APSUH Chapter 3 Test

Letters from an American Farmer

This series of letters were written by French American writer J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur and was published in 1782. Crevecoeur posed as an American farmer writing about his home. The main themes of the letters are farming, loyalty to the British Crown and government, the abolishment of slavery, and the Revolutionary war.

Mercantilism

Mercantilism existed to increase a country’s wealth through its exports. The goal was to import manufactured goods more than export. The British economic growth was propelled by raw materials supplies by its colonists so the nation could export finished products. Mercantilism brought about many acts against humanity, including slavery and an imbalanced system of trade.

Enumerated Articles

These were goods that the English colonies could export only to England in the 17th century. This typically included sugar, tobacco, cotton, and indigo. There were products that some considered essential to England’s wealth and power.

Salutary Neglect

Whenever the British had passed the Navigation acts, the Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole made it a tendency to look the other way when the colonists weren’t following the act. 

Deism

Deism is a faith that was followed by many, like Benjamin Franklin, who revered God for the marvels of His universe rather than for His power over mankind.

Writs of Assistance

A general search warrant issued by superior provincial courts to assist the British government in enforcing the trade and navigation laws. The British soldiers searching the homes needed no cause or specific substantiation. This caused the colonists to be even angrier as it went against their natural rights. 

No taxation without representation

The saying sprung from when the British were taxing the colonies endlessly as they needed to pay back their debts. The colonists found these taxes to be unfair and against their natural rights as they had no say in what act and taxes got passed.

Virtual and actual representation

Virtual representation was where the British system had representatives for the colonists but those representatives were not chosen by the colonists nor had they ever been to the American colonies. Actual representation is where the colonists would get representation in the government geographically, having a representative who was from the colonies.

Direct and indirect taxes

A direct tax is one that the taxpayer pays directly to the government. These taxes cannot be shifted to any other person or group. An indirect tax is one that can be passed on-or shifted-to another person or group by the person or business that owes it.

Navigation Acts

These acts were designed to bring gold and silver into the British treasury. The navigation act of 1660 reserved the entire trade of the colonies to English ships and required that the captain and ¾ of his crew be English. They also restricted the products that could be shipped outside of the British empire. 

Hat, Iron, and Wool acts

These acts were restrictions placed on manufacturing. The wool act of 1699 prohibited the export of colonial woolen cloth. The hat act of 1732 did the same. The iron act of 1750 outlawed the construction of new rolling and slitting mills in America.

Great Awakening

The great awakening of the 1740s began in the middle colonies as a result of the change in religious developments that began in Europe. At the time, 2 American ministers saw the change and wished to bring it back to America. The forefront of this religious movement was Reverend George Whitefield. Whitefield went on a series of tours across the colonies preaching about the new order of religions. This divided factions into churches, the “old lights” and the “new lights”. This is also the first movement towards unification.

The Enlightenment

The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement that brought about many new inventions and discoveries in science. Enlightenment thinkers became beings of rational powers, to discover the laws governing the physical world. These ideas produced the Age of Reason where these intellectuals would question the “laws” they had previously known.

Colonial Wars

North America became a battleground between the world powers that were positioned in Europe. These powers would most often fight with one another about territorial disputes and trade with Native Americans. The Dutch and the Spanish had difficulties maintaining empires in North America so most of the continent was left to the French and the British. The colonists also struggled with territorial disputes with the Indians as they were invading their land and they, obviously, didn’t want to leave. 

Albany plan of union

The union was created in 1774 by Benjamin Franklin for colonial union to deal with common problems, such as defense against Indian attacks on the frontier. This is another example of how the Great Awakening inspired unity among the colonies.

French and Indian War / Seven Years’ War / Great war for the empire

This war had been started by Washington as he had accidentally shot a group of French delegates when he was trying to politely ask them to leave Virginian land. In the war, most of the Indian tribes had sided with the French. The British went into severe debt due to the war which resulted in a number of new acts and taxes placed on the colonists.

George Washington

Washington was dispatched by Lieutenant Governor Robert Dinwiddie of Virginia at the age of 21 to warn the French that they were trespassing on Virginian territory. On his way to the meeting, Washington and his troops shot who he had assumed to be a group of french soldiers when it was, in actuality, the french diplomats. This created a battle between his troops and the French. He positioned himself in a poorly chosen fort and later signed a confession to killing the french reconnaissance party. This started the outbreak for the French and Indian war.

William Pitt

He was a new, rich East India merchant who was unstable but somehow was a brilliant strategist and capable of inspiring the nation. Pitt overran multiple french forts and helped win the war for Britain. 

Treaty of Paris 1763

The treaty issued many terms in favor of the British and humiliated the French in a way. The French were forced to abandon all claims to North America except for two small islands near Newfoundland. Britain took Canada and the eastern half of the Mississippi Valley. Spain got back the Philippine Islands and Cuba, but in exchange for East and West Florida to Britain. 

Pontiac’s Rebellion

Tensions between the British and the Indians had been rising as the Englishmen felt they were being cheated by the fur traders. The rebellion was led by an Ottawa chief named Pontiac who united the tribes in one last effort to drive the whites back across the mountains. They had failed and in 1764, most of the tribes had accepted the peace terms offered by the royal commissioners.

