Chapter 7 APUSH Terms - NERDY

Republicanism

Republicanism is a theory of representative govt., based on the principle of popular sovereignty. In a society with republican values, all citizens willingly subordinate their personal interests to the common good, and the stability and authority of govt. depends on citizens' virtues. This principle of govt., based off of ancient Greek and Roman republics, was popular with American colonies in the mid-eighteenth century as it was an alternative to a monarchical rule and society.

Radical Whigs

Radical Whigs were a group of British political commentators whose ideas became popular in mid-Eighteenth century America. They raised awareness abt and agitated against political corruption. They also emphasized the threat to liberty posed by arbitrary power, and opposed the arbitrary power of the British monarch and his ministers. They believed that society was suffering from a moral failure or from corruption, evidenced by the use of patronage and bribery within the British monarchical system. They alerted American colonists to various British infringements of their rights.

Mercantilism

Mercantilism is an economic theory that links a nation's political and military power to a nation's economic wealth. This theory holds that to be wealthy, a country needs to export more than it imports. Thus for Britain, the colonies proved advantageous in that they could supply Britain with raw materials and reduce the need for foreign imports and provide a guaranteed market for exports. Mercantilists favored protectionism and colonial acquisition as a way of increasing exports. Colonial America disliked being used as a method of increasing Great Britain's wealth.

Sugar Act

The Sugar Act of 1764 was a tax on imported sugar from the West Indies. It was the first tax levied on the colonists by the crown, but was later lowered in response to protests by the colonists.

Quartering Act

The Quartering Act of 1765 required certain colonies to provide food, supplies, and housing for British troops. This further angered the colonists.

Stamp Act

The Stamp Act of 1765 mandated the use of stamped paper or the affixing of stamps, certifying payments of tax. Stamps were required on bills of sale for abt 50 trade items and on commercial and legal documents, such as newspapers and marriage licenses. The Stamp Act enraged many Americans.

Admiralty Courts

Admiralty courts were colonial courts used to try offenders for violating various Navigation Acts passed by the crown after the French and Indian War. Juries were not allowed in admiralty courts, and defendants were presumed guilty until proven innocent. American colonists believed admiralty courts encroached on their rights as British citizens.

Stamp Act Congress

The Stamp Act Congress of 1765 was an as semblance of twenty-seven influential delegates from nine colonies in New York City. They drew up a statement of their rights and grievances and beseeched the King and Parliament to repeal parts of the Navigation Acts. The Stamp Act Congress had little effect in New England. It did, however, bring together leaders from many rival colonies and promote intercolonial unity.

Nonimportation Agreements

Nonimportation agreements were boycotts against British goods adopted in 1765 in response to the Stamp Act, and later the Townshend Acts. These intercolonial boycotts were effective protests, more so than the Stamp Act Congress. Nonimportation forced colonists to manufacture their own goods, but they were a step towards colonial union and united the American ppl for the first time in common action. Mobilizing in support of nonimportation agreements also gave common American men and women opportunities to participate in colonial protests. This public defiance of British policy spread resistance throughout American colonial society.

Sons of Liberty

Sons of Liberty were patriotic groups that agitated against the Stamp Act and enforced nonimportation agreements, often through violent means. They ransacked homes of unpopular officials, confiscated their money, and hanged effigies of stamp agents (tax collectors) from liberty poles. Their motto was "Liberty, Property, and No Stamps."

Daughters of Liberty

Daughters of Liberty, like sons of Liberty, were patriotic groups who opposed the Stamp Act and enforced non-importation agreements. They used violent resistance to communicate their anger, often ransacking homes of unpopular officials, confiscating their money, and hanging tax collectors from liberty poles. Their motto was "Liberty, Property, and No Stamps."

Declaratory Act

The Declaratory Act of 1766 was passed alongside the repeal of the Stamp Act. It reaffirmed Parliament's unqualified sovereignty over the North American colonies. Parliament was given the right "to bind" the colonies "in all cases whatsoever." The colonists, however, wanted a measure of sovereignty of their own and made it clear they would take drastic action to secure it. This set the stage for further confrontation btw Great Britain and the colonies.

