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U.S. History Key Terms List

By the end of the school year you will be expected to know all the terms on this list. We will begin with the first few words or so and with each new topic we will add more terms. There will be a vocabulary quiz approximately every week. Any new words, in addition to all previous words on the list, are fair game for these quizzes. These are not all the key terms and people you will be required to learn this year, but these are the ones that will appear on our vocabulary quizzes throughout the year.

Why am I doing this to you? There are two reasons. The first is that by the time you take any standardized tests or the Ohio Graduation Test, you will know these words without thinking about them. Secondly, if you are expected to know these words throughout the year, you will truly learn them, rather than just memorize them for a quiz and forget them later.

Note: Terms marked with an asterisk (*) are not found in the 8th grade textbook's glossary.

  1. history*
  2. primary source*
  3. secondary source*
  4. headright system
  5. indentured servants
  6. House of Burgesses
  7. Bacon's Rebellion
  8. Puritans
  9. Pilgrims
  10. immigrants
  11. Mayflower Compact
  12. Great Migration
  13. covenant
  14. town meeting
  15. Fundamental Orders of Connecticut
  16. proprietor
  17. Quakers
  18. Privy Council
  19. Parliament
  20. parliamentary democracy*
  21. bicameral legislature
  22. libel
  23. Glorious Revolution
  24. mercantilism
  25. balance of trade
  26. imports
  27. exports
  28. Navigation Acts
  29. duties
  30. triangular trade
  31. Middle Passage
  32. cash crops
  33. slave codes
  34. apprentice
  35. staple crops
  36. Great Awakening
  37. Scientific Revolution
  38. scientific method
  39. Enlightenment
  40. militia
  41. French and Indian War*
  42. casualties
  43. Proclamation of 1763
  44. Sugar Act
  45. boycott
  46. Stamp Act
  47. Sons of Liberty
  48. Townshend Acts
  49. Boston Massacre
  50. propaganda
  51. Tea Act
  52. Boston Tea Party
  53. Intolerable Acts
  54. Second Continental Congress
  55. Olive Branch Petition
  56. Declaration of Independence
  57. guerrilla warfare
  58. rights*
  59. natural rights
  60. republic
  61. suffrage
  62. Articles of Confederation
  63. ratification
  64. tariff
  65. interstate commerce
  66. creditor
  67. debtor
  68. depression
  69. federalism
  70. The Constitution
  71. legislative branch
  72. executive branch
  73. judicial branch
  74. checks and balances
  75. delegated powers
  76. elastic clause
  77. reserved powers
  78. concurrent powers
  79. representative democracy
  80. impeach
  81. veto
  82. pardons
  83. cabinet
  84. due process
  85. habeus corpus
  86. indict
  87. eminent domain
  88. electoral college
  89. national debt
  90. bonds
  91. strict construction
  92. loose construction
  93. Marbury v. Madison
  94. judicial review
  95. Louisiana Purchase
  96. embargo
  97. Monroe Doctrine
  98. Missouri Compromise
  99. Industrial Revolution
  100. trade unions
  101. annex
  102. Oregon Trail
  103. manifest destiny
  104. Mexican Cession
  105. Gadsden Purchase
  106. popular sovereignty
  107. Dred Scott decision
  108. secession
  109. Confederate States of America
  110. Emancipation Proclamation
  111. total war
  112. Reconstruction
  113. amnesty
  114. 13th Amendment

This list was lasted updated on 8/10/06.