From Colonies to Nations
Town Meeting
A gathering in which residents meet to make decisions for the community.
Ratify
Approve
Factory system
Brings workers and machinery together in one place.
Public Schools
Free schools supported by taxes.
Frontier
The land that forms the farthest extent of a nation’s settled regions.
Jonathan Edwards
A New England preacher who helped start the great awakening.
Constitution
A document stating the rules under which a government will operate.
Interchangeable parts
Identical pieces that could be assembled quickly by unskilled workers.
Prohibition
A total ban on the sale and consumption of alcohol.
Rancheros
Owners of ranches.
Absolute Monarch
A ruler with complete authority over the government and people.
Economic depression
A period when business activity slows, prices and wages drop, and unemployment rises.
Industrial Revolution
When Machines took the place of many hand tools.
Predestination
The idea that God decided the fate of a person’s soul even before birth.
Mountain Men
Fur trappers of the Northwest.
Loyalists
People who remained loyal to Britain.
George Mason
The author of Virginias bill of rights.
Nativists
People who wanted to preserve the country for whites, American born Protestants.
Abolitionist
Reformers who wanted to abolish, or end, slavery.
Polygamy
The practice of having more than one wife at a time.
Freedom of the press
The right is newspapers and other public media to publish articles believed to be accurate.
Judicial Branch
A system of courts to interpret the law.
Spirituals
Religious folk songs that blended Biblical themes with the realities of slavery.
The women’s rights movement
An organized effort to improve the political, legal, and economic status of women in American Society.
”Forty-niners”
The name given to the people that went to California in search of Gold