AP US History Period 3 (1754-1800)

New Jersey Plan (small state plan)

A constitutional proposal that would have given each state one vote in a new congress

Treaty of Paris 1763

Ended the French and Indian War/Seven Years' War between Great Britain and France, as well as their respective allies. In the terms of the treaty, France gave up all its territories in mainland North America, effectively ending any foreign military threat to the British colonies there.

Direct Democracy

Tyranny of the many, a fear of mob rule, Madison's concern of a "superior force of an interested and overbearing majority" Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what they are going to have for lunch." —Benjamin Franklin

"Remember the Ladies" (Abigail Adams)

"Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands." Abigail Adams wrote these words to her husband, John Adams, on March 31, 1776, nearly 150 years before the House of Representatives voted to pass the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote. Her words urged him and the other members of the Continental Congress to consider the rights of women while laying the framework for the new, independent nation.

Articles of Confederation

1st Constitution of the U.S. 1781-1788 (weaknesses-no executive, no judicial, no power to tax, no power to regulate trade) To transform themselves from outlaws into a legitimate nation, the colonists needed international recognition for their cause and foreign allies to support it. Beyond improving their existing association, the records of the Second Continental Congress show that the need for a declaration of independence was intimately linked with the demands of international relations. On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee introduced a resolution before the Continental Congress declaring the colonies independent; at the same time, he also urged Congress to resolve "to take the most effectual measures for forming foreign Alliances" and to prepare a plan of confederation for the newly independent states. Congress then created three overlapping committees to draft the Declaration, a model treaty, and the Articles of Confederation

Shay's Rebellion (1786-1787)

A catalyst for approving the Constitution to govern the United States. Angered by taxes & debts, Daniel Shay of Massachusetts led a rebellion against the American Gov't. (showed how Articles of Confederation were weak) the people didn't have a commercial bank and had to borrow from each other; were in large debt. Uprising led by Daniel Shays in an effort to prevent courts from foreclosing on the farms of those who could not pay the taxes, was a protest against the land being taken away and the taxes that they had fought against in Revolutionary war

Treaty of Alliance 1778

A defensive alliance between France and the United States of America, formed in the midst of the American Revolutionary War following the Battle of Saratoga, which promised mutual military support in case fighting should break out between French and British forces, as the result signing the previously concluded Treaty of Amity and Commerce. The alliance was planned to endure indefinitely into the future. Delegates of King Louis XVI of France and the Second Continental Congress, who represented the United States at this time

Declaration of Rights and Grievances

A document written by the Stamp Act Congress and passed on October 14, 1765. It declared that taxes imposed on British colonists without their formal consent were unconstitutional.

Olive Branch Petition 1775

A letter to King George III, from members of the Second Continental Congress, which represents the last attempt by the moderate party in North America to avoid a war of independence against Britain.

Stamp Act Congress

A meeting held between October 7 and 25, 1765 in New York City, consisting of representatives from some of the British colonies in North America; it was the first gathering of elected representatives from several of the American colonies to devise a unified protest against new British taxation. (the first successful realization of the old idea presented by Ben Franklin of uniting the colonies against a common threat)

Non-importation

A movement under which the colonies agreed to stop importing goods from Britain in order to protest the Stamp Act.

Thomas Paine, Common Sense 1775-1776

A pamphlet written by Thomas Paine in 1775-76 advocating independence from Great Britain to people in the Thirteen Colonies. Written in clear and persuasive prose, Paine marshaled moral and political arguments to encourage common people in the Colonies to fight for egalitarian government. It was published anonymously on January 10, 1776, at the beginning of the American Revolution, and became an immediate sensation. He connected independence with common dissenting Protestant beliefs as a means to present a distinctly American political identity, structuring Common Sense as if it were a sermon.

Virginia Plan (large state plan)

A plan at the constitutional convention to base representation in the legislature on population. James Madison's ______ _____ outlined a strong national government with three branches: legislative, executive, and judicial. The plan called for a legislature divided into two bodies (the Senate and the House of Representatives) with proportional representation.

Virginia Resolves

A series of resolutions protesting taxation without representation, written by Patrick Henry, passed by the Virginia House of Burgesses in response to the Stamp Act of 1765. Later Edmund Burke linked the Resolves with the beginning of the opposition to the Stamp Act that would contribute to the American Revolution.

