Birth of a Nation

Common Sense – Thomas Paine

Sons of Liberty - political group made up of American Patriots

Boston Tea Party - protest the Tea Act

Thomas Jefferson – author of the Declaration of Independence

Articles of Confederation - the first constitution

Northwest Ordinance of 1787 - created Northwest Territory and stated that the US would
expand westward beyond Appalachian Mountains

Shay’s Rebellion - called for reevaluation of Articles of Confed.

James Madison - Father of the Constitution

Federalists vs. Anti-Federalists

Antifederalists: did not want to ratify the constitution

Federalists: had answers to all of the Anti-Federalist complaints & wanted to ratify constitution

Bill of Rights
• 1st Amendment – freedom of speech, press, assembly, religion; right to petition

• 2nd Amendment – right to keep and bear arms

• 3rd Amendment - protection from quartering of troops

• 4th Amendment - protection from unreasonable search and seizure

• 5th Amendment - due process of the law, double jeopardy, self-incrimination,

eminent domain

• 6th Amendment - trial by jury and rights of the accused

• 7th Amendment - trial by jury

• 8th Amendment - Prohibition of excessive bail and cruel and unusual punishment

• 9th Amendment - Protection of rights not specifically enumerated in the Constitution

• 10th Amendment - powers not delegated to the Federal government are reserved for State governments or to
the people

Westward Expansion, Land Acquisition, Sectionalism

Louisiana Purchase - Doubled the size of the United States
Lewis & Clark - first exploration of Louisiana Purchase

War of 1812 –expansion into the Northwest Territory opposed heavily by British

Indian Removal Act of 1830 –emigration of tens of thousands of American Indians

Trail of Tears –pathway followed by Native Americans on which they suffered – on test:
Cherokee

Monroe Doctrine - stated that further efforts by European countries to colonize land or
interfere with states in the Americas and Western Hemisphere would be viewed as acts of
aggression requiring U.S. intervention and that the US would neither interfere with existing
European colonies nor meddle in the internal concerns of European countries

Teddy Roosevelt’s Corollary - asserted a right of the US to stabilize the economy countries
in Caribbean and Central America

Manifest Destiny - 19th century American belief that the United States was destined to
expand across the continent, from the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific Ocean

Compromises
1. Missouri Compromise - passed in 1820; prohibited slavery in the former Louisiana Territory
north of the 36.5th parallel north except within the proposed state of Missouri

2. Compromise of 1850

a. California admitted as free state

b. The sale of slaves (new, not existing) abolished in DC

c. Territory of New Mexico and Territory of Utah given right to popular sovereignty

d. The Fugitive Slave Act was passed

e. Texas annexed into US as slave state

3. Kansas-Nebraska Act - created Kansas and Nebraska with popular sovereignty; repealed
Missouri Compromise of 1820 and Compromise of 1850

“Bleeding Kansas” – nickname for unrest in Kansas

Dred Scott Decision - ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that…

• African Americans not protected by the Constitution and could never be U.S. citizens

• Congress had no authority to prohibit slavery

• slaves were not citizens, could not sue

• slaves, as private property, could not be taken away from their owners

Abraham Lincoln – President of Union during Civil War

Jefferson Davis – 1st President of the Confederate States of America

Ulysses Grant - General of the Union Army

Robert E. Lee –commanded the Army of Northern Virginia (Confederacy) during the Civil
War as a General

Appomattox – Confederates surrender here

Andrew Johnson - took charge of Presidential Reconstruction after Lincoln

Radical Republicans – In charge of Reconstruction Acts, and reduced rights for ex-
Confederate soldiers

Reconstruction Amendments
• 13th Amendment – officially abolished slavery

• 14th Amendment – reversed the Dred Scott decision; no state shall deny equal
protection of the law

• 15th Amendment – Allowed males of any race or ethnicity to vote

The American West

George Custer – died in Battle of the Little Bighorn

Industrial US
John (Joseph on test) D. Rockefeller - oil magnate; created Standard Oil Company

