Unit 3 Vocab (1754-1800)

Seven Years’ War

1754- 1763 global conflict between European nations, primarily Britain and France, that began in North America in 1754, erupted in Europe in 1756, and ended in 1763. France ultimately ceded all of its North American territories to England and Spain, but the enormous cost of the war heavily damaged the British economy. (multi continental war)

Albany Plan of Union

1754 plan put together by Benjamin Franklin to create a more centralized colonial government that would establish policies regarding defense, trade, and territorial expansion, as well as aim to facilitate better relations between colonists and American Indians. It was never implemented.

Guerrilla Tactics

Non-traditional an irregular military tactics, often employed against a larger and superior foe.

Peace of Paris (1763)

1763 peace treaty ending the Seven Years War (French and Indian War). Under its terms, Britain gained control of North American east of the Mississippi River and of the present-day Canada.

Proclamation Line of 1763

Act of Parliament that restricted colonial settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains. It sparked protests from colonists both rich and poor.

Speculators

People who invest in business ventures in order to make a profit.

George Washington

Rich Virginian who was appointed a Lieutenant Colonel in the Virginia Militia. He led his troops to warn the French from encroaching onto British territory in the Ohio River Valley. After initially driving the French out of Fort Duquesne he was later overwhelmed and forced to surrender, starting the French and Indian War,

Edward Braddock

British general sent to the colonies with about 1400 troops to force the French from Fort Duquesne and then advance upon other French forts. He was killed in the first major battle of the war.

King George 3rd

King of England from 1760- 1820, he feared the growing costs of the ongoing world war, and eventually agreed to a peace plan with some compromises to end the conflict with the French, and greatly expanded English power worldwide.

Pontiac

A leader of the Ottawa tribe who led a massive rebellion following the defeat of their French ally in the Seven Years War, in an attempt to drive the British colonists out of their traditional homelands.

Political Sovereignty

The freedom to self-govern.

Salutary neglect

British colonial policy from around 1700-1760 that relaxed supervision of internal colonial affairs as long as the North American colonies produced sufficient raw materials and revenue.

Smuggling

The illegal movement of goods into or out of a country.

Quartering Act

1765 Act ensuring British troops would remain stationed in the colonies after the conclusion of the Seven Years War.

Sugar Act/ American Duties Act

1764 act of Parliament imposing an import tax on sugar, coffee, wines, and other luxury items. It sparked colonial protests that would escalate over time as new revenue measures were enacted.

Currency Act

1764 Act of Parliament preventing colonial assemblies from printing paper money or bills of credit, curtailing the ability of local colonial economies to expand.

Committee of Correspondence

Organization first established in Massachusetts to circulate concerns and reports of protests and other events to leaders in other colonies in the aftermath of the Sugar Act.

Stamp Act

1765 of Parliament that imposed a duty on all transactions involving paper items. It promoted widespread, coordinated protests and was eventually repealed.

Virtual Representation

British claim that direct representation of colonist was unnecessary because Parliament represented the interests of all British people, including those in the colonies.

Sons of Liberty

Boston organization of colonial men first formed to protest the Stamp Act. They spread to other colonies and played an important role in the unrest leading to the American Revolution.

Daughters of Liberty

Group of female patriots who sought to challenge the imposition of New taxes on the colonists thought economic boycotts and the homespun movement.

Vox Populi

A group of British American colonists dedicated to repealing the Stamp Act. It took its name from the Latin phrase which means “voice of the people”.

Virginia Resolves

Five resolutions passed in 1765 by the House of Burgesses to denounce taxation without representation.

Effigy

A roughly made image or model of a person, typically created in order to be destroyed in an act of protest.

Stamp Act Congress

An assembly of 27 delegated from 9 colonies that met in New York City in October 1765 and petitioned Parliament to repeal the Stamp Act.

Tyranny

An unfair or oppressive form of rule.

Declaratory Act

1766 act announcing Parliament’s authority to pass any law “to bind the colonies and peoples of North America” closer to Britain.

Townshend Acts

1767 act of Parliament that instituted an important tax on a range of items including glass, lead, paint, paper and tea. They prompted a boycott of British goods and contributed to violence between British soldiers and colonists.

Boston Massacre

1770 clash between colonial protesters and British soldiers in Boston that led to the death of five colonists. The bloody conflict was used to promote the patriot cause.

Tea Act

1773 act of Parliament that aimed to reduce the financial debts of British and the British East India company by providing the company with a tea monopoly in the British American Colonies. This resulted in colonial protests.

Boston Tea Party

Rally/ protests against British tax policy organized by the Sons of Liberty on December 16, 1773. It consisted of about 50 colonists disguised as American Indians who boarded British ships and dumped about 45 tons of product into the Boston Harbor.

Coercive Acts

1774 acts of Parliament passed in response to the Boston Tea Party. They closed the port of Boston until residents paid for the damage property, and moved court cases against royal officials back to England.

Quebec Act

1774 act of Parliament extending the boundary of Quebec to areas of the Ohio River Valley that American colonists wanted to settle. This act also set up a colonial government without a local representative assembly in Quebec.

Intolerable Acts

The colonists nickname for the combination of the Coercive Acts and the Quebec Act.

George Grenville

British Prime Minister from 1763-1765 who implemented new taxes and enforcement measures on the American colonies to pay off Britian’s war debt from the Seven Years War.

Patrick Henry

Leaders of the Virginia House of Burgesses who guided the passage of the Virginia Resolves resolutions.

Samuel Adams

One of the main leaders of the Sons of Liberty in Boston who gave emotional speeches to inspire his fellow colonists to resist the new British taxes.

Charles Townshend

The head minister if the British treasury who pushed for and passes a series of acts in 1667, which imposed taxed on American colonies items like glass, lead, paint, and tea.