Pontiac's War 1763

A war that was launched in 1763 by a loose confederation of elements of Native American tribes primarily from the Great Lakes region, named after its most famous participant, the Ottawa leader Pontiac. Disssatisfied with British brutal postwar policies in the Great Lakes region after the British victory in the French and Indian War, tribes unified in opposition to colonial expansion west. Biological warfare was introduced by British: Two blankets and a handkerchief that had been exposed to smallpox, hoping to spread the disease to the Native Americans in order to "extirpate" them from the territory. It is estimated that 400,000-500,000 (possibly up to 1.5 million) Native Americans died during and years after the Pontiac's War, mostly from smallpox.

Join or Die 1754

A well-known political cartoon, drawn by Benjamin Franklin and first published in his Pennsylvania Gazette on May 9, 1754. The original publication by the Gazette is the earliest known pictorial representation of colonial union produced by a British colonist in America. The cartoon appeared along with Franklin's editorial about the "disunited state" of the colonies, and helped make his point about the importance of colonial unity. This cartoon was used in the French and Indian War to symbolize that the colonies needed to join together with the Kingdom of Great Britain to defeat the French and Indians.

Patriots/Whigs

American colonists who were determined to fight the British until American independence was won

Declaratory Act 1766

An Act of the Parliament of Great Britain, which accompanied the repeal of the Stamp Act 1765 and the changing and lessening of the Sugar Act. Parliament repealed the Stamp Act because boycotts were hurting British trade and used the declaration to justify the repeal and save face.

Patrick Henry

An American attorney, planter and politician who became known as an orator during the movement for independence in Virginia. Author of the Virginia Resolves. Known for his famous quote "Give me Liberty or Give me Death"

Stamp Act 1765

An act of the British Parliament that exacted revenue from the American colonies by imposing a stamp duty on newspapers and legal and commercial documents to help pay for the cost of the French and Indian War. Colonial opposition led to the act's repeal in 1766 and helped encourage the revolutionary movement against the British Crown. Ultimately this act failed.

The Great Awakening

An example of revolutionary thinking in the American colonies in regard to Christianity. Led by Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield, this revitalization of religious piety that swept through the colonies. That revival was part of a much broader movement, an evangelical upsurge taking place simultaneously on the other side of the Atlantic, most notably in England, Scotland, and Germany. In all these Protestant cultures during the middle decades of the eighteenth century, a new Age of Faith rose to counter the currents of the Age of Enlightenment, to reaffirm the view that being truly religious meant trusting the heart rather than the head, prizing feeling more than thinking, and relying on biblical revelation rather than human reason.

Albany Plan of Union 1754

At the beginning of the French and Indian War, this was Ben Franklin's idea to unify the colonies against Native American attacks during the French and Indian War. Symbolic political cartoon with the idea planted: Join or Die. The Albany Plan was not put into action, but its idea would grow and flourish. The Albany Plan of Union was a rejected plan to create a unified government for the Thirteen Colonies at the Albany Congress on July 10, 1754 in Albany, New York. The plan was suggested by Benjamin Franklin, then a senior leader and a delegate from Pennsylvania.

Deism

Belief in the existence of a supreme being, specifically of a creator who does not intervene in the universe. An analogy: Creator like a clockmaker who winds up the clock and then lets it run. Natural law determines the rest. The term is used chiefly of an intellectual movement of the 17th and 18th centuries that accepted the existence of a creator on the basis of reason but rejected belief in a supernatural deity who interacts with humankind.

Declaration of Independence (1776)

Break-up letter to the British written by Thomas Jefferson and edited by Ben Franklin and John Adams; influenced by the Enlightenment philosophers of his day such as John Locke. *Provisions:* *Part 1* - Explains the necessity of independence for the preservation of basic laws and rights. *Part 2* - Lists a series of "abuses and usurpations" by the king and his government; Jefferson claimed that this treatment violated the social contract the British monarch had with the his colonies, thereby justifying the actions his American subjects felt compelled to take. *Part 3* - Ends with what is tantamount to a formal declaration of war.

Salutary Neglect

British Crown policy of avoiding strict enforcement of parliamentary laws meant to keep American colonies obedient to England.

