America's History 8th Edition Henretta Chap. 5

Sugar Act of 1764

Grenville won parliamentary approval with this act used to replace the Molasses Act of 1733. The earlier act had set a tax rate of 6 pence per gallon on French Molasses a rate so high that it made trade unprofitable. The new rate was set at 3 pence so merchants could still turn a profit and the act could actually be enforced.

Vice-Admiralty Courts

Tribunals governing the high seas and run by British appointed judges. Merchants prosecuted under the Sugar Act would be tried here.

Stamp Act of 1765

This new tax sparked the first great imperial crisis. The new levy was to cover part of the cost of keeping British troops in America. The act would require a tax stamp on all printed items, from college diplomas to court documents, land titles and even newspapers. It bore heavily on the rich.

Virtual Representation

Parliament argued that colonists already had representation in Parliament from the transatlantic merchants and West Indian Sugar Planters.

Quartering Act of 1765

Passed by Parliament in 1765 this act would require colonial governments to provide barracks and food for British troops.

Stamp Act Congress

A congress that protested the loss of American rights and liberties especially the right to trial by jury and challenged the constitutionality of both the Stamp and Sugar Acts by declaring that only colonists elected representatives could tax them. Nine states sent delegates and they met in New York City in October 1765.

Sons of Liberty

This mob group arose in Boston and burned a effigy of collector Andrew Oliver and then destroyed Oliver's new brick house. This was a result of the Stamp Act going into affect on November 1st, 1765.

English Common Law

The centuries old body of legal rules and procedures that protected the lives and property of the monarch's subjects.

Natural Rights

Part of the writings of John Locke who had argued that all individuals have these rights to life, liberty and property and governments must protect these rights.

Declaratory Act of 1766

This act which pacified Imperial reformers and hard-liners, explicitly reaffirmed Parliament's full power and authority to make laws and statues to bind the colonies and people of America in all cases whatsoever.

Townshend Act of 1767

The new tax legislation which had both fiscal and political goals. It imposed duties on colonial imports of paper, paint, glass and tea.

Nonimportation Movement

American women ordinarily excluded form public affairs, became crucial to this movement were they reduced their household's consumption of imported goods and produced large quantities of homespun cloth.

Committees of Correspondence

These standing committees allowed Patriots to communicate with leaders in other colonies when new threats to liberty occurred. First set up by Samuel Adams in Boston.

Tea Act of May 1773

Committees of Correspondence sprang into action when Parliament passed this act which provided financial relief for the East India Tea Company, a royally chartered private corporation that served as the instrument of British imperialism.

Coercive Acts

In early 1774 Parliament passed these four acts to force Massachusetts to pay for the tea and submit to imperial authority. The Boston Port Bill closed Boston Harbor to shipping. The Massachusetts Government Act annulled the colony's charter and prohibited most town meetings. A new Quartering Act mandated new barracks for British troops. And the Justice Act allowed trials for capitol crimes to be transferred to other colonies or Britain.

Continental Congress

In response to the Coercive Acts patriots convened a new continent-wide body. Twelve mainland colonies sent representatives. Four recently acquired colonies-Florida, Quebec, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland refused to send delegates, as did Georgia. After negotiations the congress agreed to a program of economic retaliation and the threat of all out commercial warfare.

Continental Association

Established by the First Continental Congress in 1774, with the purpose of enforcing a third boycott of British goods, it quickly set up a rural network of committees to do its work.

Dunmore's War

In the summer of 1774 with his militia Lord Dunmore attacked the Ohio Shawnees who had a long-standing claim to Kentucky as hunting grounds. After defeating the Shawnees Dunmore claimed Kentucky as their own. It was their Declaration of Independence and retaliation to the crown.

Minutemen

A fighting force raised by the Concord town meeting to be used as a defensive force ready at a minutes notice. They forced the British to retreat in the Battle of Lexington and Concord.

Second Continental Congress

In May 1775 Patriot leaders gathered in Philadelphia. John Adams exhorted the congress to rise to the defense of American Liberty by creating a continental army. He nominated George Washington to lead it. After bitter debate these proposals were approved but only by bare majorities.

Declaration of Independence

In June 1776, Richard Henry Lee presented Virginia's resolution to the Continental Congress, "That these Unite Colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent states." Faced with defeat loyalists and anti-independence moderates withdrew from the congress leaving committed Patriots to take the final step.

Popular Sovereignty

The principle that ultimate power lies in the hands of the electorate.

George Grenville

Regarded as "one of the ablest men in Great Britain," he understood the need for imperial-reform. He first passed the Currency Act of 1764 which banned the colonies from using paper money as legal tender. He also one parliamentary approval of the Sugar Act.

John Dickinson

His Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania (1768) urged colonist to remember your ancestors and your posterity and oppose parliamentary taxes. He stated that "We are taxed without our own consent...We are therefore slaves." He also led the moderates in the Continental Congress in their hopes for reconciliation.

Charles Townshend

He came to power when William Pitt became chronically ill. Unlike Pitt he had no sympathy for America. As a member of the Board of Trade he sought restrictions on colonial assemblies and strongly supported the Stamp Act. In 1767 he promised to find a new source of revenue in America through the Townshend Acts.

Lord North

In early 1770 he became Prime Minister. He was looking for compromise. He argued that it was foolish to tax British exports to America because it simply raised the price and decreased consumption. He persuaded parliament to repeal most of the Townshend Acts.

Samuel Adams

An outspoken patriot from the colony of Massachusetts who along with Benjamin Franklin and Patrick Henry claimed equality for the American Assemblies with the empire. He had a influential role in the First and Second Continental Congresses and in the Declaration of Independence.

Lord Dunmore

The royal governor of Virginia, who during the struggle over western land between Pennsylvania and Virginia realized that Pennsylvania was pacifist and had no militia. He then organized the Virginia militia and took the next set by fighting the Ohio Shawnees and claiming the land of Kentucky as his own.

Thomas Paine

In January 1776 he published Common Sense, a rousing call for independence and a republican form of government. He assaulted the traditional monarchical order and urged citizens to seek independence.

Thomas Jefferson

The main author of the Declaration of Independence, who had mobilized resistance to the Coercive Acts in the pamphlet A Summary of the Rights of British America. Now in the declaration he justified Independence and republicanism to Americans and the world by vilifying George III. He proclaimed a series of "self-evident" truths; "that all men are created equal, and they posses unalienable rights of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness."