Chapter 6 - The Road to Revolution

APUSH

Acadians

French residents of Nova Scotia, many of whom were uprooted by the British in 1755 and scattered as far south as Louisiana, where their descendants became known as “Cajuns”.

French and Indian War

(1754-1763) Nine-year war between the French and British in North America. It resulted in the expulsion of the French from the North American mainland and helped spark the wider Seven Years’ War in Europe and elsewhere.

Seven Years’ War

(1756-1763) First global war, with battles on four continents, as France, Spain, England, and Prussia, and other European powers clashed. Colonists called the North American portion of the conflict the “French and Indian War”. The resulting British debt and French resentment after the war both played a critical role in the coming of the American revolution.

Albany Congress

(1754) Intercolonial congress summoned by the British government to foster greater colonial unity and assure Iroquois support in the escalating war against the French.

Regulars

Trained professional soldiers, as distinct from militia or conscripts. During the French and Indian War, British generals, used to commanding experienced regulars, often showing contempt for ill-trained colonial militiamen.

Battle of Quebec

(1759) Historic British victory over French forces on the outskirts of Quebec. The surrender of Quebec marked the beginning of the end of French rule in North America.

Pontiac’s War

(1763) Bloody campaign waged by Ottawa chief Pontiac to drive the British out of Ohio Country. It was brutally crushed by British troops, who resorted to disturbing blankets infected with smallpox as a means to put down the rebellion.

Proclamation of 1763

Decree issued by Parliament in the wake of Pontiac’s War, prohibiting the settlement beyond the Appalachians. Contributed to rising resentment of British rule in the American colonies.

Republicanism

Political theory of representative government, based on the principle of popular sovereignty, with strong emphasis on liberty and civic virtue. Influential in eighteenth-century American political thought, it stood as an alternative to monarchial rule.

Radical Whigs

Eighteenth century British political commentators who agitated against political corruption and emphasized the threat to liberty posed by arbitrary power. Their writings shaped American political thought and made colonists especially alert to encroachments on their rights.

Mercantilism

Economic theory that closely linked a nation’s political and military power to its bullion reserves. Mercantilists generally favored protectionism and colonial acquisition as means to increase exports.

Sugar Act

(1764) Duty on imported sugar from the West Indies. It was the first tax levied on the colonists by the crown and was lowered substantially in response to widespread protests.

Quartering Act

(1765) Required colonies to provide food and quarters for British troops. Many colonists resented the act, which they perceived as an encroachment on their rights.

Stamp Tax

(1765) Widely unpopular tax on an array of paper goods, repealed in 1766 after mass protests erupted across the colonies. Colonists developed the principle of “no taxation without representation” that questioned Parliament’s authority over the colonies and laid the foundation for future revolutionary claims.

Admirality Courts

Used to try offenders for violating the various Navigation Acts passed by the crown after the French and Indian War. Colonists argued that the courts encroached on their rights as Englishmen because they lacked juries and placed the burden of proof on the accused.

Stamp Act Congress

(1765) An assembly of delegates from nine colonies who met in NYC to draft a petition for the repeal of the Stamp Act. Helped ease sectional suspicions and promote intercolonial unity.

Nonimportation Agreements

(1765 and after) Boycotts against British goods adopted in response to the Stamp Act and, later, the Townshend and Intolerable Acts. The agreements were the most effective form of protest against British policies in the colonies.

Sons of Liberty

Patriotic groups that played a central role in agitating against the Stamp Act and enforcing nonimportation agreements.

Daughters of Liberty

Patriotic groups that played a central role in agitating against the Stamp Act and enforcing nonimportation agreements.

Townshend Acts

(1767) External, or indirect, levies on glass, white lead, paper, paint, and tea, the proceeds of which were used to pay colonial governors, who had previously been paid directly by colonial assemblies. Sparked another round of protests in the colonies.

Boston Massacre

(1770) Clash between unruly Bostonian protestors and locally stationed British redcoats, who fired on the jeering crowd, killing or wounding eleven citizens.

Committees of Correspondence

(1772 and after) Local committees established across Massachusetts, and later in each of the thirteen colonies, to coordinate colonial opposition to British policies through the exchange of letters and pamphlets.

