chapter 7-8

Tea Act

1773 act which eliminated import tariffs on tea entering England and allowed the British East India Company to sell directly to consumers rather than through merchants. Led to the Boston Tea Party.

Boston Massacre

A massacre in Boston (March 5, 1770) arising from the resentment of Boston colonists toward British troops quartered in the city, in which the troops fired on the mob and killed five civilians. This event foreshadowed the Revolutionary War.

Yorktown

the last major engagement/battle of the war. Washington's armies along with the French naval fleet under de Grasse surrounded British general Charles Cornwallis and received his surrender It ended major engagements in the colonies, thus putting an "end" to the war.

Sons of liberty

A radical political organization for colonial independence which formed in 1765 after the passage of the Stamp Act. They incited riots and burned the customs houses where the stamped British paper was kept. After the repeal of the Stamp Act, many of the local chapters formed the Committees of Correspondence which continued to promote opposition to British policies towards the colonies. The Sons leaders included Samuel Adams and Paul Revere.

Townshend Acts

A series of laws passed in 1767 by the Parliament of Great Britain that taxed goods such as glass, paper, paint, lead, and tea. These acts led to the Boston Tea Party and later the Revolution because the people were infuriated about how much Britain controlled them still.

Thomas Paine

American Revolutionary leader(born in England) who supported the American colonist's fight for independence and supported the French Revolution (1737-1809). Wrote the document "Common Sense".

Patriots/Whigs

American colonists who were pro-revolution and independence. They were extremely passionate and zealous and were always trying to win over those colonists who were on the fence. Where apart of the Whig party. Was formed in opposition of Robert Walpole.

John Jay

American delegate who signed Treaty of Paris; New York lawyer and diplomat who negotiated with Britain and Spain on behalf of the Confederation; he later became the first chief justice of the Supreme Court and negotiated the Jay Treaty.

Patrick Henry

An American orator of the Virginia House of Burgesses who gave speeches against the British government and urging the colonies to fight for independence. He gave his most famous speech which ends with the words, "Give me liberty or give me death." Henry served as Governor of Virginia from 1776-1779 and 1784-1786, and was instrumental in causing the Bill of Rights to be adopted as part of the U.S. Constitution.

Lexington- concord

April 19, 1776. The first battle of the Revolution in which British general Thomas Gage went after the stockpiled weapons of the colonists in Concord, Massachusetts. Later referred to in Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Concord Hymn" as the shot heard around the world.

Social Contract (research)

Belief that government should be a contract between the people and the governing body. Also the notion that society is based on an agreement between government and the governed in which people agree to give up some rights in exchange for the protection of others. This relates to American History because the American democracy was build by the people for the people.

Committees of Correspondence

Committees of Correspondence, organized by patriot leader Samuel Adams, was a system of communication between patriot leaders in New England and throughout the colonies. They provided the organization necessary to unite the colonies in opposition to Parliament. The committees sent delegates to the First Continental Congress.

Boston Tea Party

Demonstration (1773) by citizens of Boston who (disguised as Indians) raided three British ships in Boston harbor and dumped hundreds of chests of tea into the harbor. This was an event because this violated the citizens of Boston only being taxed by their own government.

Continental Army

Evolved from the militia organization familiar to the colonists. Established by a resolution of the Continental Congress on June 14, 1775, it was created to coordinate the military efforts of the Thirteen Colonies in their revolt against the rule of Great Britain.

Benedict Arnold

He had been a Colonel in the Connecticut militia at the outbreak of the Revolution and soon became a General in the Continental Army. He won key victories for the colonies in the battles in upstate New York in 1777, and was instrumental in General Gates victory over the British at Saratoga. In 1780, he was caught plotting to surrender the ever important Hudson River fortress of West Point to the British in exchange for a commission in the royal army. He is the most famous traitor in American history.

Marquis de Lafayette

He was very rich and noble when he arrived in America at the age of 19 years old. He believed in the liberty that the Americans were fighting for and asked to help. He became a general on Washington's staff and fought hard. He was known as "the soldier's friend,".

Intolerable Acts

Intolerable Acts, passed in 1774, were the combination of the four Coercive Acts, meant to punish the colonists after the 1773, Boston Tea Party and the unrelated Quebec Act. The Intolerable Acts were seen by American colonists as a blueprint for a British plan to deny the Americans representative government. They were the impetus for the convening of the First Continental Congress.

