Politics & Society
This influential African American leader, born into slavery, escaped to freedom and became a leading abolitionist and suffragist.
Who is Frederick Douglass?
This system, used in the southern United States before the Civil War, allowed slaveholders to rent out their slaves to other farmers for labor.
What is the "slave hire" system?
This treaty, signed in 1783, ended the American Revolutionary War and recognized the United States as an independent nation.
What is the Treaty of Paris?
This 1904 agreement between the United States and Japan pledged both nations to respect each other's territorial holdings in the Pacific and to uphold the Open Door Policy in China.
What is the Root-Takahira Agreement?
This 1846 agreement between the United States and Great Britain established the boundary between the United States and Canada along the 49th parallel.
What is the Oregon Treaty?
This 1831 slave rebellion, led by Nat Turner, resulted in the deaths of around 60 white people and led to a harsh crackdown on slaves and abolitionists.
What is the Nat Turner Rebellion?
This 1789 law, signed by President George Washington, established the first federal customs service in the United States and collected tariffs on imported goods.
What is the Tariff Act of 1789?
This 1815 treaty, signed after the defeat of Napoleon, established a new balance of power in Europe and led to a period of relative peace and stability.
What is the Congress of Vienna?
This famous 1898 poem, written by Rudyard Kipling, urged the United States to take up the "white man's burden" and colonize non-European peoples.
What is "The White Man's Burden"?
This 1848 treaty ended the Mexican-American War and resulted in the United States acquiring a significant amount of land in the southwest.
What is the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo?
This Supreme Court case, decided in 1803, established the principle of judicial review, giving the Supreme Court the power to strike down laws that it deemed unconstitutional. What is Marbury v. Madison?
What is Marbury v. Madison?
This 1860 law, passed in response to Southern threats to secede over tariffs, reduced tariffs on imported goods but also led to a loss of revenue for the federal government.
What is the Tariff of 1860?
This 1848 agreement between the United States and Mexico ended the Mexican-American War and ceded a large portion of land to the United States, including California and Texas.
What is the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo?
This international organization, formed after World War I, aimed to promote peace and prevent future wars through collective security and disarmament.
What is the League of Nations?
This 1857 Supreme Court case, which ruled that slaves were not citizens and could not sue for their freedom, was a major factor in the outbreak of the Civil War.
What is Dred Scott v. Sandford?
This famous speech, delivered by Abraham Lincoln in 1863, declared that "all men are created equal" and called for the end of slavery in the United States.
What is the Gettysburg Address?
This 1890 law, aimed at promoting competition and preventing monopolies, prohibited companies from engaging in anti-competitive practices and mergers that would lessen competition.
What is the Sherman Antitrust Act?
This 1947 policy, designed to contain Soviet influence and prevent the spread of communism, became a cornerstone of American foreign policy during the Cold War.
What is the Truman Doctrine?
This 1961 American literary masterpiece, written by Joseph Heller, satirized the absurdity of war and military bureaucracy.
What is "Catch-22"?
This infamous massacre of Native Americans, which took place in South Dakota in 1890, marked the end of the Indian Wars.
What is the Wounded Knee Massacre?
This 1973 Supreme Court case, which legalized abortion nationwide, remains one of the most controversial and divisive rulings in American history.
What is Roe v. Wade?
This 1930 law, which raised tariffs on imported goods in an effort to protect American industry from foreign competition, is widely viewed as having worsened the Great Depression and hurt international trade.
What is the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act?
This 1962 crisis, sparked by the Soviet Union's placement of nuclear missiles in Cuba, brought the world to the brink of nuclear war and was ultimately resolved through a tense diplomatic standoff.
What is the Cuban Missile Crisis?
This 2012 Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Katherine Boo, which chronicled the lives of residents in a Mumbai slum, offered a critical look at poverty and inequality in India.
What is "Behind the Beautiful Forevers"?
This government program, launched in 1862, provided land to settlers who agreed to live on and improve the land for a period of five years.
What is the Homestead Act of 1862?