French and Indian War

Called Seven Years War in Europe. Significance: French lost war. French presence gone from North American continent. Salutary Neglect ended as war debt had to be paid and taxes, for the first time, were raised in the colonies to pay for the war (Stamp Act). British Americans, fighting alongside British Redcoats, saw British Redcoats initially defeated by Native American guerilla tactics. Redcoats were not invincible as previously thought. To prevent further expense to the crown, the king signed the Proclamation of 1763, which the colonists promptly ignored

minutemen

Civilian colonists who independently organized to form well-prepared militia companies self-trained in weaponry, tactics, and military strategies from the American colonial partisan militia during the American Revolutionary War. They were also known for being ready at a minute's notice, hence the name. They provided a highly mobile, rapidly deployed force that allowed the colonies to respond immediately to war threats originating in 1636 to fight Native American threats to villages, which were in response of course to colonial encroachment and threats to native villages.

Northwest Ordinance of 1787

Created the Northwest Territory (the future five states of WI, MN, IL, IN and OH), established conditions for self-government and statehood-60,000 inhabitants to qualify, included a Bill of Rights, and permanently prohibited slavery

First Continental Congress (1774)

Delegates from every colony except Georgia to decide how to react to the Intolerable Acts. A meeting of delegates from 12 of the 13 British colonies that became the United States. It met from September 5 to October 26, 1774, at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, after the British Navy instituted a blockade of Boston Harbor and Parliament passed the punitive Intolerable Acts in response to the December 1773 Boston Tea Party

Sugar Act 1764

During the Seven Years' War, known in Colonial America as the French and Indian War, the British government substantially increased the national debt to pay for the war. This was the first act

George III reigned 1760-1820

Early in his reign, Great Britain defeated France in the Seven Years' War, becoming the dominant European power in North America and India. However, many of Britain's American colonies were soon lost in the American Revolution. Further wars against revolutionary and Napoleonic France from 1793 concluded in the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

Committees of Correspondence

Established to spread the power of the written word from town to town and colony to colony, organized by none other than Samuel Adams. Working with rural patriots, Adams enabled the entire Massachusetts citizenry to have access to patriot text. In fact, Adams knew that the residents of the seacoast towns were more informed of each crisis than those of the interior. The spread of these committees across urban centers happened quickly. Adams and others urged the establishment of correspondence committees in rural inland towns as well. The Committees of Correspondence were bold enough to use the British postal service as the means of communication. Committees of Correspondence were the forebears to the First and Second Continental Congresses.

Lexington and Concord (April 1775)

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. "The shot heard round the world." First battle of the American Revolution-a year before independence was declared.

Royal Proclamation of 1763

Forbade all settlement past a line drawn along the Appalachian Mountains. The Royal Proclamation continues to be of legal importance to First Nations in Canada and is significant for the variation of indigenous status in the United States. The Royal Proclamation may have played a role in the separation of the United States from Great Britain as colonists at the time wanted to continue in the economically beneficial cultural practice of taking land for one's own livelihood as part of the drive west.

Currency Act of 1764

Forbade colonists from printing their own currency & instead required them to use hard currency (gold & silver) which was in short supply in the colonies. The Acts sought to protect British merchants and creditors from being paid in depreciated colonial currency. The policy created tension between the colonies and Great Britain and was cited as a grievance by colonists early in the American Revolution.

Hessians

German mercenaries hired by the British to fight Americans during the American Revolution.

Lord Dunmore's Proclamation November 7, 1775

Governor of Virginia declared martial law and promised freedom for slaves of American revolutionaries who left their owners and joined the royal forces.

Whiskey Rebellion (1794)

In 1794, farmers in Pennsylvania rebelled against Hamilton's excise tax on whiskey, and several federal officers were killed in the riots caused by their attempts to serve arrest warrants on the offenders. In October, 1794, the army, led by Washington, put down the rebellion. The incident showed that the new government under the Constitution could react swiftly and effectively to such a problem, in contrast to the inability of the government under the Articles of Confederation to deal with Shay's Rebellion.

Colonial Taverns and Coffeehouses

In time, coffeehouses also began providing tea, chocolate, and tobacco, three other benefits of England's growing global sway. But the most important innovation of the coffeehouse may have been news. The latest advices and circular letters with news of London and the world passed from hand to hand, were read aloud, and sometimes posted on a notice board. The coffeehouse was changing the way of life. The coffeehouse had become the new court, an egalitarian and yet somewhat elite space, where men of all classes could mix and exchange ideas. Merchants and intellectuals who had no voice at court were heard out here. It is not too much to say that the American and French revolutions started out ab ovo —that is to say, from the egg—in coffeehouses. Taverns served many purposes such as courtrooms, religious meetings, trading posts, inns, post offices, and convenience stores. Many were also the local post office and or the polling place. The United States Postal Service had its origins in the private taverns and coffeehouses of America.

