APUSH Midterm Vocabulary

Series of witchcraft trials launched after a group of adolescent girls in Salem, Massachussetts, claimed to have been bewitched bycertain older women of the town. Twenty individuals were put to death beforethe trials were put to an end by the Governor of Massachusetts.

Religious revival that swept the colonies. Participatingministers, most notably Jonathan Edwards and George Whitfield, placed emphasison direct, emotive spritually. A Second Great Awakening arose in the nineteenthcentury.

Convention of delegates from 12 of the 13 colonies that convened in Philadelphia to craft a response to the Intolerable Acts. Delegates established Association, which called for a complete boycott of British goods.

Representative body of delegates from all thirteen colonies.Drafted the Declaration of Independence and managed the colonial war effort.

Assembly of delegates from nine colonies who met in New York City to draft a petition for the repeal of the Stamp Act. Helped ease sectional suspicicions and promote intercolonial unity.

Widely unpopular tax on an array of paper goods, repealed in 1766 after mass protests erupted across the colonies. Colonists developed the principle of “no taxation without representation” which questioned Parliament’s authority over the colonies and laid the foundation for future revolutionary claims.

Armed uprising of western Massachusetts debtors seeking lower taxes and an end to property foreclosures. Though quickly put down, the insurrection inspired fears of “mob rule” among leading revolutionaries.

Created a policy for administering the Northwest Territories. It included a path to statehood and forbade the exspansion of slavery into the territories.

Fought between Britain and the United States largely over the issues of trade and impressment. Though the war ended in a relative draw, it demonstrated America’s willingness to defend its intrests militarily, earning the young nation newfound respect from European powers.

First protective tariff in American History, createdprimarily to shield New England manufacturers from the inflow of British goodsafter the War of 1812.

A federeal law that gave settlers 160 acres of land for about $30 if they lived on it for 5 years and improved it by, for instance, building a house on it. The act helped nake land accessible to hundreds of thousands of westward-moving settlers, but many people also found dissapointment when their land was infertile or they saw speculators grabbing up the best land.

Helped fund the construction of the Union Pacific transcontinental railroad with the use of land grants and government bonds.

Passed by the newly elected Republican Congress, it divided the South into five military districts, disenfranchised former confederates, and required Southern States both ratify the Fourteenth Amendment and write state consititutions guaranteeing freedmen the franchise before gaining readmission to the Union.

Granted suffrage to all male British citizens, dramaticallyexpanding the electorate. The success of the American democratic experiment,reinforced by the Union victory in the Civil War, was used as one of thearguments in favor of the Bill

Required the President to seek approval from the Senate before removing appointees. When Andrew Johnson removed his secretary of war in violation of the act, he was impeached by the house but remained in office when the Senate fell one vote short of removing him.

Constitutional amendment that extended civil rights tofreedmen and prohibited states from taking away such rights without dueprocess.

Abraham Lincoln’s oft-quoted speech, delivered at the dedication of the cemetery at Gettysburg battlefield. In the address, Lincoln framed the war as a means to uphold the values of liberty.

Constitutional amendment prohibiting all forms of slavery and involuntary servitude. Former Confederate States were required to ratify the amendment prior to gaining reentry into the Union.

Passed over Andrew Johnson’s veto, the bill aimed tocounteract the Black Codes by conferring citizenship on African Americans andmaking it a crime to deprive blacks of their rights to sue, testify in court,or hold property.

Prohibited states from denying citizens the franchise onaccount of race. It disappointed feminists who wanted the Amendment to includeguarentees for women’s suffrage.

The last piece of federal civil rights legislation until the 1950’s, the law promised blacks equal access to public accommodations and banned racism in jury selection, but the Act provided no means of enforcement and was therefore ineffective. In 1883, the Supreme Court declared most of the Act unconstitutional.

The agreement that finally resolved the 1876 election andofficially ended Reconstruction. In exchange for the Republican candidate,Rutherford B. Hayes, winning the presidency, Hayes agreed to withdraw the lastof the federal troops from the former Confederate States. This deal effectivelycompleted the southern return to white-only. Democratic-dominated electoralpolitics

Federal legislation that prohibited most further Chinese immigration to the United States. This was the first major legal restriction on immigration in U.S. history.

Congressional legislation that established the Civil ServiceCommision, which granted federal government jobs on the basis of examinationsinstead of political patronage, thus reigning in the spoils system.

Congressional legislation that established the Interstate Commerce Commision, compelled railroads to pulish standard rates, and prohibited rebates and pools. Railroads quickly became adept at using the Act to achieve their own ends, but the Act gave the government an important means to regulate big business.

A law that forbade trusts or combinations in business, this was landmark legislation because it was one of the first Congressional attempts to regulate big business for the public good. At first the law was mostly used to restrain trade unions as the courts tended to side with companies in legal cases. In 1914 the Act was revised so it could more effectively be used against monopolistic coporations.

)- A strike at a Carnegie steel plant in Homestead P.A., that ended in an armed battle between the strikers, 300 armed “Pinkerton” detectives hired by Carnegie, and federal troops, which killed 10 people and wounded more than 60. The strike was part of a nationwide wave of labor unrest in the summer of 1892 that helped the Populists gain some support from industrial workers.

Policy of rewarding political supporters with public office,first widely employed at the federal level by Andrew Jackson. The practice waswidely abused by unscrupulous office seekers, but it also helped cement theparty loyalty in the emerging two-party system.

Exchange of rum, slaves, and molasses between the NorthAmerican Colonies, Africa, and the West Indies. A small but immensely subset ofthe Atlantic trade.

Exchange of rum, slaves, and molasses between the NorthAmerican Colonies, Africa, and the West Indies. A small but immensely subset ofthe Atlantic trade.

increased duties back up to1846 levels to raise revenue for the Civil War.

Financial crash brought on bygold-fueled inflation, overspeculation, and excess grain production. Raisedcalls in the North for higher tariffs and for free homesteads on western publiclands.

Lowered duties on imports in response to a high Treasury surplus and pressure from Southern farmers

Popular uprising of whiskeydistillers in southwestern Pennsylvania in opposition to an excise tax onwhiskey. In a show of strength and resolve by the new central government,Washington put down the rebellion with militia drawn from several states.

Economic crisis triggered by bank failures, elevate grain prices, and Andrew Jackson’s efforts to curb overspeculation on western lands and transportation improvements. In response, President Martin Van Buren proposed the “Divorce Bill,” which pulled treasury funds out of the banking system altogether, contracting the credit supply.

Amendment that sought to prohibit slavery from territories acquired from Mexico. Introduced by Pennsylvania congressman David Wilmot, the failed amendment ratcheted up tensions between North and South over the issue of slavery.

A world wide depression that began in the United States when one of the nation’s largest banks abruptly declared bankruptcy, leading to the collapse of thousands of banks and businesses. The crisis intensified debtors’ calls for inflationary measures such as the printing of more paper money and the unlimited coinage of silver. Conflicts over monetary policy greatly influenced politics in the last quarter of the nineteenth century.

Series of laws passed, beginning in 1651, to regulate colonial shipping; the acts provided that only English ships would be allowed to trade in English and colonial ports, and that all goods destined for the colonies would first pass through England

Economic theory that closely linked a nation’s political and military power to its bullion reserves. Mercantilists generally favored protectionism and colonial acquisition as means to increase exports(127)