APUSH Ch. 5 Reading Quiz

Sugar Act of 1764

British Law that decreased the duty on French molasses, making it more attractive for shippers to obey the law, and at the same time raised penalties for smuggling.

vice-admiralty courts

A maritime tribunal presided over by a royally appointed judge, with no jury.

Stamp Act of 1765

British law imposing a tax on all paper used in the colonies. Widespread resistance to the Stamp Act prevented it from taking affect and led to its repeal in 1766.

virtual representation

The claim made by British politicians that the interests of the American colonists were adequately represented in Parliament by merchants who traded with the colonies and by absentee landlords (mostly sugar planters) who owned estate in the West Indies.

Quartering Act of 1765

A British law passed by Parliament at the request of General Thomas Gage, the British military commander in America, that required colonial governments to provide barracks and food for British troops.

Stamp Act Congress

A congress of delegates from nine assemblies that met in New York City in October 1765 to protest the loss of American "rights and liberties," especially the right to trial by jury.

Sons of Liberty

Colonists - primarily middling merchants and artisans - who banded together to protest the Stamp Act and other imperial reforms of the 1760's. The group originated in Boston in 1765 but soon spread to all the colonies.

English common law

The entries-old body of legal rules and producers that protected the lives and property of the British monarch's subjects.

natural rights

The rights to life, liberty and property. According to the English philosopher John Locke in Two Treaties of Government, political authority was not given by god to monarchs. Instead, it derived from social compacts that people made to preserve their natural rights.

Declaratory Act of 1766

Law issued by Parliament to assert Parliament's unassailable right to legislate for their British colonies "in all cases whatsoever", putting Americans on notice that the simultaneous repeal of the Stamp Act changed nothing in the imperial powers of Britain.

Townshend Act of 1767

British law that established new duties on tea, glass, lead, paper and painters' colors imported into the colonies. Townshend duties led to boycotts and heightened tensions between Britain and American colonies.

nonimportation movement

Colonist attempted non importation agreements three times: in 1766, in response to the Stamp Act; in 1768, in response to the Townshend duties; and in 1774, in response to the Coercive Acts. In each case, colonial radicals pressured merchants to stop importing British goods. In 1774 non importation was adopted by the First Continental Congress and enforced by the Continental Association. American women became crucial to the movement by reducing their households' consumption of imported goods and producing large quantities of homespun cloth.

committees of correspondence

A communications network established among towns in the colonies, and among colonial assemblies, between 1772 and 1773 to provide for rapid dissemination of news about important political developments.

Tea Act of May 1773

British act that lowered the existing tax on tea and granted exemptions to the East India Company to make their tea cheaper in the colonies and entice boycotting Americans to buy it. Resistance to the Tea Act led to the passage of the Coercive Acts and imposition of military rule in Massachusetts.

Coercive Acts

Four British acts of 1774 meant to punish Massachusetts for the destruction of three shiploads of tea. Known in America as the Intolerable Acts, they led to open rebellion in the northern colonies.

Continental Association

An association established in 1774 by the First Continental Congress to enforce a boycott of British goods.

Continental Congress

September 1774 gathering delegates in Philadelphia to discuss the crisis precipitated by the Coercive Acts. The Congress produced a declaration of rights and an agreement to impose a limited boycott of trade with Britain.

Dunmore’s War

A 1774 war led by Virginia's royal governor, the Earl of Dunmore, against the Ohio Shawnees, who had a long-standing claim in Kentucky as a hunting ground. The Shawnees were defeated and Dunmore and his militia forces claimed Kentucky as their own.

Minutemen

Colonial militiamen who stood ready to mobilize on short notice during the imperial crisis of the 1770s. These volunteers formed the core of the citizens' army that met British troops at Lexington and Concord in Aril 1775.

Second Continental Congress

Legislative body that governed the United States from May 1775 through the war's duration. It established an army, created its own money, and declared independence once all hope for a peaceful reconciliation with Britain was gone.

Declaration of Independence

A document containing philosophical principles and a list of grievances that declared separation from Britain. Adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, it ended a period of intense debate with moderates still hoping to reconcile with Britain.

popular sovereignty

The principle that ultimate power lies in the hands of the electorate.

George Grenville

Became prime minister of Britain in 1763 he persuaded the Parliament to pass a law allowing smugglers to be sent to vice-admiralty courts which were run by British officers and had no jury. He did this to end smuggling.

proposed the Sugar & Stamp Acts to raise revenue in the colonies in order to defray the expenses of the French & Indian War & to maintain Britain's expanded empire in America.

John Dickinson

Drafted a declaration of colonial rights and grievances, and also wrote the series of "Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania" in 1767 to protest the Townshend Acts. Although an outspoken critic of British policies towards the colonies, Dickinson opposed the Revolution, and, as a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1776, refused to sign the Declaration of Independence.

"Letters from a farmer in Pennsylvania", protested Townshend acts, wrote Articles of Confederation

Charles Townshend

A man who could deliver brilliant speeches in Parliament even while drunk. He rashly promised to pluck feathers from the colonial goose with a minimum of squawking. He persuaded Parliament in 1767 to pass the Townshend Acts. He seized a dubious distinction between internal and external taxes and made this tax an indirect customs duty payable at American ports. But colonials didn't want taxes.

the Chancellor of the Exchequer had a large hand in creating policy concerning the American colonies

Lord North

Prime Minister of England from 1770 to 1782. Although he repealed the Townshend Acts, he generally went along with King George III's repressive policies towards the colonies even though he personally considered them wrong. He hoped for an early peace during the Revolutionary War and resigned after Cornwallis' surrender in 1781.

Samuel Adams

American Revolutionary leader and patriot, Founder of the Sons of Liberty and one of the most vocal patriots for independence; signed the Declaration of Independence

Samuel Adams played a key role in the defense of colonial rights. He had been a leader of the Sons of Liberty and suggested the formation of the Committees of Correspondence. Adams was crucial in spreading the principle of colonial rights throughout New England and is credited with provoking the Boston Tea Party.

Lord Dunmore

Royal governor of Virginia who issued a proclamation promising freedom for any enslaved black in Virginia who joined the British army

Royal governor of Virginia who attempted to forestall colonial uprising following news of the battles of Lexington and Concord. He removed gunpowder stored in Williamsburg and threatened to arm slaves in an effort to scare planters into complacency. Still, he had no intention of emancipating all slaves and ultimately freed only a small number of able-bodied men who left their masters to fight for the British.

Thomas Paine

American Revolutionary leader and pamphleteer (born in England) who supported the American colonist's fight for independence and supported the French Revolution (1737-1809)

Revolutionary leader who wrote the pamphlet Common Sense (1776) arguing for American independence from Britain. In England he published The Rights of Man

Thomas Jefferson

3rd President of the United States , He was a delegate from Virginia at the Second Continental Congress and wrote the Declaration of Independence. He later served as the third President of the United States.

..., Virginian, architect, author, governor, and president. Lived at Monticello. Wrote the Declaration of Independence. Second governor of Virgina. Third president of the United States. Designed the buildings of the University of Virginia.