Unit 3

The French and Indian War (1754–1763)

Fought between Britain and France (with Native allies) over control of the Ohio River Valley. Britain won, but went into massive national debt, ending the era of salutary neglect and forcing them to tax the colonies.

The Albany Plan of Union (1754)

Henry Clay didn't invent the American System out of nowhere—Ben Franklin originally tried to unify the colonies during this war with his famous "Join, or Die" cartoon. It failed because colonies didn't want to give up their individual sovereignty.

Treaty of Paris (1763)

Ended the war. France was completely kicked out of North America, leaving Britain as the dominant power, but creating a volatile frontier.

Proclamation Line of 1763

King George III banned colonists from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains to prevent conflicts with Native Americans (like Pontiac's Rebellion). This deeply angered colonists who felt they fought the war specifically to win that land.

Salutary Neglect

The unofficial British policy of laxly enforcing navigation laws, allowing the colonies to govern and trade largely on their own. The end of this policy after 1763 shocked the colonial political system.

The Stamp Act (1765)

The first direct tax on colonists (affecting legal documents, newspapers, playing cards). It united all social classes in anger because it was levied without the consent of colonial legislatures.

Quartering Act (1765)

Mandated that colonial assemblies provide housing and food for British soldiers stationed in the colonies.

Townshend Acts (1767)

Taxes on imported goods like glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea. It also allowed British customs officials to use Writs of Assistance (blanket search warrants) to crack down on smuggling.

"No Taxation Without Representation"

The foundational ideological protest argument. Colonists argued that because they had no elected members in the British Parliament, Parliament had no legal right to tax them.

Virtual Representation

Parliament’s defensive argument that all British subjects were represented by the entire Parliament, whether they voted for a member or not. Colonists rejected this concept entirely.

Stamp Act Congress (1765)

The first coordinated intercolonial political protest meeting, where representatives from nine colonies drafted a petition to the King affirming their rights as Englishmen.

Sons and Daughters of Liberty

Radical protest groups. The Sons used intimidation, tarring and feathering, and property damage to enforce boycotts. The Daughters manufactured homespun cloth to make colonial boycotts of British textiles possible.

Nonimportation Agreements

Highly effective economic boycotts where colonial merchants pledged not to buy or import British goods, eventually forcing Parliament to repeal the Stamp Act.

Boston Massacre (1770)

A violent confrontation where British soldiers fired into an angry colonial mob, killing five people. It was heavily propagandized by Paul Revere and Samuel Adams to fuel anti-British sentiment.

Boston Tea Party (1773)

A direct protest against the Tea Act (which gave a monopoly to the British East India Company). The Sons of Liberty disguised themselves and dumped 342 chests of tea into the harbor.

Coercive / Intolerable Acts (1774)

Parliament's punitive retaliation for the Tea Party. It closed Boston Harbor, placed Massachusetts under military rule, and revoked its colonial charter, which fired on Britain by uniting all 13 colonies in resistance.

Seven Years’ War (French and Indian War)

A massive global conflict (1754–1763) sparked in North America over control of the Ohio River Valley. Britain defeated France and its Native allies, gaining vast territory but plunging into severe national debt that ended the era of salutary neglect.

Albany Plan of Union (1754)

An early intercolonial union plan proposed by Benjamin Franklin during the French and Indian War; famously illustrated by the "Join, or Die" cartoon, it was rejected by colonies jealous of their own taxation powers.

Edward Braddock

A stubborn British general whose disastrous defeat and death near Fort Duquesne early in the French and Indian War demonstrated the vulnerability of traditional European military tactics in the American wilderness.

George Washington (Early Military Career)

A young Virginia militia officer whose surrender at Fort Necessity inadvertently helped spark the French and Indian War, later gaining valuable military experience covering Braddock's retreat.

Peace of Paris (1763)

The treaty ending the French and Indian War; it completely eliminated France's geopolitical presence from North America, leaving Great Britain as the dominant continent power.

Salutary Neglect

The unofficial British policy of laxly enforcing parliamentary laws and navigation acts prior to 1763, which allowed the American colonies to develop independent political assemblies and thriving autonomous economies.

George III

The King of Great Britain who assumed power in 1760; determined to assert royal authority and resolve national war debt, his aggressive colonial policies directly catalyzed the American Revolution.

Parliament

The supreme legislative body of Great Britain that asserted absolute sovereignty over the American colonies, precipitating constitutional crises by passing taxes without giving colonists elected representation.

Pontiac’s Rebellion

A major 1763 Native American uprising in the Ohio River Valley against migrating British settlers; it proved the frontier was highly volatile and forced the British crown to intervene militarily.

Proclamation of 1763

A British royal decree banning colonial settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains to prevent Native conflicts; it deeply angered colonists who believed they had fought the French and Indian War specifically to win that land.

