Chapter 5 - Vocabulary Flashcards: Imperial Reforms and Colonial Protests, 1763–1774

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, people, acts, and events from Imperial Reforms and Colonial Protests, 1763–1774.

Tarring and Feathering

A public act of mob violence against royalists or officials (e.g., John Malcolm) used to punish resistance to imperial authority during the era of the American Revolution.

John Malcolm

Commissioner of Customs in Boston who was a Loyalist and targeted for tarring and feathering.

The Bostonians Paying the Excise-man

A 1774 print depicting a tarring-and-feathering scene and the Boston Tea Party, symbolizing anti-royalist sentiment and unrest.

Proclamation Line (1763)

The boundary along the Appalachian Mountains forbidding white settlement west of it to reduce frontier conflicts.

Pontiac’s Rebellion

Native American uprising (1763–1766) led by Pontiac against British forces on the western frontier after the French and Indian War.

Paxton Boys

A group of Scots-Irish frontiersmen who attacked Conestoga in 1763, illustrating frontier violence and racial tensions.

Sugar Act (1764)

An act that lowered molasses duties but tightened enforcement, including trials in vice-admiralty courts, to curb smuggling.

Indemnity Act (1767)

Exempted tea imported into Britain from taxation but imposed taxes on tea re-exported to the colonies via the Revenue Act.

Currency Act (1764)

Prohibited the colonies from printing additional paper money and required payment in gold or silver.

Stamp Act (1765)

Direct internal tax on printed materials, provoking the slogan no taxation without representation.

Quartering Act (1765)

Required colonies to house and provision British troops, with costs borne by colonists.

Stamp Act Congress

A 1765 assembly of nine colonial legislatures that opposed the Stamp Act and produced the Declaration of Rights and Grievances.

Declaratory Act (1766)

Parliament asserted its sovereignty over the colonies, claiming supreme legislative power.

Townshend Acts (1767)

Duties on colonial imports (paper, paint, lead, tea, glass) and measures (writs of assistance, American Board of Customs) to enforce trade laws.

Non-Importation Movement

Boycott of British goods by colonists in response to imperial taxes, mobilizing broad colonial support.

Massachusetts Circular (1768)

Samuel Adams’s letter urging colonies to protest taxation without representation and to unite against Parliament.

Tea Act (1773)

Gave the East India Company a monopoly to export tea to the colonies, undercutting colonial merchants and preserving the Townshend tax on tea.

Boston Tea Party

December 1773 protest in which colonists dumped tea from ships into Boston Harbor to block unloading.

Coercive Acts (Intolerable Acts) (1774)

A package of punitive measures against Massachusetts (Boston Port Act, Massachusetts Government Act, Administration of Justice Act, Quartering Act) and Quebec Act; aimed to punish MA and enforce royal authority.

Quebec Act

Act expanding Quebec’s territory westward and extending Catholic religious tolerance; perceived as provocative by Protestant colonists.

First Continental Congress

A 1774 gathering of twelve colonies’ representatives; produced the Declaration and Resolves and established the Continental Association.

Suffolk Resolves

Massachusetts resolves calling for resistance to the Intolerable Acts and coordination among colonies.

Declaration and Resolves (First Continental Congress)

A document demanding repeal of repressive acts and endorsing non-importation, non-exportation, and militia readiness.

Continental Association

Umbrella network of colonial committees enforcing the boycott and coordinating resistance to Parliament’s measures.

Gaspée Affair (1772)

Rhode Island incident where colonists burned the British revenue ship Gaspée; led to a Royal Commission of Inquiry.

Writs of Assistance

Search warrants used by British officials to combat smuggling, expanding Crown power in the colonies.

Vice-Admiralty Courts

Maritime courts without juries established to try smuggling and revenue cases under the Townshend framework.

Letters from a Pennsylvania Farmer

John Dickinson’s influential pamphlet arguing Parliament may regulate trade but cannot levy internal taxes.

Boston Massacre

1770 confrontation in which British troops killed five colonists; used as propaganda for anti-British sentiment.

Declarations of Rights and Grievances

Document from the Stamp Act Congress asserting colonial rights and protesting taxation without representation.