Confronting the National Debt: The Aftermath of the French and Indian War

This set of flashcards provides key terms and definitions related to the events and legislation that shaped colonial response to British control and the build-up to the American Revolutionary War.

Boston Massacre

A confrontation between a crowd of Bostonians and British soldiers on March 5, 1770, which resulted in the deaths of five people, including Crispus Attucks, the first official casualty in the war for independence.

Coercive Acts

Four acts (Administration of Justice Act, Massachusetts Government Act, Port Act, Quartering Act) that Lord North passed to punish Massachusetts for destroying the tea and refusing to pay for the damage.

Committees of Correspondence

Colonial extralegal shadow governments that convened to coordinate plans of resistance against the British.

Daughters of Liberty

Well-born British colonial women who led a non-importation movement against British goods.

Direct tax

A tax that consumers pay directly, rather than through merchants’ higher prices.

Indirect tax

A tax imposed on businesses, rather than directly on consumers.

Intolerable Acts

The name American Patriots gave to the Coercive Acts and the Quebec Act.

Loyalists

Colonists in America who were loyal to Great Britain.

Massachusetts Circular

A letter penned by Son of Liberty Samuel Adams that laid out the unconstitutionality of taxation without representation and encouraged the other colonies to boycott British goods.

No taxation without representation

The principle that colonists needed to be represented in Parliament if they were to be taxed.

Non-importation movement

A widespread colonial boycott of British goods.

Proclamation Line

A line along the Appalachian Mountains, imposed by the Proclamation of 1763, west of which British colonists could not settle.

Sons of Liberty

Artisans, shopkeepers, and small-time merchants who opposed the Stamp Act and considered themselves British patriots.

Suffolk Resolves

A Massachusetts plan of resistance to the Intolerable Acts that formed the basis of the eventual plan adopted by the First Continental Congress for resisting the British.

Vice-admiralty courts

British royal courts without juries that settled disputes occurring at sea.

Pontiac’s Rebellion

An organized resistance of Native Americans against British encroachment after the French and Indian War.

Stamp Act

A direct tax imposed by British Parliament that required all printed materials in the colonies to carry a revenue stamp.

Townshend Acts

A series of laws enacted by Parliament in 1767 that imposed duties on imported goods, which led to widespread protest in the colonies.

Tea Act of 1773

An act that granted the British East India Company a monopoly on tea sales in the colonies, leading to the Boston Tea Party.

First Continental Congress

A meeting of delegates from twelve of the thirteen colonies in 1774 to coordinate a response to the Intolerable Acts.