HIstory Terms chapters 5-8 Flashcards
natural increase
Growth of population through reproduction, as opposed to immigration in the 18th century. Accounted for 3/4 of American colonies growth
partible inheritance
System of inheritance in which land was divided equally among sons. By the 18th century, this practice in Massachusetts had subdivided and was too small so it forced families to move farms
Pennsylvania Dutch
Name given by other colonists to German immigrants to the middle colonies.
Scots-Irish
Protestant immigrants from northern Ireland, Scotland, and northern England. Deteriorating economic conditions in their European homelands contributed to increasing migration to the colonies in the eighteenth century
redemptioners
German emigrants who agreed to pay back by selling themselves as servants
Middle Passage
the crossing of the Atlantic by slave ships traveling from West Africa to Americas..slaves were crowed together in tight spaces
New Negros
Term given to newly arrived African slaves in the colonies. Planters usually maintained only a small number of recent arrivals at any given time
Stono Rebellion
Slave uprising in Stono, South Carolina where a group of slaves attacked different plantations and killed over 20 whites
task system
A system of labor in which a slave was assigned a daily task to do as he wished upon his completion. This system offered more freedom than the carefully supervised gang-labor system
Enlightenment
An 18th century philosophical movement that emphasized the use of reason to reevaluate previously accepted doctrines and traditions. Enlightenment encouraged examination of the world and independence of mind (Ben Franklin and Thommy Jeff boy)
Great Awakening
Wave of revivals that began in Massachusetts and spread through the colonies in the 1730s and 1740s. The movement emphasized vital religious faith and personal choice. It characterized by large, open air meetings at which emotional sermons were given by itinerant preachers. Jonathan Edwards was a key preacher and George Winfield was a British Minister who moved to the colonies and preached all over North America
presidios
Spanish forts built to block Russian advance into California
Pontiac’s rebellion
A coordinated uprising of Native American tribes in 1763 in the Northwest after the end of the end of the Seven Years War. The rebellion heightened Britain’s determination to create a boundary between Americans and Indians, embodied in the Proclamation of 1763. The Native Americans attacked and killed many Colonists and British people. This lead to the Paxton boys retaliation
Sugar Act (Revenue Act)
In 1764 British law that decreased the duty on French molasses, making it more attractive for Shippers to obey the law, and at the same time raised penalties for smuggling. The Sugar Act regulated trade but was also intended to raise revenue. It had the Americans pissed. (This was under King George the III)
Stamp Act
1765 British Law imposing a tax on all paper used for official documents, for the purpose of raising revenue. Widespread resistance to the Stamp Act led to its repeal in 1766
virtual representation
The theory that all British subjects were represented in Parliament, whether they had elected representatives in that body or not. American colonists rejected the theory of virtual representation, arguing that only direct representatives had that right to tax the colonists.
Declaratory Act
1766 law issued by Parliament to assert Parliaments unassailable right to legislate for its British colonies in all cases whatsoever, putting Americans on notice that the simultaneous repeal of the Stamp Act changed nothing in the imperial powers of Britain.
Townshend duties
British law that established new duties on tea, glass, lead, paper, and painters color imported into the colonies. The townshead duties led to boycotts and heightened tensions between Britain and the American colonies. (Samuel Adams took lead in the protest) Eventually, Britain lifted all taxes except for the one on tea. Because of all of this, Britain sent more troops over
Boston Massacre
March 1770 incident in Boston in which British soldiers fired on an American crowd, killing five. The Boston Massacre became a rallying point for colonists who increasingly saw the British government as tyrannical and illegitimate
committees of correspondence
A communications network established among towns in Massachusetts and also among colonial capital towns in 1772-1773 to provide for rapid dissemination of news about important political developments. These committees politicized ordinary townspeople, sparking a revolutionary language of rights and duties.
Tea Act of 1773
British act that lowered the existing tax on tea to entice boycotting Americans to buy it. Resistance to the Tea Act led to the passage of Coercive Acts and imposition of military rule in Massachusetts
Coercive (Intolerable) Acts
Four British acts of 1774 meant to punish Massachusetts for the destruction of three shiploads of tea. Known in Amercia as the intolerable acts, they led to open rebellion in the northern colonies
First Continental Congress
September 1774 gathering of colonial delegates in Philadelphia to discuss the crisis precipitated by Coercive Acts. The congress produced a declaration of rights and an agreement to impose a limited boycott trade with Britain
Second Continental Congress
Legislative body that governed the United States from May 1775 through the war’s duration. It established an army, created its own money, and declared independence once all hope for a peaceful reconciliation with Britain was gone
Continental army
The army created in June 1775 by the Second Continental Congress to oppose the British. Virginan George Washington, commander in chief, had the task of turning local militias and untrained volunteers into a disciplined army
battle of Bunker Hill
Second battle of the war, on June 16, 1775 invoving a massive British attack on New England militia units on a hill facing Boston. The militiamen finally yielded the hill, but not before inflicting heavy casualties on the British.