Common Sense

January 15,1776 Common Sense published. Written by Thomas Paine. It stated that it was common sense to rebel against King George. America should break all ties with Britain. It sold over 100,000 copies

Sugar Act

Known as the American Revenue Act or the American Duties Act, was a revenue-raising act passed by the Parliament of Great Britain on April 5, 1764. These incidents increased the colonists' concerns about the intent of the British Parliament and helped the growing movement that became the American Revolution.

Loyalists/Tories

Loyalists were British North America colonists who remained loyal subjects of the British crown during the American Revolution. They were also called Tories, King's Men, or Royalists. Those Loyalists who left and resettled in Canada called themselves the United Empire Loyalists.

Stamp Act

March 22, 1765 - British legislation passed as part of Prime Minister Grenville's revenue measures which required that all legal or official documents used in the colonies, such as wills, deeds and contracts, had to be written on special, stamped British paper. It was so unpopular in the colonies that it caused riots, and most of the stamped paper sent to the colonies from Britain was burned by angry mobs. Because of this opposition, and the decline in British imports caused by the non- importation movement, London merchants convinced Parliament to repeal the Stamp Act in 1766.

Samuel Adams

Massachusetts Revolutionary leader and propagandist who organized opposition to British policies after 1764; radical member of Sons of Liberty, worried that violence of group would discredit it; proposed united plea for repeal of Townshend Duties and another pan-colonial congress; circulated his own exaggerated version of events around colonies.

Declaratory Act

Passed in 1766 just after the repeal of the Stamp Act, the Declaratory Act stated that Parliament could legislate for the colonies in all cases. Most colonists interpreted the act as a face-saving mechanism and nothing more. Parliament, however, continually interpreted the act in its broadest sense in order to legislate in and control the colonies.

Coercive (repressive) acts

Refer to the same acts, passed in 1774 in response to the Boston Tea Party, and which included the Boston Port Act, which shut down Boston Harbor; the Massachusetts Government Act, which disbanded the Boston Assembly (but it soon reinstated itself); the Quartering Act, which required the colony to provide provisions for British soldiers; and the Administration of Justice Act, which removed the power of colonial courts to arrest royal officers.

Natural Rights

Rights inherent in human beings, not dependent on governments, which include life, liberty, and property. The concept of natural rights was central to English philosopher John Locke's theories about government and was widely accepted among America's Founders.

John Adams

Secretary of State, He served as sixth president under Monroe. In 1819, he drew up the Adams-Onis Treaty in which Spain gave the United States Florida in exchange for the United States dropping its claims to Texas. The Monroe Doctrine was mostly Adams' work.

First Continental Congress

The First Continental Congress convened on September 5, 1774, to protest the Intolerable Acts. The congress endorsed the Suffolk Resolves, voted for a boycott of British imports, and sent a petition to King George III, conceding to Parliament the power of regulation of commerce but stringently objecting to its arbitrary taxation and unfair judicial system.

2nd Continental Congress

The congress met in Philadelphia on May 10, 1775. Three delegaters added to the Congress were Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and John Hancock. The Congress took on governmental duties and united all the colonies for the war effort. They selected George Washington as Commander of the army. They encouraged the colonies to set themselves up as states. On July 4, 1776 they adopted the Declaration of Independence. The Congress ended March 1, 1781 when a Congress authorized by the Articles of Confederation took over.

George Washington

The dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army in 1775-1783, and presided over the writing of the Constitution in 1787.

Salutary Neglect

Throughout the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, the English government did not enforce those trade laws that most harmed the colonial economy. The purpose of salutary neglect was to ensure the loyalty of the colonists in the face of the French territorial and commercial threat in North America. The English ceased practicing salutary neglect following British victory in the French and Indian War.

Thomas Jefferson

Virginian, architect, author, governor, and president. Lived at Monticello. Wrote the Declaration of Independence. Second governor of Virgina. Third president of the United States. Designed the buildings of the University of Virginia.

John Locke

Wrote Two Treatises on Government as justification of Glorious Revolution and end of absolutism in England. He argued that man is born good and has rights to life, liberty, and property. To protect these rights, people enter social contract to create government with limited powers. If a government did not protect these rights or exceeded its authority, Locke believed the people have the right to revolt. The ideas of consent of the governed, social contract, and right of revolution influenced the United States Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. He also laid the foundations for criticism of absolute monarchy in France.

Mercenaries

a professional soldier, soldier of fortune, swashbuckler, private military contractor, or freelancer, is a person who takes part in an armed conflict who is not a national or a party to the conflict

Crispus Atticus

once of the 5 colonists killed in the Boston Massacre. Atticus was a runaway slave who it is said led the protest against The Townshend Acts that resulted in the bloody conflict with the British soldiers.