| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Currency Act, 1751 | This act applied only to Massachusetts. It was an attempt to ban the production of paper money in Massachusetts, but it was defeated in Parliament. |
| Currency Act, 1764 | British legislation which banned the production of paper money in the colonies in an effort to combat the inflation caused by Virginia's decision to get itself out of debt by issuing more paper money. |
| Primogeniture,entail | These were the two British legal doctrines governing the inheritance of property. Primogeniture requried that a man's real property pass in its entirety to his oldest son. Entail requried that property could only be left to direct descendants (usually sons), and not to persons outside of the family. |
| Indentured Servants | People who could not afford passage to the colonies could become indentured servants. Another person would pay their passage, and in exchange, the indentured servant would serve that person for a set length of time (usually seven years) and then would be free. |
| Magna Carta, 1215 | An English document draw up by nobles under King John which limited the power of the king. It has influenced later constitutional documents in Britain and America. |
| Habeas Corpus Act, 1679 | British law had traditionally provided a procedure that allowed a person who had been arrested to challenge the legality of his arrest or confinement, called the Writ of Habeus Corpus, or the Great Writ. The Act imposed strict penalties on judges who refused to issue a writ of habeus corpus when there was good cause, and on officers who refused to comply with the writ. |
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