History Study Guide

Because quizlet is greedy...

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 Bill, 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, first articulated in the Virginia Stamp Act Resolutions, that the 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, including the arming of militias and the adoption of a widespread non-importation, non-exportation, and non-consumption agreement

vice-admiralty courts

British royal courts without juries that settled disputes occurring at sea

What was the purpose of the Tea Act of 1773?

to help revive the struggling East India
Company

Which event was most responsible for the
colonies' endorsement of Samuel Adams's
Massachusetts Circular?

Lord Hillsborough's threat to dissolve the
colonial assemblies that endorsed the letter

Which colony provided the basis for the
Declarations and Resolves?

Massachusetts

For which of the following activities were the
Sons of Liberty responsible?

the hanging and beheading of a stamp
commissioner in effigy

Which of the following is true of the Gaspée
affair?

Colonists believed that the British response
represented an overreach of power.

Which of the following was a cause of the
British National Debt in 1763?

the French and Indian War

the continued British military presence in
the American colonies

Which of the following was not a goal of the
Stamp Act?

to declare null and void any laws the
colonies had passed to govern and tax
themselves

What was the main purpose of the Sugar Act of
1764?

It strengthened enforcement of molasses
smuggling laws.

Which of the following was decided at the
First Continental Congress?

to boycott all British goods and prepare for
possible military action

Which of the following was not one of the goals
of the Townshend Acts?

greater colonial unity

The \____________ Act(s) reiterated that the British had complete control over the colonies.

Declaratory

Victory over the French in the Seven Year's War meant the British

Were deep in debt

Had to defend their greatly expanded frontier

Needed to strengthen enforcement of trade laws

Which state was not represented at the First Continental Congress?

Georgia

The Revenue Act gave the custom boards "writs of assistance" to look for which smuggled goods?

Paper

Lead

Glass

The Quartering Act brought about all of the following except

Was widely welcomed in the colonies

Aside from the issue of taxation by representation, why did the Virginia House of Burgesses object to Parliament's stamp tax?

It would create a great economic burden for the colonists

The Committees of Correspondence formed by colonists never developed any significance.

False

Colonists were glad to abide by the Proclamation Line of 1763.

False

The Coercive Acts did all of the following except

Placed New York under direct governmental control

Pontiac, chief of the Wampanoag tribe, advocated that Indians shun European culture and expel them from native lands.

False

Dunmore's Proclamation

the decree signed by Lord Dunmore, the royal governor of Virginia, which proclaimed that any slaves or indentured servants who fought on the side of the British would be rewarded with their freedom

Mecklenburg Resolves

North Carolina's declaration of rebellion against Great Britain

minutemen

colonial militias prepared to mobilize and fight the British with a minute's notice

popular sovereignty

the practice of allowing the citizens of a state or territory to decide issues based on the principle of majority rule

republicanism

a political philosophy that holds that states should be governed by representatives, not a monarch; as a social philosophy, republicanism required civic virtue of its citizens

thirteen colonies

the British colonies in North America that declared independence from Great Britain in 1776, which included Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, the province of Massachusetts Bay, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, South Carolina, and Virginia

Hessians

German mercenaries hired by Great Britain to put down the American rebellion

How did British General Thomas Gage attempt to deal with the uprising in Massachusetts in 1774?

He attempted to seize arms and munitions from the colonial insurgents.

Which of the following was not a result of Dunmore's Proclamation?

A majority of slaves in the colonies won their freedom.

Which of the following is not true of a republic?

A republic is governed by a monarch and the royal officials he or she appoints.

Which city served as the base for British operations for most of the war?

New York

What battle turned the tide of war in favor of the Americans?

the Battle of Saratoga

Which term describes German soldiers hired by Great Britain to put down the American rebellion?

Hessians

Yorktown

the Virginia port where British General Cornwallis surrendered to American forces

Which American general is responsible for improving the American military position in the South?

Nathanael Greene

Which of the following statements best represents the division between Patriots and Loyalists?

American colonists were divided among those who wanted independence, those who wanted to remain part of the British Empire, and those who were neutral.

Which of the following is not one of the tasks women performed during the Revolution?

holding government offices

confiscation acts

state-wide acts that made it legal for state governments to seize Loyalists' property

Continental currency

the paper currency that the Continental government printed to fund the Revolution

By all counts the odds were stacked against the United States winning their independence, so why did the American Revolution succeed?

Diverse colonists united in their opposition to Great Britain

Colonists developed a sense of community against a common enemy

There was a spirit of common cause

Thomas Paine's Common Sense made a powerful argument for independence.

True

The Treaty of Paris ended the Revolutionary War and

placed the western boundary of the United States at the Mississippi River

gave New England fishing rights off Newfoundland

encouraged individual states to refrain from persecuting Loyalists

Women played no significant roles in the Revolutionary War.

False

Dunmore's Proclamation in November 1775 did all of the following except

Actually free slaves in Virginia

In 1779, which colonial leader traveled to France to negotiate peace with the British?

