Glossary

American Passages: A History of the United States, Brief, 1st Edition
Ayers, Gould, Oshinsky, Soderlund

Chicano: A person of Mexican-American ancestry; also a term referring to Mexican- American culture.

Clovis tip: A superior spear point developed before 9000 B.C. It was in use nearly everywhere in North and South America and produced such an improvement in hunting ability that it contributed to overhunting.

Conscience Whigs: A group of antislavery members of the Whig Party.

Corrupt Bargain: Jackson and his supporters claimed this happened in the election of 1824 when Henry Clay allegedly sold his support during the House vote in the disputed election of John Quincy Adams.

Credit Mobilier: The construction company for the Union Pacific Railroad. It gave shares of stock to some congressmen in return for favors.

californios: Spanish-speaking people whose families had been residents of California for many years, often generations.

caravel: A new type of oceangoing vessel that could travel from three to twelve knots per hour.

carpetbaggers: A term that referred to northerners who settled in the South during Reconstruction.

cash and carry: American foreign policy previous to entry into World War II; required that belligerents pay cash and carry products away in their own ships. This arrangement minimized risks to American exports, loans, and shipping. Thought to help prevent the types of incidents that some felt forced the United States into World War I.

caucus: A meeting of members of a political group.

cavaliers: Supporters of the Stuart family of Charles I during the civil wars.

changing system: This system was used primarily in the South and West where there was little cash money available. Farmers basically remembered what they owed one another and created an elaborate system of neighborhood debts.

chicanismo: Populistic pride in the Mexican-American heritage that emerged in the late 1960s. Chicano, once a term of derision, became the rallying cry for social and cultural crusades.

chinampas: The highly productive gardens built on Lake Taxcoco by the Aztecs.

circuit court: A court that meets at different places within a district.

circuit-riding preachers: Methodist ministers who traveled from church to church, usually in rural areas. Where there were no formal church buildings, services were held in other buildings or outdoors.

circumnavigate: A term meaning to "sail around the world."

city manager: A form of city government under which the elected city commission set policy, but the day-to-day tasks were carried out by a hired executive.

close-order assault: Attacking with little space between men. In the face of modern weapons used during the Civil War, such fighting produced a high casualty rate.

cold war: War or rivalry conducted by all means available except open military action. Diplomatic relations are not commonly broken.

collective bargaining: Negotiations between representatives of workers and employers. Issues included wages, hours, and working conditions.

colonial economy: An economy based on the export of agricultural products and the import of manufactured goods.

committees of: These committees were formed on both the local and correspondence colonial levels, and they played an important role in exchanging ideas and information. They spread primarily anti-British material and were an important step in the first tentative unity of people in different areas.

common schools: Tax-supported public schools built by state and local governments.

common-law courts: These courts were based on precedents and judicial decisions. They offered due process through such devices as trial by jury, which usually consisted of local men.

commutation fee: A $300 fee that could be paid by a drafted man to exempt him from the current draft call.

compensated: The idea that the federal government would offer emancipation compensation or money to states that voluntarily abolished slavery. Lincoln tried to introduce it in the border states on several occasions, but it was rejected.

competence: Defined in the early republic as the ability to live up to neighborhood economic standards while protecting the long-term independence of the household.

congressional: In the early Republic, this was the group of congressmen caucus that traditionally chose the party's presidential candidates. By the 1820s, the American public distrusted the caucus as undemocratic, since it represented only the party currently in power.

conquistadores: The Spanish word for conquerors.

consciousness-raising: Technique used to create awareness of social issues, especially those involving injustices or racial and gender discrimination.

conscription: A term used during the Civil War that referred to forcing men to serve in the military. The Confederates first introduced conscription in 1862 and the Union followed suit one year later. In the twentieth century, Americans use the term draft instead.

consumer credit: Also known as the installment plan, consumer credit allowed Americans to purchase consumer goods and products by making a down payment and then paying the remainder in installments.

consumer durables: Term used to describe consumer goods that were meant to last, such as washing machines and radios.

containment: Policy adopted by the United States to stop the expansion of communism. It became the catchphrase of the global anticommunist national-security policies that took shape during the late 1940s.

continuous assembly line: Process of using a continuously moving conveyor belt to carry the production item through each work station. This method eliminated the time involved in moving parts from one work area to another. Usually highly efficient.

contraband of war: The term used to describe slaves who came within the Union lines. It first was used by General Benjamin Butler in the James River area in 1861.

contras: Opposition military force in Nicaragua that was trained and financed by the United States. It opposed the Nicaraguan socialist government led by the Sandinista Party.

convention: A type of legislature in England and colonial America that met only to handle an emergency and then was replaced by a legitimate legislature.

cooperatives: Marketing groups established by such groups as the Farmers Alliance. They eliminated "middlemen" and reduced prices to farmers. The idea also was tried by some labor groups and included other types of businesses, such as factories.

copperheads: A term used by some Republicans to describe Peace Democrats. It implied that they were traitors to the Union. Peace Democrats thought that the war was a failure and should be abandoned.

corrido: Type of Mexican folk ballad that emphasized the suffering, hope, and frustration of ordinary folk.

cotton: A semitropical plant that produced white, fluffy fibers that could be made into textiles. Two main types were grown in the United States. Long-staple cotton produced high-quality fiber and had a smooth seed that was easy to remove. However, it required a longer growing season and a higher moisture level. It was produced along the southeast coast of the United States and on the Sea Islands off Georgia and South Carolina. Short-staple cotton was hardier and could be produced throughout a large part of the Deep South. The main problem with it was the sticky, dark seed had to be removed by hand. It took one day for a person to clean a pound of short-staple cotton.

counterculture: Antiestablishment movement that symbolized the youthful social upheaval of the 1960s. Even though only a relatively small percentage of young people fully embraced the counterculture, they set the tone in mass-media discussions. Ridiculing traditional attitudes on such matters as clothing, hair styles, and sexuality, devotees of the counterculture urged a more open and less repressive approach to daily life.

coup d'etat: The sudden overthrow of the government.

coureur de bois: A French phrase interpreted as "a roamer of the woods," referring to French colonials who participated in the fur trade with the Indians and lived part of the year with them.

court packing: Scheme by Roosevelt designed to prevent the conservative Supreme Court from dismantling his New Deal. He proposed to appoint an additional justice for each justice over the age of seventy.

covenant: Binding agreement or promise, usually written; organization of the League of Nations was contained in a covenant attached to the Treaty of Versailles.

covenant theology: The belief that God made two personal covenants with humans: the covenant of works and the covenant of grace.

coverture: A common-law doctrine that prohibited women from making a contract while married. The legal personality of the husband covered the wife, and he made all legally binding decisions.

crisis conversion: Understood in evangelical churches as a personal transformation that resulted from directly experiencing the Holy Spirit.

crop lien system: A system of credit used in the poor rural South. Merchants in small country stores provided necessary goods on credit in return for a lien, or mortgage, on the crop. As the price of crops fell, as with cotton, small farmers, black and white, drifted deeper into debt.

cultural pluralism: Position that honored the diversity of peoples and cultures in American society and sought to protect that diversity.