Page 426 - American Stories, A History of the United States

Glossary

abolitionist movement Reform movement dedicated to the immediate Beringia Land bridge formerly connecting Asia and North America that is
and unconditional end of slavery in the United States. now submerged beneath the Bering Sea.
Adams–Onís Treaty Signed by Secretary of State John Quincy Adams and Bill of Rights The first ten amendments to the Constitution, adopted in
Spanish minister Luis de Onís in 1819, this treaty allowed for U.S. annexation 1791 to preserve the rights and liberties of individuals.
of Florida. Black Code Laws passed by southern states immediately after the Civil War
African Methodist Episcopal Church Richard Allen founded the African to maintain white supremacy by restricting the rights of the newly freed slaves.
Methodist Episcopal Church in 1816 as the first independent black-run Boston Massacre A violent clash between British troops and a Boston mob
Protestant church in the United States. The AME Church was active in the on March 5, 1770. Five citizens were killed when the troops fired into the
abolition movement and founded educational institutions for free blacks. crowd. The incident inflamed anti-British sentiment in Massachusetts.
Agricultural Revolution The gradual shift from hunting and gathering Boston Tea Party Raid on British ships in which Patriots disguised as
to cultivating basic food crops that occurred worldwide from 7,000 to 9,000 Mohawks threw hundreds of chests of tea owned by the East India Company
years ago. into Boston Harbor to protest British taxes.
Alamo In 1835, Americans living in Mexican-ruled Texas fomented a revo- Columbian Exchange The exchange of plants, animals, and diseases
lution. Mexico lost the resulting conflict, but not before its troops defeated between Europe and the Americas from first contact throughout the era of
and killed a group of American rebels at the Alamo, a fortified mission in San exploration.
Antonio. committees of correspondence Communication network formed in
Albany Plan Plan of intercolonial cooperation proposed by prominent Massachusetts and other colonies to communicate grievances and provide
colonists including Benjamin Franklin at a conference in Albany, New York, colonists with evidence of British oppression.
in 1754. The plan called for a Grand Council of elected delegates from the
colonies that would have powers to tax and provide for the common defense. Common Sense Revolutionary tract written by Thomas Paine in 1776. It
Although rejected by the colonial and British governments, it was a prototype called for independence and a republican government in America.
for colonial union. Compromise of 1850 Five federal laws that temporarily calmed the
Alien and Sedition Acts Collective name given to four laws Congress sectional crisis.The compromise made California a free state, ended the slave
passed in 1798 to suppress criticism of the federal government and curb liber- trade in the District of Columbia, and strengthened the Fugitive Slave Law.
ties of foreigners living in the United States. Compromise of 1877 Compromise struck during the contested presiden-
American Colonization Society Founded in 1817, the society advocated tial election of 1876, in which Democrats accepted the election of Rutherford
the relocation of free blacks and freed slaves to the African colony of Monrovia, B. Hayes (Republican) in exchange for the withdrawal of federal troops from
present-day Liberia. the South and the end of Reconstruction.
Antifederalists Critics of the Constitution who were concerned that it conquistadores Sixteenth-century Spanish adventurers, often of noble
included no specific provisions to protect natural and civil rights. birth, who subdued the Native Americans and created the Spanish empire in
the New World.
antinomianism Religious belief rejecting traditional moral law as unnec-
essary for Christians who possess saving grace and affirming that a person Consumer Revolution Period between 1740 and 1770 when English
could experience divine revelation and salvation without the assistance of exports to the American colonies increased by 360 percent to satisfy
formally trained clergy. Americans’ demand for consumer goods.
Articles of Confederation Ratified in 1781, this document was the United Cooperationists Southerners in 1860 who advocated secession by the
States’ first constitution, providing a framework for national government. The South as a whole rather than unilateral secession by each state.
articles limited central authority by denying the national government any Copperheads Northern Democrats suspected of being indifferent or hos-
taxation or coercive power. tile to the Union cause in the Civil War.
Backcountry In the eighteenth century, the edge of settlement extending cotton gin Invented by Eli Whitney in 1793, this device for separating the
from western Pennsylvania to Georgia. This region formed the second fron- seeds from the fibers of short-staple cotton enabled a slave to clean fifty times
tier as settlers moved west from the Atlantic coast into the interior. more cotton than by hand, which reduced production costs and created more
Bacon’s Rebellion An armed rebellion in Virginia (1675–1676) led by demand for slavery in the South.
Nathaniel Bacon against the colony’s royal governor, Sir William Berkeley. coureurs de bois Fur trappers in French Canada who lived among the
Although some of his followers called for an end to special privilege in gov- Native Americans.
ernment, Bacon was chiefly interested in gaining a larger share of the lucrative Crittenden compromise Introduced by Kentucky Senator John Crittenden
Indian trade. in 1861 in an attempt to prevent seccession and civil war, it would have extended
Bank of the United States National bank proposed by Secretary of the the Missouri Compromise line west to the Pacific.
Treasury Alexander Hamilton and established in 1791. It served as a central Cult of Domesticity Term used to characterize the dominant gender role
depository for the U.S. government and had the authority to issue currency. for white women in the antebellum period. It stressed the virtue of women as
Bank War Between 1832 and 1836, Andrew Jackson used his presidential guardians of the home, which was considered their proper sphere.
power to fight and ultimately destroy the second Bank of the United States. Dartmouth College v. Woodward In this 1819 case, the Supreme
Battle of New Orleans Battle that occurred in 1815 at the end of the War of Court ruled that the Constitution protected charters given to corporations
1812 when U.S. forces defeated a British attempt to seize New Orleans. by states.
benevolent empire Collection of missionary and reform societies that Dominion of New England Incorporation of the New England colonies
sought to stamp out social evils in American society in the 1820s and 1830s. under a single appointed royal governor that lasted from 1686 to 1689.

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