John Smith
Helped found and govern Jamestown. His leadership and strict discipline helped the Virginia colony get through the difficult first winter.
John Winthrop
As governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, Winthrop (1588-1649) was instrumental in forming the colony's government and shaping its legislative policy. He envisioned the colony, centered in present-day Boston, as a "city upon a hill" from which Puritans wou
Henry Hudson
Discovered what today is known as the Hudson River and the Hudson Bay. Sailed for the Dutch even though he was originally from England. He was looking for a northwest passage through North America.
William Penn
An English Quaker, founded Pennsylvania in 1682, after receiving a charter from King Charles II the year before. He launched the colony as a "holy experiment" based on religious tolerance.
Roger Williams
A dissenter who clashed with the Massachusetts Puritans over separation of church and state and was banished in 1636, after which he founded the colony of Rhode Island to the south
Anne Hutchinson
Puritan dissenter banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony who fled to Rhode Island in 1638; Antinomianism
Francis Bacon
developed the scientific method
John Peter Zenger
Journalist who questioned the policies of the governor of New York in the 1700's. He was jailed; he sued, and this court case was the basis for our freedom of speech and press. He was found not guilty.
Metacom
aka King Philip, Native American ruler, who in 1675 led attack on colonial villages throughout Massachusetts
Jonathan Edwards
American theologian whose sermons and writings stimulated a period of renewed interest in religion in America (1703-1758)
Benjamin Franklin
Printer, author, inventor, diplomat, statesman, and Founding Father. One of the few Americans who was highly respected in Europe, primarily due to his discoveries in the field of electricity.
John Locke
This English philosophe argued that all men were born with natural rights and that a government's purpose was to protect these rights
Crispus Attucks
A free black man who was the first person killed in the Revolution at the Boston Massacre.
James Otis
A colonial lawyer who defended (usually for free) colonial merchants who were accused of smuggling. Argued against the writs of assistance and the Stamp Act.
John Dickinson
delegate of Pennsylvania, who led a group that favored quick reconciliation with Great Britain as opposed to independence.
King George III
King of England during the American Revolution
Abigail Adams
John Adam's wife, she appealed to her husband to protect the rights of women. a member of the Daughters of Liberty
Deborah Sampson
Patriot who disguised herself as a man and served in the Continental Army.
Daniel Shays
this man, along with a band of Massachusetts farmers, rose up during the summer of 1786 and demanded restitution and tax relief. His rebellion escalated in January 1787 when the mob undertook a seizure of the state arsenal.
Thomas Paine
Patriot and writer whose pamphlet Common Sense, published in 1776, convinced many Americans that it was time to declare independence from Britain.
Paul Revere
American silversmith who became a hero after his famous ride to warn of the British advance on Lexington and Concord.
George Washington
Virginian, patriot, general, and president. Lived at Mount Vernon. Led the Revolutionary Army in the fight for independence. First President of the United States.
Samuel Adams
Founder of the Sons of Liberty and one of the most vocal patriots for independence; signed the Declaration of Independence
Patrick Henry
a leader of the American Revolution and a famous orator who spoke out against British rule of the American colonies (1736-1799)
John Adams
America's first Vice-President and second President. Sponsor of the American Revolution in Massachusetts, and wrote the Massachusetts guarantee that freedom of press "ought not to be restrained.
John Jay
United States diplomat and jurist who negotiated peace treaties with Britain and served as the first chief justice of the United States Supreme Court (1745-1829)
Edmund Randolph
1st Attorney General
Henry Knox
In 1775 George Washington ordered him, the nation's first secreatry of war, to bring the British artillery back to the siege of Boston that was captured at Fort Ticonderoga.
Alexander Hamilton
1789-1795; First Secretary of the Treasury. He advocated creation of a national bank, assumption of state debts by the federal government, and a tariff system to pay off the national debt.
Francis Scott Key
United States lawyer and poet who wrote a poem after witnessing the British attack on Baltimore during the War of 1812. The poem later became the Star Spangled Banner.
Oliver Hazard Perry
United States commodore who led the fleet that defeated the British on Lake Erie during the War of 1812.
