WorksheetsUS History Vocabulary: Terms and Definitions
Total questions: 39
Worksheet time: 20mins
What is the term for the following definition? Loyalty to one's own region or section of the country, rather than to the country as a whole, often leading to conflicting views (e.g., North vs. South on slavery).
Sectionalism
Federalism
Nationalism
Patriotism
What is the term for the following definition? A policy of favoring native-born inhabitants over immigrants, often fueled by fear of cultural or economic change. The Know-Nothing Party was a major political expression of this.
Nativism
Federalism
Populism
Isolationism
What is the term for the following definition? The 19th-century doctrine or belief that the expansion of the US throughout the American continents was both justified and inevitable, often seen as divinely ordained.
Manifest Destiny
Monroe Doctrine
Isolationism
Federalism
What is the term for the following definition? A period of mass migration to California following the discovery of gold in 1848, leading to rapid population growth and statehood.
California Gold Rush
Oregon Trail
Louisiana Purchase
Manifest Destiny
What is the term for the following definition? A pivotal event in the Texas Revolution (1836) where a small group of Texans fought a much larger Mexican army; it became a rallying cry for Texan independence.
Alamo
San Jacinto
Goliad
Battle of Gonzales
What is the term for the following definition? A failed 1846 proposal to prohibit slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico in the Mexican-American War. It greatly intensified the sectional debate.
Wilmot Proviso
Compromise of 1850
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Missouri Compromise
Who was an American soldier and politician, a key leader in the Texas Revolution, and the first president of the Republic of Texas?
Sam Houston
Stephen F. Austin
James Bowie
William B. Travis
Which land included present-day Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, and was disputed between the US and Britain until the US secured the region up to the 49th parallel in 1846 ('54'40 or Fight' was Polk's campaign slogan)?
Oregon Territory
Louisiana Territory
Mexican Cession
Gadsden Purchase
What was the conflict between the US and Mexico (1846-1848) largely over the annexation of Texas and the US desire for western territories, ending with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo?
Mexican-American War
Spanish-American War
War of 1812
Texas Revolution
Who was the 11th U.S. President (Democrat, 1845-1849) whose administration focused on territorial expansion, achieving goals like securing the Oregon Territory and initiating the Mexican-American War?
James K. Polk
Martin Van Buren
Franklin Pierce
John Tyler
Who was the U.S. Navy Commodore who led a squadron of ships to Japan in 1853-1854, forcing Japan to open up to American trade and diplomacy (Treaty of Kanagawa)?
Matthew Perry
Oliver Hazard Perry
David Farragut
Chester W. Nimitz
What was the 1848 treaty that ended the Mexican-American War, in which Mexico ceded vast territories (the Mexican Cession) to the U.S. and accepted the Rio Grande as the Texas border?
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Treaty of Paris
Treaty of Tordesillas
Adams-Onís Treaty
Who was the U.S. Army General, known as 'Old Fuss and Feathers,' who successfully commanded the American forces that captured Mexico City during the Mexican-American War?
Winfield Scott
Zachary Taylor
Ulysses S. Grant
William Tecumseh Sherman
Which agreement in 1853 allowed the U.S. to purchase land from Mexico (present-day southern Arizona and New Mexico) to facilitate the construction of a transcontinental railroad?
Gadsden Purchase
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Adams-Onís Treaty
Louisiana Purchase
A series of five separate bills intended to resolve disputes over slavery in new territories, including California entering as a free state and the passage of a strict Fugitive Slave Law, is known as the ________.
Compromise of 1850
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Missouri Compromise
Emancipation Proclamation
What is the principle that the residents of a territory should be allowed to decide (vote) whether or not to allow slavery within their borders called?
Popular Sovereignty
Manifest Destiny
Judicial Review
Federalism
Who was the prominent Whig politician from Kentucky known as the "Great Compromiser" for his role in crafting the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850?
Henry Clay
Daniel Webster
John C. Calhoun
Stephen A. Douglas
Part of the Compromise of 1850, this law required all U.S. citizens to assist in the return of runaway slaves, denying them a jury trial and escalating Northern resistance. What is the name of this law?
Fugitive Slave Law
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Missouri Compromise
Emancipation Proclamation
A network of secret routes and safe houses used by enslaved African Americans to escape to freedom in the North or Canada is called the ________.
