Vocabulary

1. American History I Unit 2 – Colonization to the American Revolution R. M. Tolles Vocabulary

2. Paxton Boys – AH1U2 • (1764) • Armed march on Philadelphia by Scots-Irish frontiersmen in protest against the Quaker establishment’s lenient policies toward Native Americans.

3. Regulator Movement – AH1U2 • (1768-1771) • Eventually violent uprising of backcountry settlers in North Carolina against unfair taxation and the control of colonial affairs by the seaboard elite.

4. South Carolina Slave Revolt (Stono River Revolt or Stono’s Rebellion) – AH1U2 • 1739 • Uprising of approximately two dozen slaves that resulted in the deaths of nine whites and the brutal execution of twenty-one participating blacks

5. Triangular Trade – AH1U2 • Exchange of rum, slaves, and molasses between the North American colonies, Africa, and the West Indies. A small but immensely profitable subset of the Atlantic trade

6. Molasses Act – AH1U2 • 1737 • Tax on imported molasses passed by Parliament in an effort to squelch the North American trade with the French West Indies. It provided ineffective due to widespread smuggling

7. Great Awakening – AH1U2 • 1730s and 1740s • Religious revival the swept the colonies. Participating ministers, most notably Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield, placed an emphasis on direct emotive spirituality. • A Second Great Awakening arose in the nineteenth century.

8. Poor Richard’s Almanack – AH1U2 • 1732-1758 • Widely read annual pamphlet edited by Benjamin Franklin. Best known for its proverbs, and aphorisms emphasizing thrift, industry, morality, and common sense.

9. Zenger Trial – AH1U2 • 1734-1735 • New York libel case against John Peter Zenger. Established the principle that truthful statements about public officials could not be prosecuted as libel

10. Phillis Wheatley – AH1U2 • 1753-1784 • African American poet who overcame the barriers of slavery to publish tow collections of her poems. • As a young girl, Wheatley lived in Boston; she was later taken to England where she found a publisher willing to distribute her work

11. Huguenots - AH1U2 • French Protestant dissenters, the Huguenots were granted limited toleration under the Edict of Nantes. • After King Louis XIV outlaws Protestantism in 1685, many Huguenots fled elsewhere including to British North America

12. King William’s War, Queen Anne’s War, and King George’s War - AH1U2 • Series of conflicts between the European powers for control of North America, fought between the English and French colonists in the North and the English and the Spanish in Florida. • Under the peace treaty, the French ceded Acadia (Nova Scotia), New Foundland, and the Hudson Bay to the British

13. French and Indian War – AH1U2 • Seven Years War in Europe (1756-1763) • Nine-year war between the British and the French in North America. It resulted in the expulsion of the French from the North American mainland and helped spark the Seven Years War in Europe • Called the French and Indian War due the number of Native American tribes that sided with the French to take on the Colonists and English

14. Albany Congress – AH1U2 • 1754 • Inter-colonial congress summoned by the British government to foster greater colonial unity and assure greater colonial unity and assure Iroquois support in the escalating war against the French

15. Pontiac’s Uprising - AH1U2 • 1763 • Bloody campaign waged by Ottawa chief Pontiac to drive the British out of Ohio Country. It was brutally crushed by British troops, who resorted to distributing blankets infected with small pox as a means to put down the rebellion.

16. Proclamation of 1763 - AH1U2 • Decree issued by Parliament in the wake of Pontiac’s uprising, prohibiting settlement beyond the Appalachians. • Contributed to rising resentment of British rule in the American colonies.

17. Republicanism - AH1U2 • Political theory of representative government, based on the principle of popular sovereignty, with a strong emphasis on liberty and civic virtue. • Influential in eighteenth-century American political thought, it stood as an alternative to monarchical rule.

18. Mercantilism - AH1U2 • Economic theory that closely linked a nation’s political and military power to its bullion reserves. • Mercantilists generally favored protectionism and colonial acquisition as a means to increase exports.

19. Sugar Act - AH1U2 • 1764 • Duty on imported sugar from the West Indies. • It was the first tax levied on the colonists by the crown and was lowered substantially in response to widespread protests.

20. Quartering Act – AH1U2 • 1765 • Required colonies to provide food and quarters for British troops. • Many colonists resented the act, which they perceived as an encroachment on their rights.

21. Stamp Act – AH1U2 • 1765 • Widely unpopular tax on an array of paper goods, repealed in 1766 after mass protests erupted across the colonies. • Colonists developed the principle of “no taxation without representation” that questioned Parliament’s authority over the colonies and laid the foundation for future revolutionary claims.

22. Stamp Act Congress – AH1U2 • 1765 • Assembly of delegates from nine colonies who met in New York City to draft a petition for the repeal of the Stamp Act. Helped ease sectional suspicions and promote inter-colonial unity

23. Nonimportation Agreements – AH1U2 • Boycotts against British goods adopted in response to the Stamp Act and, later, the Townshend and Intolerable Acts. • The agreements were the most effective form of protest against British policies in the colonies.

24. Sons of Liberty – AH1U2 • Patriotic groups that played a central role in agitating against the Stamp Act and enforcing nonimportation agreements.

25. Declaratory Act – AH1U2 • 1766 • Passed alongside the repeal of the Stamp Act, it reaffirmed Parliaments Act, it reaffirmed Parliament’s unqualified sovereignty over the North American colonies.

26. Townshend Acts – AH1U2 • 1767 • External, or indirect, levies on glass, white lead, paper, paint, and tea, the proceeds of which were used to pay colonial governors who had preciously been paid directly by colonial assemblies. Sparked another round of protest in the colonies.

27. Boston Massacre – AH1U2 • 1770 • Clash between unruly Bostonian protestors and locally stationed British redcoats, who fired on the jeering crowd, killing or wounding eleven citizens.

