Brinkley Chapters 1-31 Final Review

Bill of Rights

This term refers to the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution. James Madison, considered the "father of the Constitution," guided the amendments through the new Congress. The amendments were ratified by the requisite number of states on December 15, 1791 and went into effect on March 1, 1792. The amendments protect individual liberties and states' rights against the power of the national government.

Paxton Boys

A group of American rebels in Pennsylvania, who were Scots-Irish frontiersmen. In 1763, threatened by Pontiac 's Rebellion and agitated by lack of colonial defense and political representation, they first massacred some Christian Native Americans and then marched on Philadelphia, where Ben Franklin managed to pacify them. They were symptomatic of a long-term antagonism between frontier and coastal settlers, having many similarities with Bacon's Rebellion (1676) and the Carolina Regulators (1768 - 71).

headright system

A land policy created in Virginia and Maryland designed to encourage settlement by providing 50 acres of land to anyone who settled in the colony

Northwest Ordinance of 1787

Adopted by the Confederation Congress on July 13, 1787, this act applied to the territories north of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi River. It provided for the governance of the territories and made a provision for the eventual admission of between three and five states from those territories. Since those states would have the same rights as the original 13, the law assured that the United States would not become a colonial power on the North American continent. The states eventually carved from this law were Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

Federalist Papers

Alexander Hamilton, with the help of James Madison and John Jay wrote this--a brilliant series of essays explaining and defending the national government created by the Constitutional Convention of 1787. These essays serve as a primary source for interpretation of the Constitution, as they outline the philosophy and motivation of the proposed system of government. According to historian Richard B. Morris, they are an "incomparable exposition of the Constitution, a classic in political science unsurpassed in both breadth and depth by the product of any later American writer."

Pueblo Revolt

Also known as Popé's Rebellion — this an uprising of most of Native Americans against the Spanish colonizers in the province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México, present day New Mexico. The revolt killed 400 Spanish and drove the remaining 2,000 settlers out of the province. Twelve years later the Spanish returned and were able to reoccupy New Mexico with little opposition.

Olive Branch Petition

Although fighting had already erupted between the colonists and the British Army, the Second Continental Congress sent this petition to King George III in July 1775, requesting that the king help broker a compromise between the patriots and the British Parliament. George never answered the petition, and in fact proclaimed the colonists to be in rebellion in August 1775. The fighting escalated during 1775 and 1776, prompting the Continental Congress to adopt the Declaration of Independence in July 1776.

Mercy Otis Warren

As a talented writer with access to the most important political leaders of her day, she became an important historian, poet, and playwright of the American Revolution. Much of her work helped generate a spirit of resistance to British tyranny.

Battle of Fallen Timbers

Beginning in 1790, a coalition of American Indians under Miami chieftain Little Turtle defied efforts by the U.S. government to remove them from their lands. The Miami scored two major victories against the US Army. The government responded by dispatching Gen. Anthony Wayne, a distinguished veteran of the American Revolution, to deal with the uprising. In 1794, Wayne confronted the main force of the Miami at this battle. Though Wayne lost 33 dead and 100 wounded, the Miami villages were destroyed. The defeat of the Indians led to the signing of the Treaty of Greenville in 1795, which ceded much of present-day Ohio to the United States, paving the way for the creation of that state in 1803.

tobacco

By 1617 John Rolfe's experiments with this "cash crop" had provided Virginia with a staple export of high value. As a result, this single product served as the chief incentive for the demographic and economic growth of the Chesapeake. Indentured servants and slaves from the West Indies and Africa were in high demand to plant and harvest the crop.

Committees of Correspondence

Colonial radicals formed these groups in 1772 in order to step up communications among the colonies, and to plan joint action in case of trouble. Their organization was a key step in the direction of establishing an organized colony-wide resistance movement.

