Chapter 4 Terms and Names

committees of correspondance

On of the groups set up by American colonists to exchange information about British threats to their attributes.

Stamp Act

A 1765 law in which parliament established the first direct taxation of goods and services within the British colonies in North America

Marques de Lafayette

A French aristocrat who offered to help Washington

Friedrich von Steuben

A Prussian captain and talented drill master. Made Washington's armey better.

egalitarianism

A belief in the equality of all people

Boston Massacre

A clash between British soldiers and Boston colonists in 1770,in which five of the colonists were killed.

Olive Branch Petition

A plead from Congress to the king to go back to the former harmony

Samuel Adams

A powerful and influential political activist

Townsend Acts

A series of laws enacted by Parliament in 1767,establishing indirect taxes on goods imported from Britain by the British colonies in North America

Loyalists

Against Independence

Common Sense

An anonymous 50 page pamphlet

inflation

An increase in prices or decline in purchasing power caused by an increase in the supply of money

minutemen

Civilian soldiers

Treaty of Paris

Confirmed U.S independence and set the boundaries of the new nation.

Second Continental Congress

Congress that approved the Declaration of Independence

Declaration of Independence

Drew in the concepts of John Locke

Intolerable Acts

Laws that shut down Boston Harbor

King George III

Made Parliament do the Intolerable Acts

martial law

Rule imposed by military forces

Charles Cornwalls

Sailed south with 8,500 men.

Yorktown

The British surrender hapoened near here.

Thomas Jefferson

The author of the Declaration of Independence, known for his broad knowledge and skillfully crafted prose

Boston Tea Party

The dumping of 18,000 pounds of tea into Boston Harbor by colonists in 1773 to protest the Tea Act.

profiteering

The selling of goods in short supply at inflated prices.

Trenton

The site of the Battle of Trenton. Americans fought the Hessians and won.

Valley Forge

The site of the Continental Army's camp during the winter of 1777-1778

Patriots

The supporters of independence

Saratoga

This is where Burgoyne surrendered his battered army to General Gates on October 17,1777