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US History

This is a survey course that provides students with an investigation of important political, economic, and social developments in American history from the pre-colonial time period to the present day. Students will be engaged in activities that call upon their skills as historians (i.e. recognizing cause and effect relationships, various forms of research, expository and persuasive writing, reading of primary and secondary sources, comparing and contrasting important ideas and events).

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Horace Mann

He was an idealistic graduate of Brown University, secretary of the Massachusetts board of education. He was involved in the reformation of public education (1825-1850). He campaigned for better school houses, longer school terms, higher pay for teachers, and an expanded curriculum. He caused a reformation of the public schools, many of the teachers were untrained for that position. Led to educational advances in text books by Noah Webster and Ohioan William H. McGuffey.

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Carl Shurz

he was a zealous German liberal who contributed to the elevation of American political life. Shurz was a relentless foe of slavery and public corruption. Shurz could be considered on of the liberal German "Forty-fighters," who left Germany and came to America, distraught by the collapse of the democratic revolutions of 1848, and in search of a stable democratic society. (Ch 18, pg 318)

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Pony Express

A Mail carrying service; ran from 1860-1861; was established to carry mail speedily along the 2000 miles from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California; they could make the trek in 10 days.

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General Incorporation Law

This was a law created to greatly help in "building" capitalism. It stated that businesspeople could create a corporation if they complied with the terms of the law. It was a great boost to capitalism. It was signed in New York in 1848 to save businesspeople the need to apply for characters form the legislature.

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Clipper ships

American boats, built during the 1840's in Boston, that were sleek and fast but inefficient in carrying a lot of cargo or passengers. British steamers were more efficient than these ships and so Britain remained the #1 naval power.

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Boston Associates

They were a group of Boston families who joined to form one of the earliest and most powerful joint-capital ventures. They eventually came to dominate the textile industry, the railroad, insurance, and banking business' in all of Massachusetts. With Pride the Boston Associates considered their textile mill in Lowell, Massachusetts a showplace factory. The labor there was mostly New England farm girls who were supervised on and off the job and worked from "dark to dark." (Ch 17, pgs 293-295)

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Cotton Gin

The cotton gin is a machine that would separate the seed from the short-staple cotton fiber that was fifty times more effective than the handpicking process. It was constructed by Eli Whitney. It was developed in 1793 in Georgia. It was used all over the South. The cotton gin brought a miraculous change to the U.S. and the world. Practically overnight the production of the cotton was very profitable. Not only the South prospered, but the North as well. Many acres were cleared westward to make more room for cotton.

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Limited Liability

This is a term that applies to the principles of the corporation. This started in a big way in the early 1800's for most Americans. It basically refers to the fact that a business with public stock can fail without any one person losing all of their money. It lowers the risk of new business ventures.

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Industrial Revolution

Began in the 1750's in Britain with a group of inventors perfecting textile machines. These British developments eventually found their way into American Industry. Factories were made to work with the South's raw textiles Industrialization started in the North because of its dense population, reliance of shipping, and its number of seaports The rapid rivers of the North also provided power for turning the cogs of machines The majority of the industrialization occurred between the 1790's and the 1860's

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Robert Fulton

A painter/ engineer who got financial backing to build a powerful steam engine (Clermont). Skeptics called it ''Fulton's Folly''. But in 1807 the boat made the 150 mile run from New York City up the Hudson River to Albany in 32 hours. Within a few years Fulton changed all of America's navigable streams into two-way arteries and forever changed the way the West and the South could transport their goods.

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