Rise of Political Parties and the Era of Jefferson
In 1803, Jefferson authorized this land deal with Napoleon, doubling the size of the United States. Though Jefferson favored strict constructionism, he justified the purchase under the president’s treaty-making power, raising questions about constitutional interpretation.
What is the Louisiana Purchase?
Brokered in 1820 by Henry Clay, this agreement admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state while banning slavery north of latitude 36°30′ in the Louisiana Territory. It temporarily calmed sectional tensions but foreshadowed future conflict.
What is the Missouri Compromise?
Sometimes called the “Second War for Independence,” this conflict against Britain was sparked by impressment of U.S. sailors, British support for Native resistance, and trade restrictions. It ended in a stalemate with the Treaty of Ghent but boosted American nationalism and produced war heroes like Andrew Jackson.
What is the War of 1812?
By the 1830s and 1840s, this new mode of transportation surpassed canals as the dominant means of moving goods and people. It shortened travel times, opened interior markets, and knit together regional economies, accelerating both industrial growth and westward expansion.
What are railroads?
This social group expanded rapidly in the early 19th century as industrialization and the Market Revolution created new opportunities for clerks, managers, and professionals. Its members embraced values of discipline, education, and respectability, often reinforcing gender stereotypes.
What is the middle class.
In the early 19th century, most states did this, extending political participation to nearly all white men. This shift fueled Jacksonian Democracy and the rise of mass politics, while still excluding women and people of color.
What is dropped property requirements for voting?
Following the Indian Removal Act of 1830, this forced migration saw over 15,000 Cherokee and other southeastern tribes relocated to present-day Oklahoma. Thousands died from disease, starvation, and exposure, symbolizing the human cost of Jacksonian expansion.
What is the Trail of Tears?
Originating in Europe and influencing American art and literature in the early 19th century, this movement emphasized emotion, imagination, and the beauty of nature over reason and order. It inspired writers like Edgar Allan Poe.
What is romanticism?
Emphasizing reason, logic, and natural law over divine revelation, this Enlightenment-era belief system lost influence during the Second Great Awakening, as emotional revivalism and faith in personal salvation replaced intellectual religion.
What is Rationalism?
Gaining momentum in the 1830s, this reform crusade sought the immediate end of slavery. Led by figures like William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, and the Grimké sisters, it used moral persuasion, publications, and activism to challenge a deeply entrenched institution and sectional divide.
What is Abolitionism?
These laws, enforced throughout the South, restricted the rights and movements of enslaved people—banning literacy, assembly, and testimony against whites—to maintain white control and prevent rebellion.
What are slave codes?
This region—including states like South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana—became the heart of the cotton economy and slavery in the 19th century. Its dependence on plantation agriculture earned it the nickname the “Cotton Kingdom.”
What is the Deep South?
This 1803 case arose from the “midnight judges” controversy and, under Chief Justice John Marshall, established the principle of judicial review by ruling that part of the Judiciary Act of 1789 was unconstitutional. This was a massive increase of the power of the Federal government.
What is Marbury v. Madison?
This term describes the growing loyalty to one’s region—whether North, South, or West—rather than the nation as a whole. Fueled by disputes over slavery, tariffs, and states’ rights, it deepened during the early 19th century and set the stage for the Civil War.
What is Sectionalism?
Announced in 1823, this U.S. policy declared the Western Hemisphere off-limits to future European colonization, while pledging American noninterference in European affairs. Though initially weak without British naval support, it became a cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy and later justified expansionist actions.
What is the Monroe Doctrine?
Pioneered by Eli Whitney in the early 19th century, this system of manufacturing identical components revolutionized mass production. It boosted efficiency in firearms and machinery, fueling the Market Revolution and laying groundwork for industrial growth.
What are interchangeable parts?
In the mid-1800s, immigrants from these two European nations arrived in large numbers: one fleeing famine and poverty to settle in Eastern cities, the other seeking political freedom and land, often moving to the Midwest. Their arrival reshaped American politics, labor, and culture, while fueling backlash.
What is Ireland and Germany?
Emerging in the 1830s, this political era pitted Andrew Jackson’s Democrats against the Whigs. It marked the rise of mass voter participation and modern campaigning.
What is the Second Party System?
This political movement of the 1820s and 1830s championed greater participation for the “common man,” expanded suffrage for white males, and opposed concentrated economic power. It celebrated majority rule, patronage, and expanded suffrage, but coexisted with slavery, Indian removal, and deepening sectionalism.
What is Jacksonian Democracy?
Centered in New England in the early 19th century, this philosophical and literary movement emphasized individual intuition, self-reliance, and the spiritual unity of nature. Figures like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau challenged materialism and conformity in American society.
What is Transcendentalism?
These were the impacts of the Second Great Awakening on African Americans.
Inspired many enslaved and free Black Americans to embrace Christianity, blending it with African traditions to create a distinct spiritual culture. It fostered community, hope, and early abolitionist activism through the growth of independent Black churches and ministers.
