Colonial and Revolutionary America Terms

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards identifying and explaining key terms, figures, events, and legislation from colonial America through the Revolutionary War and the Early Republic.

Half-Way Covenant

A 1662 religious compromise adopted by New England Puritans that granted partial church membership to the unconverted children and grandchildren of full church members.

Salem Witch Trials

A series of hearings and prosecutions in colonial Massachusetts (1692–1693) that resulted in the execution of twenty people accused of practicing witchcraft.

Bacon's Rebellion

A 1676 armed rebellion in Virginia led by Nathaniel Bacon against Governor William Berkeley, stemming from frontier defense disputes and grievances over political favoritism.

Nathaniel Bacon

A Virginia planter who organized frontier settlers and led an armed revolt against Governor William Berkeley in 1676.

William Berkeley

The royal governor of Virginia who favored a defensive frontier policy and regulated fur trade with Native Americans, leading to conflict during Bacon's Rebellion.

Middle Passage

The brutal transatlantic voyage that brought enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas as part of the triangular trade.

Natural Law

An Enlightenment philosophical concept holding that certain fundamental rights and moral truths are inherent in human nature and can be understood through reason.

John Locke

An English Enlightenment philosopher whose theories of natural rights (life, liberty, and property) and government by consent heavily influenced the American founders.

Social Compact

The philosophical agreement among individuals to form an organized society and establish a government whose legitimate authority derives from the consent of the governed.

Jonathan Edwards

A prominent theologian and revivalist preacher of the First Great Awakening, best known for his sermon 'Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.'

John Winthrop

The first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony who famously described the Puritan settlement as an exemplary 'city upon a hill.'

Mercantilism

An economic policy pursued by European empires aiming to increase national wealth and power through state control of trade, maximizing exports, and using colonies as sources of raw materials and captive markets.

Navigation Acts

A series of English laws designed to enforce mercantilist policies by restricting colonial commerce to English and colonial vessels and funneling trade through English ports.

Salutary Neglect

The unofficial British policy of relaxed supervision and weak enforcement of colonial trade regulations, allowing American colonies substantial political and economic autonomy.

Wars of Empire

A series of major conflicts between European powers (primarily Great Britain, France, and Spain) fought globally and in North America for imperial dominance.

French and Indian War

The North American theater of the Seven Years' War (1754–1763) between Great Britain and France (with their Native American allies), ending in British victory and the expulsion of French power from the mainland.

Albany Plan of Union

A 1754 proposal drafted by Benjamin Franklin advocating a unified colonial government to coordinate defense and Native American relations, which was rejected by both the colonies and the Crown.

Treaty of Paris of 1763

The peace agreement ending the French and Indian War, in which France ceded Canada and its lands east of the Mississippi River to Great Britain.

Neolin

A Delaware (Lenape) prophet whose religious teachings urged Native Americans to abandon European goods and customs, inspiring Pontiac's Rebellion.

Pontiac's Rebellion

A 1763 pan-tribal Native American resistance campaign led by Ottawa chief Pontiac against British postwar expansion into the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley regions.

William Pitt

The British Prime Minister and statesman whose strategy of aggressive military spending and troop deployment secured Britain's victory in the French and Indian War.

Proclamation Line of 1763

A royal decree issued by the British Crown forbidding Anglo-American colonists from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains to prevent conflict with Native Americans.

Stamp Act

A 1765 act passed by the British Parliament imposing a direct internal tax on printed documents, papers, and legal materials in the American colonies.

Townshend Duties

A series of parliamentary revenue acts passed in 1767 that placed duties on colonial imports of glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea.

Non-Importation/boycott

Agreements organized by American colonial merchants and consumers pledging to cease purchasing British imports in protest against parliamentary taxes.

Boston Massacre

A confrontation on March 5, 1770, in which British soldiers fired into an aggressive crowd of colonists in Boston, resulting in five deaths and escalating anti-British sentiment.

Committees of Correspondence

Intercolonial shadow communication networks organized by Patriot leaders to share information, build unity, and coordinate resistance against British measures.

Coercive Acts/Intolerable Acts

Punitive measures passed by Parliament in 1774 in retaliation for the Boston Tea Party, which closed Boston Harbor, curtailed Massachusetts self-government, and expanded quartering powers.

Tea Act of 1773

Legislation that granted the financially troubled British East India Company a monopoly on the colonial tea trade, precipitating the Boston Tea Party.

Declaratory Act

A 1766 British statute passed alongside the repeal of the Stamp Act, affirming Parliament's power to bind the American colonies in all cases whatsoever.

Sons of Liberty

A clandestine political organization formed in the American colonies to protest British taxation policies through demonstrations, boycotted goods, and direct resistance.

John Hancock

A wealthy Boston merchant, Patriot leader, and President of the Second Continental Congress known for his prominent signature on the Declaration of Independence.

Lexington and Concord

The first armed clashes of the American Revolutionary War, fought in Massachusetts on April 19, 1775, featuring the 'shot heard 'round the world.'

American Prohibitory Act

A 1775 British act that declared all American colonies to be in open rebellion, prohibited trade with them, and subjected colonial vessels to seizure by the Royal Navy.

Thomas Paine

An English-born political writer and activist whose work galvanized public sentiment in favor of complete separation from Great Britain.

Common Sense

A January 1776 pamphlet written by Thomas Paine arguing in straightforward language that the American colonies should break away from British monarchical rule.

Declaration of Independence

The formal document adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, proclaiming the thirteen American colonies to be sovereign states independent of British rule.

Battle of Saratoga

A crucial 1777 American victory in upstate New York that ended Britain's northern invasion strategy and convinced France to openly ally with the United States.

Franco-American Treaty of Alliance

The 1778 defensive treaty in which France officially recognized the United States and pledged military support to help win independence from Great Britain.

Benjamin Franklin

An American statesman, scientist, and diplomat who represented the colonies in London, secured the French alliance during the Revolution, and helped negotiate the 1783 peace treaty.

Battle of King's Mountain

An October 1780 battle in South Carolina where Patriot militia decisively defeated Loyalist forces, turning the tide of the British Southern campaign.

Yorktown

The 1781 siege in Virginia where combined American and French forces trapped British General Cornwallis, forcing his surrender and effectively ending combat in the Revolutionary War.

Treaty of Paris of 1783

The peace treaty between Great Britain and the United States that formally recognized American independence and set the nation's western border at the Mississippi River.

Northwest Ordinance of 1787

A governing statute enacted by the Confederation Congress creating a structured process for admitting new states from the Northwest Territory, protecting civil liberties, and prohibiting slavery there.

Newburg Conspiracy

A threatened 1783 revolt among Continental Army officers over unpaid salaries and pensions, defused by George Washington's direct appeal to their loyalty to civilian rule.

Great Compromise

A Constitutional Convention agreement that established a bicameral legislature, granting equal state representation in the Senate and population-based representation in the House of Representatives.

Three-fifths Compromise

A constitutional agreement providing that three-fifths of the enslaved population would be counted for determining both direct taxation and representation in the House of Representatives.

Checks and Balances

A constitutional system that distributes specific oversight powers across the legislative, executive, and judicial branches so that no single branch can dominate the federal government.

Bill of Rights

The first ten amendments to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1791 to safeguard individual freedoms and state protections against federal overreach.

Alexander Hamilton

A leading Federalist, co-author of The Federalist Papers, and the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury who advocated for a strong national government, national bank, and sound public credit.