by Thomas Jefferson stating the colonists’ intention to separate permanently from British Empire

strict construction of Constitution

Theory promulgated by Antifederalists that Congress could only exercise powers granted it by the Constitution or those "necessary and proper" to the execution of its enumerated powers

Bill of Rights

Group of the first ten amendments of Constitution and the legacy of the Antifederalists, it enumerated the rights of states and the people

broad construction of Constitution

Promoted by Federalists, this theory stated that Congress had certain implied powers not explicitly stated by the Constitution

second party system

Competition between Democrats and Whigs