John Adams

Republicanism adheres to a code of virtue, placing the public good and community above narrow self-interest

True

After the war, many Loyalists moved to

Canada

Britain

the West Indies

George Washington broke with conventional military tactics by leading the Continental Army to attack the British forces wintering at Trenton, New Jersey and the at the Battle of Princeton.

True

The language of the Declaration of Independence was greatly influenced by the writings of which Enlightenment philosopher?

John Locke

To what form of government did the American revolutionaries turn after the war for independence?

republicanism

Which of the following was not one of Franklin's thirteen virtues?

Mercy

What defined republicanism as a social philosophy?

Citizenship within a republic meant accepting certain rights and responsibilities as well as cultivating virtuous behavior. This philosophy was based on the notion that the success or failure of the republic depended upon the virtue or corruption of its citizens.

conservative Whigs

the politically and economically elite revolutionary class that wanted to limit political participation to a few powerful families

democracy

a system in which the majority rules

majority rule

a fundamental principle of democracy, providing that the majority should have the power to make decisions binding upon the whole

monarchy

a form of government with a monarch at its head

radical Whigs

revolutionaries who favored broadening participation in the political process

Which of the following figures did not actively challenge the status of women in the early American republic?

Phillis Wheatley

Which state had the clearest separation of church and state?

Virginia

How would you characterize Thomas Jefferson's ideas on race and slavery?

Although he owned hundreds of slaves in his lifetime and fathered several children with his slave Sally Hemings, Jefferson opposed slavery. He argued that the institution should be abolished and slaves returned to Africa, believing that blacks and whites could not live together in a free society without the result of a race war.

Which of the following states had the most democratic constitution in the 1780s?

Pennsylvania

Under the Articles of Confederation, what power did the national Confederation Congress have?

the power to create land ordinances

What were the primary causes of Shays' Rebellion?

A group of farmers in western Massachusetts, including Daniel Shays, rebelled against the Massachusetts government, which they saw as unresponsive to their needs. Many were veterans of the Revolutionary War and faced tremendous debts and high taxes, which they couldn't pay with their worthless paper money. They felt that they didn't have a voice in the Massachusetts government, which seemed to cater to wealthy Boston merchants. They wanted their debts to be forgiven and the Massachusetts constitution to be rewritten to address their needs, and when these demands weren't met, they rebelled.

checks and balances

the system that ensures a balance of power among the branches of government

unicameral

having a single house (of legislative government)

Which plan resolved the issue of representation for the U.S. Constitution?

the Connecticut Compromise

How was the U.S. Constitution ratified?

by each state at special ratifying conventions

Explain the argument that led to the three-fifths rule and the consequences of that rule.

Southern slaveholders wanted slaves to count for the purposes of representation, while people from northern states feared that counting slaves would give the southern states too much power. Their fears were valid; the three-fifths rule, which stated that each slave counted as three-fifths of a person for purposes of representation, gave the southern states the balance of political power.

Anti-Federalists

those who opposed the 1787 Constitution and favored stronger individual states

bicameral

having two legislative houses, an upper and a lower house

Connecticut Compromise

also known as the Great Compromise, Roger Sherman's proposal at the Constitutional Convention for a bicameral legislature, with the upper house having equal representation for all states and the lower house having proportional representation

Electoral College

the mechanism by which electors, based on the number of representatives from each state, choose the president

Federalists

those who supported the 1787 Constitution and a strong central government; these advocates of the new national government formed the ruling political party in the 1790s

proportional representation

representation that gives more populous states greater political power by allowing them more representatives

three-fifths compromise

the agreement at the Constitutional Convention that each slave would count as three-fifths of a person for purposes of representation

Which of the following is not one of the rights the Bill of Rights guarantees?

the right to an education

Which of Alexander Hamilton's financial policies and programs seemed to benefit speculators at the expense of poor soldiers?

the public credit plan

What were the fundamental differences between the Federalist and Democratic-Republican visions?

Federalists believed in a strong federal republican government led by learned, public-spirited men of property. They believed that too much democracy would threaten the republic. The Democratic-Republicans, alternatively, feared too much federal government power and focused more on the rural areas of the country, which they thought were underrepresented and underserved. Democratic-Republicans felt that the spirit of true republicanism, which meant virtuous living for the common good, depended on farmers and agricultural areas.

Bill of Rights

the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution, which guarantee individual rights

Democratic-Republicans

advocates of limited government who were troubled by the expansive domestic policies of Washington's administration and opposed the Federalists

Which of the following was not true of Jay's Treaty of 1794?

It gave the United States land rights in the West Indies

What was the primary complaint of the rebels in the Whiskey Rebellion?

the tax on whiskey and rum

How did the French Revolution in the early 1790s influence the evolution of the American political system?

In the United States, the French Revolution hardened differences between the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans. The Federalists feared the anarchy of the French Revolution and worried that Democratic-Republicanism would bring that kind of disorder to the United States. The Democratic-Republicans supported the goals of the French Revolution, even if they didn't support the means, and believed that siding with Great Britain instead of France meant a return to a system of monarchy.

Citizen Genêt affair

the controversy over the French representative who tried to involve the United States in France's war against Great Britain

impressment

the practice of capturing sailors and forcing them into military service