Sherman Plan, Connecticut Compromise

Merging the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan, this compromise created the design for the Legislative Branch in the Constitution. Representation of the States in the Senate, and Representation of the People in Proportion to Numbers in the House.

Benjamin Franklin

Newspaper editor, Declaration of Independence editor, major figure in the American Enlightenment and First American founding father present at both the creation of Declaration and Constitution as well as first Ambassador to France. Famous for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity. As an inventor, he is known for the lightning rod, bifocals, and the Franklin stove, among other inventions. He facilitated many civic organizations, including Philadelphia's fire department and The University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League institution. Franklin earned the title of "The First American" for his early and indefatigable campaigning for colonial unity, initially as an author and spokesman in London for several colonies. As the first United States Ambassador to France, he exemplified the emerging American nation. Franklin was foundational in defining the American ethos as a marriage of the practical values of thrift, hard work, education, community spirit, self-governing institutions, and opposition to authoritarianism both political and religious, with the scientific and tolerant values of the Enlightenment. Franklin, a deist, believe God created the universe but remained apart from it.

The End of Salutary Neglect

Paying for the French and Indian War was the end of ______ _______, an undocumented, though long-standing British policy of avoiding strict enforcement of parliamentary laws, meant to keep the American colonies obedient to Great Britain. Prime Minister Robert Walpole stated that "If no restrictions were placed on the colonies, they would flourish".

John Dickinson Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania lawyer and legislator John Dickinson (1732-1808) and published under the name "A Farmer" from 1767 to 1768. The twelve letters were widely read and reprinted throughout the thirteen colonies and were important in uniting the colonists against the Townshend Acts. The success of his letters earned Dickinson considerable fame. While acknowledging the power of Parliament in matters concerning the whole British Empire, Dickinson argued that the colonies were sovereign in their internal affairs. He thus argued that taxes laid upon the colonies by Parliament for the purpose of raising revenue, rather than regulating trade, were unconstitutional. No taxation without representation.

Writs of Assistance

Search warrants hated by colonists who deemed them illegal searches and siezures. These search warrants played an important role in the increasing tensions that led to the American Revolution and the creation of the United States of America. In 1760, Great Britain began to enforce some of the provisions of the Navigation Acts by granting customs officers these writs. In New England, smuggling had become common. However, officers could not search a person's property without giving a reason. Colonists protested that the writs violated their rights as British subjects. The colonists had several problems with these writs. They were permanent and even transferable; the holder of a writ could assign it to another. Any place could be searched at the whim of the holder, and searchers were not responsible for any damage they caused. This put anyone who had such a writ above the laws.

The Enlightenment

The Age of Reason. This was a cultural movement of intellectuals beginning in the late 17th and 18th century Europe emphasizing reason and individualism rather than tradition. Its purpose was to reform society using reason, challenge ideas grounded in tradition and faith, and advance knowledge through the scientific method. It promoted scientific thought, skepticism, and intellectual interchange.

Intolerable Acts/Coercive Acts 1774

The American Patriots' term for a series of punitive laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 after the Boston Tea Party. They were meant to punish the Massachusetts colonists for their defiance in throwing a large tea shipment into Boston Harbor.

British Tea Act 1773

The Catalyst of the Boston Tea Party. The Tea Act, passed by Parliament on May 10, 1773, granted the British East India Company Tea a monopoly on tea sales in the American colonies. In 1770 most of the Townshend taxes were repealed, but taxes on tea were retained. Resistance to this tax included pressure to avoid legally imported tea, leading to a drop in colonial demand for the British East India Company's tea and a burgeoning surplus of the tea in the company's English warehouses. By 1773 the Company was close to collapse. Many colonists opposed the Act, not so much because it rescued the British East India Company, but more because it seemed to validate the Townshend Tax on tea. Merchants who had been acting as the middlemen in legally importing tea stood to lose their business, as did those whose illegal Dutch trade would be undercut by the Company's lowered prices. These interests combined forces, citing the taxes and the Company's monopoly status as reasons to oppose the Act. In Boston, it led to the Tea Party of 1773. In New York and Philadelphia, opposition to the Act resulted in the return of tea delivered back to Britain. In Charleston, the colonists left the tea on the docks to rot. Boston was punished the harshest because they were the first to protest.