Part of the broader antebellum reform era, this movement sought to curb alcohol consumption, arguing that drinking led to poverty, crime, and family breakdown. Championed by groups like the Anti-Saloon League, it reflected middle-class values of discipline and self-control.
What is the Temperance Movement?
Stretching from the Carolinas through Alabama, Mississippi, and into Texas, this region became the center of U.S. cotton production in the 19th century—driving westward expansion, the plantation system, and the entrenchment of slavery.
What is the cotton belt?
This phrase symbolized the South’s belief that its cotton exports gave it economic and political power over the North and Great Britain. Fueled by Eli Whitney’s gin and enslaved labor, it became the foundation of the antebellum Southern economy and its justification for slavery’s expansion.
What is "King Cotton" or "Cotton is King"
Favoring agrarian independence and a strict reading of the Constitution, this early 19th-century philosophy opposed Hamilton’s vision of commerce and industry, championing states’ rights while paradoxically expanding federal authority through the Louisiana Purchase.
What is Jeffersonian Republicanism?
Championed by Henry Clay, this 19th-century economic plan sought to strengthen national unity through a protective tariff, a rechartered national bank, and federally funded internal improvements—though much of this was opposed by the South.
What is the American System?
This agreement with Spain ceded Florida to the United States, set a clear boundary between U.S. and Spanish territory in the West, and reflected John Quincy Adams’s skill as Secretary of State during Monroe’s presidency.
What is the Adams-Onis Treaty (or Continental Treaty)?
This 1825 internal improvement dramatically lowered transportation costs, linked Midwestern farmers to Eastern markets, and helped fuel the Market Revolution. By making New York City the nation’s commercial hub, it exemplified how canals and later railroads transformed regional economies.
What is the Erie Canal?
This belief system favored native-born Americans over immigrants and fueled hostility toward Irish Catholics and German newcomers in the mid-1800s. It led to movements like the Know-Nothing Party and reflected fears that immigration threatened jobs, culture, and politics.
What is Nativism?
Emerging from Jefferson’s Democratic-Republicans, this party—led by Andrew Jackson— championed states’ rights, limited government, and the “common man,” with support came largely from the South and West. It opposed the National Bank, tariffs, and federal involvement in the economy.
Who were the Democrats?
In 1832, President Andrew Jackson issued this decisive action rejecting the recharter of the Second Bank of the United States. Framing the Bank as a tool of the wealthy elite, he claimed to defend “the humble members of society,” while critics accused him of abusing executive power.
What is the National Bank Veto?
Emerging in the mid-1800s, this artistic movement celebrated the natural beauty of the American landscape through romantic, light-filled paintings of mountains and rivers. Led by artists like Thomas Cole and Asher Durand, it reflected nationalism and the belief in Manifest Destiny.
What is the Hudson River School?
These are the ways in which the Second Great Awakening impacted women.
Empowered women by encouraging their participation in church life and moral reform movements. Through organizations promoting temperance, abolition, and education, it helped women develop leadership skills that later fueled the push for suffrage and equality.
Modeled on the Declaration of Independence, this 1848 document—drafted at the Seneca Falls Convention by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and others—listed grievances against men and demanded equal rights for women, including suffrage.
What is the Declaration of Sentiments?
In 1831, this violent slave uprising in Virginia—led by a deeply religious enslaved man—killed about 60 whites and spread panic across the South. In its aftermath, Southern states tightened slave codes and cracked down on abolitionist activity.
What is Nat Turner’s Rebellion?
This term describes the forced migration of nearly one million enslaved people from the Upper South to the Deep South during the 19th century. Driven by the cotton boom, it tore apart families and mirrored the brutality of the original transatlantic slave trade within the United States.
What was the Second Middle Passage?
Attempting to use “peaceable coercion,” Thomas Jefferson pushed through this 1807 law that prohibited American ships from trading with all foreign nations. Instead of pressuring Britain and France to respect U.S. neutrality, it devastated American merchants and farmers.
What is the Embargo Act of 1807?
Passed after the War of 1812, this was the first protective tariff in U.S. history. Designed to shield American manufacturers from cheap British imports, it won support in the North but sparked opposition in the South, laying early groundwork for sectional conflict.
What is the Tariff of 1816?
This Shawnee leader, alongside his brother Tenskwatawa (“the Prophet”), sought to unite Native tribes against U.S. expansion in the early 1800s. He allied with the British during the War of 1812 but was killed in 1813 at the Battle of the Thames, weakening pan-Indian resistance.
Who was Tecumseh?
This Massachusetts textile system relied on lower class farm girls. While it offered wages and a degree of independence, poor working conditions and long hours led to some of the nation’s first labor protests.
What is the Lowell System (or Lowell Mills)?
This mid-1800s ideology defined the ideal woman as pious, pure, submissive, and devoted to home and family. While reinforcing traditional gender roles, it also sharpened contrasts with lower-class women entering factory work.
What is the Cult of Domesticity?
Formed in the 1830s in opposition to Andrew Jackson, this party united advocates of the American System, moral reformers, and those who feared executive tyranny, with support concentrated in New England and the mid-Atlantic. Led by figures like Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, they supported a strong federal role in promoting economic development, the national bank, and tariffs.
Who were the Whigs?
In this 1832 case, Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that the Cherokee Nation was a distinct political community and that Georgia’s laws had no force within its territory. President Jackson reportedly defied the decision, paving the way for Indian Removal despite the Court’s ruling.
What is Worcester v. Georgia?
As one of the first major American novelists, this author celebrated frontier life and individualism in works like The Last of the Mohicans (1826). His Leatherstocking Tales helped define the myth of the American wilderness and national identity in the early 19th century.
Who was James Fenimore Cooper?
Central to Calvinist theology, this doctrine taught that God had already chosen who would be saved or damned. Rejected by many revivalists of the Second Great Awakening, its decline reflected a new emphasis on free will and individual good works in salvation.
What is predestination?
Adopted by the House of Representatives in 1836, this rule automatically tabled antislavery petitions without discussion, silencing anti-slavery voices in Congress. It was repeatedly renewed until John Quincy Adams led the fight for its repeal in 1844.
What is the Gag Rule?
In 1822, this formerly enslaved man and skilled carpenter in Charleston, South Carolina, was accused of organizing an extensive slave revolt. Though the plot was uncovered before it began, his planned rebellion heightened white fears and led to harsher slave laws across the South.
Who was Denmark Vesey?
By the 1830s, Southern leaders like John C. Calhoun defended slavery not as a necessary evil but as this, arguing it civilized and protected enslaved people while sustaining Southern prosperity and social order.
What is a “Positive Good?”
Chief Justice John Marshall’s ruling in this 1819 case upheld the constitutionality of the Second Bank of the United States by invoking the Necessary and Proper Clause, while also asserting that federal law is supreme over state law.
What is McCulloch v. Maryland?
Proposed in 1819 during Missouri’s bid for statehood, this amendment called for prohibiting further introduction of slaves into Missouri and gradual emancipation of those already there. Though it passed in the House, it failed in the Senate, intensifying sectional divisions and leading to the Missouri Compromise.
What is the Tallmadge Amendment?
Meeting in late 1814, New England Federalists gathered at this convention to voice opposition to the War of 1812 and discuss constitutional amendments to curb Democratic-Republican power. Their talk of secession discredited the Federalist Party, which soon collapsed.
What is the Hartford Convention?
Also called the Cumberland Road, this federally funded project begun in 1811 stretched from Maryland into the Ohio Valley. As the first major national highway, it symbolized federal commitment to internal improvements and encouraged westward migration.
What is the Old National Road?
Also called the American Party, this mid-1850s political movement grew out of anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic sentiment, especially toward Irish and German newcomers. Its secretive members opposed naturalization and helped reveal rising sectional and cultural tensions before the Civil War.
What is the Know-Nothing Party?
Following the War of 1812, this period during James Monroe’s presidency was marked by a temporary decline in partisan conflict and a surge of national unity. Beneath the surface, however, economic panic and sectional tensions over slavery and tariffs foreshadowed future divisions.
What is the Era of Good Feelings?
Issued by South Carolina in 1832, this declaration rejected federal tariffs as unconstitutional and claimed states could invalidate federal laws within their borders. It sparked a major confrontation with Andrew Jackson, who responded with a forceful defense of federal authority via the Force Bill.
What is the Ordinance of Nullification?
This Transcendentalist author of Walden (1854) promoted simple living and harmony with nature. His essay “Civil Disobedience” argued for nonviolent resistance to unjust laws.
Who was Henry David Thoreau?
Known as the “Father of Modern Revivalism,” this evangelical preacher emphasized individual salvation and moral reform during the 1820s and 1830s. His emotionally charged sermons in upstate New York’s “Burned-Over District” helped spark movements for temperance, abolition, and women’s rights.
Who was Charles G. Finney?
During the early 19th century, groups like the Shakers, the Oneida Community, and Brook Farm sought to create these, perfect societies based on cooperation, equality, or religious devotion. Though most eventually failed, they reflected the era’s idealism and desire to reform social relations.
What are Utopian Communities?
Despite oppression, these social networks—formed by both free and enslaved Black Americans—developed their own churches, schools, and mutual aid societies. Centered on faith, family, and resilience, they preserved culture, resisted slavery, and laid foundations for future civil rights activism.
What are African American communites?
This term refers to the independent small landowners who made up the majority of white Southerners. Though most owned no enslaved people, they often supported slavery politically, seeing it as the foundation of social order and a system that protected their own status.
Who were the Yeoman Farmers?