Townshend Acts

Charles Townshend persuaded Parliament to pass the Townshend Acts in 1767. The most important of these requirements was a light import on glass, white lead, paper, paint, and tea. This tax was made an indirect customs duty payable at American ports. To the colonists, this distinction made no difference, for it was still taxation without representation. The most enraging part was the tax on tea and the fact that the revenues were earmarked to pay the salaries of royal governors and judges in the colonies. The colonists regarded this tax as another of England's attempts to enchain them. They revived nonimportation agreements against the Townshend Acts, but to little effect.

Boston Massacre

The Boston Massacre was a clash btw unruly Bostonian protestors and locally stationed British redcoats, who fired on the jeering crowd, killing or wounding eleven citizens. The clash occurred on March 5, 1770, and began when a corps of sixty townspeople began taunting a squad of ten redcoats. The Bostonians were angry over the death of an eleven-yr-old boy, shot ten days earlier during a protest. The nervous squad, apparently acting without orders, opened fire. One of the first to die was Crispus Attucks, a runaway mulatto and leader of the mob. Both sides were to blame to some extent, and in the subsequent trial only two redcoats were found guilty of manslaughter.

Committees of Correspondence

Samuel Adams organized local committees of correspondence in Massachusetts (the first one in Boston) in 1772. Eighty towns in the colony followed suit. Their chief function was to spread the spirit of resistance and patriotism by exchanging letters and keeping opposition to British policy alive. In 1773 Virginia created an intercolonial committee of correspondence as a subcommittee to the House of Burgesses. Soon thereafter every colony established a central committee thru which it could exchange ideas and info w/ other colonies. These groups stimulated an disseminated sentiment in favor of united action and evolved into the first American congress.

Boston Tea Party

The Boston Tea Party was a protest against the British East India Trading Company's newly acquired monopoly on the tea trade. On Dec. 16, 1773, abt a hundred Bostonians disguised as Native Americans boarded docked tea ships in the Boston Harbor. Massachusetts governor Thomas Hutchinson had angered many Bostonian radicals when he ordered British tea ships not to clear Boston Harbor until they had unloaded their cargoes. The Bostonian protestors smashed open 342 chests of tea on the ships and dumped them into the Atlantic. Many Bostonians watched the protest unfold. Disguising themselves as Native Americans was both threatening and a way of avoiding detection. Tea was the perfect symbol to rally around, as it was the subject of many hated taxes. Many colonists approved the Boston Tea Party, referring to tea as a "badge of slavery" and burning tea leaves in solidarity w/ Boston. More conservative colonists argued that the destruction of private property violated the law, threatened anarchy, and encouraged breakdown of civil decorum. Hutchinson retreated to Britain, while British officials chose further conflict.

Intolerable Acts

The "Intolerable Acts" were a series of punitive measures passed in 1774 in retaliation for the Boston Tea Party, closing the port of Boston, revoking several rights in the Massachusetts colonial charter, and expanding the Quartering Act to allow for the lodging of soldiers in private homes. The Intolerable Acts led to the First Continental Congress and prompted colonists to call for a complete boycott of British imports.

Quebec Act

The Quebec Act of 1774 was passed at the same time as the Intolerable Acts and was regarded as part of British reaction to the turbulence in Boston. In actuality, the Quebec Act dealt w/ the sixty thousand conquered French subjects in Canada, guaranteeing freedom of religion, permitting them to retain their old customs and traditions, and extending the boundaries of Québec southward to the Ohio River. The act alarmed American colonists and set dangerous precedent. It aroused land speculators and anti-catholics.

First Continental Congress

The First Continental Congress was summoned in Philadelphia in 1774 in response to the "Intolerable Acts." Its main function was to consider ways of addressing colonial grievances. Twelve of the thirteen colonies, excluding Georgia, sent fifty-five well-respected men to the convention. Intercolonial tension was set aside to debate and deliberate. The first meeting of the First Continental Congress lasted five weeks, from Sept. 5 to Oct. 26, 1774. It was a consultive body rather than legislative. John Adams was particularly influential in proposing a type of American home rule under British direction. They wrote a declaration of rights and appeals to other British American colonies, the King, and British ppl. They also created the Association. Parliament ultimately rejected the Congress's petitions. They did not call for independence, and planned to meet again in 1775.

The Association

The creation of The Association was the most significant action of the First Continental Congress. It called for a complete boycott of British goods: nonimportation, non-exportation, and non-consumption. It did not call for independence.

