Unit 3 Social Studies grade 8
Lexington and Concord
"Shot Heard 'Round the World." First shots fired between American and British troops, on April 19, 1775.
Yorktown
1781 General George Washington's resounding defeat of Lord Cornwallis's British army; causing the British to surrender and effectively ending the American Revolutionary War.
Representative Government
A form of government where the powers of the sovereignty are delegated to a body of men, elected from time to time, who exercise them for the benefit of the whole nation.
Articles of Confederation
the first written constitution of the United States
Declaration of Independence
the statement adopted by the Second Continental Congress meeting at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies, regarded themselves as thirteen newly independent sovereign states, and no longer under British rule. Instead they formed a new nation—the United States of America.
Loyalists
American colonists who remained loyal to the British Crown during the American Revolutionary War. At the time they were often called Tories, Royalists, or King's Men; some called them "persons inimical to the liberties of America".
Tea Act
An act to allow a drawback of the duties of customs on the exportation of tea to any of his Majesty's colonies or plantations in America; to increase the deposit on bohea tea to be sold at the India Company's sales; and to impower the commissioners of the treasury to grant licences to the East India Company to export tea duty-free.
John Locke
An enlightenment thinker that influenced ideas behind the Declaration of Independence
Thomas Jefferson
Author of the Declaration of Independence
Cornwallis
British General who surrendered to Washington, losing the American Revolutionary War
Halifax Resolves
In April 1776 NC's provincial congress met and decided to send a message to the Continental Congress. The group called for all the colonies to proclaim their independence from Great Britain. This was the first official action by any colony calling for a united drive for independence. Now there was no turning back.
Quartering Act
the British parliamentary provision (actually an amendment to the annual Mutiny Act) requiring colonial authorities to provide food, drink, quarters, fuel, and transportation to British forces stationed in their towns or villages.
No taxation without representation
Don't tax without representatives in Parliament
Proclamation of 1763
the King did not allow settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains
Boston Massacre
the killing of five colonists by British regulars on March 5, 1770. It was the culmination of tensions in the American colonies that had been growing since Royal troops first appeared in Massachusetts in October 1768 to enforce the heavy tax burden imposed by the Townshend Acts.
Sons of Liberty
Group led by Samuel Adams to revolt against England.
Marquis de Lafayette
He served the Continental Army with distinction during the American Revolutionary War, providing tactical leadership while securing vital resources from France.
Boston Tea Party
On the night of December 16, 1773, Samuel Adams and the Sons of Liberty boarded three ships in the Boston harbor and threw 342 chests of tea overboard.
Mecklenburg Declaration
the name given to a document that was allegedly produced on 20 May 1775, when the residents of this County declared themselves "free and independent people" from the British Government
Patriots
Want freedom - were those colonists of the Thirteen Colonies who rebelled against British control during the American Revolution and in July 1776 declared the United States of America an independent nation
Boycotts
When you purposefully avoid something
William Tryon
a British soldier and colonial administrator who served as governor of the Province of North Carolina and the Province of New York
Continental Congress
a convention of delegates called together from the Thirteen Colonies which became the governing body of the United States (USA) during the American Revolution - a group that met to decide America's fate
George Washington
a leader of the Continental Army in the American Revolution, and was the first to become U.S. president.
Common Sense
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.
Penelope Barker
an activist in the American Revolution who in 1774 organized a boycott of British goods known as the Edenton Tea Party.
Social Contract
an unofficial agreement shared by everyone in a society in which they give up some freedom for security.
Regulator Movement
an uprising in the British North America's Carolina colonies, lasting from about 1765 to 1771, in which citizens took up arms against colonial officials. Though the rebellion did not change the power structure, some historians consider it a catalyst to the American Revolutionary War.
Saratoga
comprising two significant battles during September and October of 1777, was a crucial victory for the Patriots during the American Revolution and is considered the turning point of the Revolutionary War.
Townshend Act
imposed duties on glass, lead, paints, paper and tea imported into the colonies.
Natural Rights
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness
Salutary neglect
long-standing British Policy in the 13 colonies which allowed the colonists to flout, or violate, the laws associated with trade
Stamp Act
new tax imposed on all American colonists that required them to pay a tax on every piece of printed paper they used.
Ben Franklin
one of the Founding Fathers who drafted the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States
Committees of Correspondence
rallied colonial opposition against British policy and established a political union among the Thirteen Colonies.
