My ABC Book of U.S. History

Mallory Kreidler2nd

5-17-11

ABOLITIONIST: a person who strongly favors doing away with slavery

AMBUSH: a surprise attack

ABSTAIN: to not take part in some activity, such as voting

ARSENAL: a storage place for weapons and ammunition

BOYCOTT: to refuse to buy items from a particular country

BOND: a not issued by the government, which promises to pay off a loan with interest

BOUNTY: money given as a reward such as to encourage enlistment in the army

BURGESSES: elected representatives to an assembly

CABINET: a group of advisers to the president

CALIFORNIOS: Mexicans who lived in California

CANAL: an artificial waterwayCAPITAL: money for investment

DEBTOR: person or country that owes money DECREE: an order or decision given

by one in authority

DEMILITARIZE: to remove armed forces from an area

DEPRECIATE: to fall in value

EFFIGY: rag figure representing an unpopular individual

EMANCIPATE: to free from slavery

EMBARGO: an order prohibiting rade with another country

EXPORT: to sell goods aboard

FAMINE: an extreme shortage of food FEDERALISTS: supporters of the constitution

FRIGATE: warshipFUGITIVE : runaway or trying to runaway

GENOCIDE: the deliberate destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group

GLOBAL WARMING: a steady increase in average world tempatures

GREENBACK: a piece of U. S. paper money first issued by the North during the civil war.

Guerrilla warfare: referring to surprise attacks or raids rather than organized warfare

Hebeas corpus: alegal order for an inquiry to determine whether a person has been lawfully imprisoned

HIEROGLYPHICS: an ancient form of writing using symbols and pictures to represent words, sounds, and concepts

HOLOCAUST: the name given to the mass slaughter of Jews and other groups by the Nazis during World War 2

HORIZONTAL INTEGRATION: the combining of competing firms into one corporation

IMPORT: to buy goods from foreign markets

IMPRESSMENT: forcing people into service as in the navy

INTERNET: a world wide linking of computer networks

IRONCLAD: armored naval vessel

JOINT OCCUPATION: the possession and settling of an area shared by two or more countries

JAMESTOWN: 1st permanent English settlement in North America

Japan: island country in Eastern Asia

JUDICIAL REVIEW: the right of the supreme court to determine if a law violates the constitution

Kansas: state in central United States, fighting over slavery issue in 1850s gave territory the Name “Bleeding Kansas”

KENTUCKY: border state that sided with the Union during the Civil War

Korea: peninsula in eastern Asia between China, Russia, and the sea of Japan, on which are the conteries North Korea and South Korea

Kuwait: country of the Middle East in Southwestern Asia between Iraq and Saudi Arabia

Landslide: an overwhelming victory

Legislative branch: the branch of government that makes the nation’s laws

Literacy: the ability to read and write

Lynching: putting to death a person by the Illegal action of a mob

Maize: an early form of corn grown by Native Americans

Majority: more than half

Mission: religious settlement Mosque: a Muslim house of worship

Nationalism: loyalty to a nation and promotion of its interests above all others

Naturalization: to grant full citizenship to a foreigner

Neutral: taking no side in a conflict

Nullify: to cancel or make ineffective

Offensive: position of attacking or the attack iteself

Ordinance: a law or regulation

Override: to overturn or defeat, as a bill proposed in Congress

Overseer: a person who supervises a large operation or its workers

Partisan: favoring one side of an issue

Perjury: lying when one has sworn an oath to tell the truth

Petition: a formal request

Precedent: a tradition

Radical: extremeRatify: to give official approval

Recruit: to enlist soldiers in the army

Repeal: to cancel an act or law

Secede: to leave or withdraw

Secession: withdrawal from the Union

Sectionalism: loyalty to a region

Smuggling: trading illegally with other nations

Tariff: a tax on imports or exports

Tejano: a Mexican who claims Texas as his home

Toleration: the acceptance of different beliefs

Total war: war on all aspects of the enemy’s life

Unalienable right: a right that cannot be surrendered

Unconstitutional: not agreeing or consistent with the Constitution

Underground Railroad: a system that helped enslaved African Americans follow a network of escape routes out of the South to freedom in the North

Utopia: community bases on a vision of a perfect society sought by reformers

Vaquero: Hispanic ranch hand

Vertical integration: the combining of companies that supply equipment and services needed for a particular industry

Veto: to reject a bill and prevent it from becoming a law

Vigilantes: people who take the law into their own hands

War hawks: Republicans during Madison’s presidency who pressed for war with Britian

Writ of Assistance: legal document that enabled officers to search homes and warehouses for goods that might be smuggled

XYZ affair: Diplomatic scandal that almost caused another war, this one between the United States and France.

Yankee: Union solider Yellow journalism: a type of sensational, biased, and often false reporting

Yeoman: southern owner of a small farm who did not have enslaved people

Zinger, John Paul: he was a writer