A-52 ★ GLOSSARY
lived in areas of the Confederacy under
Union control.
Contract with America A list of con-
servatives’ promises in response to the
supposed liberalism of the Clinton admin-
istration that was drafted by Speaker of
the House Newt Gingrich and other con-
gressional Republicans as the GOP plat-
form for the 1994 midterm elections. It
was more a campaign tactic than a prac-
tical program; few of its proposed items
ever became law.
cotton gin Invented by Eli Whitney in
1793, the machine that separated cotton
seed from cotton fiber, speeding cotton
processing and making profitable the cul-
tivation of the more hardy, but difficult to
clean, short- staple cotton; led directly to
the dramatic nineteenth- century expan-
sion of slavery in the South.
“Cotton Is King” Phrase from Senator
James Henry Hammond’s speech extolling
the virtues of cotton, and, implicitly, the
slave system of production that led to
its bounty for the South. “King Cotton”
became a shorthand for Southern political
and economic power.
Cotton Kingdom Cotton- producing
region, relying predominantly on slave
labor, that spanned from North Carolina
west to Louisiana and reached as far north
as southern Illinois.
counterculture “Hippie” youth culture
of the 1960s, which rejected the values
of the dominant culture in favor of illicit
drugs, communes, free sex, and rock music.
Court packing President Franklin D. Roo-
sevelt’s failed 1937 attempt to increase the
number of U.S. Supreme Court justices
from nine to fifteen in order to save his
Second New Deal programs from consti-
tutional challenges.
Covenant Chain Alliance formed in the
1670s between the English and the Iro-
quois nations.
coverture Principle in English and Amer-
ican law that a married woman lost herCompromise of 1850 Complex com-
promise devised by Senator Henry Clay
that admitted California as a free state,
included a stronger fugitive slave law, and
delayed determination of the slave status
of the New Mexico and Utah territories.
Congress of Industrial Organiza-
tions Umbrella organization of semi-
skilled industrial unions, formed in 1935
as the Committee for Industrial Organiza-
tion and renamed in 1938.
conquistadores Spanish term for “con-
querors,” applied to Spanish and Portu-
guese soldiers who conquered lands held
by indigenous peoples in central and
southern America as well as the current
states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and
California.
conservation movement A progressive
reform movement focused on the preser-
vation and sustainable management of
the nation’s natural resources.
Constitutional Convention Meeting in
Philadelphia, May 25–September 17, 1787,
of representatives from twelve colonies—
excepting Rhode Island— to revise the
existing Articles of Confederation; the
convention soon resolved to produce an
entirely new constitution.
containment General U.S. strategy in the
Cold War that called for containing Soviet
expansion; originally devised by U.S. dip-
lomat George F. Kennan.
Continental army Army authorized
by the Continental Congress in 1775 to
fight the British; commanded by General
George Washington.
Continental Congress First meeting of
representatives of the colonies, held in
Philadelphia in 1774 to formulate actions
against British policies; in the Second Con-
tinental Congress (1775–1789), the colo-
nial representatives conducted the war
and adopted the Declaration of Indepen-
dence and the Articles of Confederation.
“the contrabands” Slaves who sought
refuge in Union military camps or who