United States History chapter 5

Fort Ticonderoga

British stronghold; captured by patriots

Quebec Act

Canceled the American colonies' western land claims by extending the borders of Quebec southward to the Ohio River and westward of the Mississippi

"Minutemen"

Colonial militia soldiers were called this because they had to be ready to fight upon a minute's notice

George Washington

Commander in chief of the Patriots

Second Continental Congress

Convened in Philadelphia on May 10, 1775 discussing plans to maintain peace in the months ahead

First Continental Congress

Convened in Philadelphia on September 5, 1774 to discuss what action should be taken in the impending crisis of the Coercive Acts and the Quebec Act.

Stamp Act Congress

Convened on October 7, 1765, in New York City; adopted a resolution "in opposition to the Tyrannical Acts of the British Parliament," in which the colonists petitioned the king (1) to defend their rights as Englishmen to resist taxation without due representation, (2) to restore their royal charters, (3) and to restore the land grants given to the original colonies

General Thomas Gage

Had replaced Hutchinson as royal governor of Massachusetts; imported bricklayers and carpenters from Nova Scotia to erect winter quarters for his troops

Laissez faire

Hands off

Committees of Correspondence

Helped form by Sam Adams; committee of 22 men who kept neighboring towns informed of problems with England and let America's position be known to the world. Its members included Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, and Thomas Jefferson.

Because it was half-hearted, the colonists got around it by smuggling

How did the British government's loose enforcement of the trade laws encourage colonists to resist new restrictions?

16,000 pounds of tobacco per year

How ministers were paid in colonial Virginia

Pontiac's Conspiracy

Led by Pontiac; an uprising that cost many lives on the frontier and proved that it would take thousands of British troops to effectively protect colonists from future Indian uprisings

Paul Revere, William Dawes, and Dr. Samuel Prescott

Men who rode through the night to warn their countrymen that the British were coming

Boston Massacre

On March 5, 1770, an unknown person gave orders for the Boston soldiers to fire; three Bostonians lay dead, and two others were mortally wounded.

William Pitt the Elder

One of Parliament's most respected elders; rejected the idea of "virtual representation"

John Hancock

Patriot leader in lexington

Ethan Allen

Patriot who formed a frontier militia known as the "green mountain boys"

John Dickinson

Pennsylvania lawyer who drafted the resolutions of the Stamp Act Congress, wrote a pamphlet entitled "Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies."

East India Company

Required to sell its tea through middlemen in England. In 1773, it was allowed to ship its tea directly to the colonies.

Sons of Liberty

Society organized by Sam Adams and others; it held parades and protests, destroyed the hated stamps, and forced stamp distributors to resign

Molasses Act

Taxed raw sugar, rum, and molasses imported to the colonies from the non-British West Indies

Charles Townshend

The Chancellor of the Exchequer (official in charge of the treasury)

Gaspé Incident

The Gaspé, a British customs schooner, ran aground near Providence, Rhode Island, boatloads of colonists attacked the schooner, removed its crew and set it afire. Although hundreds had witnessed the incident, no one admitted to being able to identify any of the culprits.

Boston Port Bill, Administration Act, Massachusetts Government Act, Quartering Act

The acts that comprised the Coercive Acts

Breed's Hill

The actual location of the Battle of Bunker Hill

September 5, 1774 in Philadelphia

The location and convening date of the First Continental Congress

Board of Trade

The most important British agency; it had the power to annul laws passed by colonial legislature, to hear appeals from the colonies, and to influence trade policies adopted for the colonies

"The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved"

The pamphlet written by James Otis

Mercantile theory

The real measure of a nation's wealth was the amount of gold and silver it possessed.

The Proclamation Act, Rigid enforcement of the trade laws, the Sugar Act of 1764, the Currency Act of 1764, the Stamp Act of 1765, the Quartering Act of 1765

The six parts of Grenville's program

Woolens Act, Hat Act, Iron Act

The three acts that regulated colonial industry

1) to defend their rights as Englishmen to resist taxation without due representation 2) to restore their royal charters 3) to restore the land grants given to the original colonies

The three parts of the Stamp Act Congress petition

Sir William Howe, Sir Henry Clinton, and John Burgoyne

Three British commanders who joined General Gage in Boston

Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson

Three famous members of the Committee of Correspondence in Virginia

Writs of assistance

Used to help authorities enforce trade laws in the colonies; general search warrants giving British officials authority to search virtually any place at any time for contraband (smuggled goods).

Bunker Hill

Where the British had won the first major battle in the War for Independence

Concord

Where the War for Independence had begun

Because the colonies were only there to help Britain gain wealth

Why was the mercantile theory unfair to the American colonies?

Navigation acts

1660- All goods imported to or exported from the colonies must be carried on ships owned by British subjects; at least 3/4 of every ship's crew must be English. 1663- European products headed for the colonies must first be shipped to England and then rechanneled to the colonies.

Samuel Adams

1722-1803

Lemuel Haynes

21 year old black American minuteman of Massachusetts; became a great revival preacher in New England

Boston Tea Party

A band of citizens disguised as Indians boarded the tea-laden ships in Boston Harbor and, under cover of darkness, dumped 340 chests of tea into the harbor.

George III

A descendant of the German Hanovarian line who came to the throne of England; determined to reverse the trend toward increasing Parliamentary power in England, and he vowed to bring the American colonies into subjection

Parson's Cause

A dispute between England and the colonists of England's right to legislate in the colonies; money was scarce, so ministers were paid in tobacco; when there was a crop shortage and the price of tobacco raised, the House of Burgesses ruled that the clergy should be temporarily paid in money at a rate well below the inflated market price of tobacco; ministers insisted they were being treated unfairly and talked to the king and hid privy council who set aside the decision of the House of Burgesses.

Townshend Acts

A series of a

Intolerable Acts

A series of acts also called the Coercive Acts: The Boston Port Bill (closed the port of Boston until the East India Company could be reimbursed for the destroyed tea), the Administration Act (intended to make British officials in Massachusetts bolder in enforcing law, guaranteed that if they were accused of legal offenses against colonists they would be tried in England rather than Massachusetts, where a fair trial would be unlikely) , the Massachusetts Act (severely limited the powers to the royal governor), and the Quartering Act (provided that British troops be housed not only in taverns and deserted buildings but also in occupied dwellings).

Edmund Burke

A young Irishman who would soon become one of Britain's greatest statesmen and political thinkers; defended the colonies

Patrick Henry

A young lawyer who defended the House of Burgesses; made a speech to the House of Burgesses on March 28, 1775

Declaratory Act

Adopted in 1766, declaring that the colonies were "subordinate" to England and that Parliament had the power to pass laws to "bind the colonies in all cases whatsoever."

Pontiac

An Ottawa chief who led a confederation of tribes in a bloody uprising

Lexington

Battle here on April 19, 1775; shot heard round the world

George Grenville

Became prime minister of England in 1763; determined to help George III bring the colonies into subjection

James Otis

Boston lawyer who published "The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved"