Colonial America
This 1620 agreement established a form of self-government among the Pilgrims.
The Mayflower Compact
Colonists protested this 1765 tax on printed materials with the slogan “no taxation without representation.”
The Stamp Act
This form of government divides power between a central government and smaller political units, such as states.
Federalism
This first part of the Constitution explains its purposes and begins with “We the People.”
The Preamble
This 1803 land deal with France nearly doubled the size of the United States.
The Louisiana Purchase
This economic system required colonies to provide raw materials and markets that benefited the mother country.
Mercantilism
In 1773, colonists protested British tea policies by dumping tea into the harbor of this Massachusetts city.
Boston
This philosopher argued that people have natural rights to life, liberty, and property and that government should protect them.
John Locke
Which branch of the federal government interprets laws and determines whether they are constitutional?
The Judicial branch
This 1830 law authorized the removal of Native American nations from their homelands in the southeastern United States.
The Indian Removal Act
Under this labor system, people agreed to work for a set period in exchange for passage, housing, or other support.
Indentured Servitude
This document, adopted on July 4, 1776, announced the colonies' separation from Great Britain and explained their natural rights.
The Declaration of Independence
Unlike a bicameral legislature, this type of legislature has only one chamber.
Unicameral legislature
This clause establishes that the Constitution and valid federal laws take priority over conflicting state laws.
The Supremacy Clause
This 1820 agreement admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state while restricting slavery in much of the remaining Louisiana Territory.
The Missouri Compromise
Which colonial region was especially associated with large plantations, tobacco and rice cultivation, and enslaved labor?
This 1777 American victory convinced France that the Americans had a realistic chance of winning the war.
The Battle of Saratoga
This 1786–1787 Massachusetts uprising by indebted farmers exposed the weaknesses of the national government under the Articles of Confederation.
Shays' Rebellion
This amendment protects freedoms including religion, speech, the press, peaceful assembly, and petitioning the government.
The First Amendment
This 1854 law allowed settlers in Kansas and Nebraska to decide whether to permit slavery, undermining the Missouri Compromise's restriction.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
This 1739 uprising in South Carolina involved enslaved Africans rebelling against slavery.
The Stono Rebellion
This 1781 battle in Virginia resulted in a decisive British surrender under General Cornwallis.
The Battle of Yorktown
This agreement at the Constitutional Convention created a two-house Congress, with equal state representation in one chamber and population-based representation in the other.
The Great Compromise or Connecticut Compromise
This amendment reserves powers not delegated to the federal government, nor prohibited to the states, to the states or the people.
The Tenth Amendment
This 1850 law required the return of escaped enslaved people and increased federal enforcement of slavery, intensifying sectional conflict.
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850