Boston Tea Party

(1773) Rowdy protest against the British East India Company’s newly acquired monopoly on the tea trade. Colonists, disguised as Indians, dumped 342 chests of tea into Boston harbor, prompting harsh sanctions from the British parliament.

“Intolerable Acts”

(1774) Series of punitive measures passed in retaliation for the Boston Tea Party, closing the Port of Boston, revoking a number of rights in the Massachusetts colonial charter, and expanding the Quartering Act to allow for the lodging of soldiers in private homes. In response, colonists convened the First Continental Congress and called for a complete boycott of British goods.

Quebec Act

(1774) Allowed the French residents of Quebec to retain their traditional political and religious institutions, and extended the boundaries of the province southward to the Ohio River. Mistakenly perceived by the colonists to be part of Parliament’s response to the Boston Tea Party.

First Continental Congress

(1774) Convention of delegates from twelve of the thirteen colonies that convened in Philadelphia to craft a response to the Intolerable Acts. Delegates established The Association, which called for a complete boycott of British goods.

The Association

(1774) Nonimportation agreement crafted during the First Continental Congress calling for the complete boycott of British goods.

Battles of Lexington and Concord

(April 1775) First battles of the revolutionary war, fought outside of Boston. The colonial militia successfully defended their stores of munitions, forcing the British to retreat to Boston.

Valley Forge

(1777-78) Encampment where George Washington’s poor equipped army spent a wretched, freezing winter. Hundred of men died and more than a thousand deserted. The plight of the starving, shivering soldiers reflected the main weakness of the American army - a lack of stable supplies and munition.

Camp Followers

Women and children who followed the Continental Army during the American revolution, providing vital services such as cooking and sewing in return for rations.

William Pitt

lead America to revolution by accumulating massive national debt to win the French and Indian War, which prompted the British Parliament to levy the controversial, unrepresented taxes on the colonies that ultimately sparked the rebellion.

Pontiac

forced the British Crown to issue the Proclamation of 1763, which restricted westward colonial expansion and deeply angered the American colonists, fueling the early grievances that culminated in the American Revolution

John Hancock

used his immense wealth as a merchant to fund the colonial resistance, while boldly serving as the President of the Continental Congress and famously signing the Declaration of Independence.

George Grenville

As Great Britain's Prime Minister, George Grenville introduced controversial policies like the Stamp Act and Quartering Act, which aimed to tax and control the American colonies to pay off British war debt, ultimately igniting widespread colonial resistance and the cry of "no taxation without representation."

Charles (“Champange Charley”) Townshend

Charles Townshend proposed the Townshend Acts of 1767, a series of taxes on British imports that enraged American colonists and sparked widespread protests and boycotts, ultimately fueling the resistance that led to the American Revolution.

Crispus Attucks

First person killed in the Boston Massacre

George III

King George III helped drive the American colonies to revolution by enforcing strict taxation policies and colonial trade restrictions without granting them parliamentary representation, which deeply united the colonists against British rule.

Lord North

Lord North led Great Britain into the American Revolution by championing punishing policies like the Coercive Acts (Intolerable Acts) and refusing to compromise on British taxation without representation, which ultimately united the colonies in open rebellion.

Samuel Adams

Samuel Adams helped lead America to revolution by organizing grassroots resistance, founding the Committees of Correspondence to unite the colonies, and masterminding protests like the Boston Tea Party to fight British taxation without representation. He was part of the Sons of Liberty.

Thomas Hutchinson

As the loyalist Royal Governor of Massachusetts, Thomas Hutchinson's rigid enforcement of British taxation laws and his refusal to let tea ships leave Boston Harbor directly provoked the Boston Tea Party, inflaming colonial resistance and accelerating the path to the American Revolution.

Marquis de Lafayette

The Marquis de Lafayette helped lead America to revolution by using his military expertise to command troops in critical battles like Yorktown, while simultaneously using his high social status to secure vital French financial and military support for the patriot cause.

Baron von Steuben

served as the essential drillmaster of the American Revolution, using his extensive Prussian military expertise during the harsh winter at Valley Forge to train, discipline, and reform the disorganized Continental Army into a professional fighting force capable of defeating the British.