American Revolution and Early Government Lecture Notes

Vocabulary flashcards covering key events, figures, and legislative acts of the American Revolutionary period and the formation of the U.S. government.

13 Colonies

A group of British colonies founded in the $17^{th}$ and $18^{th}$ centuries. The American Enlightenment led these colonies to the American Revolutionary War.

American Enlightenment

The intellectual movement that led the British colonies to the American Revolutionary War.

Boston Tea Party

An American political and mercantile protest in $1773$ by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, Massachusetts.

Sons of Liberty

The group of colonists in Boston who dressed as Native Americans and dumped $342$ chests of tea into the Boston Harbor in $1773$.

Stamp Act

An act of the British Parliament in $1765$ that exacted revenue from the American colonies by imposing a duty on newspapers and documents.

French and Indian War

A segment of the Seven Years' War pitting the North American colonies of the British Empire against those of the French.

Seven Years' War

The larger conflict that included the French and Indian War, involving both the British Empire and the French supported by Native American tribes.

Boston Massacre

A confrontation in Boston on March $5$, $1770$, in which nine British soldiers shot several individuals in a crowd of three or four hundred.

Lexington and Concord

Leading military engagements of the American Revolutionary War fought on April $19$, $1775$, in Middlesex County, Province of Massachusetts Bay.

Middlesex County

The specific county in the Province of Massachusetts Bay where the battles of Lexington and Concord took place.

Common Sense

A $47$-page pamphlet written by Thomas Paine in $1775$–$1776$ advocating independence from Great Britain to the Thirteen Colonies.

Thomas Paine

The author of the $1775$–$1776$ pamphlet titled Common Sense.

Continental Congress

The governing body by which American colonial governments coordinated resistance to British rule during the first $2$ years of the American Revolution.

2nd Continental Congress

A late-$18^{th}$-century meeting of delegates that united to establish American independence from the British Empire.

Patriots

The term used for colonists who rebelled against the British Crown.

Right to Revolt

The right or duty of a people to "alter or abolish" a government that acts against their common interests or threatens their safety without cause.

Alter or abolish

The actions the people have the right or duty to take against a government that acts against their common interests.

Universal and non transferable

Standards for rights that are pre-political, meaning they are not created by persons or society but by politics.

Consent of the Governed

The idea that a government's legitimacy and moral right to use state power is justified only when agreed to by the people.

Grievance

An official statement of a complaint over something believed to be wrong or unfair.

Articles of Confederation

The written document that established the functions of the national government of the United States after declaring independence.

Ratification

The action of signing or giving formal consent to a treaty, contract, or agreement, making it officially valid.

Virginia Plan

A proposal for the creation of a supreme national government consisting of three branches and a bicameral legislature.

Bicameral legislature

A legislative structure with two branches or chambers, as proposed in the Virginia Plan.

Three-Fifths Compromise

A proposal made to the United States Constitutional Convention regarding the status of individuals and representation.