Mrs. Sandt’s US History’s Top 99 Hits **Each quiz will contain the new vocabulary words as well as vocabulary from previous weeks** Important Dates 1. Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement was founded in 1607.
2. The Mayflower Compact was an agreement signed by the Pilgrims in 1620 promising to consult
each other about laws for the colony.
3. The Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776.
4. The Constitution of the United States was written in 1787.
5. President Thomas Jefferson purchased the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803.
6. The Civil War was fought from 1861-1865.
Important Places & Events
7. Lexington and Concord served as the first battles of the American Revolution.
8. Valley Forge was the site of Washington’s encampment during the winter of 1777-1778. More
than 1/5 of the soldiers died from disease or starvation.
9. The Battle of Saratoga was the turning point of the American Revolution.
10.The American victory at Yorktown, Virginia signaled the end of the American Revolution.
11.The firsts shots of the Civil War were fired at Fort Sumter in South Carolina
12.The Battle of Antietam was the bloodiest single day of the Civil War.
13.The Battle of Gettysburg was the turning point in the Civil War for the North because
Confederate troops were forced to retreat and never invaded the North again.
14.The capture of Vicksburg, Mississippi by the North in 1863 effectively split the Confederacy in
two and gave the North control of the Mississippi River.
15.Appomattox Court House is the small town in Virginia where Robert E. Lee surrendered to
Ulysses S. Grant ending the Civil War.
Original Colonies
16. The New England Colonies were all founded for religious purposes.
17.The Middle Colonies are known as the Breadbasket Colonies because they grew large amounts
of oats and grains.
18.The Southern Colonies were founded for economic reasons. Main way of living is farming, large
plantations.
Important Vocabulary
19. Mercantilism is the practice of creating and maintaining wealth by carefully controlling trade.
20.An abolitionist was a person who wanted to end slavery in the United States.
21.A protective tariff is a tax placed on goods from another country to protect the home industry.
22.Manifest Destiny is the belief that the United States should own all of the land between the
Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
23.The Temperance Movement was a campaign against the sale or drinking of alcohol.
24.Representative Government is a system of government in which voters elect representatives to
make laws for them.
25.Checks and Balances is a system set up by the Constitution in which each branch of the federal
government has the power to check, or control, the actions of the other branches.
26.Free Enterprise is the freedom of private businesses to operate competitively for profit with
minimal government regulation.
27.Federalism is the sharing of power between the states and the national government.
28.Separation of Powers is a system in which each branch of government has its own powers.
29.Popular Sovereignty is the idea that people have the political authority in the government.
30.Federalists were supporters of the Constitution who favored a strong national government.
31.Anti-Federalists were people opposed to the Constitution, preferring more power to be given to
the state governments than to the national government.
32.Nullification is the idea of a state declaring a federal law illegal.
33.Embargo is the banning of all trade with a country.
34.Boycott is to refuse to buy certain goods, a common protest method used before the American
Revolution.
35.Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade a trading system in which goods and slaves moved between the
colonies, Africa and the West Indies.
Important Documents & Policies
36. The Magna Carta, signed in 1215, was the first document that limited the power of the ruler.
37. The English Bill of Rights protected the rights of English citizens and became the basis for the
American Bill of Rights.
38.The Virginia House of Burgesses was the first representative assembly in the new world.
39.The Declaration of Independence was a document written by Thomas Jefferson, declaring the
colonies independent from England.
40.The Articles of Confederation was the first American constitution. It was a very weak
document that limited the power of the Congress by giving states the final authority over all
decisions.
41.George Washington’s Farewell Address advised the United States to avoid national debt, spoke
against foreign alliances and suggested avoiding political parties.
42.The Monroe Doctrine was a foreign policy statement by President Monroe that agreed the US
would stay out of European affairs if Europe didn’t colonize in the western hemisphere.
43.The Treaty of Paris 1763 ended the French and Indian War and effectively kicked the French out
of North America.
44. The Treaty of Paris 1783 ended the American Revolution and forced Britain to recognize the
United States as an independent nation.
45.The Northwest Ordinance was a policy of establishing the principles and procedures for
allowing new states to be added to the Union.
46.Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, setting all slaves in
the Confederate states free.
47.The Gettysburg Address was a short speech given by Abraham Lincoln to dedicate a cemetery
for soldiers who died at the Battle of Gettysburg.
48.Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address stated that, “no state…can lawfully get out of the Union” but
pledged there would be no war unless the South started it.
49.Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address was meant to help heal and restore the country after four
years of Civil War.
50.The Declaration of Sentiments was a statement written by woman’s rights supporters that was
modeled after the Declaration of Independence. It spoke about the complaints they had about
the social injustice of women.
51.Committees of Correspondence was an organization created by the Sons of Liberty that
helped colonists communicate information before the American Revolution.
52.The Proclamation of 1763 law forbidding English colonists to settle west of the Appalachian
Mountains.
53.The Second Great Awakening was a widespread religious movement in the Unites States in the
early 1800s.
