GLOSSARY ★ A-69Philippine War American military cam-
paign that suppressed the movement
for Philippine independence after the
Spanish- American War; America’s death
toll was over 4,000 and the Philippines’
was far higher.
Pilgrims Puritan separatists who broke
completely with the Church of England
and sailed to the New World aboard the
Mayflower, founding Plymouth Colony on
Cape Cod in 1620.
plantation An early word for a colony, a
settlement “planted” from abroad among
an alien population in Ireland or the New
World. Later, a large agricultural enter-
prise that used unfree labor to produce a
crop for the world market.
Platt Amendment 1901 amendment to
the Cuban constitution that reserved the
United States’ right to intervene in Cuban
affairs and forced newly independent Cuba
to host American naval bases on the island.
Plessy v. Ferguson U.S. Supreme Court
decision supporting the legality of Jim
Crow laws that permitted or required
“separate but equal” facilities for blacks
and whites.
Pontiac’s Rebellion An Indian attack on
British forts and settlements after France
ceded to the British its territory east of the
Mississippi River, as part of the Treaty of
Paris in 1763, without consulting France’s
Indian allies.
Popular Front A period during the mid-
1930s when the Communist Party sought
to ally itself with socialists and New Deal-
ers in movements for social change, urg-
ing reform of the capitalist system rather
than revolution.
popular sovereignty Program that
allowed settlers in a disputed territory to
decide the slavery issue for themselves;
most closely associated with Senator Ste-
phen A. Douglas of Illinois.
Populists Founded in 1892, a group that
advocated a variety of reform issues,coup in Colombia that established Pana-
ma’s independence.
Panic of 1819 Financial collapse brought
on by sharply falling cotton prices, declin-
ing demand for American exports, and
reckless western land speculation.
Panic of 1837 Beginning of major eco-
nomic depression lasting about six years;
touched off by a British financial crisis
and made worse by falling cotton prices,
credit and currency problems, and specu-
lation in land, canals, and railroads.
paternalism A moral position developed
during the first half of the nineteenth
century that claimed that slaves were
deprived of liberty for their own “good.”
Such a rationalization was adopted by
some slaveowners to justify slavery.
the “peculiar institution” A phrase
used by whites in the antebellum South
to refer to slavery without using the word
“slavery.”
Pentagon Papers Informal name for the
Defense Department’s secret history of
the Vietnam conflict; leaked to the press
by former official Daniel Ellsberg and
published in the New York Times in 1971.
Pequot War An armed conflict in 1637
that led to the destruction of one of New
England’s most powerful Indian groups.
perfectionism The idea that social ills
once considered incurable could in fact be
eliminated, popularized by the religious
revivalism of the nineteenth century.
Perry, Commodore Matthew U.S. naval
officer who negotiated the Treaty of
Kanagawa in 1854. That treaty was the
first step in starting a political and com-
mercial relationship between the United
States and Japan.
pet banks Local banks that received
deposits while the charter of the Bank
of the United States was about to expire
in 1836. The choice of these banks was
influenced by political and personal
connections.