28. Boston Tea Party – AH1U2 • The Boston Tea Party refers to the dumping of large amounts of imported British tea into Boston Harbor. It was carried out by the Boston Sons of Liberty on December 16th 1773. The Coercive Acts were Britain’s response to this inflammatory protest.

29. Coercive Acts – AH1U2 • (or ‘Intolerable Acts‘) • The Coercive Acts were four pieces of legislation passed by the British parliament between March and May 1774. • The purpose of the Coercive Acts was to force Massachusetts to comply with British policy in the wake of the Boston Tea Party. • The four separate Coercive Acts were the Massachusetts Government Act, the Administration of Justice Act, the Boston Port Act and the Quartering Act.

30. Committees of Correspondence – AH1U2 • The Committees of Correspondence were civilian groups formed in colonial America around 1772. They organized letter writing and distribution, in order to circulate news, intelligence and revolutionary sentiment

31. Constitutional Convention (or Philadelphia Convention) – AH1U2 • The Constitutional Convention was a meeting of state delegates that assembled in Philadelphia between May and September 1776. • The purpose of this Constitutional Convention was to discuss amendments to improve the operation of the Articles of Confederation. Instead, the delegates voted to replace the Articles and draft a new national constitution.

32. Continental Congress – AH1U2 • The Continental Congress was a meeting of delegates from the 13 American colonies. It assembled twice in Philadelphia during the American Revolution. • The first Continental Congress (September-October 1774) gathered to formulate a response to the British parliament’s Coercive Acts. • The second Continental Congress (March-May 1775) was responsible for war preparations and the passing of the Declaration of Independence

33. Currency Act – AH1U2 • The Currency Act was an act of the British parliament, passed in 1764. It imposed British control over paper currency in the American colonies.

34. Non-importation Agreements – AH1U2 • The non-important agreements were formed between American colonists, who agreed not to order or purchase goods from Britain. • Organized and casual boycotts were a protest against the Townshend duties and other British trade policies.

35. Salutary Neglect – AH1U2 • ‘Salutary neglect’ is a term that describes Britain’s imperial policy pertaining to America, between the late 1600s and 1763. It suggests the American colonies actually benefited and prospered from British indifference during this period.

36. Shay’s Rebellion – AH1U2 • Shays’ Rebellion was an armed uprising against debtors’ courts and the Massachusetts state government in 1786-87. • The rebels were farmers from western Massachusetts and were led by Daniel Shays, a veteran of the Revolutionary War. • They were opposed to high state taxes, falling grain prices and the harsh penalties given to farmers who defaulted on debts. • The rebels operated for several months and forced the closure of several state courthouses, before they were dispersed by government troops in mid 1787.

37. “Tarring and Feathering” – AH1U2 • Tarring and feathering was an 18th practice for punishing and publicly humiliating individuals. • Though it varied, most victims had their clothing removed and were doused with liquid tar and feathers.  • Tarring and feathering was carried out spontaneously by mobs; it was not a punishment of the courts or official bodies. • Some forms of tarring and feathering could leave the victim with significant injuries or even be fatal.

38. John Hancock – AH1U2 • Boston smuggler and prominent leader of the colonial resistance, who served as president of the Second Continental Congress

39. George Grenville – AH1U2 • 1772-1770 • British prime minister who fueled tensions between Britain and her North American colonies through his strict enforcement of Navigation Laws and his support for the Sugar and Stamp Acts

40. Charles Townshend – AH1U2 • 1725-1767 • British prime minister whose ill-conceived duties on the colonies, the Townshend acts, sparked fierce protests in the colonies and escalated the imperial conflict

41. Crispus Attucks – AH1U2 • 1723-1770 • Runaway slave and leader of the Boston protests that resulted in the “Boston Massacre,” in which Attucks was first to die

42. Samuel Adams – AH1U2 • 1722-1803 • Boston revolutionary who organized Massachusetts committes of correspondence to help sustain opposition to British policies. A delegate to the First and Second Continental Congresses, Adams continued to play a key role throughout the Revolutionary and early national periods, later serving as governor of his home state.

43. Marquis de Lafayette – AH1U2 • 1757-1834 • French nobleman who served as major general in the colonial army during the American Revolution and aided the newly independent colonies in securing French support.

44. Baron von Steuben – AH1U2 • 1730-1809 • German-born inspector general of the Continental Army who helped train the novice colonial militia in the art of warfare

45. Battle of Bunker Hill – AH1U2 • June 1755 • Fought on the outskirts of Boston, on Breed’s Hill, the battle ended in the colonial militia’s retreat, though at a heavy cost to the British

46. Olive Branch Petition – AH1U2 • July 1755 • Conciliatory measure adopted by the Continental Congress, professing American loyalty and seeking an end to the hostilities. King George rejected the petition and proclaimed the colonies in rebellion

47. Hessians – AH1U2 • German troops hired from their princess by George III to aid in putting down the colonial insurrection. This hardened the resolve of American colonists, who resented the use of paid foreign fighters.

48. Common Sense – AH1U2 • 1776 • Thomas Paine’s pamphlet urging the colonies to declare independence and establish a republican government. The widely read pamphlet helped convince colonists to support the Revolution

49. Declaration of Independence – AH1U2 • July 4, 1776 • Formal pronouncement of independence drafted by Thomas Jefferson and approved by Congress. • The Declaration allowed Americans to appeal for foreign aid and served as an inspiration for later revolutionary movements worldwide.

50. Loyalists and Patriots – AH1U2 • Loyalists – American colonists who opposed the Revolution and maintained their loyalty to the king; sometimes referred to as “Tories” • Patriots – Colonists who supported the American Revolution; they were also known as “Whigs”