Sugar Act (1764)

A British revenue law that placed duties on foreign sugar and certain luxuries; it also tightened navigation laws and established vice-admiralty courts to try smugglers without juries.

Quartering Act (1765)

A parliamentary act requiring colonial assemblies to provide housing, food, and provisions for British soldiers stationed within their borders.

Stamp Act (1765)

The first direct tax levied by Parliament on colonists, requiring a revenue stamp on all legal documents, newspapers, and playing cards; it ignited widespread outrage across all social classes.

Patrick Henry

A radical Virginia lawyer and politician who delivered fiery speeches in the House of Burgesses against the Stamp Act, famously asserting that only colonial assemblies had the right to tax citizens.

James Otis

A Massachusetts lawyer who pioneered the legal defense against British overreach, framing the foundational intellectual protest argument

Stamp Act Congress

A 1765 meeting of delegates from nine colonies in New York that drafted a petition to the King; it marked the first coordinated, cooperative intercolonial political protest against British taxation.

Sons and Daughters of Liberty

Secret, radical protest organizations. The Sons used intimidation, tarring and feathering, and property damage to enforce boycotts; the Daughters manufactured homespun cloth to replace boycotted British goods.

Declaratory Act (1766)

Passed by Parliament immediately after repealing the hated Stamp Act, this statute boldly asserted that Parliament retained absolute authority to tax and bind the colonies "in all cases whatsoever."

Townshend Acts (1767)

External taxes levied on imported colonial items like glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea; the revenue collected was used to pay the salaries of royal governors, bypassing colonial control of the purse strings.

Writs of Assistance

General, non-specific search warrants utilized by British customs officials under the Townshend Acts to board and search any colonial vessel or building suspected of housing smuggled goods.

John Dickinson; “Letters From a Farmer in Pennsylvania”

A series of widely read essays arguing that Parliament could regulate imperial commerce but had no constitutional right to levy internal or external taxes on the colonies simply to raise revenue.

Samuel Adams

A radical Boston political leader and master propagandist who organized grassroots anti-British protests, co-authored the Circular Letter, and founded the Committees of Correspondence.

Massachusetts Circular Letter

A statement written by Samuel Adams and James Otis urging colonial legislatures to petition Parliament to repeal the Townshend Acts; its suppression by British officials led to increased colonial solidarity.

Committees of Correspondence

A network of local letter-writing systems established by Samuel Adams to regularly share news of British overreach, creating a shadow government that kept anti-British sentiment alive across the colonies.

Tea Act (1773)

A law that granted a monopoly on the American tea trade to the financially struggling British East India Company, lowering the price of tea but infuriating colonists who saw it as an underhanded trick to make them accept parliamentary taxation.

Lord Frederick North

The prime minister of Great Britain who repealed most of the Townshend Acts (except the tea tax) but took a hardline stance following the Boston Tea Party by drafting the coercive acts.

Whigs (British Faction)

A political party in the British Parliament that generally favored parliamentary supremacy over the crown, though some sympathetic members warned against pushing the American colonies to open rebellion.

Coercive Acts / Intolerable Acts (1774)

A series of punitive laws passed by Parliament to punish Massachusetts for the Boston Tea Party; they closed Boston Harbor, revoked the colony's charter, and placed the province under military rule, uniting all 13 colonies in resistance.

Port Act

A specific component of the Coercive Acts that completely closed the port of Boston to all commercial trade until the town paid the British East India Company for the destroyed tea.

Massachusetts Government Act

A component of the Coercive Acts that revoked the Massachusetts colonial charter, drastically reduced the power of the local assembly, and banned all town meetings without the royal governor's permission.

Administration of Justice Act

A component of the Coercive Acts allowing royal officials charged with capital crimes in the colonies to face trial in Great Britain rather than before local colonial juries.

Quebec Act (1774)

A law organizing Canadian lands that extended Quebec's boundary down to the Ohio River and established Roman Catholicism as its official religion; colonists viewed it as a direct threat because it nullified western land claims and lacked representative assemblies.

Enlightenment

An 18th-century European intellectual and philosophical movement that championed human reason, natural rights, and scientific inquiry over traditional religious dogma and blind obedience to monarchs.

Rationalism

A core Enlightenment belief that human reason, rather than religious revelation or ancient tradition, is the primary source of knowledge and the best tool for constructing just political systems.

Deism

An Enlightenment religious philosophy held by many Founding Fathers (like Jefferson and Franklin) asserting that God created the universe governed by natural laws but does not actively intervene in daily human affairs.

John Locke

An English philosopher whose Two Treatises of Government argued that governments derive legitimacy from the consent of the governed and that citizens have a natural right to overthrow a government that violates life, liberty, or property.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

A French Enlightenment philosopher whose concept of the Social Contract argued that true political authority rests on the general will of the people, deeply influencing American revolutionary ideas about democracy.