Proclamation of 1763

The proclamation act of 1763 was an act that prevented the colonists from going west-ward into the new land the British had just acquired from the french. Salutary neglect was still in place so there wasn’t much done to prevent this expansion

James Otis

James Otis wrote the pamphlet The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved in 1764 in support against taxation without representation.

Sugar Act

This law placed tariffs on sugar, coffee, wines, and other things imported into America at substantial amounts. Those accused of violating the Sugar Act were to be tried before British naval officers in vice admiralty courts.

Stamp Act

The stamp act placed taxes on all types of printed matter: newspapers, pamphlets, licenses, diplomas, or legal papers. Almost every colonist considered it an infringement on their natural rights. The act created protests among the colonists with some even going as far as torching the stamps. 

Declaratory act

On the same day that Parliament repealed the Stamp act, they passed the declaratory act which stated that the colonies were “subordinate” and that Parliament could enact any law it wished “to bind the colonies and people of America”. There were misunderstandings though since the act never mentioned anything about taxation.

Boston Massacre

Tensions were rising as the British soldiers staying in Boston were not welcomed by the colonists and the acts had further angered the colonists. In March of 1770, colonists were called out to the square by the fire bell but there was no fire. Then the colonist saw the soldiers and started throwing snowballs filled with rocks at the soldiers. Someone shouted fire and the soldiers shot at the crowd. This “massacre” became a staple of patriot propaganda despite only 5 people dying

Gaspee incident

In June of 1772 the ship, Gaspee, a British control boat, had been running around the Narragansett bay while pursuing a suspected smuggler. The captain had antagonized everyone in the area and was attacked in the night by a local gang of people. The group had set the boat on fire but were unable to be convicted as no one would testify against them.

Thomas Hutchinson

Hutchinson was the royal governor of the British North American Province of Massachusetts Bay whose stringent measures helped precipitate the colonial unrest and eventually the American Revolution. His house was ransacked in 1765 by the Sons of Liberty in protest of the Stamp Act. 

Boston Tea Party

In December of 1773 the tea ship, Dartmouth, was set to arrive and be collected. Unfortunately, before the shipment could be collected, a band of colonists dressed as Indians rowed out to the ships and dumped the hated tea chests into the harbor.

Lord North

Lord North was the Prime Minister of Great Britain when he decided to remit the British tax and to allow the British East India company to sell directly in America through its own agents. He had also been the one to decide to direct the coercive acts at only Massachusetts in order to make an example out of them.

Coercive/Intolerable acts

These were acts passed by Parliament in response to the retaliation from Boston. The Boston Port Act closed the harbor of Boston to all commerce until its citizens paid for the tea. The Administration of Justice act provided for the transfer of cases to courts outside Massachusetts when the governor felt there was an impartial trial. The Massachusetts government act revised the colony’s charter: strengthening the power of the government, weakening local town meetings, making the council appointive rather than elective, and changing the method by which juries were decided.

Quebec act

The Quebec Act established the procedures of governance for the Province of Quebec. It defined the structure of the provincial government by creating a governor who was supported by a legislative council. The colonists found the Act intolerable because they perceived it as a direct threat to their colonial governments and the freedom they had previously enjoyed.

George Whitefield

Reverend Whitefield was a prominent religious figure during the time of the Great Awakening. He had been at the head of spreading this new religious zeal as he took a tour of the colonies to preach his message to as many people as possible.

Jonathan Edwards

Edwards was the son of a Connecticut pastor and from his father’s death, he took over the church. He issued a number of new policies in the church such as the “open enrollment” policy: evidence of saving grace was neither required nor expected of members, good behavior sufficed. His speeches were also not for the faint of heart as many of his members had been struck with anxiety about being sent to hell. This resulted in a number of suicides in his congregation.

Patrick Henry

In May of 1765 Henry introduced resolutions asserting redundantly that the Burgesses possessed the sole right to tax the people of Virginia. He stated that neither the governor nor Parliament had the ability to tax Virginia without the approval of the House of the Burgesses.

Sons of Liberty

The Sons of Liberty were a patriot organization that took action, different from protest and arguments, in protest of the acts being passed. One example of their efforts was when they vandalized and caused destruction in Hutchinson’s house, the Massachusetts’s governor.

Sam Adams

Adams was from Boston and was a genuine revolutionary agitator who believed that Parliament had no right at all to legislate for the colonies. Adams used the Boston Massacre to his advantage in Revolutionary propaganda and made it popular in the colonies.

Charles Townshend

In June of 1767, Townshend introduced a series of levies on glass, lead, paints, paper, and tea imported into the colonies. This resulted in more boycotts of British goods by the colonists. 

Committees of Correspondence

The committees of correspondence were a collection of American political organizations that sought to coordinate opposition to the British Parliament and support for American independence. They mainly focused on spreading news and information about the Patriot cause.

First Continental Congress

In June of 1774 Massachusetts called for a meeting of delegates from all the colonies to consider common action. The first congress met in Philadelphia in September with Georgia being the only colony that failed to send delegates. In this congress, it was decided that drastic measures must be taken such as separating parliament from the legislative bodies in the colonies.