Colonial Resistance and British Tax Acts

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, acts, and concepts from the lecture transcript regarding British taxation and early colonial resistance.

Seven Years' War

Also known in the lecture as the French Union War, a conflict during which the British incurred heavy debts defending North American colonial land.

Indirect Tax

A tax where producers pay the fee directly and pass the cost onto consumers by raising the prices of finished goods, such as the Sugar Tax on rum and baked goods.

Sugar Tax

The first tax placed on the colonists by the British, functioning as an indirect tax on items containing sugar.

Quartering Act

An act passed around the same time as the Sugar Tax requiring colonists to provide food and shelter to British soldiers so the British government could save money.

Stamp Act of 1765

The first direct tax placed on the colonists, requiring an official sticky, ink, or embossed stamp on all paper products, legal documents, and playing cards.

Contraband

Illegal products or materials that a person is not supposed to possess, such as paper products lacking the required British stamp.

Solitary Neglect

A prior period during which the British allowed the colonies to manage their own affairs with minimal strict requirements or interference.

No taxation without representation

A colonial protest slogan highlighting that the British Parliament enacted taxes on the North American colonies without granting them elected representatives in Parliament.

Virtual Representation

The British counterargument claiming Parliament and the King considered the needs and desires of all empire colonies when making decisions, making direct representatives unnecessary.

Committees of Correspondence

Groups of wealthy and powerful colonists who acted as the 'brains' of the resistance by formulating plans and actions to protest British policies.

Sons of Liberty

A group primarily composed of common colonists who acted as the 'muscle' or 'brawn' executing resistance and protest actions against British authority.

Townshend Act

A series of indirect taxes placed on frequently used items like glass, paper, lead/beans, and tea, created to replace the repealed Stamp Act.

Boston Massacre

A March 1770 conflict in Boston where colonial harassment of British soldiers escalated into shots fired, resulting in the first deaths of colonial resistance.

Crispus Attucks

A mulatto man who was the first person killed during the Boston Massacre.

Tea Act

An act that eliminated middleman price markups on tea by allowing direct sales to the colonies, lowering tea prices for colonists while retaining a British tax.

British East Indies Company

The company granted full control over the colonial tea trade under the Tea Act to sell directly to stores or consumers.