8th Grade US History Semester 1 Final Study Guide

Jamestown

●Dates

●Pocahontas (role in Jamestown)

Plymouth Colony

●William Bradford

●The Mayflower Compact

Roger Williams

Anne Hutchinson

William Penn and Pennsylvania

Province of Maryland

Mercantilism

French and Indian War/Seven Years War

●Combatants (who was fighting who?)

●Effects on relations between Britain and the colonies

British Taxes

●Sugar Act

●Quartering Act

●Stamp Act

●Tea Act

●Intolerable/Coercive Acts

George Washington

John Adams

Samuel Adams

Thomas Jefferson

John Dickenson

The Boston Massacre

The Boston Tea Party

Important Battles

●Lexington and Concord

●Saratoga

●Bunker Hill

●Yorktown

●British and American Generals

Declaration of Independence

●Author

●Nature of the document

Launching the Republic

American form of government

Articles of Confederation

  • What they established
  • Powers
  • Limitations/problems

The Constitution

  • Compromises on representation
  • Requirements to be a part of each Branch (Congress, President, Supreme Court)
  • Bill of Rights (Amendments 1-10)

Checks and Balances

  • Understand the powers each branch has over the others

War of 1812

  • Causes and outcomes

Era of Good Feeling

  • Texas Revolution and the Mexican War
  • Terms (tariff, inflation, etc.)
  • The Monroe Doctrine
  • Industrialization
  • Indian Removal Act and the Trail of Tears

The Civil War and Reconstruction

Dates of Conflict

Abraham Lincoln

  • Political career
  • Senate race- year and detail
  • Presidential race- year and opponent
  • Position on and politics surrounding slavery
  • Assassination

Important People

  • Harriet Tubman
  • Henry Clay
  • Harriet Beecher Stowe
  • Dred Scott
  • Frederick Douglass
  • John Brown
  • Jefferson Davis
  • Ulysses S. Grant
  • Robert E. Lee
  • Thaddeus Stevens
  • Charles Sumner

Mounting Tensions

  • Nullification Crisis and the Force Bill
  • Missouri Compromise
  • Kansas-Nebraska Act
  • Bleeding Kansas
  • Compromise of 1850
  • Fugitive Slave Act

Important Battles

  • Fort Sumter
  • Antietam
  • Bull Run
  • Gettysburg
  • Appomattox Courthouse
  • Sherman’s March

Reconstruction

  • Presidency (actions and impeachment)

Westward Expansion

  • Transcontinental Railroad and the Oregon Trail
  • Experience of the American Indians(The Long Walk, Indian Boarding Schools, etc.)
  • Significant Conflicts (Sandy Creek, Wounded Knee, Little Big Horn, etc)

Essay Questions (you will receive 1 of these 2)- at least 2 paragraphs- 1 explaining foundational information about the event, 1 explaining the significance

  1. Explain the significance of the American Revolution. Use at least 2 specific facts to support your answer
  2. Explain the significance of the Civil War. Use at least 2 specific facts to support your answer