Download Social Studies Glossary

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Unit Four Part Two Glossary
Area 3
Area 5
Area 1 – Treaty of Paris, 1783
Area 2 – Louisiana Purchase, 1803
Area 3 – Great Britain, 1818
Area 4 – Florida, 1819
Area 5 – British Cession, 1842
Area 6 – Texas Annexation, 1845
Area 7 – Oregon Territory, 1846
Area 8 – Mexican Cession, 1848
Area 9 - Gadsden Purchase, 1853
Area 7
Area 2
Area 8
Area 1
Area 9
Area 6
Area 4
(You must be able to explain when and how/why each piece of territory in the map was added to the U.S.)
Westward Expansion
Manifest Destiny – Idea that Americans had a God-given right to expand the country across North America.
Popular Sovereignty – a principle of the United States Constitution that states that the people have the right to
create, alter, and abolish their government; in the mid-1800s, a term referring to the idea that each territory could
decide for itself whether or not to allow slavery.
Railroad – the first American steam locomotive was built by Peter Cooper in 1830 and within 10 years,
locomotives were pulling trains in the U.S. In 1840 there was 3000 miles of track in the U.S. and this increased to
31,000 miles of track by 1860 (72% of it in the North). A transcontinental railroad was completed on, May 10,
1869, making it easier for more people to move westward.
Mexican War – war between the U.S. and Mexico over disputed land in Texas.
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo - ended the Mexican War. The Mexican government agreed to cede a vast region
which included the modern-day states of: California, Nevada, Utah, most of Arizona, and parts of New Mexico,
Colorado, and Wyoming.
Mexican Cession – territory (including California, Nevada, Utah, most of Arizona, and parts of New Mexico,
Colorado, and Wyoming) gained by the United States after the Mexican War in 1848.
Mormons – members of the Church of Latter-Day Saints founded by Joseph Smith in 1830.
California Gold Rush – When gold was first discovered in 1848, news spread, 80,000 caught “gold fever” and
headed to find their fortune in 1849. They became known as the 49’ers.
John Sutter – owner of a large tract of land south of present-day Sacremento. One of his workers, John Marshall,
found gold in 1848 and started the California Gold Rush.
Annex – to add territory to one’s own territory
Oregon Trail - trail that ran westward, for 2000 miles, from Independence, MO, to Oregon Territory.
Santa Fe Trail – Cattle trail from Independence, MO, and to Santa Fe, NM
Compromise of 1850 – agreement over slavery by which California entered the Union as a free state and a strict
fugitive slave law was passed.
Fugitive Slave Act – 1850 law that made it illegal for anyone in the U.S. to help runaway slaves. It placed fines on
people who would not cooperate and jail terms on people who helped the fugitives escape.
Industrial Revolution
Interchangeable parts – (Eli Whitney) identical, machine-made parts for a tool or instrument.
Bessemer Steel Process – method developed in the 1850s for making stronger steel at a lower cost.
American System - policies devised by Henry Clay to stimulate the growth of industry.
Steamboat – due to the invention of the steam engine, steamboats became an excellent way to carry people and
transport goods cheaply.
Lowell Mills – textile mills located in the town of Lowell, Massachusetts
Cotton Gin – a machine, invented by Eli Whitney, that separates the seeds from the fibers of cotton.
Factory System – method of producing goods that brought workers and machinery together in one place.
Industrial Revolution – gradual process by which machine replaced hand tools, and steam and other new sources
of power replaced human and animal power.
Immigration – The two largest groups of immigrants in the mid-1800s were the Irish, who were escaping the
effects of the Potato Famine, and the Germans. Chinese immigrants were drawn to the U.S. West by economic
opportunities.
Nativism – A discriminatory backlash against immigrant groups
Urbanization – More and more people moved to cities and worked in factories
Free Enterprise System – Capitalist economic system in which businesses compete with each other and are not
controlled by the government.
Capitalism – Economic system in which businesses and trade are privately controlled by companies for profit
rather than by the government.
Culture and Reform Movements
Civil Disobedience – idea developed by Henry David Thoreau that people have a right to disobey laws they
believe are unjust or wrong.
Transcendentalism – movement led by a small, influential group of New England writers and thinkers who
believed that the most important truths in life transcended, or went beyond, human reason.
Hudson River School – Group of painters who celebrated nature, painting landscapes of the American counryside
John James Audubon – Celebrated American nature by studying and painting North American birds.
Second Great Awakening – religious movement in the United States in the early 1800s.
Prohibition – a law or order that forbids people to do something
Temperance Movement – a movement warning people of the dangers of alcohol/liquor. The reformers in this
movement blamed the use of alcohol for poverty and were disturbed by the widespread public drunkenness that was
common in the early 1800s.
Dorothea Dix – social reformer in the 1800s who fought for better conditions and care for the mentally ill.
Abolitionist Movement – a movement by people who wanted to completely end slavery in the United States
William Lloyd Garrison - abolitionist and publisher of the newspaper, The Liberator, beginning in 1831.
Frederick Douglass - Born a slave, but escaped in 1838 and went to Massachusetts. He was an outspoken critic of
slavery. When slavery was abolished he worked for the civil rights of Blacks, especially the right to vote
Harriett Beecher Stowe – author of the best-selling anti-slavery novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Sojourner Truth – African-American woman who spoke out for abolition and women’s rights (“Ain’t I a
woman?”)
Underground Railroad – network of abolitionists who secretly helped slaves escape to freedom in the North to
Canada and in the South to Mexico.
Harriet Tubman - an escaped slave who risked her life by going back into the south and leading people to freedom
using the Underground Railroad.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton – American woman who fought for women’s rights, (especially suffrage) the end of
slavery, organized for the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 and wrote the Declaration of Sentiments (the women’s
Declaration of Independence).
Suffrage - the right to vote
Susan B. Anthony – Women’s rights activist who led the fight for women to get the right to vote.
Educational reform – Horace Mann led the movement to create tax-funded public schools in the U.S.
Care of the disabled – Thomas Gallaudet worked to create affordable schools for people who were deaf
Labor reform movement – Workers began forming unions to protest low wages, long hours, and poor working
conditions.