John C.Calhoun
South Carolina Senator - advocate for state's rights, limited government, and nullification
William Henry Harrison
was an American military leader, politician, the ninth President of the United States, and the first President to die in office. His death created a brief constitutional crisis, but ultimately resolved many questions about presidential succession left una
Tecumseh
a famous chief of the Shawnee who tried to unite Indian tribes against the increasing white settlement
James Madison
Strict constructionist, 4th president, father of the Constitution, leads nation through War of 1812
Aaron Burr
Former vice-president, killer of Alexander Hamilton, and plotter of mysterious secessionist schemes
M. Lewis, W. Clark & Sacagawea
Leaders of famous Lewis and Clark expedition to the Pacific Coast after the Louisiana Purchase gave the US more western territory
Toussaint L'Ouverture
Leader of the Haitian Revolution. He freed the slaves and gained effective independence for Haiti despite military interventions by the British and French.
Napoleon Bonaparte
general; Emperor of France; he seized power in a coup d'�tat in 1799; he led French armies in conquering much of Europe, placing his relatives in positions of power. Defeated at the Battle of Waterloo, he was exiled on the island of Elba
Thomas Jefferson
He was a delegate from Virginia at the Second Continental Congress and wrote the Declaration of Independence. He later served as the third President of the United States.
Francis Cabot Lowell
Visited England and returned to the US to open a mill in Mass. that brought spining and weaving in one building in a town named after him
Samuel Slater
He memorized the way that the British made machines and he brought the idea to America. He made our first cotton spinning machine.
Eli Whitney
an American inventor who developed the cotton gin. Also contributed to the concept of interchangeable parts that were exactly alike and easily assembled or exchanged
Robert Fulton
American inventor who designed the first commercially successful steamboat and the first steam warship (1765-1815)
John Marshall
created the precedent of judicial review; ruled on many early decisions that gave the federal government more power, especially the supreme court
James Monroe
5th President of the U.S. 1817-1825 acquired Florida from Spain; declared Monroe Doctrine to keep foreign powers out.
Daniel Webster
Senator who, originally pro-North, supported the Compromise of 1850 and subsequently lost favor from his constituency
Martin Van Buren
senator, vice president, and president of the United States; the Panic of 1837 ruined his presidency, and he was voted out of office in 1840. He later supported the Free Soil Party.
John Quincy Adams
Secretary of State, He served as sixth president under Monroe. In 1819, he drew up the Adams-Onis Treaty in which Spain gave the United States Florida in exchange for the United States dropping its claims to Texas. The Monroe Doctrine was mostly Adams' wo
Andrew Jackson
The seventh President of the United States (1829-1837), who as a general in the War of 1812 defeated the British at New Orleans (1815). As president he opposed the Bank of America, objected to the right of individual states to nullify disagreeable federal
Nat Turner
Slave from VA that led group of slaves to kill their slaves holders abd familes. Turner caught and executed on Nov.11, 1831. Slave states stricker control on slave population.
Fredrick Douglass
Born into slavery. He escaped from slavery and eventually became renowned for eloquent lectures and writings for the causes of abolition and liberty.
William Lloyd Garrison
Prominent American abolitionist, journalist and social reformer. Editor of radical abolitionist newspaper "The Liberator", and one of the founders of the American Anti-Slavery Society.
Susan B. Anthony
social reformer who campaigned for womens rights, the temperance, and was an abolitionist, helped form the National Woman Suffrage Assosiation
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
A prominent advocate of women's rights, Stanton organized the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention with Lucretia Mott
Horace Mann
Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education, he was a prominent proponent of public school reform, and set the standard for public schools throughout the nation.
Dorothea Dix
New England teacher and author who advocated for the improved treatment of the mentally ill
Henry David Thoreau
American transcendentalist who was against a government that supported slavery. He wrote down his beliefs in Walden. He started the movement of civil-disobedience when he refused to pay the toll-tax to support him Mexican War.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
United States writer and leading exponent of transcendentalism (1803-1882)
Joesph Smith & Brigham Young
founded the Mormon religion and translated the book of Mormon, he was murdered by a mob. The successor to the Mormons after the death of Joseph Smith. He was responsible for the survival of the sect and its establishment in Utah, thereby populating the wo
James K. Polk
11th President of the United States from Tennessee; committed to westward expansion; led the country during the Mexican War; U.S. annexed Texas and took over Oregon during his administration
Sam Houston
United States politician and military leader who fought to gain independence for Texas from Mexico and to make it a part of the United States (1793-1863), First president of the Republic of Texas
Stephen Austin
Original settler of Texas, granted land from Mexico on condition of no slaves, convert to Roman Catholic, and learn Spanish
Roger B. Tancy
Supreme court justice who decided the outcome of the Dred Scott decision. Detested racial equality
Dred Scott
American slave who sued his master for keeping him enslaved in a territory where slavery was banned under the Missouri Compromise. Led to declaration of Missouri Compromise as unconstitutional
John Brown
abolitionist who was hanged after leading an unsuccessful raid at Harper's Ferry, Virginia (1800-1858)
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Author of Uncle Tom's Cabin
Harriet Tubman
United States abolitionist born a slave on a plantation in Maryland and became a famous conductor on the Underground Railroad leading other slaves to freedom in the North
Stephen A. Douglas
A moderate, who introduced the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 and popularized the idea of popular sovereignty.
