Unit #2 Review Cards

Question 1

New England Confederation

Answer 1

was designed to improve colonial defense

Question 2

the middle colonies/Chesapeake

Answer 2

had a high degree of democratic control
labor force made up of mostly indentured servants
many young men; very few women
population growth was slow and relied mainly on new immigrants; life expectancy decreased by 10 years for those who moved there

Question 3

Separatists vs. Puritans

Answer 3

Separatists: broke away from the Church of England

Puritans: remained members of the Church of England

Question 4

Pilgrims of Plymouth Bay

Answer 4

many moral and spiritual qualities

Question 5

salutary neglect

Answer 5

idea that the mother country (England) passes laws/taxes, but has a loose enforcement of them in their colonial holdings; doesn’t pay much attention to what is happening in their colonies.

Question 6

indentured servants

Answer 6

Europeans who sold themselves into temporary bondage to pay their passage to the Americas; most went to the middle/Chesapeake colonies; many ended up working for former masters after their freedom, since land/jobs were not readily available to them

Question 7

African slave labor

Answer 7

need for Africans as a labor force increased in the 18th Century because of changing economic conditions in England (fewer indentured servants immigrated), planters feared large numbers of landless colonists (freed indentured servants, like those who participated in Bacon’s Rebellion); slavery was most common in the southern colonies, which makes that one of the biggest regional differences; slaves had to survive the middle passage - harsh conditions where as many as 20% died in route to the Americas; slavery became the basis for the social structure in the south - the more land/slaves you had, the higher up the social ladder you were; the Virgina Slave Codes of 1662 identified the difference between slaves and indentured servants; they were easier to control as a labor force than Native Americans or indentured servants.

Question 8

New England Colonies

Answer 8

family was a major focus; life expectancy increase by 10 years; community centered focus - families were given land, towns were set up around a common square, schools were created if there were more than 50 people; family provided a lot of stability within the New England colonies; because of their relatively close proximity to the ocean, the economy relied on fishing, commerce/trade and shipbuilding, along with exporting shipbuilding materials

Question 9

Treaty of Paris (1783)

Answer 9

ended the American Revolution between Britain and America; America was given generous terms by Britain in the hopes that they would abandon their alliance with the French; negotiations took place in Paris over 1782-83; American delegation was instructed not to make separate peace agreements (all the former colonies had the same peace agreement, not separate ones)

Question 10

Declaration of Independence

Answer 10

written by Thomas Jefferson before 7/4/1776, not issued until July 4th b/c the Americans were waiting to have more military victories; Dec of Independence served as an explanation to the world why the American colonists were revolting, which includes a list of unacceptable actions on the part of the British monarchy, to discuss how their natural rights had been violated, etc.

Question 11

American Allies

Answer 11

France were the American’s biggest ally, however, their support came more from a desire to defeat the British than it did to support democratic ideals in the Americas.

Question 12

Common Sense

Answer 12

written by Thomas Paine; written by Paine to explain why Americans needed to support the revolution and what type of gov’t should be set up afterwards.

Question 13

Salem Witch Trials

Answer 13

took place in Salem, Mass; involved accusations by young girls against other women in the community; evolved out the unsettled social and religious conditions in a quickly developing area of the colony

Question 14

Molasses Act of 1733

Answer 14

created by Britain to prevent/inhibit trade between the colonists and the French West Indies; meant to go along with the Navigational Laws to insure that all trade was funneled through Britain in order to maximize their profit.

Question 15

The Great Awakening

Answer 15

started in the 1730s-40s; involved a more emotional approach to religion in the colonies; created new, competing denominations; led to the founding of new colleges in the colonies, was a spontaneous mass movement of the colonists and undermined the education of clergy in the colonies; included New Light preachers who used a more emotional appeal that was scored by the Old Light ministers; marked a religious revival in colonial America.

Question 16

Seven Years’ War

Answer 16

called the French and Indian War in the colonies; between the British and their colonists against the French and their native allies; one of the first “global” wars in that it was fought wherever the two European countries had colonies close to each other, in addition to being fought in Europe; major outcome was that France lost its colonial holdings in the Americas and Britain became the dominate European country there.

Question 17

Albany Congress of 1754

Answer 17

precursor to the Stamp Act Congress; it was a conference of 7 of the 13 colonies; immediate purpose was to meet with representatives of the Iroquois Confederation and convince them to not fight with the French; long-range purpose was to create a unity against the French in N. America.

