Era 3 Vocabulary

John Locke

• Locke was an English political philosopher whose ideas inspired the American revolution. He wrote that all human beings have a right to life, liberty, and property, and that governments exist to protect those rights. He believed that the government was based upon an unwritten "social contract" between the rulers and their people, and if the government failed to uphold its end of the contract, the people had a right to rebel and institute a new government.

King George III

• The mentally unstable King of England from 1760-1820, whom the colonists were torn between loyalty and resistance, but after his rejection of the Olive Branch Petition he was largely considered a tyrant.

Sugar Act

• 1764. Established new duties and contained provisions aimed at molasses smugglers. Actually lowered prices on sugar that came from the West Indies, really just designed as an act against the French. What made the colonists angry was that it was actually going to be enforced and violators were going to be arrested and tried in admiralty courts instead of colonial ones.

Stamp Act

• 1765. British legislation passed as part of Prime Minister Grenville's revenue measures which required that all legal or official documents used in the colonies, such as wills, deeds and contracts, had to be written on special, stamped British paper. It was so unpopular in the colonies that it caused riots, and most of the stamped paper sent to the colonies from Britain was burned by angry mobs. Because of this opposition, and the decline in British imports caused by the non- importation movement, London merchants convinced Parliament to repeal the Stamp Act in 1766.

Townshend Acts

• 1767. Taxed glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea entering the colonies. The profits from these taxes were to be used to pay the salaries of the royal governors in the colonies. In practice, however, the Townshend Duties yielded little income for the British; the taxes on tea brought in the only significant revenue.

Homespun

• Cloth spun and woven by American women and traditionally worn by poorer colonists. During the boycotts of British goods in the 1760s, wearing homespun clothes took on a political meaning, and even those who could easily afford finer clothing began wearing clothes made of homespun fabrics. Their work making homespun fabrics allowed women to contribute directly to the Patriot movement.

Committees of Correspondence

• 1772. It promoted manufacturing in the Thirteen Colonies and advised colonists not to buy goods imported from Britain. It’s purpose was to inform voters of the common threat they faced from their mother country - Britain.

Boston Massacre

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

Boston Tea Party

• Boston patriots organized the Boston Tea Party to protest the 1773 Tea Act. In December 1773, Samuel Adams warned Boston residents of the consequences of the Tea Act. Boston was boycotting the tea in protest of the Tea Act and would not let the ships bring the tea ashore. Finally, on the night of December 16, 1773, colonials disguised as Indians boarded the ships and threw the tea overboard. They did so because they were afraid that Governor Hutchinson would secretly unload the tea because he owned a share in the cargo.

Coercive Act

• Acts passed in retaliation to the Boston Tea Party; the British government closed port of Boston until tea was paid for; revised the charter of Massachusetts (which drastically reduced their powers of self-government), forced colonists of Massachusetts to house British soldiers and allowed British officers to be tried in England for crimes of violence.

Continental Congress

• 1774. Declaration of rights and grievances sent to George III because Parliament's authority was no longer recognized; called for repressive legislation since 1763; no authority to levy taxes; Second in 1775 led to results included George Washington as General of the American Army, Congress assumed direction of war effort, and Olive Branch Petition affirmed American loyalty to George III and denied desire for independence.

Lexington & Concord

• April 8, 1775. Gage leads 700 soldiers to confiscate colonial weapons and arrest Adam, and Hancock; April 19, 1775: 70 armed militia face British at Lexington (shot heard around the world); British retreat to Boston, suffer nearly 300 casualties along the way (concord).

George Washington

• He had led troops (rather unsuccessfully ) during the French and Indian War, and had surrendered Fort Necessity to the French. He was appointed commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, and was much more successful in this second command.

Common Sense

• A pamphlet written by Thomas Paine that claimed the colonies had a right to be an independent nation.

Lord Dunmore

• Governor of Virginia who wanted to acquire more land (Ohio Valley); organises Virginia Militia composed of slaves that fought in hopes of their freedom.

Declaration of Independence

• 1776. Drafted in 1776 by T. Jefferson declaring America's separation from Great Britain. 3 parts-New theory of government, reasons for separation, formal declaration of war and independence.

Battle of Saratoga

• October 17, 1777. American forces under Horatio Gates forced John Burgoyne to surrender his entire command. Significance: the battle which was the turning point of the Revolution; after the colonists won this major victory, the French decided to support the colonies with money, troops, ships, etc.

Battle of Yorktown

• October 19, 1781. Last major battle of the Revolutionary War) American troops under George Washington and Comte de Rochambeau trapped British troops under Charles Cornwallis and his troops in the Chesapeake Bay, with the help of Admiral de Grasse and the French fleet. Cornwallis was forced to surrender. Significance: although not the last of the fighting, this signified the end of the war.

Articles of Confederation

• 1781. The first American constitution that established the United States as a loose confederation of states under a weak national Congress, which was not granted the power to regulate commerce or collect taxes; Articles were replaced by a more efficient Constitution in 1789.

Loyalist

• Americans still loyal to Britain and disapproving of the rebellion. Most were wealthy and of high status and did not want to lose these things.

Proclamation of 1763

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

Currency Act

• 1764. Forbade the colonies to issue paper money since American money was worth less than the pound sterling. The colonists saw the British government increasing its control over the colonies against the colonists' will.

Intolerable Acts

• 1744. Parliament punished the people of Massachusetts for their actions in the Boston Tea Party. Parliament passed laws, known as the Intolerable Acts, which restricted colonists' rights. The laws made restrictions on town meetings, and stated that enforcing officials who killed colonists in the line of duty would be sent to Britain for trial (where it was assumed they would be acquitted of their charges).

Salutary Neglect

• A period from 1607-1763 in which England did not strictly enforce Parliamentary laws, which allowed the colonies to flourish as almost independent states for many years.

Constitutional Convention

• The meeting of state delegates in 1787 in Philadelphia called to revise the Articles of Confederation. It instead designed a new plan of government, the US Constitution.

Virginia Plan

• The Virginia Plan called for a two-house Congress with each state's representation based on state population.

New Jersey Plan

• The New Jersey Plan called for a one-house Congress in which each state had equal representation.

Great Compromise

• At the Constitutional Convention, larger states wanted to follow the Virginia Plan, which based each state's representation in Congress on state population. Smaller states wanted to follow the New Jersey Plan, which gave every state the same number of representatives. The convention compromised by creating the House and the Senate, and using both of the two separate plans as the method for electing members of each.