Neutrality Act

Congress based its act on President Washington's neutrality proclamation of 1793 and the "Rules Governing Belligerents" drawn up in 1793 as instructions to American customs agents. Providing guidelines for neutral action, the law prohibited arming new belligerent vessels in US ports but recognized the legal equipment of foreign vessels. It also prohibited the recruitment of soldiers or sailors within the US territory by a belligerent agent. In many respects, it made activity such as that Genêt had taken officially illegal.

First Continental Congress

Delegates from twelve colonies attended this meeting in Philadelphia in 1774. The delegates denied Parliament's authority to legislate for the colonies, adopted the Declaration of Rights and Grievances, created a Continental Association to enforce a boycott, and endorsed a call to take up arms.

Republican Mothers

During the American Revolution many women of all classes became politically active and participated in various ways for the cause. Women took part in boycotts and riots, and served as "Daughters of Liberty." After the Revolution, women were NOT given a larger place in political life or allowed the right to vote. Even if women did not take part in public life, through their role in the home they could raise their sons to become the upholders of the virtues needed by freemen in a free society. This role recognized the reality of restrictions on women but also gave them a vital role ensuring the success of the republic by instilling in its future generations the moral and political values necessary for good citizenship.

Alexander Hamilton

During the American Revolution, he helped lead the assault at Yorktown that resulted in a British surrender. In the 1780s, he became a vocal critic of the Articles of Confederation, condemning them for their ineffectiveness. At the Constitutional Convention, he, with such notables as James Madison and Benjamin Franklin pushed for a powerful executive and federal supremacy. He rallied support for the new constitution through writing of several articles that, along with those of Madison and John Jay, became known as the Federalist Papers. With the Constitution ratified and Washington elected, he was appointed secretary of the treasury. As Treasury Secretary, he immediately confronted the main problem facing the new government, namely its finances. In building support for his program, he created the Federalist Party. In 1804, he was killed in a duel with his political nemesis, Aaron Burr.

Tea Act

Enacted by the British Parliament in 1773, this act served two purposes: first, it offered a financial bailout to the failing East India Company by giving it a monopoly on tea importation in North America; and second, it was a symbolic tax on the increasingly recalcitrant American colonists. Citizens from all of the major ports voiced loud objections to the new tax. In December 1773 in Boston, where 60 colonists dressed as Indians threw 342 chests of tea into the harbor in what became known as the Boston Tea Party.

Plymouth-Pilgrims

English Separatists who drafted the Mayflower Compact and established Plymouth Plantation in 1620. They celebrated their survival with a Thanksgiving feast in 1621 with local Wampanoag Indians.

Fundamental Orders of Connecticut

Established in the 1630s, this was the first written constitution in the American colonies. This document described a system of government for the new community.

joint-stock companies

Few individual merchants had the capital for the ships and cargoes needed to open new markets, let alone the wherewithal for warehousing, business permits, and living expenses in foreign ports. These chartered companies allowed a number of people invest money and agree to share liability and profits in proportion to their investment. Because it could provide a greater fund of capital, these companies became the preferred instrument for extending English trade to new markets.

Whiskey Rebellion

Hamilton, unmoved by the plight of the farmers, convinced President George Washington to call up the militia and make a show of force against the farmers. The farmers chose not to fight, but the militia occupied some western Pennsylvania counties for months. This rebellion tested the principles of representative government and the powers of taxation in the new nation.

James Madison

He is often called the "Father of the Constitution" for his critical role in the drafting of the U.S. Constitution. In addition to his remarkable contributions at the Constitutional Convention, he dedicated his life to public service: he authored many of the Federalist Papers; he crafted and sponsored the Bill of Rights; he joined Jefferson in founding the Democratic-Republican Party; he drafted the Virginia Resolves; (as Secretary of State) he guided the successful negotiations for the Louisiana Purchase; and (as president) he successfully guided the United States through the War of 1812.

Lord Baltimore

He played an important role in establishing the foundations of government and society in the British colony of Maryland. He is often called its founder, although he himself never traveled to America. The outstanding achievement of his lifetime was the establishment of a form of government in Maryland where all Christian religious sects were equal before the law.

