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APUSH Chapter 7

Terms in this set (27)

republicanism
Political thought that influenced the American colonists in the mid-eighteenth century; defined a just society as one in which all citizens willingly subordinated their private interests to the common good; a theory inherently opposed to hierarchical and authoritarian institutions such as aristcracy and monarchy.
radical Whigs
The ideas of these British political commentators influenced American political thought in the mid-eighteenth century; criticized the corruption and arbitrary power of the monarch and his advisors; warned citizens to be on guard against threats to their liberty.
mercantilism
Belief that wealth was power and that a country's wealth. and thus power, could be measured by the amount of gold and silver it held; in order to amass wealth, a country needed to export more than it imported; the British used this theory to justify control over the colonies, and passed laws that protected and promoted this system.
Sugar Act
Law increasing the duty on sugar imported from the West Indies; aimed at raising tax revenue from the colonies for the crown, it produced bitter protests from the colonists and was later reduced.
Quartering Act
Measure, resented by the colonists, requiring certain colonies to provide food and quarters for British troops.
stamp tax
Tax intended to raise revenue to support the new military force stationed in the colonies; mandated the use of stamps or stamped paper on bills of sale, playing cards, pamphlets, newspapers, diplomas, marriage licenses, etc; although similar acts were in place in Britain, the American colonists despised the tax, feeling it infringed on their liberties, claiming they were being taxed without representation.
admiralty courts
Courts in which offenders of the Sugar Act and Stamp Act were tried; these courts, hated by the colonists, had no juries and the burden of proof was on the defendant, who was assumed guilty until proven innocent.
Stamp Act Congress
Meeting of delegates from nine colonies in protest of the hated Stamp Act; drafted a statement of rights and grievances, asking the king and Parliament to repeal the legislation; largely ignored in Britain, it symbolized another step towards colonial unity.
nonimportation agreements
Agreement amongst the colonies to boycott goods imported from England, in order to protest the Stamp Act and to pressure Parliament into its repeal; mobilized colonists for a common purpose and had a significant effect in England, as America bought one-quarter of all British exports, leading to protests and the eventual repeal of the tax.
Sons of Liberty
Spirited and sometimes violent colonial protesters; angry with the Stamp Act and other legislation they felt was unjust, they took the law into their own hands, enforcing the nonimportation agreements against violators, ransacking the houses of officials, and hanging effigies of stamp agents, who were forced to resign before the law went into effect.
Declaratory Act
Legislation passed soon after Britain's reluctant repeal of the Stamp Act, reaffirming the British government's absolute and unqualified sovereignty over the colonies.
Townshend Act
Light import tax on glass, lead, paper, paint, and tea; revenue from the tax was to be used to pay the salaries of royal administrators in the colonies; regarded by the colonists as continued taxation without representation and an attempt to restrict their liberties; the colonists resorted to smuggling, leading officials to send troops to Boston.
Boston Massacre
Clash between British soldiers and colonists angry with restrictive legislation and the policies of the British government; provoked by the jeering colonists, the British troops fired into the crowd, killing or wounding eleven citizens.
committees of correspondence
Local organizations founded in eighty towns by Samuel Adams; spread the spirit of resistance by exchanging letters and keeping opposition to British policy alive; developed into intercolonial committees that shared ideas and information, stimulating sentiment in favor of united action.
Boston Tea Party
In order to assist the troubled British East India Company, the British government awarded it a complete monopoly of the American tea business, allowing the company to sell its tea at a low price, even with the tea tax; colonists viewed this move as an attempt to trick them into accepting the hated tax and responded with mass demonstrations forced cargo ships carrying the tea to return to England; when the governor of Massachusetts ordered the tea ships to unload their cargo, a mob of Bostonians dressed as Indians boarded the ship and dumped the tea into the ocean.
"Intolerable Acts"
Name given by colonists to the series of measures passed by Parliament in response to the Boston Tea Party; included the closing of the Boston Port, restrictions on town meetings, a new quartering act that gave authorities the power to lodge soldiers in private homes, and a policy of allowing officials who killed colonists in the line of duty to be tried in Britain; called "the massacre of American Liberty" by angry Bostonians.
Quebec Act
Law that extended the boundaries of Quebec and guaranteed the conquered French-Canadians the right to practice their Catholic religion and permitted them to retain many of their traditional rights and customs, which did not include a representative assembly or trial by jury in civil cases; the American colonists believed this set a dangerous legal and political precedent; furthermore, the extension of Roman Catholicism throughout this expanded region angered Protestants.
First Continental Congress
In response to the Intolerable Acts, delegates from twelve colonies met in Philadelphia in 1774 to consider ways of redressing colonial grievances; drafted the Declaration of Rights, as well as appeals to other colonies, the king, and the British people; created The Association for a complete boycott of British goods; did not call for independence, but rather a repeal of the offensive legislation and taxation.
The Association
Created during the First Continental Congress, it called for a complete boycott of British goods -- nonimportation, nonexportation, and noncomsumption; violators were tarred and feathered.
Battles of Lexington and Concord
British troops were dispatched to seize stores of colonial gunpowder and arrest "rebel" ringleaders; when colonial "Minute Men" refused to disperse, British troops fired on the Americans, killing eight and wounding several more -- the first shots of the Revolutionary War; moving forward, the British were met with a ready militia and forced to retreat to Boston.
John Hancock
American Revolutionary leader; president of the Continental Congress, first to sign the Declaration of Independence.
George Grenville
British Prime Minister who angered colonists by enforcing the Navigation Laws and passing the Sugar Act and Stamp Act; dismissed the colonists' protests against taxation with representation, arguing the theory of "virtual representation", that every member of Parliament represented all British subjects.
George III
King of England during the American Revolution; stubborn and lustful for power, his policies toward the colonies led to revolution.
Lord North
Prime minister under King George III; a "yes man" who acquiesed to the king's pressures and demands; persuaded Parliament to repeal the Townshend duties.
Samuel Adams
Master propaganist and engineer of rebellion, cherishing a deep faith in the common people; a leader in the Sons of Liberty, he also organized the local committees of correspondence and participated in the first Continental Congress.
Thomas Hutchinson
Massachusetts governor who infuriated Stamp Act protesters by ordering the tea ships in Boston's harbor to be unloaded, insisting that the colonists had no right to flout the law; the radicals reacted by staging the Boston Tea Party, after which he returned to Britain permanently.
Lord Dunmore
Governor of Virginia who promised freedom for any enslaved black who joined the British army.
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