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Sacajawea
A Native American woman who proved an indispensable guide to Lewis and Clark during their 1804–1806 expedition. Sacajawea showed the men how to forage for food and helped them maintain good relations with tribes in the Northwest.
Sacco-Vanzetti case
Anarchist Italian immigrants who were charged with murder in Massachusetts in 1920 and sentenced to death. The case against Sacco and Vanzetti was circumstantial and poorly argued, although evidence now suggests that they were in fact guilty. It was significant, however, because it showcased nativist and conservative forces at work in America.
Salutary neglect
The English government’s policy of not enforcing certain trade laws it imposed upon the American colonies throughout the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. The purpose of salutary neglect was largely to ensure the loyalty of the colonists in the face of the French territorial and commercial threat in North America. Following British victory in the French and Indian War, the English ceased practicing salutary neglect.
Salvation Army
A welfare organization imported from England to the U.S. in 1880. The Salvation Army provides food, shelter, and employment to the urban poor while preaching temperance and morality.
Scalawags
A derisive term that Democrats gave to Southern moderates who cooperated with Republicans during Reconstruction.
Scopes Monkey Trial
In 1925, Tennessee teacher John T. Scopes willfully violated a state statute prohibiting the teaching of evolution in public schools. Prosecutor William Jennings Bryan and Scopes’s lawyer Clarence Darrow faced off during the highly publicized trial, and although Darrow lost the case he made a fool out of Bryan, substantially weakening the anti-evolution cause throughout the U.S.
Second Bank of the United States
Chartered in 1816 under President Madison. The Bank served as a depository for federal funds and a creditor for state banks. It became unpopular after being blamed for the panic of 1819, and suspicion of corruption and mismanagement haunted it until its charter expired in 1836. Jackson fought against the bank throughout his presidency, proclaiming it to be an unconstitutional extension of the federal government and a tool that rich capitalists used to corrupt American society.
Second Continental Congress
Convened in May 1775 after fighting broke out in Massachusetts between the British and the colonists. Most delegates opposed the drastic move toward complete independence from Britain. In an effort to reach a reconciliation, the Congress sent the Olive Branch Petition to King George III, offering peace under the conditions that there be a cease-fire in Boston, that the Coercive Acts (part of the Intolerable Acts) be repealed, and that negotiations between the colonists and Britain begin immediately. When King George III rejected the petition, the Congress created the Continental Army and elected George Washington its commander in chief.
Second Great Awakening
Emerged in the early 1800s as part of a backlash against America’s growing secularism and rationalism. A wave of religious revivals spread throughout the nation, giving rise to a number of new (largely Protestant) denominations during the second quarter of the nineteenth century. Revivalist ministers often stressed self-determination and individual empowerment.
Second New Deal
Created in 1935 after FDR’s first New Deal began to crumble in the face of opposition and antagonistic Supreme Court rulings. The Second New Deal was characterized by greater government spending and increased numbers of work relief programs. The most lasting measure of the Second New Deal was the creation of the Social Security system.
Sedition Amendment
Passed in 1918 as an amendment to the Espionage Act. The Sedition Amendment provided for the punishment of anyone using “disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language” in regard to the U.S. government, flag, or military.
Selective Service Act
Instituted a draft to build up U.S. military forces. Passed in May 1917, the act required all men aged 21 to 30 to register for military duty.
Selective Service and Training Act
Called for the nation’s first peacetime draft. The act was passed in September 1940.
Seneca Falls Convention
Organized by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton in 1848. The Seneca Falls Convention issued a Declaration of Sentiments, modeled on the Declaration of Independence, declaring that all men and women were created equal.
Separatists
English Protestants who would not offer allegiance in any form to the Church of England. One Separatist group, the Pilgrims, founded Plymouth Plantation and went on to found other settlements in New England. Other notable Separatist groups included the Quakers and Baptists.
Seventeenth Amendment
Ratified in 1913. The Seventeenth Amendment provided for the direct election of U.S. senators rather than their selection by state legislatures.
Sexual revolution
Refers to the easing of sexual taboos in some segments of society during the 1920s. Female sexuality and fashion were celebrated, divorce laws were relaxed in many states, and casual dating became more common.