Andrew Carnegie - amassed millions through his US Steel

Henry Ford - assembly line, mass production

Ellis Island - nation's busiest immigrant inspection station

Chinese Exclusion Act – allowed the U.S. to suspend immigration

Boss Tweed - Tammany Hall

Plessy v. Ferguson – "separate but equal"

Progressive Movement
Upton Sinclair - The Jungle which exposed conditions in the U.S. meat packing industry

Ida Tarbell - muckraker

Jane Addams - Hull House

Ida B. Wells - women's suffrage

Florence Kelley - worked for fair labor conditions

Frances Willard - instrumental in the passage of the Eighteenth (Prohibition) and Nineteenth
(Women Suffrage) Amendments

Susan B. Anthony - women's suffrage

Women’s Christian Temperance Union - prohibition

Progressive Era Amendments

• 17th - direct election Senators

• 18th - established Prohibition

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire – managers not guilty in trial; led to legislation requiring
improved factory safety standards

Theodore Roosevelt – President and a leader of Progressive movement, who increased

regulation of businesses, promoted the conservation movement, helped negotiate an end to
the Russo-Japanese War, and was the force behind the completion of the Panama Canal.

US Imperialism
Alaskan Purchase –Seward’s Icebox; before 1900

Hawaiian Annexation – before 1900

The De Lôme Letter – Spanish minister bad-mouthed President McKinley

USS Maine - explosion in Havana harbor

Rough Riders - Volunteer Cavalry led by Theodore Roosevelt

Territories gained after Spanish-American War - Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico

Panama Canal –saved time when travelling from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean

World War 1
US Isolationism NOT one of the MAIN causes of WWI

Assassination of Franz Ferdinand - led to WWI’s beginning

Central Powers - Austro-Hungarian Empire, German Empire, Ottoman Empire (secretly)

Big Four – US, Britain, Italy, France

New Weapons in WWI: Tanks, Airplanes

Zimmerman Note - diplomatic proposal from Germany to Mexico to make war against the
United States
General Pershing – General of US Army during WWI

Influenza Pandemic – caused death AFTER war

Alvin York – Medal of Honor

Rickenbauer – Top American ACE

President Wilson – President during WWI; drafted 14 Points

Treaty of Versailles – treated Germans unfairly

League of Nations - Excluded US

Roaring 20’s
Factory owners accused workers of being: Communists

Growth of KKK - arose during Great Migration

Harlem Renaissance – African-American cultural movement

Prohibition of alcohol

Scopes Trial – teacher John Scopes accused of teaching theory of evolution which was
against state’s Fundamentalist laws

The Great Migration - movement of African Americans out of the Southern US to the
Midwest, Northeast and West

The Great Depression

Underlying Causes
1. Stock Market Crash of

2. Bank Failures

3. People lost their jobs and were unable to pay for items they had bought through
installment plans. The unemployment rate rose above 25%

4. American Economic Policy with Europe - Hoover attempted to help economy created the
Smoot-Hawley Tariff. This charged a high tax for imports

5. Drought Conditions – Caused people in Dust Bowl to move to unaffected areas

Herbert Hoover – wanted to stay out of the economy and let it fix itself. Shantytowns that
housed many homeless families were soon named “Hoovervilles” in disgust of. His treatment of
World War I veterans during the Bonus Army March led to his political downfall.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt – succeeded Hoover and outline controversial but inspiring New Deal,
a package of laws aimed at relief, recovery, and reform
WPA - largest New Deal agency, employing millions to carry out public works projects

CCC - Civilian Conservation Corps was a public work relief program for unemployed men
age 18-25

TVA - Tennessee Valley Authority is a federally owned corporation in the United States created to
provide flood control, electricity generation, and economic development in the Tennessee
Valley.

FDIC - Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is a government corporation created by the Glass-
Steagall Act of 1933. It provides deposit insurance

AAA – Agricultural Adjustment Administration restricted agricultural production in the by

paying farmers subsidies

FERA – immediate relief for old, sick, children

Great Depression Era Amendments

• 18th – Prohibition

• 19th – allowed women to vote

• 21st - Repealed the 18th Amendment