John Dickinson

Nicknamed the “Penman of the Revolution” for his important political writings, including his series of “Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania” in protest of the Townshend Acts.

Crispus Attucks

A sailor and freedman of mixed African and American Indian descent, he joined in the protest that became the Boston Massacre, and was the first person killed. His death, along with that if four other colonists, became a powerful symbol of the struggle against British rule and is viewed as a pivotal moment that helped ignite the revolution.

Captian Thomas Preston

British Army officer serving in Boston who led troops to protect the guard outside of the Boston Customs House. One of his soldiers fired their gun leading to what is now referred to as the Boston Massacre.

Paul Revere

A member of the Boston Sons of Liberty who created an engraving of the Boston Massacre designed to show the British at fault for the event.

Patriots

American colonists who favored the movement for independence during the 1770s.

Continental Congress

Assembly of colonial representatives convened in Philadelphia in 1774 in response to the Coercive Acts. The delegates hoped to reestablish teh freedoms the colonists once enjoyed.

Continental Army

Established the Second Continental Congress after the battles of Lexington and Concord began the American Revolution in 1775.

Militia

A military force that is raised from the civil population to supplement a regular army, or provide defense in an emergency.

Minutemen

Militia groups during the American Revolution who trained to be prepared to quickly defend in case of British attack.

Lexington and Concord

Locations of the first military engagements of the American Revolution, marking the start of open conflict between the British Army and colonial Militias.

Redcoats

Nickname for the British soldiers due to their brightly colored uniform jackets.

Second Continental Congress

Assembly of colonial representatives that served as a national government during the American Revolution. Dispite limited formal powers, it coordinated the war efforts and conducted negotiations with outside powers.

Battle of Bunker Hill

1775 conflict in which British troops narrowly defeated patriots militias, emboldening patriot forces,

Dunmore’s Proclamation

1775 British decree that offered freedom to all enslaved African Americans who joined the British Army. It heightened concerns among some patriots about the consequences of indepence.

Common Sense

Thomas Paine’s 1776 pamphlet that used plain language to argue for American Independence from Great Britain. It was a powerful piece of propaganda that resonated with ordinary colonists by appealing to Enlightenment ideals and their own sense of injustice, shifting public opinion from seeking reconciliation to supporting a full-scale revolution.

Declaration of Independence

Document declaring the independence of the 13 colonies from Great Britain. Drafted by Thomas Jefferson and then debated and revised by the Continental Congress, it was made public on July 4th, 1776.

Loyalists

Colonial supporters of the British during the American Revolution.

General Sir William Howe

British commander in chief of land forces in North America during the early years of the American Revolution. He is known for his victories at Bunker Hill, New York City and Philadelphia but criticized for missed opportunities to crush the Continental Army.

Lord Dunmore

Actual name is John Murray, he was the last Royal Governor of Virginia. He is most famous for issuing a proclamation offering freedom to enslaved people who joined the British army.

Thomas Paine

Author of the pamphlet “Common Sense” that helped shift public opinion from seeking reconciliation to supporting a full-scale revolution.

John Adams

One of the early supporters of independence in the Continental Congress, and was part of the Committee of Five tasked with writing the Declaration of Independence.

Thomas Jefferson

A member of the Virginian delegation to the Second Continental Congress. He took the lead on the Committee of Five and wrote the original drat of the Declaration of Independence.

Hessians

Mercenaries hired by the British from parts of Germany to fight against the Patriots in the Revolutionary War.

Battle of Saratoga

Key American Revolution battle fought in New York. The Patriot victory there in October 1777 provided hope that the colonists could triumph and increased the chances that the French would join the war as an American ally and provide crucial military support.

Valley Forge

Location where George Washington and his troops camped during the difficult winter of 1777.

ladies Association of Philadelphia

One of the many groups of Revolutionary era women who banned together to help one another as well as the overall war efforts.

Mutiny

An open rebellion against the proper authorities, especially by soldiers or sailors against their officers.

Battle of Yorktown

Decisive battles in which the surrender of British forces on October 19, 1781, in Virginia, effectively sealed the Patriot victory in the American Revolution.

Treaty of Paris (1783)

Treaty that formally ended the American Revolution.

George Washington

Chosen to lead the Continental Army, he served as the Americans’ top military officer during the war.

General John Burgoyne

British general known of the failed Saratoga Campaign of 1777. His plan to march south from Canada and meet another British force at Albany to cut off New England was thwarted by American forces led by General Horatio Gates, and he was forced to surrender his army.

Lydia Darragh

Irish immigrant, who helped General George Washington by being one of his spies. She would eavesdrop on conversations that British officers were having regarding military strategy, and then she would then hand write messages on scraps of paper. sew them into her son’s coat.

Deborah Sampson

Disguised herself as a man in order to enlist in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War.

Marguis de Lafayette

French aristocrat and military officer who served as a major general in the Continental Army during the American Revolution. He was a close advisor to George Washington, helped train colonial troops, and his command at the Battle of Yorktown was instrumental in the decisive American victory. His military expertise, political influence, and financial support were key factors in securing French aid for the colonial cause.

Benjamin Franklin

A key statesman, diplomat, and writer who helped the colonial cause by securing a crucial alliance with France, during the American Revolution. His role was pivotal as a negotiator abroad and a leading figure at home, representing the new American nation on the world stage.

General Charles Cornwallis

British general who surrendered his army to combined American and French forces at the Battle of Yorktown in 1781, that effectively ended the American Revolutionary War.

John Adams

American diplomat who helped negotiate the Treaty of Paris.

John Jay

American diplomat who along with Franklin and Adams worked to negotiate the Treaty of Paris.