Underground Railroad
Freedom Trail
Liberty Line
Emancipation Path
Who was the escaped slave and the most famous "conductor" on the Underground Railroad, personally leading hundreds to freedom?
Harriet Tubman
Frederick Douglass
Sojourner Truth
William Lloyd Garrison
What is the influential 1852 anti-slavery novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe that vividly dramatized the cruelty of slavery, intensifying Northern abolitionist sentiment?
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Gone with the Wind
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
To Kill a Mockingbird
Who is the author of the influential anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852)?
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Mark Twain
Louisa May Alcott
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Which 1857 non-fiction book by Hinton R. Helper argued that slavery hurt the South's economy, especially poor white farmers, and should be abolished?
Impending Crisis of the South
Uncle Tom's Cabin
The South Vindicated
Cannibals All!
What term describes the period of violent clashes and political chaos (1854-1859) in the Kansas Territory between pro-slavery and anti-slavery (free-soil) settlers?
Bleeding Kansas
The Missouri Compromise
The Dred Scott Decision
The Nullification Crisis
Which 1854 law, proposed by Stephen Douglas, repealed the Missouri Compromise and applied Popular sovereignty to the new Kansas and Nebraska territories, leading to violence?
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Compromise of 1850
Homestead Act
Fugitive Slave Act
Who was the Democratic Senator from Illinois, key figure in the Kansas-Nebraska Act and proponent of popular sovereignty, who lost the 1860 presidential election to Lincoln?
Stephen Douglas
John C. Breckinridge
Salmon P. Chase
William H. Seward
What was the name of the pro-slavery constitution drafted for Kansas in 1857, which was vigorously opposed by anti-slavery forces and ultimately rejected by the U.S. Congress?
Lecompton Constitution
Topeka Constitution
Wyandotte Constitution
Montgomery Constitution
What was the nativist political party of the 1850s that opposed immigration and Catholic influence?
Know-nothing party
Whig party
Free Soil party
Democratic party
Which landmark 1857 Supreme Court decision ruled that African Americans were not citizens, that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional, and that Congress could not prohibit slavery in the territories?
Dred Scott v. Sandford
Plessy v. Ferguson
Brown v. Board of Education
Marbury v. Madison
A series of seven debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas during the 1858 Illinois Senate race, largely focusing on the issue of slavery and its expansion, is known as the:
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
Missouri Compromise
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Compromise of 1850
Which speech by Abraham Lincoln during the Illinois Senate campaign stated, "A house divided against itself cannot stand," implying the nation could not endure permanently half slave and half free?
House Divided Speech
Gettysburg Address
Second Inaugural Address
Emancipation Proclamation
Who was the 12th U.S. President (Whig, 1849-1850) and a celebrated military leader in the Mexican-American War, who died early in his term?
Zachary Taylor
Millard Fillmore
Franklin Pierce
James K. Polk
Which U.S. President (Democrat, 1857-1861) was heavily criticized for his inability to stem the secession crisis?
James Buchanan
Franklin Pierce
Millard Fillmore
Andrew Johnson
Who was the 16th U.S. President (Republican, 1861-1865) who led the Union through the Civil War and issued the Emancipation Proclamation?
Abraham Lincoln
Ulysses S. Grant
Andrew Johnson
James Buchanan
What 1856 event involved Southern Congressman Preston Brooks brutally beating abolitionist Senator Charles Sumner on the Senate floor over Sumner's anti-slavery speech?
Sumner-Brooks incident
Bleeding Kansas
Dred Scott Decision
Harper's Ferry Raid
Fill in the blank: A political party founded in 1854 in response to the Kansas-Nebraska Act; its main platform was the containment or prevention of the expansion of slavery.
Republican Party
Democratic Party
Whig Party
Federalist Party
Fill in the blank: A fervent abolitionist who believed violence was necessary to end slavery; his 1859 raid on the armory at Harpers Ferry failed but further polarized the nation.
John Brown
Frederick Douglass
Harriet Tubman
William Lloyd Garrison
Fill in the blank: Site of John Brown's 1859 raid in Virginia (now West Virginia) on a federal armory in an attempt to start a slave revolt.
Harpers Ferry
Richmond
Gettysburg
Appomattox
Fill in the blank: The presidential election won by Republican Abraham Lincoln, whose victory on a platform of containing slavery led directly to the secession of the Southern states. ________
Election of 1860
Election of 1856
Election of 1876
Election of 1848
