Impressment - the british practice of seizing seamen from American merchant ships and forcing them to serve in the british navy. Impressment was one of the causes of the war of 1812.
Bill of Rights - the first ten amendments to the u.s. constitution, which protect the rights of individuals from the powers of the government. Congress and the states adopted the ten amendments in 1791.
Indentured Servitude - In effort to entice english subjects to the colonies parties would offer legal bonded contracts that would exchange the cost of passage across the Atlantic for up to seven years of labor in America. * The challenge was to get these struggling poor to America. To work out contracts that could last up to seven years just to get their own land but most of the time the workers died before they could have the chance to own their own land.
Headright - as an economic incentive to encourage the English to settle in Virginia and other colonies sponsoring parties would offer 50 acres of land per person who migrated or who paid for the passage of others. * Because of Virginias high death rate and difficult living conditions, headrights functioned as an inducement to help bolster the colony's low settlement rate.
Second Great Awakening - a wave of religious fervor and revivalism that swept the United States from the early nineteenth century through the Civil War. The Second Great Awakening also provided further religious motivation for the reform impulse. On August 6, 1801, some 25,000 men, women, and children gathered in the small frontier community of Cans Ridge, Kentucky, in search of religious salvation. This community revival went on for almost a week. .
General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna - the Mexican general and president, whose defeat at the Battle of San Jacinto in 1836 permitted Texas to gain its independence. In 1834 he overthrew Mexico's constitutional government, abolished state governments, and made himself dictator.