American Colonial and Revolutionary War Key Terms for Study

Salutary Neglect

Britain loosely enforcing laws on colonies.

Dominion of New England

Forced merger of colonies under one royal governor.

Sir Edmond Andros

Harsh governor of the Dominion, overthrown in 1689.

Zenger Case

Trial that helped establish freedom of the press.

Albany Plan of Union

Franklin's plan to unite colonies; rejected.

Fort Necessity

Washington's early defeat by the French (1754).

Treaty of Paris (1763)

Ended French and Indian War; France lost land to Britain.

Customs duties

Taxes on trade goods.

Inflation

Rising prices/falling money value.

Nonimportation agreement

Boycott of British goods.

Sons of Liberty

Secret group protesting British taxes.

Samuel Adams

Patriot organizer, founded Sons of Liberty.

Committee of Correspondence

Networks sharing info between colonies.

Boston Port Act

Closed Boston's harbor as punishment.

Quebec Act

Expanded Quebec, angered colonists.

Suffolk Resolves

Call to resist the Intolerable Acts.

Minutemen

Militia ready to fight instantly.

Thomas Paine

Wrote Common Sense, pushed independence.

Paul Revere

Warned colonists British troops were coming.

Nathaniel Hale

Executed Patriot spy.

Despotism

Absolute, oppressive rule.

Quartering

Housing British soldiers in colonial homes.

Unwarrantable jurisdiction

Authority used without right.

Virtual representation

Britain's claim it represented colonists in Parliament.

Guerrilla Warfare

Surprise, hit-and-run fighting.

Valley Forge

Harsh winter camp for Washington's army.

Battles: Trenton

Washington's surprise win crossing the Delaware.

Battles: Saratoga

Win that brought France into the war.

Battles: Yorktown

Final battle; Cornwallis surrendered.

George Washington

Commander of Continental Army, First President.

George Cornwallis

British general who surrendered at Yorktown.

Emancipation

Freeing people from slavery/oppression.

Confederacy

A group of states or groups that join together for a shared purpose while each keeps some independence.

Columbian Exchange

The widespread transfer of plants, animals, diseases, and ideas between the Americas and Europe/Africa after Columbus's voyages.

Anthropologists

Scientists who study human societies, cultures, and how they developed over time.

Agricultural revolution

The gradual shift from hunting and gathering food to farming crops and raising animals.

Multiethnic

Made up of people from many different ethnic groups.

Obsidian

A sharp, glass-like volcanic rock that early peoples shaped into tools and weapons.

Tribute

Payment or goods given by one group to another, often to a ruler, as a sign of submission or for protection.

Kiva

An underground room used by Pueblo peoples for religious ceremonies and community gatherings.

Pueblo

Native American peoples of the American Southwest known for building multi-story adobe villages; also the name for these villages.

Astrolabe

A navigational tool sailors used to find their position at sea by measuring the position of stars.

Caravel

A small, fast sailing ship developed by the Portuguese and Spanish that made long-distance ocean exploration possible.

Circumnavigate

To sail or travel all the way around the world.

Conquistador

A Spanish soldier or explorer who conquered land in the Americas during the age of exploration.

Jesuit

A member of a Catholic religious order who often worked as a missionary, including in the Americas.

Cortez

The Spanish conquistador who conquered the Aztec Empire in Mexico.

Pizzaro

The Spanish conquistador who conquered the Inca Empire in South America.

Black Legend

The idea, spread partly by rival European powers, that Spanish treatment of Native Americans was uniquely brutal and cruel.

Pope's Rebellion

An uprising of Pueblo peoples against Spanish rule in 1680 that drove the Spanish out of present-day New Mexico for over a decade.

De las Casas

A Spanish priest and writer who criticized the mistreatment and abuse of Native Americans by Spanish colonizers.

Joint-Stock Company

A business owned by investors who buy shares and share the profits and risks; used to fund early colonies.

Headright

A grant of land (often about 50 acres) given to colonists who paid their own passage or brought new settlers to the colony.

Proprietary Colony

A colony owned and governed by an individual or group who received the land as a grant from the king.

Town Meeting

A form of local government in which townspeople gather to discuss issues and vote directly on community decisions.

Pietism

A Christian movement that emphasized personal faith and emotional, heartfelt religious experience.

Revival

A period of renewed religious enthusiasm, often marked by large public gatherings and emotional preaching.

Indentured Servants

People who agreed to work for a set number of years in exchange for passage to the colonies.

Triangular Trade

The trade network connecting Europe, Africa, and the Americas, exchanging goods, raw materials, and enslaved people.

Mercantilism

An economic system in which colonies exist mainly to benefit the economy of the mother country.

John Rolfe

An English colonist who introduced tobacco farming to Jamestown, helping the colony become profitable.

John Smith

An English leader of the Jamestown colony who helped the settlement survive its early years.

Powhattan

A Native American leader and the confederacy of tribes he led in Virginia at the time of English colonization.

Pequot War

A conflict in the 1630s between English settlers and the Pequot Native Americans in New England.

Chattel Slavery

A system in which enslaved people are treated as property that can be bought, sold, and owned for life.

Middle Passage

The brutal sea voyage across the Atlantic Ocean that forcibly transported enslaved Africans to the Americas.

Baracoon

A holding pen or barracks used to imprison enslaved Africans before they were shipped across the Atlantic.

Manumission

The act of formally freeing an enslaved person.

Paradoxes

Situations that contain a contradiction, such as colonists demanding freedom for themselves while enslaving others.

Bacon's Rebellion

An uprising in colonial Virginia in 1676 led by Nathaniel Bacon against the colonial governor.

Stono Rebellion

A large uprising by enslaved people in South Carolina in 1739.