Nathanael Greene

He was a major general of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War. When the war began, he was a militia private, the lowest rank possible; he emerged from the war with a reputation as George Washington's most gifted and dependable officer. He commanded Patriot armies in the backcountry of North and South Carolina in 1778-1781. His guerrilla tactics harassed General Cornwallis's army as it moved toward Virginia and the decision at Yorktown in 1781.

Ben Franklin

He was a writer, scientist, delegate to the Continental Congress, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and delegate to the Constitutional Convention.

George Whitefield

He was an Anglican minister with great oratorical skills. His emotion-charged sermons were a centerpiece of the Great Awakening in the American colonies in the 1740s.

George Washington

He was appointed by the Second Continental Congress as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army in 1775. His ability to learn under duress and refusal to accept defeat kept an American army in the field. At the Battle of Yorktown in 1781 with French troop and naval support, he was able to entrap the British troops and force surrender. At the end of the war in 1783, he was the most famous man in America.

Benedict Arnold

He was arguably the finest tactical commander in the Continental Army and directly responsible for several important American victories. But his tempestuous disposition alienated friends and superiors alike. Furious because of a lack of recognition, he threatened to resign and ultimately considered joining with the British. When he offered to betray West Point to the British for a large cash sum, he fled to the safety of a British warship, completing the most notorious episode of treason in U.S. history.

Roger Williams

He was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for challenging Puritan ideas. He later established Rhode Island and helped it to foster religious toleration and separation of church and state.

Patrick Henry

He was one of the great figures of the revolutionary generation. He stood in the vanguard of those calling for united action by all the colonies against British "tyranny." He was a firebrand demanding national independence, as seen in his "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death" speech at an extralegal session of the Virginia Assembly in March 1775. During the war and its immediate aftermath he was five times governor of Virginia.

William Penn

He was the Quaker proprietor of a colony that became a refuge for persecuted Quakers. He treated Indians fairly, and his well-advertised colony became the most economically successful in English North America.

John Winthrop

He was the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. His "Model of Christian Charity" encouraged fellow Puritans to create a "city upon a hill."

Stono Rebellion

In 1739, approximately 20 slaves in South Carolina developed a plan for escaping to freedom in Spanish-held Florida. The slaves went to a shop that sold firearms, armed themselves, then killed the two shopkeepers who were manning the shop. Other slaves then joined the rebellion. By late that afternoon, they had killed twenty-five whites. By 4pm, local whites had set out in armed pursuit. By dusk, thirty rebel slaves were dead and most others were captured and executed. Tougher slave laws followed: no longer would slaves be allowed to grow their own food, assemble in groups, earn their own money, or learn to read.

Boston Tea Party

In 1773, patriot colonists led by the Sons of Liberty protested the Tea Act and the monopoly granted to the British East India Company by boarding three British ships in Boston Harbor and destroying 342 chests of Britsh Tea.

Citizen Genet Affair

In 1793 he was dispatched to the United States to promote American support for France's wars with Spain and Britain. His goals in were to recruit and arm American privateers which would join French expeditions against the British. He also organized American volunteers to fight Britain's Spanish allies in Florida. His actions endangered American neutrality in the war between France and Britain, which Washington had pointedly declared in his Neutrality Proclamation.

Proclamation of 1763

In an effort to avoid any future conflict with the Native Americans after the French and Indian War, the British issued this proclamation--that no English colonists shall be allowed to settle west of the Appalachian Mountains. Passed in the wake of Pontiac's Rebellion, the edict forbade private citizens and colonial governments alike to buy land from or make any agreements with natives. The majority of colonists despised the proclamation because it restricted their freedom to settle on western lands. It became one in a long list of colonial grievances against the British.

Dominion of New England

In the 1680s, King James II reorganized the American colonies to bring greater imperial supervision of the New England colonies and New York. James II planned to combine eight northern colonies into a single large province, to be governed by a royal appointee (Sir Edmund Andros) with an appointed council but no elective assembly.

