Chapter 9: The Confederation and the Constitution, 1776-1790

disestablish - To separate an official state church from its connection with the government.

Emancipation - setting free from servitude or slavery

Chattel - an article of personal or movable property; hence a term applied to slaves, since they were considered the personal property of their owners.

abolitionist - favoring the end of slavery

ratification - The confirmation or validation of an act (such as the constitution) by authoritative approval.

bill of rights - A list of fundamental freedoms assumed to be central to society.

aliens - Foreigners; also, persons resident in but not citizens of a country.

township - in America, a surveyed territory six miles square; the term also refers to a unit of social government, smaller than a country that is often based on these survey units.

Territory - In American, government an organized political entity not yet enjoying full equal terms of a state.

Annex - To make a smaller territory or political unit part of a larger one.

Requisition - a demand for something issued on the basis of public authority.

Foreclosure - depriving someone of the right to redeem mortgaged property because the legal payments on the loan have not been kept up.

Quorum - the minimum number of persons who must be present in a group before it can conduct valid business.

Anarchy - the theory that formal government is unnecessary and wrong in principle; the term is also used generally for lawlessness or anti-governmental disorder.

Bicameral, unicameral - referring to a legislative body with two houses (bicameral) or one (unicameral). “…representation in both houses of a bicameral congress should be based on population…”