Commerce, Culture, and Identity in British North America (1720–1763)

Vocabulary flashcards covering major cultural, intellectual, religious, and political terms from British North America between 1720 and 1763.

Enlightenment

An eighteenth-century European cultural movement that emphasized the power of human reason to understand and shape the world.

Pietism

An evangelical Christian movement originating in Germany around 1700 that stressed pious behavior and an individual's personal, emotional relationship with God.

Licensing Act

A British law that permitted government censorship of printed materials until Parliament allowed it to lapse in 1695, initiating the print revolution.

John Locke

An English philosopher whose 1690 works, Essay Concerning Human Understanding and Two Treatises of Government, advocated for environmental influence on human character and political authority based on natural rights and social compacts.

Deism

An Enlightenment-influenced way of thinking asserting that a Supreme Being created the world and allowed it to operate through natural laws without direct divine intervention in human affairs.

Benjamin Franklin

A prominent printer, inventor, and exemplar of the American Enlightenment who published Poor Richard's Almanack and founded the American Philosophical Society.

Jonathan Edwards

A Puritan minister in Northampton, Massachusetts, who led an 1730s Pietist revival and published A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God.

George Whitefield

An English minister and follower of John Wesley who transformed regional revivals into the Great Awakening by preaching extemporaneously to massive crowds across America beginning in 1739.

Old Lights

Conservative ministers who condemned the emotional outbursts, claims of miracles, and public speaking by women during the Great Awakening revivals.

New Lights

Evangelical converts during the Great Awakening who defended revivalism, rejected established tax-supported churches, and formed independent separatist congregations.

The Dangers of an Unconverted Ministry

A 1740 pamphlet written by Gilbert Tennent asserting that ministerial authority should derive from a personal conversion experience rather than formal theological education.

Ohio Company of Virginia

A partnership of colonial Virginia planters and London merchants formed in 1748 that received a 200,000-acre land grant from the crown on the upper Ohio River, challenging French claims in the region.

Tanaghrisson

An adopted Seneca "half-king" sent by the Iroquois to Logstown who killed a French officer following George Washington's initial skirmish in 1754, forcing British military engagement in the Ohio Valley.