Sharecropping system
Replaced the plantation system after the Civil War as the primary method of agricultural production in the South. Sharecropping consisted of plantations, subdivided into small farms, that were rented to freedmen for leases paid in the form of a share (usually half) of the crop produced. The system gave freedmen a measure of independence but also ensured that whites maintained control of the land.
Shays’s Rebellion
In August 1786, western Massachusetts farmers, led by Daniel Shays, violently tried to shut down three county courthouses in order to prevent foreclosure proceedings. The rebellion was easily put down, but it alerted many government officials to the weaknesses of the nation under the Articles of Confederation.
Sherman Antitrust Act
Passed in 1890 with the intention of breaking up business monopolies. The act outlawed “every contract, combination in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy in the restraint of trade.” The Sherman Antitrust Act was largely used to break up union strikes in the 1890s. It was not until the early 1900s that the government launched an aggressive antitrust campaign.
Sherman’s March to the Sea
During the Civil War, Union general William T. Sherman led his forces on a march from Atlanta to Savannah and then to Richmond. Sherman brought the South “to its knees” by ordering large-scale destruction.
Shoot-on-sight order
Issued in 1941 in response to German submarine attacks on American ships in the Atlantic ocean. The order authorized naval patrols to fire on any Axis ships found between the U.S. and Iceland.
Silent majority
A term coined by Richard Nixon during the 1968 presidential campaign. According to Nixon, he represented the “silent majority”—Americans tired of chaos, student protests, and civil rights agitation and eager for a conservative federal government.
Silent Spring
Written by Rachel Carson and published in 1962. Silent Spring exposed the environmental hazards of the pesticide DDT. Carson’s book helped spur an increase in environmental awareness and concern among the American people.
Upton Sinclair
A famous muckraker who published The Jungle in 1906. Sinclair’s novel exposed the unsanitary conditions in several meatpacking plants. It and other exposés led to the passage of laws designed to ensure the safety of foods and medicines.
Sixteenth Amendment
Ratified in 1913. The Sixteenth Amendment allowed the federal government to collect a direct income tax. Shortly thereafter, Congress instituted a graduated income tax with an upper tax rate of 7 percent.
Smith Act
Passed in 1940. The act made it illegal to speak of, or advocate, overthrowing the U.S. government. During the presidential campaign of 1948, Truman demonstrated his aggressive stance against communism by prosecuting eleven leaders of the Communist Party under the Smith Act.
John Smith
Saved the Jamestown colony from collapse in 1608, its first year of existence. Smith’s initiatives improved sanitation, hygiene, and organized work gangs to gather food and build shelters, thereby dramatically lowering the mortality rates among Jamestown colonists.
Smith-Connolly War Labor Disputes Act
Passed in 1930. The act limited the right to strike in key industries and authorized the president to intervene in any strike, eroding the generally amiable relationship between the government and organized labor during World War II.
Smoot-Hawley Tariff
One of Herbert Hoover’s early efforts to protect the nation’s farmers following the onset of the Great Depression. Unfortunately, the tariff raised rates to an all-time high, hurting farmers more than it helped them. Ninety-four percent of the imports taxed were agricultural imports.
Social Darwinism
Darwin’s theories of evolution and survival of the fittest as applied to human societies. Andrew Carnegie and others cited social Darwinist theories to justify the widening gap between the rich and the poor during the era of industrialization.
Social Security
Established by the Social Security Act of August 1935. Social Security provides benefits to the elderly and disabled. These benefits are subsidized by income tax withholdings.
Sons of Liberty
A group of colonists who led opposition to the Stamp Act.
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
Founded in 1957 by Martin Luther King Jr. and other prominent clergymen. The SCLC fought against segregation using nonviolent means.
Spanish-American War
Broke out in 1898 over U.S. concerns for the Cuban independence movement. The U.S. decisively won the war, gaining the territories of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines, and securing independence for Cuba. The victory also marked the entrance of the United States as a powerful force onto the world stage.
Speakeasies
Hidden bars during the Prohibition Era that offered live jazz music and hard liquor. Speakeasies were often run by organized crime rings.
Specie Circular
A 1836 executive order issued by President Jackson in an attempt to stabilize the economy, which had been dramatically expanding since the early 1830s due to state banks’ excessive lending practices and over-speculation. The Specie Circular required that all land payments be made in gold and silver rather than in paper money or credit. It precipitated an economic depression known as the panic of 1837.