Puritans

In the years between the mid-16th century and the early 17th century, this group of reformers developed within the Church of England who wanted to steer the church toward a more Protestant, Calvinistic theology and purge the church of all remnants of Catholicism. These reformers acquired their name because of the desire to purify the Church of England. Some saw that the discovery of the New World as an unique opportunity: they could create a model church in America as an example, a "city on a hill" for all to follow. In the 1630s, the they established the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which quickly grew to have a population of several thousand people, many of them centered in Boston but others scattered throughout New England.

Saratoga

In this 1777 battle, British General Burgoyne surrendered his force to American General Horatio Gates. The American victory proved to be a turning point in the American Revolution because it thwarted a British plan to divide the colonies and it convinced France to recognize the United States and sign the Treaty of Amity and Commerce.

indentured servants

Laborers who agreed to work for a contracted period of time, usually seven years, in exchange for passage to America.

slave codes

Many states enacted these laws as early as the 17th century. These laws were state regulations governing the movement and activities of slaves. These goal was to prevent escape attempts, and to reduce the chances of any slaves gathering in large numbers for the purpose of revolts. South Carolina passed its first law in 1686. Additional laws were written after the Stono Rebellion of 1739.

Christopher Columbus

Navigator of the first recorded European expedition to cross the Atlantic Ocean in search of the elusive route to Asia, this explorer landed instead on islands in the Caribbean Sea. His voyage, which was well publicized in Europe, stimulated exploration of what was for 15th-century Europeans an undiscovered world, the Americas.

Coercive Acts

Parliament responded to the Boston Tea Party by passing these acts in 1774. They intended to punish Boston and Massachusetts generally for the crime committed by a few individuals. Colonists called these the Intolerable Acts.

Albany Plan

Plan of union proposed by Benjamin Franklin. The plan was for a permanent confederation among the British colonies in America with an elected parliament to organize their defense and the authority to raise taxes. The plan was rejected by the individual colonial assemblies, but it was an early proposal for unity.

Articles of Confederation

Ratified in 1781, this was the United States's first constitution. It sharply limited central authority by denying the national government any coercive power including the power to tax and to regulate trade. The articles set up the loose confederation of states that comprised the first national government from 1781 to 1788.

Quakers

Religious group that settled in Pennsylvania and led by William Penn—believed in equality, tolerance, and religious freedom

Constitutional Convention

Responding to calls for a stronger and more energetic national government, 55 delegates met in the summer of 1787 to draft a new constitution to replace the ineffective Articles of Confederation. The product that was created here, the Constitution of the United States, was ratified in 1788. It replaced the Articles of Confederation as the governing document for the United States, and transformed the constitutional basis of government from confederation to federation, also making it the world's oldest federal constitution.

Abigail Adams

She holds a unique place in American history as both the wife of one president and the mother of another. In her own right, she was an ardent American patriot. Her perseverance during the American Revolution kept her family together and enabled her husband, John, to devote himself entirely to the patriot cause. Her letters provided her husband with information and shrewd insights into the political situation in Boston while he was absent. In one letter, she urged her husband to "remember the ladies" in an age when women were seen as strictly domestic.

Anne Hutchinson

She was a Massachusetts Bay Puritan who was banished for criticizing the colony's ministers and magistrates, and for her heresy of antinomianism. She then moved to the colony of Portsmouth in Rhode Island.

Tories

Sometimes called Loyalists, these Americans hesitated to take up arms against England. They may have been as much as one-third of the colonists in 1776. Many were royal appointees, Anglican clergymen, or Atlantic merchants. They were poorly organized and of limited help to British armies, but the Patriots persecuted them.

mestizos

Spanish men often had relationships with Native American women because few women accompanied the conquistadors of the 16th and 17th centuries on their trips to the Americas. This is a term traditionally used in Spanish America for a person of combined European and American Indian descent. The term was used as an ethnic/racial category in the social hierarchy that was in use during the Spanish Empire's control of their New World colonies. To the Spanish they were racially inferior and could never attain the status of full-blooded Europeans.

