APUSH: Chapter 4 - Key terms

Admiralty Courts

In British law, special administrative courts designed to handle maritime cases without a jury.

Albany Plan

plan proposed by Benjamin Franklin in 1754 that aimed to unite the 13 colonies for trade, military, and other purposes; the plan was turned down by the colonies and the Crown

Benjamin Franklin

American intellectual, inventor, and politician He helped to negotiate French support for the American Revolution.

Boston Massacre

The first bloodshed of the American Revolution (1770), as British guards at the Boston Customs House opened fire on a crowd killing five Americans

Boston Tea Party

A 1773 protest against British taxes in which Boston colonists disguised as Mohawks dumped valuable tea into Boston Harbor.

Charles Townshend

British Prime Minister. Influenced Parliament to pass the Townshend Acts.

Coercive Acts (Intolerable Acts)

This series of laws were very harsh laws that intended to make Massachusetts pay for its resistance. It also closed down the Boston Harbor until the Massachusetts colonists paid for the ruined tea. Also forced Bostonians to shelter soilders in their own homes.

Committees of Correspondence

Organization founded by Samuel Adams consisting of a system of communication between patriot leaders in New England and throughout the colonies

Creoles

In colonial Spanish America, term used to describe someone of European descent born in the New World. Elsewhere in the Americas, the term is used to describe all nonnative peoples.

Currency

a system of money in general use in a particular country.

Daughters of Liberty

This organization supported the boycott of British goods. They urged Americans to wear homemade fabrics and produce other goods that were previously available only from Britain. They believed that way, the American colonies would become economically independent.

First Continental Congress

September 1774, delegates from twelve colonies sent representatives to Philadelphia to discuss a response to the Intolerable Acts

George Grenville

Became the Prime Minister of England in 1763; proposed the Sugar & Stamp Acts to raise revenue in the colonies in order to defray the expenses of the French & Indian War & to maintain Britain's expanded empire in America.

Imperial Authority

The British government's control over the colonies in America.

Impressment

British practice of taking American sailors and forcing them into military service

Iroquois Confederacy

An alliance of five northeastern Amerindian peoples (after 1722 six) that made decisions on military and diplomatic issues through a council of representatives. Allied first with the Dutch and later with the English, it dominated W. New England.

John Adams

America's first Vice-President and second President. Sponsor of the American Revolution in Massachusetts, and wrote the Massachusetts guarantee that freedom of press "ought not to be restrained."

Lord North

British Prime Minister during revolution. He had passed the Coercive Acts and supported the king greatly to the extent that Britain was ruled only by the king.

Mercy Otis Warren

female patriot who wrote poems to convince others to join the patriot cause

Mutiny Act

An act for punishing mutiny and desertion and for the better payment of the army and their quarters was placed on the American colonies by Great Britain under Prime Minister Grenville.

Patrick Henry

a leader of the American Revolution and a famous orator who spoke out against British rule of the American colonies (1736-1799)

Paxton Boys

They were a group of Scots-Irish men living in the Appalachian hills that wanted protection from Indian attacks. They made an armed march on Philadelphia in 1764. They protested the lenient way that the Quakers treated the Indians. Their ideas started the Regulator Movement in North Carolina.

Pontiac's Rebellion

A 1763 conflict between Native Americans and the British over settlement of Indian lands in the Great Lakes area

Proclamation of 1763

A proclamation from the British government which forbade British colonists from settling west of the Appalacian Mountains, and which required any settlers already living west of the mountains to move back east.

Quebec Act

Extended boundaries of Quebec and granted equal rights to Catholics and recognized legality Catholic Church in the territory; colonists feared this meant that a pope would soon oversee the colonies.

Samuel Adams

American Revolutionary leader and patriot, Founder of the Sons of Liberty and one of the most vocal patriots for independence; signed the Declaration of Independence

Seven Years/War French and Indian War

War fought in the colonies from 1754 to 1763 between the English and the French for possession of the Ohio River Valley area. The English won the war and the Peace of Paris was negotiated in 1763

Sons of Liberty

A radical political organization for colonial independence which formed in 1765 after the passage of the Stamp Act. They incited riots and burned the customs houses where the stamped British paper was kept. After the repeal of the Stamp Act, many of the local chapters formed the Committees of Correspondence which continued to promote opposition to British policies towards the colonies. The Sons leaders included Samuel Adams and Paul Revere.

Stamp Act

1765; law that taxed printed goods, including: playing cards, documents, newspapers, etc.

Stamp Act Congress

A meeting of delegations from many of the colonies, the congress was formed to protest the newly passed Stamp Act It adopted a declaration of rights as well as sent letters of complaints to the king and parliament, and it showed signs of colonial unity and organized resistance.

Sugar Act

law passed by the British Parliament setting taxes on molasses and sugar imported by the colonies

Tea Act

1773 act which eliminated import tariffs on tea entering England and allowed the British East India Company to sell directly to consumers rather than through merchants. Led to the Boston Tea Party.

Townshend Duties

Popular name for the Revenue Act of 1767 which taxed glass, lead, paint, paper and tea entering the colonies

Virginia Resolves

In response to the 1765 Stamp Act, Patrick Henry persuaded the Virginia House of Burgesses to adopt several strongly worded resolutions that denied Parliament's right to tax the colonies. Known as the \______, these resolutions persuaded many other colonial legislatures to adopt similar positions.

William Pitt

The Prime Minister of England during the French and Indian War. He increased the British troops and military supplies in the colonies, and this is why England won the war.