us history chap 6

Townshend acts

act which levied a series of taxes on colonial imports from Britain, including paper, paints, lead, glass, and tea that also established a board of customs in Boston to oversee the collection of these taxes and created special courts to try customs dodgers without a jury

Boston Massacre

unfortunate incident in March 1770 between an angry colonial mob and British troops in Boston in which five colonists were killed

Samuel Adams

Bostonian who filled the newspapers with letters warning colonists that the peace with Great Britain was temporary and that the real problems had not been solved; helped form the first Committee of Correspondence in Boston

Committee of Correspondence

group formed in Boston in 1772 at the suggestion of Samuel Adams to keep neighbouring towns informed of problems with Britain and to let America's position be known to the world

Boston Tea Party

event that occurred in December 1773 when a group of Boston citizens disguised as Mohawk tribesmen boarded tea-laden ships in Boston Harbour, broke open 342 tea chests, and dumped their contents into the harbor

Quartering Act

act that made it legal for British officials to house British soldiers in occupied buildings in the colonies; passed by Parliament in response to the Boston Tea Party; part of the Intolerable Acts

Boston Port Bill

closed the Port of Boston

Intolerable Acts

name the colonists gave to a series of laws and acts, including the Quartering Act of 1774 and the Boston Port Bill, that restricted their freedom to govern themselves and deprived them of their traditional rights as Englishmen

Quebec Act

act passed in 1774 that canceled the American colonies' western land claims by extending the borders of Quebec south to the Ohio River and west to the Mississippi

First Continental Congress

meeting of delegates from each of the colonies except Georgia that convened in Philadelphia in September 1774 to discuss what action should be taken in the impending crisis with the British

Patrick Henry

Virginian statesman who gave a speech to the Second Virginia Convention in which he famously said, "Give me liberty, or give me death!"

Shot heard 'round the world

most famously refers to the first shots fired at the Battles of Lexington and Concord, marking the beginning of the American Revolutionary War

Philadelphia

"city of brotherly love"; settlement founded in Pennsylvania by William Penn as a haven for Quakers' largest city in colonial America; location of the meeting of the First Continental Congress

minutemen

colonial volunteer militia who were ready to defend their homes and families upon a minute's notice

Patriots

those favouring independence from Great Britain

Concord

city twenty miles outside of Boston where the Patriots were collecting ammunition before the War for Independence; location of the shot heard 'round the world

Lexington

city where British general Thomas Gage went to arrest Patriot leaders John Hancock and Samuel Adams; location of the shot heard 'round the world

War for Independence

sometimes called the Revolutionary War; war fought from 1775 to 1783 between Great Britain and the American colonies

Ethan Allen

Patriot leader of the Green Mountain Boys who captured Fort Ticonderoga

Green Mountain Boys

pioneer farmers who followed Ethan Allen and captured Fort Ticonderoga

Second Continental Congress

meeting convened in Philadelphia on May 10, 1775, that made provision to raise an army against the British, elected John Hancock as the president of the Congress, and appointed George Washington the commander in chief of the army

John Hancock

Patriot leader who was elected president of the Second Continental Congress

George Washington

Patriot general who was appointed commander in chief of the Continental army during the War for Independence

Battle of Bunker Hill

first major battle of the War for Independence fought on Breed's Hill outside Boston

Olive Branch Petition

document approved by the Second Continental Congress and sent to King George III asking him to come to reasonable terms while promising loyalty in return

Prohibitory Act

act passed in December 1775 that removed British protection from the colonies

Thomas Paine

Englishman in the colonies who published a pamphlet entitled Common Sense

Hessians

professional soldiers from the German state of Hesse hired by King George III to fight for Britain against the colonists

Common Sense

pamphlet published by Thomas Paine in 1776 that gave the colonists a detailed account of British liberties and the abuses of the monarchy and the Parliament

Thomas Jefferson

Who wrote the Declaration of Independence?

Declaration of Independence

The most important human statement of political principles in the history of the world; states that the United States of America was independent from Great Britain

Marquis de Lafayette

young Frenchman who became a close and invaluable aid to General George Washington in the War for Independence

Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Stäuben

Prussian who helped General George Washington drill his troops into a disciplined army in the War for Independence and demonstrated that not all Germans were like the Hessians

Loyalists

people who remained loyal to the king and opposed the War for Independence

Charles Cornwallis

British general who commanded a detachment of troops that was sent to capture General George Washington at Trenton in the War for Independence

John Burgoyne

British general who fought against and was defeated by General Horatio Gates at the Battle of Saratoga in the War for Independence

Horatio Gates

Patriot general who led troops in surrounding General John Burgoyne and forced him to surrender his entire army at the Battle of Saratoga in the War for Independence

Battle of Saratoga

battle fought between British general John Burgoyne and Patriot general Horatio Gates that resulted in a Patriot victory; major turning point in the War for Independence

Valley Forge

location twenty miles northwest of Philadelphia where General George Washington and his men spent the winter of 1777-1778 during the War for Independence

Battle of Monmouth

battle during the War for Independence which took place on one of the hottest days in the summer of 1778 and which proved that the Patriots were willing to fight to protect their families and their freedoms

George Rogers Clark

Patriot leader who commanded the Kentucky volunteers who seized British posts at Kaskaskia and Cahokia, putting the frontiersmen in a much safer position for the rest of the War for Independence

privateers

private vessels commissioned by the Congress or the state governments during the War for Independence

John Paul Jones

captain of the Continental navy who is probably the best-known naval hero in the War for Independence; captain of the Bonhomme Richard who defeated the British warship Serapis

Francis Marion

Who's nickname was "Swamp Fox"?

Joseph Brant

Mohawk chief who worked as a missionary to his own people and helped the British in both the French and Indian War and the American War for Independence but later worked to improve relations between the United States and Indigenous Americans

Nathanael Greene

Patriot general known as the "fighting quaker"; replaced General Horatio Gates as leader of the southern forces and regained the South for the Patriot caused during the War for Independence

Battle of Yorktown

battle at which the Patriots virtually won the War for Independence

Treaty of Paris

treaty signed in 1783 that officially ended the War for Independence and recognised the thirteen former British colonies as a "free, sovereign, and independent state"

Benedict Arnold

commander who betrayed the Patriots and sold secrets to the British in the War for Independence

Molly Pitcher

She brought water to the troops at the Battle of Monmouth and worked the cannon after her husband was wounded

Nathan Hale

young Patriot spy during the War for Independence who was hanged for treason by the British

Paul Revere

Rode his horse in the middle of the night warning the Patriots that the British were on their way

Dr. Samuel Prescott

Got the message that the British were coming to Concord