John Peter Zenger

The 1735 trial of this New York newspaper editor resulted in a not guilty verdict, since his articles were based on fact. This acquittal was the first important victory for freedom of the press in the colonies and set an important precedent for the libel cases of the future.

Columbian Exchange

The exchange of plants, animals, foods, human populations, communicable diseases, and ideas between the Eastern and Western hemispheres after Columbus's voyage in 1492. For example, the Americas offered tomatoes, potatoes, corn, squash, strawberries, and buffalo to Europe, while Europe gave wheat, sugar, tea, coffee, horses, cattle, and smallpox to the Americas.

House of Burgesses

The first elected legislative assembly in the New World, formed in Virginia in 1619

Conquistadores

The first groups of Spanish adventurers who came to the New World to explore territory and claim riches were known by this term. The two most famous were Hernán Cortés and Francisco Pizarro, the victors in Mexico and Peru. Both men led small Spanish forces but shrewdly manipulated traditional native jealousies in order to enlarge their numbers and to defeat large indigenous armies. The name is synonymous with conquest, but the term is also associated with the great riches of gold and silver won for themselves and the crown of Spain.

Separatists

These English Protestants were extreme reformers. They were severely critical of the Church of England. Their chief complaint was that too many elements of the Roman Catholic Church had been retained, such as the ecclesiastical courts, clerical vestments, altars and the practice of kneeling. They were also critical of the lax standards of public behavior, citing widespread drunkenness and the failure of many to keep the Sabbath properly. In 1620, they set out for a remote location that would allow them to protect their community. This effort resulted in the founding of Plymouth Colony.

Hessians

These German troops were hired by the British in 1775 to help suppress rebellion in the colonies. Colonists took offense, and Britain's use of these mercenaries made reconciliation with the colonies seem out of the question.

Townshend Duties

These acts of Parliament, passed in 1767, imposed duties on colonial tea, lead, paint, paper, and glass. The purpose of these duties was to help support government in America. The act prompted a successful colonial nonimportation movement. Parliament gradually rescinded the tax on all of the items enumerated in the laws except tea. The episode served as another important step in the coming of the American Revolution.

Lexington and Concord

These battles, fought on April 19, 1775 were the opening engagements of the American Revolution. Though there had been increasing violence and unrest throughout New England for several years, the colonists killed 73 British soldiers and wounded 174 and therefore brought the American patriots into open rebellion.

Proprietary Colonies

These colonies were the prevailing type of English colony in America during the mid-17th century. They were established when the king granted royal charters to individuals. The distribution of land, the establishment of cities and towns, the issuance of laws and decrees, the formation of militia forces, and the creation of courts were all the exclusive prerogative of the designated individual.

Navigation Acts

These laws were passed by Parliament to implement mercantilistic assumptions about trade. They were intended to regulate the flow of goods in imperial commerce to the greater benefit of the mother county. One of these laws, for example, called for imperial trade to be conducted using English or colonial ships with mainly English crews. Another law created vice-admiralty courts in the colonies.

Anti-Federalists

They were a loosely organized group that arose after the American Revolution to oppose the Constitution and the strong central government that it created. They feared the potential of strong governments to infringe on the liberties of the people and the rights of the states.

Pequot War

This 1637 war between English settlers and the native tribe of Connecticut began after the indians murdered an English trader. The settlers retaliated with the aid of their allies, the Mohegans and the Narrangansetts. They attacked the main Native American town on the Mystic River and slaughtered hundreds of men, women and children, effectively destroying the tribe.

Bacon's Rebellion

This 1676 uprising in in the Virginia Colony was the first rebellion in the American colonies in which discontented frontiersmen violently protested against the governor of Virginia, William Berkeley, accusing him of levying unfair taxes, of appointing friends to high positions, and of failing to protect outlying farmers from Indian attack. After months of conflict, Jamestown was burned to the ground.

