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History of the Americas
Explore questions in the History of the Americas category that you can ask Sparky!
- a Jewish American Revolutionary who played a vital role in ensuring that the American colonies' fight to win independence from the British crown continued. During the 1770s, he brokered a number of large financial transactions that kept American soldiers clothed, fed, and armed
- Passive resistance that urges people to challenge laws they consider unjust by refusing to obey them
- This is the concept that political power rests with the people,who express themselves through voting and participating in government. In the 1850s people in the territories would vote to decide if their state would be free or slave
- He was a leading American writer and philosopher who lived at Walden Pond, where he wrote an essay "Civil Disobedience". He also lectured and wrote against slavery.
- a seaman born in Chile, South America. He was a United StatesNavy seaman who was awarded the Medal of Honor, the highest military decorationof the United States for valor in combat. He distinguished himself during the Civil Warin the battle for Fort Fisher, which was in North Carolina and the last major portavailable to the Confederates. He entered the fort as it was being shelled in order todeliver messages to the commander.
- In 1857, this landmark Supreme Court case defined the status of slaves as property and not citizens. Chief Justice Roger Taney wrote that Dred Scott was not free and had no right to sue in federal court
- a free African American who rode north to New Hampshire and Maine to gain reinforcements when Paul Revere rode west to warn colonists that the redcoats were coming.
- one of the first American women to publish literary works in her own name. She was a member of a prominent Patriot family. She wrote and published several plays that supported the Revolutionary Cause. She called for revolt against the British and their policies
- posed as a runaway slave who wanted to help the British. He moved between camps of both Cornwallis and Arnold, but sent reports of their plans back to Lafayette during the American Revolution. His efforts aided in the Patriots'success at the Battle of Yorktown
- She spent her life seeking equal rights for women and helped organize the convention at Seneca Falls, where the Declaration of Rights of Women was written in 1848. With Susan B. Anthony, she promoted women's suffrage
- Find Main Ideas: What issues did Washington believe were most dangerous to the future of the new nation?
- Explain: Why did Great Britain want to help Native Americans along the western frontier?
- The Unites States Civil War began on April 12, 1861, with the firing onFort Sumter and ended with the Confederate surrender at Appomattox Court House inApril 1865. Bull Run, Antietam, the turning point at Gettysburg, the fall of Vicksburg,and Sherman's march through the South are famous battles.
- Famous as the commander of the Union army during the Civil War he led the North to victory. His popularity resulted in his election as the 18th president, but he was unprepared for that job
- Ratified in 1870, during Reconstruction, it granted black men the right to vote. Women suffragettes were opposed because it defined the right to vote as a male right. Thus, gender remained an issue until 1920 when the 20th amendment allowed women the right to vote
- a sergeant in the 54th Massachusetts Infantry who became the firstAfrican American to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor. He was shot several times while keeping the U.S. flag aloft during the heroic charge on South Carolina's Fort Wagner.
- African American politician who was born free, but the son of former slaves. He helped organize African American regiments in the Civil War. He was the first African American in the U.S. Senate, taking over the seat formerly held by Confederate president Jefferson Davis
- Find Main Ideas: What conflicts did the United States face in the late 1700s
- Why did the Federalist-controlled Congress pass the Alien and Sedition Acts?
- How long is the president's term in office