William Pitt leader 1756-1761

The French and Indian War. British Secretary of State William Pitt helped turn the tide against the French. He is also the namesake of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Sons of Liberty

The Sons of Liberty was an organization of American colonists that was created in the Thirteen American Colonies. The secret society was formed to protect the rights of the colonists and to fight taxation by the British government. They played a major role in most colonies in battling the Stamp Act in 1765. Members included: Sam Adams, John Adams, Patrick Henry, John Hancock, Paul Revere.

non-importation

The boycott of British imports by American colonists made in protest of the taxes placed on goods, became major weapons in the arsenal of the American resistance movement against British taxation without representation. Women played a major role in this method of defiance by denouncing silks, satins, and other luxuries in favor of homespun clothing generally made in spinning and quilting bees, sending a strong message of unity against British oppression.

Bacon's Rebellion (1676)

The first rebellion in the American colonies over taxation without representation in which discontented frontier farmers in Virginia rose up in arms against Royal Governor Berkeley. The immediate cause was his recent refusal to retaliate for a series of Indian attacks on frontier settlements. This prompted some to take matters into their own hands, attacking Native Americans, chasing Berkeley from Jamestown, Virginia, and ultimately torching the capital. Main grievances were: levying unfair taxes, appointing friends to high positions, and failing to protect frontier settlers from Indian attack. _____ _____ was a microcosm of issues that would arise during American Revolution 100 years later.

Townshend Acts 1767

The purpose of the Townshend Acts was to raise revenue in the colonies to pay the salaries of governors and judges so that they would remain loyal to Great Britain, to create a more effective means of enforcing compliance with trade regulations, to punish the province of New York for failing to comply with the 1765 Quartering Act, and to establish the precedent that the British Parliament had the right to tax the colonies. The Townshend Acts (1767) were met with resistance in the colonies, prompting the occupation of Boston by British troops in 1768, which eventually resulted in the Boston Massacre of 1770.

Oligarchy

Tyranny of the few, a government ruled by a few powerful people

Monarchy

Tyranny of the one, a government ruled by one which the colonists had just rebelled from

Boston Tea Party 1773

Was a political protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, on December 16, 1773. The demonstrators, some disguised as Native Americans, in defiance of the Tea Act of May 10, 1773, destroyed an entire shipment of tea sent by

James Otis 1761

Writs were challenged by a group of 63 Boston merchants represented by fiery Boston attorney James Otis, Jr. Otis argued the famous writs of assistance case at the Old State House in Boston. Although Otis technically lost, his challenge to the authority of Parliament made a strong impression on John Adams, who was present, and thereby eventually contributed to the American Revolution. In a pamphlet published three years later, in 1765, Otis expanded his argument that the general writs violated the British unwritten constitution hearkening back to Magna Carta. Any law in violation of the constitution or "natural law" which underlay it, was void.

George Washington (French and Indian War)

_____________ gained valuable military skills during the French and Indian War, acquiring tactical, strategic, and logistical military experience. He also acquired important political skills in his dealings with the British military establishment and the provincial government. His military exploits, although they included some notable failures, made his military reputation in the colonies such that he became a natural selection as the commander in chief of the Continental Army following the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War in 1775. Key points of War: Jummonville and Ft. Necessity: a force of 700 French and Indians surrounded the fort, and Washington was soon compelled to surrender. The "Jumonville affair" became an international incident, and the military escalation that followed blossomed into the global Seven Years' War. Following this event, Washington resigned rather that being demoted. General Braddock's defeat: Washington, serving as an unpaid volunteer aid in a skirmish during the French and Indian War was one of the few of Braddock's aides to emerge relatively unscathed, despite being significantly involved in the fighting. He had two horses shot out from under him, and four bullets pierced his coat. He sustained no injuries and showed coolness under fire. Braddock, who had been loaded onto a wagon in a makeshift litter, ordered Washington to ride back to fetch the remainder of the army that was working its way up from the Great Meadows. The battered remnants of Braddock's force eventually returned to Fort Cumberland, where Washington wrote letters harshly critical of the event. Washington was lauded as the "hero of Monongahela" for his work organizing the retreat. Dinwiddie was also forced to acknowledge Washington's "gallant Behav[io]r", and the Virginia House of Burgesses reorganized the colony's defenses with Washington as colonel of a 1,200 strong regiment. Although Washington never gained the commission in the British army he yearned for, in these years the young man gained valuable military, political, and leadership skills, and received significant public exposure in the colonies and abroad. He closely observed British military tactics, gaining a keen insight into their strengths and weaknesses that proved invaluable during the Revolution. He demonstrated his toughness and courage in the most difficult situations, including disasters and retreats. He developed a command presence—given his size, strength, stamina, and bravery in battle, he appeared to soldiers to be a natural leader and they followed him without question.

