Colonial era
The first permanent English speaking settlement in the New World.
What is Jamestown in the river and coastal area the Virginia Company called Virginia?
The Stamp Act of 1765 was repealed under pressure from the many colonists though this mechanism.
What is boycott [of buying English imported goods]
Article I of the Constitution of 1787 (ratified the next year)
What established two houses for an elected national legislature called Congress (a House of Representatives and a Senate)?
This man signed the Constitution for New York state and then also became an important Secretary of the Treasury for Washington and argued for the creation of a national bank.
Who was Alexander Hamilton (see the $20 bill).
Harpers' Ferry Raid by John Brown and his cadre of men was considered a cause (almost a spark) of the Civil War because it showed the South how much support violence against slavery was supported by many in the north. Name the year.
What is October, 1859?
The year in which we see both the first Africans landed by a Dutch slave trader at Jamestown, and when Jamestown establishes an elected representative system of self-government.
What is 1619 (about 12 years into the founding)?
The Boston Tea Party, in protest of a tax and the monopoly of this company, destroyed property of this company which upset Parliament very much. Name the company.
What is the British East India Company?
Article II.
What establishes an elected Presidency with a four year term and appointed cabinet officers and other powers but limited by the legislature and by the judiciary (and their interpretation of laws and the Constitution).
The next on the list (#4):
Washington, 1789-1797
Adams, 1797-1801
Jefferson, 1801-1809
?????
Who was James Madison, 1809-1817 (the War of 1812-15 occupied much of his time).
Indian Removal, Mexican War, Harpers' Ferry Raid...which was closest to the outbreak of the War?
What is Harpers' Ferry Raid by John Brown in October 1859?
Headright.
What is a system by which a free colonist can receive another 50 acres of land from the royal governor if s/he brings over from England (pays for passage) of an indentured servant? (this is an economic incentive to help get the colony 'off the ground because the first 20 years were really rough - deadly even).
The Parliament in 1774 reacted to the Boston Tea Party by passing new laws to coerce (force or threat of force) the American colonists in Massachusetts to obey them. To enforce these Coercive Acts the British sent in more of these to occupy Boston.
What are several thousand Redcoats (soldiers)?
Article I which describes the purposes and powers a two-chambered Congress (House and Senate), says Congress has the right to impeach an elected President for high crimes and misdemeanors. The House votes on articles of impeachment, and then to convict and remove the President, the Senate needs to vote as a 'jury'. Name the fraction of the Senate required under the Constitution's wording to convict.
What is 2/3rds? (Today that would be 67).
In the most recent impeachment, 2/2021, 57 in Senate voted Trump "guilty" - 50 Democrats and 7 Republicans. This was not enough to "convict" the president who was no longer in office anyway, though it likely would have legally excluded him from running again.
This special area was agreed to as a compromise between north and south for where to put the capital city for the national government and is governed by Congress.
What is the District of Columbia, Washington?
By adding this, the conclusion of the Mexican American War raised the problem slavery once again.
What is land in the west as territory from which Congress might allow states to form under rules of republicanism, like other states. However, some states recognized slavery and some did not.
Massachusetts Bay Colony eventually took over the region claimed by the Pilgrims which was called this.
What is Plymouth founded in 1620?
In the war for independence, fighting begins in April 1775 a bit more than a year before this gets written in early July, 1776.
What is the Declaration of Independence passed by the Second Continental Congress.
"Congress shall make no Law...." (next few words?)
What is: "...no Law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;..."
This is first phrase of the 1st Amendment (read the whole of it 4 or five times, break it down, re-learn it!)
This American city defended itself from both naval bombardment and land invasion in September, 1814 to great acclaim and song!
What is Baltimore (and Fort McHenry, South Baltimore)
This fairly simple machine improved the productivity of cotton plantations and stimulated, therefore, slavery.
What is the cotton gin -- late 1790s and pretty common by 1820s as the demand for raw clean cotton rose due to the rise of the industrial textile factories of England and New England.
This kind of liberty is conceived and practiced in the middle colonies, like Pennsylvania in 1600s and 1700s, and is distinct from "hegemonic" liberty in the south and "religious-ordered" liberty in New England.
What is RECIPROCAL liberty? (in which citizens respect each other's right to practice their own religion and be in disagreement as long as they don't violate anyone else's rights)
A British Army occupied New York in August, 1776 and into 1777. Another British Army marched down from Montreal along the Lake Champlain and Hudson valleys to cut off New England from the other colonies further south. This campaign from Canada led by General Burgoyne failed in the face of resistance at this place in upstate New York.
What is Saratoga (the Battle of Saratoga led to surrender of an entire British Army, October, 1777; and to the FRENCH ALLIANCE)
"The most important feature of a society like the USA, one governed by a Constitutional authority is that it isn't biblical, it isn't the last word. It can be changed! It can be amended, unlike, say, the Ten Commandments...So, the rule of law is about constructing and even changing laws to suit conditions. That is liberalism in the classic sense." -Y. Harari. Name the article of the Constitution that allows for this.
Article 5 (amendments require supermajorities of 2/3rds of both houses of Congress; and the other way is 3/4ths of all the state governments approving the amendment)
Political parties are not part of the Constitution and some founding fathers thought they were destructive inherently. But two formed almost right away. One was led by John Adams, and the other was led by this man from Virginia.
Who is Thomas Jefferson? (and the "Democratic-Republicans) Adams party were the "Federalists"
Lincoln when he met this author said, "Aha, at last I am honored to meet the little lady who started this great war."
Who was Harriet Beecher Stowe, New England writer of Uncle Tom's Cabin, 1852 which described the lives of some slaves in the south and was quite morally condemning of the white owner class as delusional and out of touch with the harm they were creating. The book was immensely popular.