11. American History to 1865. The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. 2002

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The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. 2002.

American History to 1865

The era between the first permanent English settlements in North America in the early 1600s and the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 is called the Colonial period. America’s desire for independence from Britain led to the Revolutionary War (or American Revolution). The fighting phase of the war lasted from 1775 to the Battle of Yorktown in 1781. The Treaty of Paris (1783) concluded the war, with British recognition of American independence. During the 1780s, the new nation struggled to develop suitable political institutions. In 1787, a convention met in Philadelphia and framed the Constitution, a document designed to provide a stronger central government than that provided by the Articles of Confederation. The states ratified the Constitution in 1788.

Political divisions arose during the presidency of George Washington (1789–1797) between the followers of Alexander Hamilton, called the Federalist party, and those of Thomas Jefferson, known as the Democratic-Republican party. These divisions continued during the presidency of Thomas Jefferson (1801–1809), whose achievements included the Louisiana Purchase (1803), and that of James Madison (1809–1817). The War of 1812 between Britain and the United States severely damaged the Federalist party, which collapsed as a force in national politics. The years 1816 to 1824, called the Era of Good Feeling, were marked by diminishing political divisions.

During the late 1820s and 1830s, political conflict resurfaced as new parties, the Whigs and the Democratic party, clashed over a variety of issues. Although both parties developed national followings during the presidency of Andrew Jackson (1829–1837), each was vulnerable to disruption between its northern and southern wings over the issue of slavery in the South. Already evident in the struggle over the Missouri Compromise (1820), sectional conflict between the North and the South was sparked anew by the Mexican War (1846–1848) and exploded in the 1850s. During the 1850s, the Whig party collapsed in the North and was replaced by the Republican party, a purely sectional party. The Democratic party split into northern and southern wings in 1860. The election of the first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln, in 1860 provoked the secession of the southern states and led to the outbreak of the Civil War (1861–1865). The war resulted in a victory for the North and in the destruction of slavery as an institution.

—J.F.K.

Entries

abolitionism	Adams, John	Adams, John Quincy
Adams, Samuel	Alamo	Alien and Sedition Acts
The American Crisis	antebellum	Appleseed, Johnny
Appomattox Court House	Arnold, Benedict	Articles of Confederation
Attucks, Crispus	Banneker, Benjamin	Bill of Rights
Blue and the Gray	Boone, Daniel	Booth, John Wilkes
Boston Massacre	Boston Tea Party	Brown, John
Bull Run, Battle of	Bunker Hill, Battle of	Burr, Aaron
Burr-Hamilton duel	Calhoun, John C.	Carson, Kit
Chancellorsville, Battle of	Cherokees	Civil War
Clay, Henry	Common Sense	Compromise of 1850
Confederacy	Confederate	Constitution
Constitutional Convention	Continental Congress	Cornwallis, Charles
Coronado, Francisco	covered wagon	Crockett, Davy
Damn the torpedoes	Davis, Jefferson	Declaration of Independence
Democratic party	Dix, Dorothea	Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes
Douglas, Stephen A.	Douglass, Frederick W.	Dred Scott decision
Edwards, Jonathan	Emancipation Proclamation	entangling alliances with none
Erie Canal	Farewell Address, Washington’s	Farragut, David
father of his country	The Federalist Papers	Federalist party
First Amendment	First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen	forty-niners
Founding Fathers	Fourth of July	Franklin, Benjamin
French and Indian War	Fugitive Slave Act	Garrison, William Lloyd
Gettysburg, Battle of	Gettysburg Address	Give me liberty or give me death
Go west, young man	gold rush, California	government of the people, by the people, and for the people
Grant, Ulysses S.	Greeley, Horace	Hale, Nathan
Hamilton, Alexander	Hancock, John	Harpers Ferry
Hemings, Sally	Henry, Patrick	Homestead Act
“House Divided” speech	Houston, Sam	Hudson, Henry
I cannot tell a lie	I have not yet begun to fight	I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country
indentured servant	Independence Day	Intolerable Acts
Iroquois League	Jackson, Andrew	Jackson, “Stonewall”
Jacksonian democracy	Jamestown	Jefferson, Thomas
Jeffersonian democracy	Jeffersonianism versus Hamiltonianism	Jones, John Paul
Kansas-Nebraska Act	Know-Nothings	Lafayette, Marquis de
Lafitte, Jean	Lee, Robert E.	Lewis and Clark expedition
Lexington and Concord, Battle of	Lincoln, Abraham	Lincoln-Douglas debates
Lincoln’s second inaugural address	Louisiana Purchase	Madison, Dolley or Dolly
Madison, James	manifest destiny	Mann, Horace
Marbury versus Madison	Marion, Francis	Marshall, John
Mason-Dixon line	Mather, Cotton	Mayflower
Mayflower Compact	McGuffey’s Readers	Mexican War
Minutemen	Missouri Compromise	Monitor versus Merrimack
Monroe, James	Monroe Doctrine	Morse, Samuel F. B.
Navajos	New Amsterdam	Northwest Ordinance
Northwest Passage	nullification	One if by land, and two if by sea
Oregon Trail	Paine, Thomas	Penn, William
Pennsylvania Dutch	Pilgrims	Plymouth Colony
Plymouth Rock	Pocahontas	Polk, James K.
Pony Express	Preamble to the Constitution	Pueblos
Remember the Alamo!	Republican party	Revere, Paul
Revolutionary War	Ross, Betsy	Sacajawea
Salem witch trials	Saratoga, Battle of	secession
Seminoles	Seneca Falls Convention	1776
Shakers	Shawnees	Shays’s Rebellion
Sherman, William Tecumseh	Sherman’s march to the sea	shot heard round the world
slave trade	Smith, Captain John	Stamp Act
Stuyvesant, Peter	Sumter, Fort	Taxation without representation is tyranny
Tecumseh	These are the times that try men’s souls	thirteen colonies
Tippecanoe and Tyler too	Tocqueville, Alexis de	Trail of Tears
Truth, Sojourner	Tubman, Harriet	Turner, Nat
Underground Railroad	Union	Valley Forge
Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions	Virginia dynasty	wampum
War of 1812	Washington, George	Webster, Daniel
Webster, Noah	We have met the enemy, and they are ours	Whig party
Whisky Rebellion	Williams, Roger	Winthrop, John
Women’s Christian Temperance Union	Yorktown, Battle of

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. Edited by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil. Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

CONTENTS · INDEX · GUIDE · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

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