| Question | Answer |
| Fundamental Orders of Connecticut | Governing agreement between three towns written in 1639 by Thomas Hooker to protect individual rights.
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Jamestown | First English colony settled in 1607 for the purpose of economic reasons.
| Magna Carta | The King of England's protection for individual rights and approved taxation
| Mayflower Compact | Self-governing agreement reached by the Pilgrims at Cape Cod in 1620
| Representative Government | System of government based on the public election of lawmaking officials
| House of Burgesses | Representative assembly established in the colony of Virginia
| Declaration of Independence | Document declaring the American colonies to be free from British rule
| Proclamation of 1763 | Royal decision that prohibited settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains
| Intolerable Acts | Punishment established as a result of the Boston Tea Party
| Mercantilism | Describes the relationship between a colony sending raw materials to the mother country in return for goods and products
| Unalienable Rights | God-given to all humans
| Battle of Yorktown | Final battle of the Revolutionary War that resulted in British surrender
| Battle of Lexington/Concord | First battle of the American Revolution resulting in a small colonial victory
| Battle of Saratoga | Turning point in the American Revolution in which France became allies
| Valley Forge | Pennsylvania location where the Continental Army endured the harsh winter of 1777-1778
| French and Indian War | Conflict that left Britain with a huge debt and a desire to avoid future conflict
| Bill of Rights | The name given to the first ten original amendments to the US Constitution
| US Constitution | Document that established the three branches of government and rights of citizens in 1787
| Articles of Confederation | Created first US government structure without executive or judicial branches
| Anti-Federalists | People who argued against the ratification of the Constitution because it weakened states' rights
| Constitutional Convention | Gathering of representatives in 1787 in Philadelphia to revise the Articles of Confederation
| Federalists | People who argued for the ratification of the Constitution
| Popular Sovereignty | The principle that the authority of the government is created and sustained by the consent of its people
| Republicanism | Political philosophy that federal laws should be made by elected representatives
| Separation of Powers | Constitutional provision that ensures no single branch of government has complete authority
| Shay's Rebellion | 1786 revolt in Massachusetts that revealed a need for a strong national government
| The Federalists Papers | A set of essays written in support of the ratification of the Constitution
| The Great Compromise | An agreement between the states that created two houses of Congress based on both state population and equal representation for each state
| Three-Fifths Compromise | An agreement that states could count their slave population as a fraction in comparison to their free population for the purpose of representation and taxation
| Checks and Balances | Each branch of government has the power to check the behavior of the other two
| Hamilton's Financial Plan | The first Secretary of the Treasury's proposal to establish a national bank to stable the economic system
| Louisiana Purchase | 1803 expansion of US territory that doubled the size of the nation
| Tariff | Taxation on imported goods from other countries
| War of 1812 | Conflict with Britain over the impressment of US sailors that proved the nation could defend itself
| Indian Removal Act | 1830 law that required the relocation of Cherokees to western territories
| Trail of Tears | Large movement of Cherokees from their native lands, resulting in the deaths of thousands of Indians
| Nullification Crisis | Standoff between South Carolina and the federal government on the state's belief it could declare a federal law unconstitutional within its own borders
| Abolitionists | People who oppose slavery
| Eli Whitney | Inventor of the cotton gin, a device that changed the profitability of cotton farmers and the need of slavery labor
| Free Enterprise System | Economic system characterized by minimal government interference and free action between producers an consumers
| Second Great Awakening | Nationwide revival of strong religious feelings that sparked many reform movement of the 1820's and 1830's
| Seneca Falls Convention | Meeting in which women demanded equality with men, including the right to vote
| Compromise of 1850 | California was admitted as a free state in exchange for the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law
| Dred Scott Decision | Supreme Court ruling that declared slaves were not viewed as citizens, but as property
| Fugitive Slave Law | Law that allowed Southern slave owners to hunt down escaped slaves in the North
| Gadsden Purchase | Land purchase from Mexico in 1853 to build a railroad connecting the South to the Pacific Coast
| Irish Immigrants | Came to America to escape famine
| Kansas-Nebraska Act | 1854 law that allowed popular sovereignty to decide whether a state will be free
| Manifest Destiny | Belief that it is the fate of the United States to occupy North America from Atlantic to Pacific coasts
| Mexican Cession | The purchase of much of the southwest territory of the United States through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
| Sectionalism | Tendency for people living in a particular region to develop their own unique way of life
| Elizabeth Stanton | A leader of the women's rights movement and organizer of the Seneca Fall Convention
| Horace Mann | Reformer for the availability of education for all children
| Temperance | Restriction of alcoholic beverages
| Urbanization | Movement of people from rural areas to cities
| Appomattox Court House | Location of Lee surrendering to Grant, ending the Civil War
| Battle of Gettysburg | Three day battle with 8,000 soldiers dead that marked a turning point victory for the Union army
| Battle of Vicksburg | Battle that occurred on the Mississippi River
| Emancipation Proclamation | Presidential order that declared all slaves free
| Fort Sumter | Location of the beginning of the Civil War
| Jefferson Davis | President of the Confederate States of America
| John Wilkes Booth | Assassinated Lincoln shortly after the Election of 1864
| Robert E. Lee | Commanding General of Confederate forces
| Ulysses S. Grant | Commanding General of the Union forces
| 13th Amendment | Made the Emancipation Proclamation federal law
| 14th Amendment | Made all freed slaves American citizens
| 15th Amendment | Extended suffrage to African-Americans
| Black Codes | Laws passed in southern states that contained much of the same language as Slave Laws
| Carpetbaggers | Name given to northerners who moved to the South during Reconstruction
| Freedman's Bureau | Federal organization that provided education, food, and medical care to former slaves
| Hiram Rhodes Revels | First African-American elected to Congress
| Reconstruction | Term given to the time directly after the Civil War when southern states rejoined the Union
| Scalawags | Name given to southerners who sided with the Union cause during the Civil War
| Sharecropping | Practice of former slaves working for plantation owners in exchange for livestock, tools, and land |
