American History in Credo: 18th Century

1st President of the United States (1789–97). General of the Continental Army during the American Revolution. A surveyor by trade, Washington became the first American military hero by leading American forces to victory over the British Army.

2nd President of the United States (1797–1801) and first Vice President of the United States under Washington. American Revolutionary and member of the Continental Congress.

American inventor and manufacturer whose invention of the cotton gin (1793) revolutionized the cotton industry. He also established the first factory to assemble muskets with interchangeable parts, marking the advent of modern mass production.

American silversmith and political leader in the American Revolution.

American statesman.

US scientist, inventor, and statesman.

Full and formal declaration adopted July 4, 1776, by representatives of the Thirteen Colonies in North America announcing the separation of those colonies from Great Britain and making them into the United States.

1775–83, struggle by which the Thirteen Colonies on the Atlantic seaboard of North America won independence from Great Britain and became the United States. It is also called the American War of Independence.The casualty rate was roughly 120 in 10,000, the second heaviest of any large-scale American war. One way or another everybody within what became the United States took part in the conflict and felt its effects: Natives; Africans; patriots; loyalists; neutrals; Northerners; Southerners; and backcountry folk, both men and women.

The 1787 meeting in which the Constitution of the United States was drawn up.

First Federal constitution of the USA, drafted by the Continental Congress in 1777. Ratified in 1781 and superseded by the Constitution of the United States in 1789.

First 10 amendments to the Constitution of the United States, adopted as a group in 1791.

Adopted by the Congress of Confederation for the government of the Western territories ceded to the United States by the states.

A movement culminating in the late 18th and early 19th centuries that aimed first to end the slave trade, and then to abolish the institution of slavery and emancipate slaves. The movement took place in Europe, mainly in the UK, and in the USA.

Institution based on a relationship of dominance and submission, whereby one person owns another and can exact from that person labor or other services. The institution of slavery extends back beyond recorded history. The enforced servitude of one person (a slave) to another or one group to another. A slave has no personal rights and is considered the property of another person through birth, purchase, or capture. Slavery has been found among many groups of low material culture, as in the Malay Peninsula and among some Native Americans; it also has occurred in more highly developed societies, such as the southern United States.

Loosely organized system for helping fugitive slaves escape to Canada or to areas of safety in free states. It was run by local groups of Northern abolitionists, both white and free blacks.