Term
Chapter 7: The Road to Revelution
radical Whigs |
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Definition
Eighteenth-century British political 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. (127) |
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Term
Chapter 7: The Road to Revolution
republicanism |
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Definition
Political theory of representative government, based on the principle of popular sovereignty, with a strong emphasis on liberty and civic virtue. Influential in eighteenth century American political thought, it stood as an alternative to monarchical rule. (126) |
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Term
Chapter 7: The Road to Revolution
mercantilism |
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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. (127) |
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Term
Chapter 7: The Road to Revolution
Sugar Act (1764) |
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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. (129) |
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Term
Chapter 7: The Road to Revolution
Quartering Act (1765) |
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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. (129) |
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Term
Chapter 7: The Road to Revolution
admiralty courts |
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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. (129)
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Term
Chapter 7: The Road to Revolution
Stamp Act Congress (1765) |
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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. (130)
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Term
Chapter 7: The Road to Revolution
nonimportation agreements (1765 and after) |
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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. (131) |
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Term
Chapter 7: The Road to Revolution
Sons/Daughters of Liberty |
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Definition
Patriotic groups that played a central role in agitating against the Stamp Act and enforcing non-importation agreements. |
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Term
Chapter 7: The Road to Revolution
Declaratory Act (1766) |
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Definition
Passed alongside the repeal of the Stamp Act, it reaffirmed Parliament’s unqualified sovereignty over the North American colonies. (132) |
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Term
Chapter 7: The Road to Revolution
Townshend Acts (1767) |
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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. (132) |
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Term
Chapter 7: The Road to Revolution
Boston Massacre (1770) |
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Definition
Clash between unruly Bostonian protestors and locally-stationed British redcoats, who fired on the jeering crowd, killing or wounding eleven citizens. (133) |
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Term
Chapter 7: The Road to Revolution
committees of correspondence (1772 and after) |
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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. (134) |
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Term
Chapter 7: The Road to Revolution
Boston Tea Party (1773) |
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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 Boston harbor, prompting harsh sanctions from the British Parliament. (135) |
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Term
Chapter 7: The Road to Revolution
“Intolerable Acts” (1774) |
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Definition
Series of punitive measures passed in 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. (136) |
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Term
Chapter 7: The Road to Revolution
Quebec Act (1774) |
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Definition
Allowed the French residents of Québec to retain their traditional political and religious institutions, and extended 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. (136) |
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Term
Chapter 7: The Road to Revolution
First Continental Congress (1774) |
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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. (137) |
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Term
Chapter 7: The Road to Revolution
The Association (1774) |
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Definition
Non-importation agreement crafted during the First Continental Congress calling for the complete boycott of British goods. (138) |
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Term
Chapter 7: The Road to Revolution
Lexington and Concord, Battles of (April 1775) |
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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. (138) |
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Term
Chapter 7: The Road to Revolution
Stamp Tax |
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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. (129) |
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Term
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Definition
By 1775, the thirteen American colonies east of the Appalachians were inhabited by a burgeoning population of two million whites and half a million blacks. The white population was increasingly a melting pot of diverse ethnic groups, including Germans and the Scots-Irish.
Compared with Europe, America was a land of equality and opportunity (for whites), but relative to the seventeenth-century colonies, there was a rising economic hierarchy and increasing social complexity. Ninety percent of Americans remained agriculturalists. But a growing class of wealthy planters and merchants appeared at the top of the social pyramid, in contrast with slaves and “jayle birds” from England, who formed a visible lower class.
By the early eighteenth century, the established New England Congregational Church was losing religious fervor. The Great Awakening, sparked by fiery preachers such as Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield, spread a new style of emotional worship that revived religious zeal. Colonial education and culture were generally undistinguished, although science and journalism displayed some vigor. Politics was everywhere an important activity, as representative colonial assemblies battled on equal terms with politically appointed governors from England. |
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