Sugar Act

This 1764 Act initiated prime minister George Grenville's plan to place tariffs on some colonial imports as a means of raising revenue needed to finance England's expanded North American empire. It also called for more strict enforcement of the Navigation Acts. The end of "salutary neglect" and the effort to curb smuggling led to many of the early colonial protests against British interference in colonial affairs.

Stamp Act

This 1765 Act of Parliament was the first purely direct (revenue) tax Parliament imposed on the colonies. It was an excise tax on printed matter, including legal documents, publications, and playing cards, and the revenue produced was supposed to defray expenses for defending the colonies. Americans opposed it as "taxation without representation" and prevented its enforcement; Parliament repealed it a year after its enactment.

Common Sense

This 50-page pamphlet, written by Thomas Paine, inspired the Declaration of Independence. Even after fighting broke out in April 1775, many Americans were reluctant to break their ties to England. Paine's publication in January 1776 helped remove that obstacle by convincing the colonists that further association with the English king was undesirable. It was highly influential and sold more than 120,000 copies in the first three months, making it the biggest best-seller of its time.

Sam Adams

This American revolutionary political leader rose to prominence in the Massachusetts assembly during the opposition to the Stamp Act in 1765. An organizer of Boston's Sons of Liberty, he conceived of the Boston Committee of Correspondence and took a leading role in its formation and operations from 1772 through 1774. He was among those who planned and coordinated Boston's resistance to the Tea Act, which climaxed in the famous Tea Party, and he later worked for the creation of the Continental Congress, helping propel it into supporting Massachusetts in the crisis.

Land Ordinance of 1785

This act was adopted by the United States Congress (under the Articles of Confederation) on May 20, 1785. The act provided for the political organization of these territories and laid the foundations of land policy in the United States. Land was to be systematically surveyed into square "townships", six miles on a side and then be further subdivided for sale to settlers and land speculators. The law was also significant for establishing a mechanism for funding public education. Section 16 in each township was reserved for the maintenance of public schools.

Toleration Act

This act was passed in 1649 to allow a degree of religious freedom in Maryland. It was particularly intended to protect Catholics from persecution in a colony with a large Protestant population. It created one of the first statutes passed by a legislative body of an organized colonial government to guarantee any degree of religious liberty.

Yorktown

This battle proved to be the decisive battle in the revolutionary defeat of Great Britain at the hands of American colonists. After the failure of his Carolinas campaign, British general Lord Charles Cornwallis withdrew his army into Virginia and hoped to receive reinforcements. Before that could occur, however, the Franco-American Army, commanded by Gen. George Washington arrived and laid siege to the city. British reinforcements were also cut off by the arrival of French admiral François de Grasse, who drove the British Navy out of Chesapeake Bay and ensured that it could not support Cornwallis. Giving up any hope of assistance, Cornwallis surrendered his troops on October 19, 1781.

French and Indian War

This conflict had its focal point in North America and pitted the French and their Native American allies against the English and their Native American allies. Although it lasted from 1754-1763, the event was known in Europe as the Seven Years' War. This struggle drove the French from North America, but it fundamentally changed the relationship between Britain and the American colonies.

Mayflower Compact

This document written in 1620 by the Pilgrims establishing themselves as a "civil body politic" and setting guidelines for self-government for "the general good of the colony."

mercantilism

This economic theory advocated a favorable balance of trade to guarantee the economic self-sufficiency of a nation and the growth of its wealth and power. Supporters of this theory advocated possession of colonies as places where the mother country could acquire raw materials not available at home.

Iroquois Confederacy

This group was the dominant Native American military power in North America during the 18th century. The five separate nations composing this group were the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca. Their peaceful coexistence allowed them to benefit economically from trade with both the English and the French. They largely sided with the British in the French and Indian War, but the American Revolution itself was a catastrophe for this group. The dispute separated the Mohawks, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas, who sided with the British, from the Oneidas and Tuscaroras who fought with the patriots.

