| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Colonists | persons who live in a colony |
| Congress | meeting of representatives who have the authority to make decisions |
| Currency | money that is used in a country |
| Duty | government tax on imports or exports |
| Liberty | freedom |
| Loyalists | colonists who supported the British monarch and laws |
| Massacre | killing of people who cannot defend themselves |
| Militia | volunteer army |
| Minuteman | member of Massachusetts colony militia who could quickly be ready to fight the British |
| Parliament | part of the British government in which members make laws for the British people |
| Petition | request for action signed by many people |
| Pocket books | a pocket sized case for holding paper money |
| Proclamation | official announcement |
| Quarter | provide or pay for housing |
| Rebel | person who fights against, or will not obey, the law |
| Repeal | do away with a law |
| Representation | speaking on behalf of someone |
| Tariff | tax on goods brought into a country |
| Tax | money that is paid by people to run the country |
| Tyranny | cruel use of authority |
| Self-government | people make their own laws |
| Ally, allies | a friend, especially in time of war |
| Boycott | refusal to buy goods or services |
| American Revolution | The war between Great Britain and its thirteen American colonies from 1775 to 1783 that led to the founding of the United States of America. |
| assembly | A lawmaking body |
| Battle of Bunker Hill | Costly British “victory” in 1775 over Colonial forces at a site near Charleston, Massachusetts |
| Boston Tea Party | A 1773 protest against British taxes in which Boston colonists disguised as Mohawks dumped valuable tea into Boston Harbor. |
| Committees of Correspondence | Groups organized in the 1770s to keep colonists informed of important events. |
| delegate | A member of an elected assembly. |
| First Continental Congress | The assembly of colonial delegates from every colony except Georgia that met in 1774 in Philadelphia to oppose the Intolerable Acts. |
| Intolerable Acts | The laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 that closed Boston Harbor, dissolved the Massachusetts assembly, and forced Boston colonists to house British soldiers. |
| Sons of Liberty | Groups of colonists who organized themselves to protest against the British government. |
| Stamp Act | A law passed by the British Parliament in 1765 requiring colonists to pay a tax on newspapers, pamphlets, legal documents, and even playing cards. |
| town meeting | Gathering of a town’s citizens to discuss and solve local problems. |
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