Lexington and Concord

The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the first battles of the Revolutionary War, outside of Boston in April 1775. A British commander sent a detachment of troops to Lexington and Concord, under orders to seize colonial gunpowder and the "rebel" leaders: Samuel Adams and John Hancock. At Lexington the colonial "Minute Militia" refused to disperse rapidly enough, and shots were fired, killing eight Americans and wounding others. It was less of a battle than a massacre. The redcoats went on to Concord, where the Americans were ready for them and forced them to retreat. The British, suffering three hundred casualties and seventy deaths, retreated to Boston. This signified the beginning of war.

Valley Forge

(1777-1778) Valley Forge was the encampment where George Washington's poorly supplied army suffered thru the freezing winter. Hundreds died from cold, disease, wounds, or starvation, and thousands deserted. The plight of the freezing, starving soldiers reflected the weaknesses of the American Army: a lack of stable supplies and munitions. Many soldiers did not even have proper clothing or shoes- or any at all. The rebels boasted a uniform raggedness.

John Hancock

John Hancock was a rebel leader of the mid-Eighteenth century. He was a rebel leader in the Battles of Lexington and Concord along with Samuel Adams. His fortune was amassed by wholesale smuggling. Hancock was also a representative of Massachusetts that signed the Declaration of Independence.

George Grenville

George Grenville was a British prime minister. He angered American colonists in 1763 when he ordered the British Navy to begin enforcing the Navigation Laws. He imposed the Sugar Act of 1764, the Quartering Act of 1765, and the hated Stamp Act of 1765. He regarded these measures as fair, just, and reasonable, believing that he was only asking Americans to pay the fair cost for their own defense. Grenville's decisions, acts, and views angered the Americans and seemed to jeopardize the basic rights of the colonists as Englishmen. Grenville dismissed their protests.

Charles ("Champagne Charley") Townshend

Townshend was a gifted orator and Prime Minister of Great Britain. He persuaded Parliament to pass the Townshend Acts in 1767, putting a light import duty on glass, white lead, paper, paint, and tea. This angered the already rebellious colonists.

Crispus Attucks

Crispus Attucks was a powerfully built runaway mulatto and leader of the mob of the Boston Massacre. He was one of the first to die in the Boston Massacre.

George III

George III was the thirty-two yr old British King in 1776, trying to maintain control of the British monarchy and royal colonies. Though a moral man, he proved to be a bad leader. He was earnest, industrious, stubborn and lustful for power, and surrounded himself with cooperative "yes men", notably his Prime Minister Lord North.

Lord North

Lord North was King George III's Prime Minister. He persuaded Parliament to repeal the Townshend revenue duties.

Samuel Adams

Samuel Adams of Boston, a cousin of John Adams, was a master propagandist and engineer of rebellion. Though unimpressive in appearance, he was an excellent, passionate politician. A zealous, tenacious, and courageous man, he was sensitive to infringements of colonial rights. He cherished a deep faith in the common ppl and was able to appeal effectively to what was called his "trained mob." He organized in Massachusetts the local committees of correspondence.

Thomas Hutchinson

Massachusetts governor Thomas Hutchinson refused to be cowed by Patriot anger; he had already experienced their fury when Stamp Act protestors destroyed his home in 1765. Though he agreed that the tea tax was unjust, he also believed that the colonists had no right to usurp the law. He angered Boston's radicals when he ordered tea ships not to clear Boston Harbor until they had unloaded their cargoes and when colonists discovered he believed an "abridgment of...English liberties" was necessary to preserve law and order in the colonies. The radicals responded with the Boston Tea Party. Hutchinson, disgusted with the colonies, retreated to Britain.

Marquis de Lafayette

(1757-1834) The Marquis de Lafayette loved glory and liberty and was made a major general in the colonial army at the age of nineteen. The "French gamecock's" commission was largely a recognition of his family influence and political connections. He helped secure further aid from France and donated $200,000 of his private funds to the colonial army. He later played a role in the French Revolution.

Baron von Steuben

Baron von Steuben was a German drillmaster and organizational mastermind. He spoke no English when he reached America, but he managed to whip his soldiers into place.

Lord Dunmore

Lord Dunmore, royal governor of Virginia, issued a proclamation in 1775 promising freedom for any enslaved black in Virginia who joined the British army. Though Virginia and MD tightened slave patrols, within a month three hundred slaves had joined "Lord Dunmore's Ethiopian Regiment."