Spheres of influence
A group of nations or territories in the unofficial economic, political, and social orbit of a greater power. NATO countries were in the U.S. sphere of influence, while the Communist countries of the Warsaw Pact were in the USSR’s sphere of influence. The term is also used to describe European and Russian influence in China at the end of the nineteenth century, when certain countries had exclusive trade and development rights in key Chinese ports and regions.
Spoils system
Provided for the removal and replacement of high-ranking officials from the previous president’s term with loyal members of the winning party. Andrew Jackson was one of the first presidents to use the spoils system extensively, claiming it was necessary to liberty. Based on the adage “to the victor go the spoils.”
Sputnik
The first artificial satellite to orbit the earth, launched by the USSR on October 4, 1957. The launch prompted the space race between the U.S. and USSR—Americans were jealous of Soviet technological skill and afraid that the same rockets that launched Sputnik could be used to deliver nuclear warheads anywhere on the globe.
Square Deal
The name Theodore Roosevelt gave to his social policies, especially his intended relationships with capital and labor. Roosevelt wanted to treat everyone fairly, and, in particular, eliminate government favors to big business.
Joseph Stalin
Dictator of the Soviet Union from 1928 until 1953. Stalin coordinated Soviet involvement in World War II, intitially cooperating with U.S. forces. The relationship between the USSR and the U.S. soured during World War II, eventually leading to the Cold War.
Stamp Act
Issued by England in 1765. The Stamp Act required colonial Americans to buy special watermarked paper for newspapers and all legal documents. Violators faced juryless trials in vice-admiralty courts, as under the 1764 Sugar Act. The Stamp Act provoked the first organized response to British impositions.
Stamp Act Congress
Representatives of nine colonial assemblies met in New York City in October 1765 in anger over the Stamp Act. The colonies agreed that Parliament could not tax anyone outside of Great Britain and could not deny anyone a fair trial, both of which had been dictates of the Stamp Act. The meeting marked a new level of colonial political organization.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
A prominent advocate of women’s rights. Stanton organized the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention with Lucretia Mott.
John Steinbeck
Major American author in the 1930s. Steinbeck’s novels depict simple, rural lives. His most famous work is The Grapes of Wrath (1939).
Thaddeus Stevens
The leader of the Radical Republicans in Congress. Thaddeus Stevens was a gifted orator and an outspoken legislator devoted to stringent and punitive Reconstruction. Stevens worked toward social and political equality for Southern blacks.
Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT)
Signed in May 1972 by President Nixon. SALT I limited each of the superpowers to 200 antiballistic missiles and set quotas for intercontinental and submarine missiles.
Strict constructionists
Favored a strict reading of the Constitution, especially of the “elastic clause,” in order to limit the powers of the central government. Led by Thomas Jefferson, strict constructionists comprised the ideological core of the Republican Party.
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)
Created in 1962. SDS united college students throughout the country in a network committed to achieving racial equality, alleviating poverty, and ending the Vietnam War.
Suez Canal
North-south waterway in Egypt that connects the Mediterranean and the Red Seas. In 1956, the Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser tried to nationalize the canal, which had been owned by British and French interests. In response, Britain, France, and Israel invaded Egypt. The U.S., United Nations, and USSR condemned the intervention and pressured the forces to withdraw in November 1956.
Suffolk Resolves
Declared that the colonies need not obey the 1773 Coercive Acts, since they infringed upon basic liberties. The Suffolk Resolves were endorsed by the First Continental Congress.
Sugar Act
1764 British law which lowered the duty on foreign-produced molasses as an attempt to discourage colonial smuggling. The Sugar Act further stipulated that Americans could export many commodities—including lumber, iron, skins, and whalebone—to foreign countries only if the goods passed through British ports first. The terms of the act and its methods of enforcement outraged many colonists.
Charles Sumner
The leading Radical Republican senator throughout the Civil War and Reconstruction. Sumner argued ardently for civil rights for blacks. He later led the defection of the Liberal Republicans from the Republican Party.
Sussex Pledge
Issued in 1916 by Germany after the U.S. threatened to break off diplomatic relations with Germany following a German U-boat attack against the French ship Sussex, which carried U.S. civilians. Germany pledged not to attack merchant ships without warning, temporarily easing the diplomatic tension between the U.S. and Germany.