AP - Causes of the American Revolution

Salutary Neglect

British policy of loose supervision/ ignoring the colonies as long as the colonies were producing products and buying imports; led to self-government

John Locke

Enlightenment thinker that promoted natural rights and the social contract

Natural Rights

Life, liberty, and property

Social Contract

Agreement between the people and their government; government makes laws to protect rights and people follow those laws

Bunker Hill

Battle lost by the colonists after 3 British assaults (colonists ran out of ammo

Proclamation of 1763

Law passed by Parliament and King to prevent colonists from crossing the Appalachian Mountains

Writs of Assistance

Allowed British officials to search colonial homes and boats for smuggled items

Sugar Act

Placed a tax on sugar, rum, and molasses as it entered the colonies; act that increased the penalty for smugglers and denied them a jury trial

James Otis

Colonist who coined the protest slogan, "No taxation without representation"

Stamp Act

Required colonists to purchase special stamped paper or place a stamp on legal documents and cards

Quartering Act

Required colonists to house and feed British soldiers

Sons of Liberty

Boston-based group of rebels led by Sam and John Adams; tarred and feathered tax collectors

Boycott

Refusal to buy a product

Stamp Act Congress

Meeting of colonists to protest Stamp Act; proclaimed Parliament could not tax without representation

Declaratory Act

Parliament declared that they could pass laws for American colonists; would have to follow them; meant to "save face"

Tea Act

British act that gave the East India Company a monopoly on tea

Townshend Acts

Tax placed on imported goods like paper, paint, glass, and tea and led to the Boston Massacre

Coercive Acts

Intolerable Acts

Punitive laws passed to punish Boston for the tea party; closed Boston harbor, put Boston under martial law, suspended basic rights

Boston Massacre

British troops fired on a crowd of protestors, killing 5 colonists

Committees of Correspondence

Colonists wrote letters back and forth about attacks on American liberty; began to unite the colonists

Boston Tea Party

Colonists dressed up like natives, dumped 18,000 pounds of tea, and burned down British ships

George Washington

Chosen as the commander of the Continental Army

First Continental Congress

Meeting held in Philadelphia in which the colonists sent King George III a Declaration of Rights; agreed to meet again in one year

Paul Revere

Warned the colonists that the "British were coming!"

Lexington

Site of the "Shot Heard 'Round the World"

King George III

King who America claims independence from

French and Indian War

Conflict over the control of the Ohio River Valley

Albany Plan of Union

Meeting attempting to unite colonies during the French and Indian War

Pontiac's Rebellion

Incident between the colonists and Indians causing Britain to stop expansion

Samuel Adams

Father of the Revolution

Richard Henry Lee

Made the original motion for independence

Patrick Henry

"Give me liberty or give me death"

Ben Franklin

Formulated the Albany Plan of Union