Chapter 5: The American Revolution, 1763-1783

History 17

Stamp Act

Parliament's 1765 requirement that revenue stamps be affixed to all colonial printed matter, documents, and playing cards; the Stamp Act Congress met to formulate a response, and the act was repealed the following year.

Virtual Representation

The idea that the American colonies, although they had no actual representative in Parliament, were "virtually" represented by all members of Parliament.

Sugar Act

1764 decision by Parliament to tax refined sugar and many other colonial products.

“No Taxation without Representation”

The rallying cry of opponents to the 1765 Stamp Act. The slogan decried the colonists' lack of representation in Parliament.

Committee of Correspondence

Group organized by Samuel Adams in retaliation for the Gaspèe incident to address American grievances, assert American rights, and form a network of rebellion.

Son’s of Liberty

Organization formed by Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and other radical men in response to the Stamp Act.

Regulators

Groups of backcountry Carolina settlers who protested colonial policies.

Townshend Acts

1767 parliamentary measures (named for the Chancellor of the Exchequer) that taxed tea and other commodities and established a Board of Customs Commissioners and colonial vice-admiralty courts.

Daughter’s of Liberty

Organization formed by women in 1767 to protest against the British by boycotting British goods, making replacement products such as homespun cloth, and publicizing their efforts to encourage others.

Boston Massacre

Clash between British soldiers and a Boston mob, March 5, 1770, in which five colonists were killed.

Crispus Attacks

One of the protesters against British troops who was killed during the Boston Massacre.

Boston Tea Party

The incident on December 16, 1773, in which the Sons of Liberty dumped hundreds of chests of tea into Boston Harbor to protest the Tea Act of 1773. Under the Tea Act, the British exported to the colonies millions of pounds of cheap—but still taxed—tea, thereby undercutting the price of smuggled tea and forcing payment of the tea duty.

Intolerable Acts

Four parliamentary measures in reaction to the Boston Tea Party that forced payment for the tea, disallowed colonial trials of British soldiers, forced their quartering in private homes, and reduced the number of elected officials in Massachusetts.

Continental Congress

First meeting of representatives of the colonies, held in Philadelphia in 1774 to formulate actions against British policies; in the Second Continental Congress (1775–1789), the colonial representatives conducted the war and adopted the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation.

Battles of Lexington & Concord

The first shots fired in the Revolutionary War, on April 19, 1775, near Boston; approximately 100 minutemen and 250 British soldiers were killed.

Battle of Bunker Hill

First major battle of the Revolutionary War; it actually took place at nearby Breed's Hill, Massachusetts, on June 17, 1775.

Continental Army

Army authorized by the Continental Congress in 1775 to fight the British; commanded by General George Washington.

Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation

A proclamation issued in 1775 by the earl of Dunmore, the British governor of Virginia, that offered freedom to any men enslaved by rebels who volunteered to fight for the king.

Common Sense

A pamphlet anonymously written by Thomas Paine in January 1776 that attacked the English principles of hereditary rule and monarchical government.

Declaration of Independence

Document adopted on July 4, 1776, that made the break with Britain official; drafted by a committee of the Second Continental Congress, including principal writer Thomas Jefferson.

Battle of Saratoga

Major defeat of British general John Burgoyne and more than 5,000 British troops at Saratoga, New York, on October 17, 1777.

Joseph Brant

Mohawk military, political, and diplomatic leader who led the Haudenosaunee against the rebelling British colonists in the Revolutionary War; brother of Molly Brant.

Molly Brant

Mohawk leader who coordinated efforts with the British and with Loyalists during the Revolutionary War in Haudenosaunee country; sister of Joseph Brant.

Paya Mataha

Chickasaw military and diplomatic leader who worked during the era of the American Revolution to make peace among Native nations, including the Chickasaw, Cherokee, and Choctaw, and tried to stay out of Europeans' infighting.

Battle of Yorktown

Last battle of the Revolutionary War; General Lord Charles Cornwallis along with over 7,000 British troops surrendered at Yorktown, Virginia, on October 17, 1781.

Treaty of Paris

Signed on September 3, 1783, the treaty that ended the Revolutionary War, recognized American independence from Britain, established the border between Canada and the United States, fixed the western border at the Mississippi River, and ceded Florida to Spain (without setting Florida's border).