Salem Witch Trials

This hysteria was precipitated when a nine-year-old girl attempted to divine the future in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. When she and other girls subsequently began acting in peculiar ways, they were diagnosed as being under Satan's influence. The governor set up a Court of Oyer and Terminer (meaning "to hear and to determine") to examine the cases. Twenty-seven individuals were tried for witchcraft in1692; the 19 who refused to confess were executed.

Pontiac's Rebellion

This indian uprising began in 1763 when a grand council of Potawatomis, Hurons and Ottawas was called to rise up against the British and American colonials and drive them back across the mountains. The British sent 15 regiments to restore order, but the war had been costly for the white settlements that were affected: an estimated 2,000 civilians and some 400 soldiers died during the conflict. To prevent future conflict with the indians, the British restricted American settlement west of the Appalachian mountains.

Second Continental Congress

This meeting gathered in May 1775 in Philadelphia. It was immediately faced with the pressure of rapidly unfolding military events. It served as the colonial government during the American Revolution. It issued paper money, made decisions that controlled the Continental Army, established committees to acquire war supplies, and investigated the possibilities of foreign assistance. This became the crucial governmental body of revolutionary America.

Regulator Movement

This movement began in 1766 when backcountry farmers in the Carolinas protested a series of government abuses and taxes. Many farmers were unable to pay these taxes and fees and as a result lost their land to corrupt officials. By 1768 the movement had turned violent. In 1771, the governor and colonial militia crushed the Regulators in the two-hour Battle of Alamance. After the battle, the royal government of North Carolina executed seven protestors.

Massachusetts Bay

This organization of influential Puritan investors in England sponsored and organized a large expedition to North America in 1629 for the express purpose of establishing an independent Puritan community, free of what they saw as the corrupting influences of the Church of England. Centered in Boston, this company administered the colony during the region's early settlement.

Daughters of Liberty

This organization of women assembled in communities throughout the colonies to support nonimportation and the patriotic cause. After the passage of the Townshend Acts in 1767, American patriots boycotted British-made goods, and this organization manufactured many of the replacement supplies.

Virginia Plan

This plan set the agenda for much of the Constitutional Convention. The plan was believed to have been written chiefly by James Madison. It was devised as a means to correct and enlarge the Articles of Confederation. Although the plan underwent many modifications, key principles like the separation of powers and bicameralism, and key institutions like the executive and judicial branches, clearly originated in this plan. It is most remembered now for its rejected proposal that representation within the national legislature be based solely on population.

Great Compromise

This plan was proposed by Roger Sherman of Connecticut at the 1787 Constitutional Convention to resolve differences between the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan. It called for creating a national bicameral legislature: in the House of Representatives places were to be assigned according to a state's population (proportional representation) and filled by popular vote; in the Senate, each state was to have two members (equal representation) elected by its state legislature.

Democrat-Republican Party

This political party was organized in the 1790s and became the first opposition party in US history. Following the ideas of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, this party was opposed to a strong central government and a central bank and supported strict construction of the Constitution and the predominance of agriculture in the economy. In 1800, Jefferson was elected president after a bitter political campaign against Adams. For the first time, power was transferred peacefully from one faction to another.

encomienda system

This system was created by the Spanish to control and regulate American Indian labor and behavior during the colonization of the Americas. Under the this system, conquistadors and other leaders received grants of a number of Indians, from whom they could exact "tribute" in the form of gold or labor. The Spanish leaders were supposed to protect and Christianize the Indians granted to them, but they most often used the system to effectively enslave the Indians and take their lands.

Federalists

This term applied to those who advocated ratification of the Constitution; they were centralizing nationalists who were convinced that America's survival required the new, stronger government outlined in the Constitution.

middle passage

This term describes the forced voyage of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the New World. It was one leg of the triangular trade route. From about 1518 to the mid-19th century, millions of African men, women, and children made the 21-to-90-day voyage aboard grossly overcrowded sailing ships manned by crews mostly from Great Britain, the Netherlands, Portugal, and France.