Question 18

Braddock’s Defeat

Answer 18

the British loss at Ft Duquesne (pronounced ‘Du-cane’) was a major blow to the British military; the purpose was to drive the French from the Ohio River Valley; a British loss here delayed an invasion of French controlled Canada and left the frontier vulnerable to frequent Indian attacks.

Question 19

Proclamation of 1763

Answer 19

law by the British gov’t that closed newly acquired French territory in N. America to settlement by American colonists; colonists were angry by the Proclamation, since many needed the rich farmland that was west of the Appalachian Mts. Many colonists disobeyed the Proclamation and moved west anyway

Question 20

Navigation Laws

Answer 20

laws put in place by the British gov’t that required all goods being sold in the Americas to be shipped through Britain first; the purpose was to discourage foreign merchants and shippers, primarily the Dutch, from carrying American products; these were not strictly enforced prior to 1763 (post French and Indian War)

Question 21

virtual representation

Answer 21

idea that all English subjects are represented by all members of Parliament, regardless of where they live

Question 22

First Continental Congress

Answer 22

purpose was to talk about ways to share colonial grievances with the British crown; the end decision was the boycott British produced goods until the tax issues were addressed by the British gov’t.

Question 23

committees of correspondence

Answer 23

organized by Samuel Adams; included exchanging letters between key colonial leaders to keep the idea of British opposition alive across separate colonies.

Question 24

Second Continental Congress

Answer 24

met in 1775; when it was originally convened, there was no clear idea that the representatives wanted to work towards independence from the British crown; presided over the American war effort and voted to raise an official army to fight the British and appointed George Washington as general; extended the Olive Branch Petition to the British crown.

Question 25

Olive Branch Petition

Answer 25

last attempt at reconciliation between the Americans and the British; offered by the Second Continental Congress

Question 26

mercantilism / mercantilists

Answer 26

economic system that relied on a favorable balance of trade where a country needed to have large stores of gold/silver and should be exporting more products than it imported; in America, the mercantilist system allowed the British gov’t to veto the following: restrict passage of lenient bankruptcy laws in the colonies, restrict colonies from printing their own paper money, identify products that must be shipped to Britain and ban any colonial law that was identified as being bad/unfavorable to the British economy.

Question 27

Stamp Act

Answer 27

British law passed to raise money to defend the colonists after the French and Indian War; taxes all legal documents and paper products, including newspapers and playing cards; hated by the colonists so much that they called a special Stamp Act Congress to voice their complaints to the British gov’t; example of the slogan, “No taxation without representation!”

Question 28

Strengths and Weaknesses of the British at the beginning of the American Revolution

Answer 28

Strengths: world’s strongest navy; British treasury to supply/fund troops; well trained, disciplined troops

Weaknesses: officers in the colonies were not the best commanders in the British army, Britain could not send its full fighting force to the Americas due to the constant threat of fighting in Europe, due to the distance between the colonies and Britain, the supply lines were hard to maintain, treatment of British soldiers was often brutal, which did not raise morale for their men.

Question 29

Strengths and Weaknesses of the Americas at the beginning of the American Revolution

Answer 29

Strengths: strong civilian and military leaders who led the Revolutionary movement in the Americas; had many European officers who were looking for jobs who were willing to help train troops; knowledge of the terrain and available resources; desire to protect their homes and families.

Weaknesses: lacked well-trained or well-supplied troops, population was not united in its efforts to throw out the British, they lacked a navy, lacked organization and had great difficulty in funding/supplying an army.

Question 30

Quebec Act

Answer 30

law passed by the British gov’t in regards to their newly acquired land in Canada from the French; unpopular with the colonists b/c it gave a great deal of land to the Catholic church, allowed French citizens there to retain many of their rights under French law and set a precedent against jury trials

Question 31

Intolerable Acts

Answer 31

passed by the British gov’t after the Boston Tea Party; included closing Boston harbor and the Quebec Act; as a result, the colonists organized the First Continental Congress

Question 32

southern colonies

Answer 32

based on a social system where the more land/slaves you owned, the higher up in the hierarchy you were; biggest social group was small farmers; failed to develop a middle class or urban centers due to the focus within the economy on agriculture