Mercy Otis Warren (1728-1814)

a U.S. Founder, poet, playwright, and pamphleteer during the American Revolution. During the years before the American Revolution, Warren published poems and plays that attacked royal authority in Massachusetts and urged colonists to resist British infringements on colonial rights and liberties. She was married to James Warren, who was likewise heavily active in the independence movement. In 1805, she published one of the earliest histories of the American Revolution, a three-volume History of the Rise, Progress, and Termination of the American Revolution.

Abigail Adams (1744-1818)

a U.S. founder and highly regarded first lady, remembered for the many letters she wrote to her husband while he stayed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, during the Continental Congresses. Her letters are filled with intellectual discussions on government and politics and serve as eyewitness accounts of the American Revolutionary War home front. Running the farm in Massachusetts during the American Revolution she referred to it as your farm, our farm and finally my farm. She spoke for the founders to "remember the ladies" which they largely did not.

homespun

a coarse, loosely woven, homemade fabric worn as a badge of honor in peaceful protest to British taxation Women in the era of the Revolution worked in the _____________ movement. Instead of wearing or purchasing clothing made of imported British materials, Patriot women continued a long tradition of weaving, and spun their cloth to make clothing for their families. In addition to the boycotts of British textiles, the _______ movement served the Continental Army by producing needed clothing and blankets.

Boston Massacre 1770

a confrontation in Boston on March 5, 1770, in which a group of nine British soldiers shot five people out of a crowd of three or four hundred who were abusing them verbally and throwing clubs, stones, ice and snowballs. The event was heavily publicized as "a massacre" by leading Patriots such as Paul Revere and Samuel Adams. British troops had been stationed in the Province of Massachusetts Bay since 1768 in order to support crown-appointed officials and to enforce unpopular Parliamentary legislation. Amid tense relations between the civilians and the soldiers, a mob formed around a British sentry and verbally abused him. He was eventually supported by seven additional soldiers, led by Captain Thomas Preston, who were hit by clubs, stones, and snowballs. Eventually, one soldier fired, prompting the others to fire without an order by Preston. The gunfire instantly killed three people and wounded eight others, two of whom later died of their wounds.

Suffolk Resolves 1774

a declaration made on September 9, 1774, by the leaders of Suffolk County, Massachusetts. The declaration rejected the Massachusetts Government Act and resulted in a boycott of imported goods from Britain unless the Intolerable Acts were repealed. The First Continental Congress endorsed the ______ ______ on September 17, 1774. denounced the Intolerable Acts, or Coercive Acts, which had recently been passed by the British Parliament and specifically resolved the following: 1. boycott British imports, curtail exports, and refuse to use British products; 2. pay "no obedience" to the Massachusetts Government Act or the Boston Port Bill; 3. demand resignations from those appointed to positions under the Massachusetts Government Act; 4. refuse payment of taxes until the Massachusetts Government Act was repealed; 5. support a colonial government in Massachusetts free of royal authority until the Intolerable Acts were repealed; 6. urge the colonies to raise militia of their own people. the Committees of Correspondence from Suffolk, Middlesex, Essex, and Worcester counties met at Faneuil Hall in Boston to oppose the recent Massachusetts Government Act, which had disenfranchised citizens of Massachusetts by revoking key provisions of the provincial Charter of 1691. The convention urged all Massachusetts counties to close their courts, rather than to submit to the oppressive measure.

Second Continental Congress (1775)

an extralegal meeting of the Thirteen Colonies that met beginning on May 10, 1775, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in response to the bloodshed at Lexington and Concord soon after warfare in the American Revolutionary War had begun. The second Congress managed the colonial war effort, and moved incrementally towards independence, adopting the Olive Branch Petition, the Articles of Confederation, Creating the Continental Army, Appointing George Washington to lead the Army and signing the Declaration of Independence.

Loyalists/Tories

colonists who remained loyal to England; they often were older, better educated people who were members of the Anglican Church. The British hoped to use them as a pacification force but failed to organize them properly.