54.The Transcendentalism was a philosophical movement that believed the most important truths
in life went beyond reason or explanation.
55.Civil Disobedience is the act of peacefully refusing to obey certain laws as a form of protest.
56.The Great Compromise created two houses of Congress. One based on population (House of
Representatives), the other gave equal representation to each state(Senate).
Important People
57.King George III was the King of England who taxed the colonies and refused the Olive Branch
Petition leading to the final break with the colonies.
58.Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence; founder of the Democratic Republican Party.
59.Thomas Paine wrote the pamphlets Common Sense and The Crisis to encourage American
independence.
60.Andrew Jackson was the leader of the original Democratic Party and a “President of the people”.
He was also responsible for the Trail of Tears.
61.John C. Calhoun was a South Carolina Congressman and Senator who spoke for the South
before and during the Civil War.
62.Henry Clay was a powerful Kentucky Congressman and Senator who propose the Missouri
Compromise & the Compromise of 1850.
63.Daniel Webster was a Massachusetts Congressman and Senator who spoke for the North and
the preservation of the Union.
64.Jefferson Davis was the President of the Confederacy during the Civil War.
65.Ulysses S. Grant was the General of the Union Army and was responsible for winning the Civil
War for the North.
66.Robert E. Lee was the General of the Confederate Army.
67.Alexander Hamilton was the leader of the Federalist Party, first Treasurer of the United States,
and was killed in a duel by the Vice President of the United States, Aaron Burr.
68.James Madison is considered to be the “Father of the Constitution”.
69.Frederick Douglass was a former slave who became the best-known black abolitionist in the
country.
70.James Monroe was the author of the Monroe Doctrine, which shut down the western
hemisphere to European expansion.
71.Harriet Tubman was an escaped slave who became a conductor on the Underground Railroad
and helped over 300 slaves to freedom in the North.
72.Elizabeth Cady Stanton organized the Seneca Falls Convention creating the Women’s Rights
Movement in the United States.
73.Horace Mann organized the public education movement and is known as the “Father of
Education”.
74.James Oglethorpe founded the colony of Georgia as a safe place for debtors and prisoners and
also as a buffer region from Spanish Florida.
75.William Penn was the founder of Pennsylvania. Here he promised religious freedom to all
people especially the Quakers.
76.The 54th Massachusetts Infantry was an African American regiment during the Civil War that
played a key role in the attack of Fort Wagner.
77.John Wilkes Booth was the man responsible for the murder of Abraham Lincoln
78. George Mason was an Anti-Federalist who strongly opposed the ratification of the Constitution.
79.Crispus Attucks was an African-American who was the first victim in the Boston Massacre.
80.Wentworth Cheswell at the time of the Revolution, he was an African American “midnight
rider” who rode through Massachusetts warning colonists the British were coming. 81.Mercy Otis Warren was a poet and playwright who wrote plays that made fun of British. Her
plays were pieces of propaganda prior to the American Revolution.
82.Haym Salomon was a financier for the colonies during the Revolution. He loaned money to the
US to help them fight Great Britain.
83.James Armistead was a slave who served a spy for the Americans during the Revolution by
posing as a runaway slave.
84.Bernardo de Galvez helped during the Revolution by buying Spanish weapons and supplies for
the colonial army AND allowing Patriots to use port of New Orleans and the Mississippi River.
85.Charles Montesquieu came up with the idea that governments should be divided into three
separate branches: legislative, executive, and judicial.
86.William Blackstone created the idea of checks and balances.
87.John Locke said that all men are born with natural rights that should be protected by the
government AND that the government is an agreement between the rulers and those being rule.
88.Sam Adams was a member of the Sons of Liberty who started the Committee of
Correspondence to stir public support for American independence.
89.Abigail Adams was married to John Adams and spoke out about including women’s rights in the
new Constitution.
90.Stonewall Jackson was a successful American General during the Civil War
91.Clara Barton served as a nurse during the American Civil War. She later went on to create the
American Red Cross.
92.John Marshall was the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, he helped strengthen the judicial
branch by establishing its power to declare laws unconstitutional.
Supreme Court Cases
93.Marbury v. Madison was the court decision that gave the Supreme Court the right to determine
whether a law violates the Constitution. It sets up the principle of judicial review.
94.Dred Scott v. Sanford was the Supreme Court decision that said slaves were property and not
citizens.
95.The Supreme Court ruling in Worcester v. Georgia stated that Georgia had no legal right to
enforce its laws within Cherokee territory. President Jackson went on to ignore the ruling and
relocate the Cherokees anyway.
96.The McCulloch v. Maryland case ruled that states had no right to interfere with federal
institutions within their borders. This strengthened the power of the federal government.
Inventions
97.The cotton gin was an invention by Eli Whitney that sped up the cleaning of cotton fibers
thereby increasing the need for slaves.
98.The successful use of the steamboat by Robert Fulton revolutionized transportation and trade in
the United States.
99.Interchangeable Parts process developed by Eli Whitney that called for making each vital part of
a product exactly the same.