Chapter 5- Securing Independence

Question 1

Loyalist

Answer 1

Colonists who retained a profound reverence for, and loyalty to, the British crown and believed that if they failed to defend their king, they would sacrifice their personal honor.

Question 2

Joseph brant

Answer 2

Mohawk chief who supported the British

Question 3

George Washington

Answer 3

American military leader and the first president of the United States (1789-1797). Commander of the American forces in the revolutionary war (1775-1783), he presided over the second constitutional convention (1787) and was elected president of the fledgling country. He shunned partisan politics and in his farewell address (1796) warned against foreign involvement.

Question 4

Battle of Saratoga

Answer 4

A turning point in the American revolution. The American victory in this battle convinced France that Americans could win the war, and it allied itself with the Americans.

Question 5

Battle of Yorktown

Answer 5

The battle in Virginia where Lord Cornwallis surrendered to George Washington.

Question 6

Treaty of Paris

Answer 6

A treaty signed in 1783 when the British recognized American independence and agreed to withdraw all royal troops from the colonies.

Question 7

Abigail Adams

Answer 7

John Adams’s wife. She made it clear that, besides participating in boycotts and spinning bees, women recognized that colonists’ arguments against arbitrary British rule also applied to gender relations.

Question 8

Prince hall

Answer 8

One of the most prominent free blacks to emerge during the revolutionary period. Born a slave, he received his freedom in 1770 and immediately took a leading role among Boston blacks protesting slavery.

Question 9

Republicanism

Answer 9

A system of government in which power derives from the people, and in which virtuous citizens are counted on to sacrifice self-interest for the greater good.

Question 10

Articles of confederation

Answer 10

Government that focused more on states’ rights. It reserved to each state “its sovereignty, freedom and independence.”

Question 11

Ordinance of 1785

Answer 11

Established uniform procedures for surveying land north of the Ohio River. The law established a township six miles square as the basic unit of settlement. Every township would be subdivided into 36 sections of 640 acres each, one of which would be reserved as a source of income for schools, it imposed an arbitrary grid of straight lines and right angles across the landscape that conformed to European-American notions of private property while utterly ignoring the land’s natural features and Native American inhabitants.

Question 12

Northwest ordinance

Answer 12

Designed the steps for the creation and admission of new states. It designated the area north of the Ohio River as the Northwest territory and provided for its later subdivision into states. It forbade slavery while the region remained a territory, although citizens could legalize the institution after statehood.

Question 13

Shays’s rebellion

Answer 13

An event in which a small group of farmers protested taxes and the use of specie. The group, led by Daniel shays, managed to shit down the courts in five counties in Massachusetts but were turned back by troops at the federal arsenal of Springfield in 1786-87.

Question 14

James Madison

Answer 14

One of the delegates of the articles of federation, he played a central role in the Constitution’s adoption.

Question 15

Virginia plan

Answer 15

Called for the establishment of a strong central government rather than a federation of states. It gave congress virtually unrestricted rights of legislation and taxation and power to veto any state law, and authority to use military force against the states. It specified a bicameral legislature and fixed representation in both houses of Congress proportionally to each state’s population.

Question 16

New Jersey plan

Answer 16

A counter proposal to the Virginia plan, it recommended a single-chamber congress in which each state had an equal vote, just as in the articles.

Question 17

Constitution of the United States

Answer 17

Reconciled the conflicting interests of large and small states, and stated the laws of the United States

Question 18

Separation of powers

Answer 18

Each branch of government has separate powers from one another.

Question 19

Checks and balances

Answer 19

Designed to prevent one branch of government from dominating the other two

Question 20

Federalism

Answer 20

Shared power and dual lawmaking by the national and state governments.

Question 21

Three-fifths clause

Answer 21

Allowed three-fifths of all slaves to be counted for electoral representation and thereby, in the electoral college that selected the president.

Question 22

Anti federalists

Answer 22

The derogatory nickname given to those who opposed ratification of the constitution

Question 23

The federalist papers

Answer 23

A series of 85 newspaper essays penned by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John jay. It defended the rights of political minorities against majority tyranny, and it prevented a stubborn minority from blocking well-considered measures that the majority believed necessary for the national interest.