Term
|
Definition
| Political theory of representative government, based on the principle of popular sovereignty, with a strong emphasis on liberty and civic virtue. Influential in eigh teenth-century American political thought, it stood as an alternative to monarchical rule. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Economic theory that closely linked a nation's political and military power to its bullion reserves. Mercantilists generally favored protectionism and colonial acquisition as means to increase exports. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Eighteenth-century British politician commentators who agitated against political corruption and emphasized the threat to liberty posed by arbitrary power. Their writings shaped American political thought and made colonists especially alert to encroachments on their rights. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Used to try offenders for violating the various Navigation Acts passed by the crown after the French and Indian War. Colonists argued that the courts encroached on their rights as Englishmen since they lacked juries and placed the burden of proof on the accused. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Required colonies to provide food and quarters for British troops. Many colonists resented the act which they perceived as an encroachment on their rights. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Widely unpopular tax on an array of paper goods, repealed in 1766 after mass protests erupted across the colonies. Colonists developed the principle of “no taxation without representation” which questioned Parliament’s authority over the colonies and laid the foundation for future revolutionary claims. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Duty on imported sugar from the West Indies. It was the first tax levied on the colonists by the crown and was lowered substantially in response to widespread protests. |
|
|
Term
| Stamp Act Congress (1765) |
|
Definition
| Assembly of delegates from nine colonies who met in New York City to draft a petition for the repeal of the Stamp Act. Helped ease sectional suspicions and promote intercolonial unity. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Patriotic groups that played a central role in agitating against the Stamp Act and enforcing non-importation agreements. |
|
|
Term
| Non-importation agreements (1765 and after) |
|
Definition
| Boycotts against British goods adopted in response to the Stamp Act and , later, the Townshend and Intolerable Acts. The agreements were the most effective form of protest against British policies in the colonies. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Patriotic groups that played a central role in agitating against the Stamp Act and enforcing non-importation agreements. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Passed alongside the repeal of the Stamp Act. it reaffirmed Parliament's unqualified sovereignty over the North American colonies. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| External, or indirect, levies on glass, white lead, paper, paint and tea, the proceeds of which were used to pay colonial governors, who had previously been paid directly by colonial assemblies. Sparked another round of protests in the colonies. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Clash between unruly Bostonian protestors and locally stationed British redcoats, who fired on the jeering crowd, killing or wounding eleven citizens. |
|
|
Term
| Committees of correspondence (1772 and after) |
|
Definition
| Local committees established across Massachusetts, and later in each of the thirteen colonies, to maintain colonial opposition to British policies through the exchange of letters and pamphlets. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Rowdy protest against the British East India Company's newly acquired monopoly on the tea trade. Colonists, disguised as Indians, dumped 342 chests of tea into the Boston harbor, prompting harsh sanctions from the British Parliament. |
|
|
Term
| "Intolerable Acts" (1774) |
|
Definition
| Series of punitive measures passed on retaliation for the Boston Tea Party, closing the Port of Boston, revoking a number of rights in the Massachusetts colonial charter and expanding the Quartering Act to allow for the lodging of soldiers in private homes. In response, colonists convened the First Continental Congress and called for a complete boycott of British goods. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Allowed the French residents of Quebec to retain their traditional political and religious institutions, and extend the boundaries of the province southward to the Ohio River, Mistakenly perceived by the colonists to be part of Parliament's response to the Boston Tea Party. |
|
|
Term
| First Continental Congress (1774) - |
|
Definition
| Convention of delegates from twelve of the thirteen colonies that convened in Philadelphia to craft a response to the Intolerable Acts. Delegates established Association, which called for a complete boycott of British goods. |
|
|
Term
| Lexington and Concord, Battles of (April 1775) |
|
Definition
| First battles of the Revolutionary War, fought outside of Boston. The colonial militia successfully defended their stores of munitions, forcing the British to retreat to Boston. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Non-importation agreement crafted during the First Continental Congress calling for the complete boycott of British goods. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Encampment where George Washington’s poorly-equipped army spent a wretched, freezing winter. Hundreds of men died and more than a thousand deserted. The plight of the starving, shivering soldiers reflected the main weakness of the American army—a lack of stable supplies and munitions. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Made money through smuggling |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Prime minister who ordered the British Navy to enforce the Navigation Act. He also secured the Sugar Act from Parliament |
|
|
Term
| Charles (“Champagne Charley”) Townshend |
|
Definition
| Delivered brilliant speeches to Parliament and persuaded them to pass the Townshend Acts in 1767 |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Leader of the mob at the Boston Massacre |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| At 32, he intensely attempted to assert the power of the British monarchy |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Prime minister to George III |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Organized the committees of correspondence in Massachusetts |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| - Massachusetts governor who believed the tea tax was unjust but strongly believed that colonists had no right to flout the law |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Wealthy young French nobleman who ended up being a general at age 19 |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| German drillmaster who was considered to be an “organizational genius”. Spoke no English when he first came to America |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Royal governor of Virginia who issued a proclamation promising freedom for any enslaved black in Virginia who joined the British army |
|
|
