My ABC Book of U.S History

By: Bre’ayah McDonald

A: Abolitionist

• A person who strongly favors doing away with slavery

B: Border States

• The states between the North and the South that were divided over whether to stay in the Union or join the Confederacy

C: Canal

• An artificial waterway

D: Dictator

• A leader who rules with total authority, often in a cruel or brutal manner

E: Electoral College

• A special group of voters selected by their state’s voters for the president and vice president

F: Federalists

• Supporters of the Constitution

G: Guerrilla Warfare

• A hit-and-run technique used in fighting a war; fighting by small bands of warriors using tactics such as sudden ambushes

H: Holocaust• The name given to the mass slaughter of Jews

and other groups by the Nazis during World War ll

I: Interchangeable Parts

• Uniform pieces that can be made in large quantities to replace other identical pieces

J: Judicial Branch

• The branch of government, including the federal court system, that interprets the nation’s laws

L: Loyalist

• American colonists who remained loyal to Britain and opposed the war for independence

M: Morse Code

• A system for transmitting messages that uses a series of dots and dashes to represent the letters of the alphabet, numbers, and punctuation

N: Northwest Passage

• Water route to Asia through North America sought by European explorers

O: Ozone

• The layers of gas composed of a form of oxygen that protects the earth and its people from cancer-causing sun rays

P: Pilgrims

• Separatists who journeyed to the colonies during the 1600s for a religious purpose

R: Republic

• A government in which citizens rule through elected representatives

S: Smuggling

• Trading illegally with other nations

T: Tidewater

• A region of flat, low-lying plains along the seacoast

U: Unalienable Right

• a right that cannot be surrendered

V: Vertical Integration

• The combining of companies that supply equipment and services needed for a