Zachary Taylor
american general in war with mexico and 12th president
Henry Clay
Senator from Kentucky who persuaded Congress to accept the Missouri Compromise, which admitted Maine into the Union as a free state, and Missouri as a slave state
William Tecumseh Sherman
Union General who destroyed South during "march to the sea" from Atlanta to Savannah, example of total war
Abraham Lincoln
16th President of the United States saved the Union during the Civil War and emancipated the slaves; was assassinated by Booth (1809-1865)
John Wilkes Booth
United States actor and assassin of President Lincoln (1838-1865)
Ulysses S. Grant
an American general and the eighteenth President of the United States (1869-1877). He achieved international fame as the leading Union general in the American Civil War.
Robert E. Lee
Confederate general who had opposed secession but did not believe the Union should be held together by force
George McClellan
General of the Union Army; fired by Lincoln for being too cautious
Winfield Scott
arguably the finest military figure in America from the War of 1812 to the Civil War; he distinguished himself in the Mexican War, ran unsuccessfully for president (1852), and briefly commanded the Union armies at the beginning of the Civil War.
Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson
commanded Virginia soldiers under the Confederacy and led his side to victory in the First Battle of Bull Run, was shot in the left arm by his fellow commander and then later died from this wound
Jefferson Davis
President of the Confederate States of America
Rutherford B. Hayes
19th President, ended reconstruction by removing federal troops, disputed Tilden/Hayes election resulted in the Compromise of 1877
Thomas Nast
Newspaper cartoonist who produced satirical cartoons, he invented "Uncle Sam" and came up with the elephant and the donkey for the political parties. He nearly brought down Boss Tweed.
William "Boss" Tweed
Political Machine Leader of NYC's Tammany Hall. Corrupt in spending tax dollars. Benefit voters for votes and politicians for graft/greed.
Jay Gould
United States financier who gained control of the Erie Canal and who caused a financial panic in 1869 when he attempted to corner the gold market; railroad "robber baron
Hiram Revels
first African American senator
Edwin Staton
secretary of War for Lincoln's term whom Johnson fired because he was a radical Republican
Charles Sumner
Radical Republican against the slave power who insults Andrew Butler and subsequently gets caned by Preston Brooks
Andrew Johnson
17th president of the United States, came to office after Lincoln's assassination and opposed Radical Republicans; he was impeached
Jim Crow
Laws written to separate blacks and whites in public areas/meant African Americans had unequal opportunities in housing, work, education, and government
George Wahington Carver
Amazed the world with his accomplishments; He could do almost anything with plants; Discovered 118 uses for the sweet potato; famous for uses of peanuts
Helen Hunt Jackson
United States writer of romantic novels about the unjust treatment of Native Americans (1830-1885)
Chief Joesph
Chief of the Nez Perce Indians; 1871- unsuccessful rebellion to Canada against whites;
George A. Custer
Discovered gold in Black Hills of South Dakota, his seventh cavalry division was decimated by the Sioux at the battle of Little Big Horn
Sitting Bull
American Indian medicine man, chief, and political leader of his tribe at the time of the Custer massacre during the Sioux War
Fredrick Jackson Turner
American historian in the early 20th century. He is best known for The Significance of the Frontier in American History.
Samuel Gompers
He was the creator of the American Federation of Labor. He provided a stable and unified union for skilled workers.
Terence V. Powderly
Knights of Labor leader, opposed strikes, producer-consumer cooperation, temperance, welcomed blacks and women (allowing segregation)
Samuel F.B. Morse
Inventor of the telegraph
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Supreme court justice 1902-1930. He viewed the law as a social instrument, rather than a set of abstract principles. Famous decision on preserving freedom of speech except when clear and present danger.
Mark Twain
United States writer and humorist best known for his novels about Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn (1835-1910)