Glossary
American Passages: A History of the United States, Brief, 1st Edition
Ayers, Gould, Oshinsky, Soderlund
AWOL: A military term for men absent without leave.
American System: The program headed by Henry Clay to foster national economic growth and interdependence among the geographical sections. It included a protective tariff, national bank, and internal improvements.
Amerind: The forerunner of the vast majority of Indian languages in the Americas.
Anglican: A member of the Church of England. Also used to refer to the Church of England.
Anglos: English-speaking people.
Arminianism: A belief named for Jacobus Arminus, a Dutch theologian who challenged the strict Calvinist position on predestination.
Association: A group created by the First Continental Congress to enforce its trade sanctions against Britain. The creation of this group was an important sign that Congress was beginning to act as a central government.
Auburn system: The prison system introduced by the state of New York and copied by many other states. Prisoners slept in solitary cells and marched in military formation to meals and workshops. They were forbidden to speak to one another at any time. This system was designed to reform criminals and reduce expenses through the sale of items produced in the workshop.
Australian ballot: Also known as the secret ballot, the Australian ballot allowed people to vote in private rather than in public. In addition, it required the government rather than the political parties to print the ballots and supervise the voting.
abolition: A term used to describe the end of slavery.
abolitionist: A person who wanted to abolish slavery.
abrogating a treaty: The process of abolishing a treaty so that it is no longer in effect.
affirmative action: Program or policy that attempts to rectify past injustice or discrimination. This policy was meant to ensure equal employment and education opportunities.
affluence: Abundance of material goods or wealth.
agrarians: Group of southern writers who argued that the agricultural character of the South offered a more hopeful path to the future than did the mass-consumption society of the North.
alien: A person from another country who is living in the United States. Aliens are not citizens.
amnesty: A general pardon granted to a large group of people.
anarchist: A member of a group that called for the violent destruction of the capitalist system so that a new socialist order could be built.
anti-Semitism: Hostility, prejudice, or discrimination toward Jews or Arabs.
anxious bench: The area in a religious revival meeting where the most likely converts were seated.
apartheid: Legal system practiced in South Africa and based on elaborate rules of racial separation and subordination of blacks.
appellate jurisdiction: A court with the power to hear appeals and review decisions of other courts.
aqueduct: A bridgelike device designed to carry water. Along the Erie Canal, stone aqueducts crossed eighteen rivers.
armistice: A temporary stop in fighting. Often in effect before a final peace treaty is signed.
artisan: A skilled laborer who works with his or her hands. In early America, artisans often owned their own shops and produced goods either for general sale or for special order.
associationalism: Term used by historian Ellis Hawley to describe Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover's approach to managing the economy in which all types of economic groups formed a trade association whose members would share economic information, discuss problems of production and distribution, and seek ways of achieving greater efficiency and profit. Hoover believed that the very act of cooperation over competition, of negotiation over conflict, of public service over selfishness would achieve greater efficiency and profit.
astrolabe A device that permitted accurate calculation of latitude or distances north and south.