Articles of Confederation
An agreement between the thirteen colonies to form a single government under the United States of America. It served as the country's first constitution
Continental Army
The official army of the United States that was established by the Continental Congress
Continental Congress
A group of delegates from each colony or state. It became the first governing body of the United States of America
Loyalist
A person in America who stayed loyal to Britain and the king
Declaration of Independence
A document which announced that the American colonies now considered themselves independent states and they would no longer answer to the authority of Great Britain
Militia/Minutemen
Citizens who were prepared to fight. They held drills a few times a year and had their own weapons and gear
Parliament
The main governing body of the British government
Redcoat
A nickname for the British soldiers taken from their bright red uniforms
Sons of Liberty
A group of patriots organized by Samuel Adams to protest the Stamp Act and other actions of the British government
Stamp Act
A tax placed on the American colonies by the British government, it taxed all sorts of paper documents including newspapers, magazines, and legal documents
Battle of Lexington and Concord
When British troops engaged a small group of colonial militiamen in the small towns of Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, the militiamen fought back and eventually forced the British to retreat
The Boston Massacere
When a mob of angry Bostonians began throwing rocks and sticks at the British troops who were occupying the city, the redcoats fired killing 5
The Boston Tea Party
Sons Of Liberty disguised themselves as Native Americans and destroyed chests of tea aboard ships in the harbor
The Intolerable Acts
series of laws passed in 1774 to punish Boston for the Tea Party, taxes made them pay for the destroyed tea
The French and Indian War
The British and American colonists fought in the war against the French and their Native American allies, after the war, the British emerged as the dominant European power on the eastern half of the continent
Patriots
American colonists who wanted independence from Britain
Burning of the Gaspee
A British revenue ship burned by the Sons of Liberty
House of Burgesses
Elected assembly in colonial Virginia, created in 1618.
The Tea Act
1773 act which eliminated import tariffs on tea entering England and allowed the British East India Company to sell directly to consumers rather than through merchants
slavery
A system of enforced servitude in which some people are owned by other people
King George III
King of England during the American Revolution
Proclamation of 1763
A proclamation from the British government which forbade British colonists from settling west of the Appalacian Mountains, and which required any settlers already living west of the mountains to move back east.
Sugar Act
British Tax on foreign molasses entering the American Colonies
Quartering Act
Required the colonials to provide food, lodging, and supplies for the British troops in the colonies
Common Sense
a pamphlet written by Thomas Paine that criticized monarchies and convinced many American colonists of the need to break away from Britain
Thomas Jefferson
Main author of the Declaration of Independence
Boston Port Act
Closed the tea-stained harbor until damages were paid and order could be ensured
natural (unalienable) rights
the idea that all people have the same rights from birth-Life, Liberty and Property-from John Locke in social contract originally and adapted by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration and changed to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness
Salutary Neglect
An English policy of not strictly enforcing laws in its colonies