Proclamation of 1763
Law forbidding English colonists to settle west of the Appalachian Mountains
Sugar Act
(1764) British deeply in debt partly to French & Indian War. English Parliament placed a tax on sugar and molasses. Colonists avoided the tax by smuggling and by bribing tax collectors.
Smuggling
The act of illegally importing or exporting goods
Writs of Assistance
Legal document that enabled officers to search homes and warehouses for goods that might be smuggled
Quartering Act
1765 - Required the colonials to provide food, lodging, and supplies for the British troops in the colonies.
Stamp Act
1765; law that taxed printed goods, including: playing cards, documents, newspapers, etc.
Stamp Act Congress
A meeting of delegations from many of the colonies, the congress was formed to protest the newly passed Stamp Act. It adopted a declaration of rights as well as sent petitions to the king and Parliament, and it showed signs of colonial unity and organized
Committees of Correspondence
Organization founded by Samuel Adams consisting of a system of communication between patriot leaders in New England and throughout the colonies
Sons of Liberty
A radical political organization for colonial independence which formed in 1765 after the passage of the Stamp Act.
Daughters of Liberty
This organization supported the boycott of British goods. They urged Americans to wear homemade fabrics and produce other goods that were previously available only from Britain. They believed that way, the American colonies would become economically indep
Boycott
A refusal to buy or use goods and services.
Petition
A formal request for government action
Effigy
A crude dummy or image representing a hated person or group
Townshend Acts
A tax that the British Parliament passed in 1767 that was placed on imported goods, such as leads glass, paint and tea. Later repealed except for tax on tea.
Boston Massacre
The first bloodshed of the American Revolution (1770), as British guards at the Boston Customs House opened fire on a crowd killing five Americans
Tea Act
Law passed by parliament allowing the British East India Company to sell its low-cost tea directly to the colonies - undermining colonial tea merchants; led to the Boston Tea Party
Boston Tea Party
A 1773 protest against British taxes in which Boston colonists disguised as Mohawks dumped valuable tea into Boston Harbor.
Coercive or Intolerable Acts (1774)
Several laws that were composed in 1774 in response to the Boston Tea Party. Closed the ports of Boston until the tea was paid for.
It angered the colonies and caused greater unity.
Declaratory Act
Act passed in 1766 just after the repeal of the Stamp Act. Stated that Parliament could legislate for the colonies in all cases.
Repeal
To cancel a law
Militia
A group of civilians trained to fight in emergencies
First Continental Congress (1774)
Convention of delegates from the colonies called in to discuss their response to the passage of the Intolerable Acts
Lexington and Concord
First battles of the Revolutionary War
No taxation without representation
Reflected the colonists' belief that they should not be taxed because they had no direct representatives in Parliament
Parliament
The lawmaking body of British government