Page 428 - American Stories, A History of the United States

slavery in the remainder of the Louisiana Purchase territory above the latitude Seneca Falls Convention An 1848 gathering of women’s rights advocates
of 36°30'. that culminated in the adoption of a Declaration of Sentiments demanding
Monroe Doctrine A key foreign policy declaration made by President voting and property rights for women.
James Monroe in 1823, it declared the Western Hemisphere off limits to new Seven Years’ War Worldwide conflict (1756–1763) that pitted Britain
European colonization; in return, the United States promised not to meddle against France. With help from the American colonists, the British won the
in European affairs. war and eliminated France as a power on the North American continent.
natural rights Fundamental rights over which the government should Also known as the French and Indian War. (See Peace of Paris of 1763.)
exercise no control. sharecropping After the Civil War, the southern states adopted share-
Navigation Acts Commercial restrictions that regulated colonial com- cropping system as a compromise between former slaves who wanted land of
merce to favor England’s accumulation of wealth (see mercantilism). their own and former slave owners who needed labor. The landowners pro-
Northwest Ordinance Legislation in 1787 that established governments in vided land, tools, and seed to a farming family, who in turn provided labor.
The resulting crop was divided between them, with the farmers receiving a
America’s northwest territories, defined a procedure for their admission to the “share” of one-third to one-half of the crop.
Union as states, and prohibited slavery north of the Ohio River.
Nullification The supposed right of any state to declare a federal law Shays’s Rebellion Armed insurrection of farmers in western Massachu-
setts led by Daniel Shays. Intended to prevent state courts from foreclosing
inoperative within its boundaries. In 1832, South Carolina nullified the on debtors unable to pay their taxes, the rebellion was put down by the state
federal tariff. militia. Nationalists used the event to call a constitutional convention to
Ostend Manifesto Written by American diplomats in 1854, this secret strengthen the national government.
memorandum urged acquiring Cuba by any means necessary. When it spectral evidence In the Salem witch trials, the court allowed reports of
became public, Northerners claimed it was a plot to extend slavery, and the dreams and visions—in which the accused appeared as the devil’s agent—to
manifesto was disavowed. be introduced as testimony. The accused had no defense against this kind of
Panic of 1837 A financial depression that lasted until the 1840s. “evidence.” When the judges later disallowed this testimony, the executions
Parliamentary Sovereignty Principle that emphasized Parliament’s pow- for witchcraft ended.
er to govern colonial affairs. Stamp Act Congress Meeting of colonial delegates in New York City in
Peace of Paris of 1763 Treaty ending the French and Indian War by which October 1765 to protest the Stamp Act, a law passed by Parliament to raise
France ceded Canada to Britain. revenue in America.
perfectionism The doctrine that a state of freedom from sin is attainable Stamp Act of 1765 Placed a tax on newspapers and printed matter
on earth. produced in the colonies, causing mass opposition by colonists.
popular sovereignty The concept that the settlers of a newly organized Tariff of abominations An 1828 protective tariff, or tax on imports, that
territory had the right to decide (through voting) whether to accept slavery. angered southern free traders.
preemption The right of first purchase of public land. Settlers enjoyed this Tecumseh A leader of the Shawnee who rejected classification as a member
right even if they squatted on the land in advance of government surveyors. of his tribe and may have been the first native leader to identify himself self-
Protestant Reformation Sixteenth-century religious movement to reform consciously as an “Indian”.
and challenge the spiritual authority of the Roman Catholic Church. temperance movement Temperance—moderation or abstention in the
Puritans Members of a reformed Protestant sect in Europe and America consumption of alcoholic beverages—attracted many advocates in the early
nineteenth century (see Second Great Awakening).
that insisted on removing all vestiges of Catholicism from religious practice.
Quakers Members of a radical religious group, formally known as the Ten Percent Plan Reconstruction plan proposed by President Abraham
Lincoln as a quick way to readmit the former Confederate States. It called for
Society of Friends, that rejects formal theology and stresses each person’s pardon of all southerners except Confederate leaders, and readmission to the
“inner light,” a spiritual guide to righteousness. Union for any state after 10 percent of its voters signed a loyalty oath and the
Quasi-War Undeclared war between the United States and France in the state abolished slavery.
late 1790s. The Spanish Armada Spanish fleet sent to invade England in 1588.
Radical Reconstruction The Reconstruction Acts of 1867 divided the Thirteenth Amendment Ratified in 1865, it prohibits slavery and invol-
South into five military districts. They required the states to guarantee black untary servitude.
male suffrage and to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment as a condition of their
readmission to the Union. three-fifths rule Constitutional provision that for every five slaves a state
Radical Republicans Congressional Republicans who insisted on black would receive credit for three free voters in determining seats for the House
of Representatives.
suffrage and federal protection of civil rights of African Americans.
Redeemers A loose coalition of prewar Democrats, Confederate veterans, Trail of Tears In the winter of 1838–1839, the Cherokee were forced to
evacuate their lands in Georgia and travel under military guard to present-
and Whigs who took over southern state governments in the 1870s, suppos- day Oklahoma. Exposure and disease killed roughly one-quarter of the 16,000
edly “redeeming” them from the corruption of Reconstruction. They shared a forced migrants en route.
commitment to white supremacy and laissez-faire economics.
republicanism Concept that ultimate political authority is vested in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo Signed in 1848, this treaty ended the
Mexican–American War. Mexico relinquished its claims to Texas and ceded
citizens of the nation. an additional 500,000 square miles to the United States for $15 million.
Royal African Company Slave-trading company created to meet colonial Treaty of Paris 1783 Agreement establishing American independence
planters’ demands for black laborers. after the Revolutionary War. It also transferred the territory east of the
Sanitary Commission An association chartered by the government during Mississippi River, except for Spanish Florida, to the new republic.
the Civil War to promote health in the northern army’s camps though cleanli- Treaty of Tordesillas Spain and Portugal signed this treaty in 1494. The
ness, nutrition, and medical care. treaty formally recognized a bull issued by Pope Alexander VI the previous
Second-party system Historians’ term for the national two-party rivalry year that had divided all newly discovered lands outside of Europe between
between Democrats and Republicans these two Catholic nations.
Second Continental Congress A gathering of colonial representatives in Underground Railroad A network of safe houses organized by abolition-
Philadelphia in 1775 that organized the Continental Army and began requisi- ists (usually free blacks) to help slaves escape to the North or Canada.
tioning men and supplies for the war effort. Vesey conspiracy An unsuccessful 1822 plot to burn Charleston, South
Second Great Awakening Evangelical Protestant revivals that swept over Carolina, and initiate a general slave revolt, led by a free African American,
America in the early nineteenth century. Denmark Vesey.

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