Great Awakening

This term describes the widespread evangelical revival movement of the 1740s and 1750s. Sparked by the tour of the English evangelical minister George Whitefield, revival divided congregations and weakened the authority of established churches in the colonies.

triangular trade

This term describes trading patterns that developed among the American colonies, the West Indies, the coast of Africa, and the British Isles during the eighteenth century. In actuality, patterns of commerce were much more complicated than the term suggests. Many trading voyages involved more than three exchanges of goods, and others were limited to two ports. The term is most helpful, then, in suggesting the international and interactive character of American commerce at the time rather than describing a specific route.

Jonathan Edwards

This theologian was an American revivalist of the Great Awakening. He was both deeply pious and passionately devoted to intellectual pursuits. His most popular sermon titled, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," appealed to thousands of re-awakened Christians.

Treaty of Paris (1763)

This treaty ended the French and Indian War (Great War for the Empire) in 1763. France abandoned nearly all its territorial claims in North America to Great Britain.

Treaty of Paris (1783)

This treaty officially brought a close to the American Revolution, with Great Britain recognizing the colonies' independence. Negotiated in Paris by Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, John Jay, the treaty granted to the fledgling United States nearly everything it wanted, including territory extending to the Mississippi River. The document was formally signed on September 3, 1783.

Boston Massacre

This violent confrontation between British troops and a Boston mob occurred on March 5, 1770. Five citizens were killed when the troops fired on the crowd that had been harassing them. The incident inflamed anti-British sentiment in the colony.

Enlightenment

This was a cultural and philosophical movement that grew out of new methods of inquiry. The basic premise was the superiority of reason. In their scientific reasoning, intellectuals challenged traditional Christianity by opposing the teachings and dogma of the Catholic Church. These thinkers also contested the divine right of kings, and their writings inspired the American Revolution.

Shays' Rebellion

This was an armed rebellion of western Massachusetts farmers to prevent state courts from foreclosing on debtors unable to pay their taxes in1786-7. Fears generated by this rebellion helped to convince states to send delegates to the Constitutional Convention that met in Philadelphia in 1787.

King Philip's War

This was the 1675-6 conflict between New England colonists and Native American Groups allied under Wampanoag chief Metacom. This war was the costliest in New England history and it largely crushed the Indian capacity for resistance

Jamestown

This was the first successful English colony in the Americas--settled in 1607. However, it faced great hardships and a "starving time" due to disease and interference from surrounding Indian tribes.

Valley Forge

This was the site in eastern Pennsylvania near Philadelphia where the Continental Army encamped during the winter of 1777-1778. Of the 10,000 men there, 2,500 died of disease and the rest suffered from lack of rations and other supplies; many deserted. General George Washington, despite the enormous privations endured by the colonial troops, with the assistance of European advisers, succeeded in re-organizing and re-equipping his men into an effective military force.

Sons of Liberty

Wealthy merchants John Hancock and Samuel Adams formed this radical patriot organization in Boston in 1765. This group engaged in direct action against British rule, more or less covertly. In 1773, for example, they organized and executed the Boston Tea Party. Throughout the revolutionary period, they continued to fight, eventually disbanding in 1783 with the end of the war.

New Jersey Plan

When James Madison offered the Virginia plan at the Constitutional Convention, calling for proportional representation in Congress, James Paterson responded with this plan, hoping to protect the less populous states. This plan called for equal representation for each state in a unicameral legislature. The controversy was resolved in the Great Compromise.

Declaration of Independence

Written by Thomas Jefferson and adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, this justified the American Revolution by reference to republican theory and to the many injustices of King George III toward the colonies. The indictment of the king provides a remarkably full catalog of the colonists' grievances, and Jefferson's eloquent and inspiring statement of the contract theory of government makes the document one of the world's great state papers.