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Chapter 8 Vocabulary
Social Studies Test
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Wilderness Road | the trail into Kentucky that woodsman Daniel Boone helped to build |
republic | a government in which people elect representatives to govern for them |
Articles of Confederation | a document, adopted by the Continental Congress in 1777 and finally approved by the states in 1781, that outlined the form of government of the new United States |
Land Ordinance of 1785 | a law that established a plan for surveying and selling federally owned lands west of the Appalachian Mountains |
Northwest Territory | territory covered by the Land Ordinance of 1785, which included land that formed the states of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and part of Minnesota |
Northwest Ordinance | it described how the Northwest Territory was to be governed and set conditions for settlement and settlers’ rights |
Shays's Rebellion | an uprising of debt-ridden Massachusetts farmers in 1787 |
Constitutional Convention | a meeting held in 1787 to consider changes to the Articles of Confederation; resulted in the drafting of the Constitution |
James Madison | one of the ablest delegates who read more than 100 books on government in preparation for the meeting |
Virginia Plan | a plan proposed by Edmund Randolph, a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1787, that proposed a government with three branches and a two-house legislature in which representation would be based on a state's population or wealth |
New Jersey Plan | a plan of government proposed at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 that called for a one-house legislature in which each state would have one vote |
Great Compromise | the Constitutional Convention's agreement to establish a two-house national legislature, with all states having equal representation in one house and each state having representation based on its population in the other house |
Three-Fifths Compromise | the Constitutional Convention's agreement to count three-fifths of a states slaves as population for purposes of representation and taxation |
Federalism | a system of government in which power is shared between the central (or federal) government and the states |
Federalists | the people who supported the Constitution |
Antifederalists | the people who opposed the Constitution |
The Federalists Papers | the best known of the essays wrote to answer the Antifederalists attacks |
George Mason | a delegate to the Constitutional Convention who refused to sign the final document until a bill of rights was added; perhaps the most influential Virginian; against ratification |
Bill of Rights | the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, added in 1791, and consisting of a formal list of citizens' rights and freedoms |