Humanities - third column
Terms
undefined, object
copy deck
- Declaration of Rights and Grievences
- The Boston Statement of Rights and Grievences was a document created during the Stamp Act Congress declaring that taxes imposed on British colonists without their formal consent were unconstitutional. This was especially directed at the Stamp Act, which required that documents, newspapers, and playing cards to be printed on special stamped and taxed paper. The Boston Statement of Rights raised fourteen points of colonial protest. In addition to the specific protests of the Stamp Act taxes, it asserted that (1) Only the colonial assemblies had a right to tax the colonies. (no taxation without representation) (2) Trial by jury was a right, and the use of Admiralty Courts was abusive (3) Colonists possessed all the Rights of Englishmen (4) Without voting rights, Parliament could not represent the colonists.
- Declaration of the Causes and Necessities for Taking Up Arms
- a document prepared by the Second Continental Congress to explain to the world why the British colonies had taken up arms against Great Britain. It is a combination of the work of Thomas Jefferson and Colonel John Dickinson. Jefferson completed the first draft, but it was perceived by the Continental Congress as too harsh and militant; Dickinson prepared the second. The final document combined the work of the two. This Document was frowned upon by many leaders.
- Treaty of Paris (1783)
- The Treaty of Paris, signed on September 3, 1783, and approved by the Congress of the Confederation on January 14, 1784, formally ended the American Revolutionary War between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the thirteen United States of America, which had rebelled against British rule starting in 1775. The other combatant nations, France, Spain and the Dutch Republic had separate agreements.
- John Locke
- was an English philosopher. Locke is considered the first of the British Empiricists, but is equally important to social contract theory. His ideas had enormous influence on the development of epistemology and political philosophy, and he is widely regarded as one of the most influential Enlightenment thinkers, classical republicans, and contributors to liberal theory. His writings influenced Voltaire and Rousseau, many Scottish Enlightenment thinkers, as well as the American revolutionaries. This influence is reflected in the American Declaration of Independence.
- Thomas Paine
- was an English pamphleteer, revolutionary, radical, inventor, and intellectual. He lived and worked in Britain until age 37, when he emigrated to the British American colonies, in time to participate in the American Revolution. His principal contribution was the powerful, widely-read pamphlet Common Sense (1776), advocating colonial America's independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain, and of The American Crisis (1776-1783), a pro-revolutionary pamphlet series.
- Battle of Saratoga
- The Battles of Saratoga in September and October 1777 were decisive American victories resulting in the surrender of an entire British army of 9,000 men invading New York from Canada during the American Revolutionary War. This action, often referred to in the singular as the "battle of Saratoga", was actually two battles eighteen days apart: the Battle of Freeman's Farm on September 19 and the Battle of Bemis Heights on October 7. Both actions took place on the same ground, nine miles south of Saratoga, New York.
- Battle of Yorktown
- The Siege of Yorktown or Battle of Yorktown in 1781 was a decisive victory by a combined assault of American forces led by General George Washington and French forces led by General Comte de Rochambeau over a British Army commanded by General Lord Cornwallis. It proved to be the last major land battle of the American Revolutionary War, as the surrender of Cornwallis's army (the second major surrender of the war) prompted the British government to eventually negotiate an end to the conflict.
- Olive Branch Petition
- The Olive Branch Petition, drafted on July 5, 1775, was a letter to King George III, from members of the Second Continental Congress, which, for the final time, appealed to their king to redress colonial grievances in order to avoid bloodshed. The Olive Branch Petition was first drafted by Thomas Jefferson, but John Dickinson found Jefferson's language too offensive. Dickinson rewrote most of the document although some of the conclusion remained Jefferson's. However, his petition was undermined due to a confiscated letter of John Adams. Adams wrote a letter to a friend expressing his discontent with the Olive Branch Petition. He wrote war was inevitable and he thought the Colonies should have already raised a navy and captured British officials. This confiscated letter arrived in Great Britain at about the same time as the Olive Branch petition. The British used Adams' letter to claim that the Olive Branch Petition was insincere. Although the King discarded the petition, it still served a very important purpose in American Independence. The King's rejection gave Adams and his radicals the opportunity they needed to push for independence. The rejection of the "olive branch" polarized the issue in the minds of colonists. It showed them that they could either submit unconditionally, or gain complete independence.
- Intolerable Acts / Coercive Acts (1774)
- The Intolerable Acts or the Coercive Acts are names used to describe a series of laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 relating to Britain's colonies in North America. The acts sparked outrage and resistance in the Thirteen Colonies and were important developments in the growth of the American Revolution. Four of the acts were issued in direct response to the Boston Tea Party of December 16th 1773; the British government hoped these punitive measures would, by making an example of Massachusetts, reverse the trend of colonial resistance to parliamentary authority that had begun with the 1765 Stamp Act.
- Second Continental Congress (1775)
- A convention of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that met beginning in May 10, 1775, soon after shooting in the American Revolutionary War had begun. It succeeded the First Continental Congress, which met briefly during 1774. The second Congress managed the colonial war effort, and moved slowly towards independence, adopting the United States Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. By raising armies, directing strategy, appointing diplomats, and making formal treaties, the Congress acted as the de facto national government of what became the United States. With the ratification of the Articles of Confederation in 1781, the Congress became known as the Congress of the Confederation.
- Patriots / Loyalists
- Patriots (also known as Americans, Whigs, Revolutionaries, Congress-Men or Rebels) was the name the colonists of the British Thirteen Colonies who rebelled against British control during the American Revolution called themselves. It was their leading figures who, in July 1776, declared the United States of America an independent nation. Their rebellion was based on the political philosophy of republicanism, as expressed by pamphleteers such as Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and Thomas Paine. Loyalists were American colonists who remained loyal to the Kingdom of Great Britain (and the British monarchy) during the American Revolution. They were often referred to as Tories, Royalists, or King's Men by the Patriots, those that supported the American cause. Many Loyalists, having enduring hardships at the hands of the Patriots, fled the country, resettling in Britain or elsewhere in British North America (such as in Canada, where they were given the title United Empire Loyalist) or in the British West Indies (such as in the Bahamas). Black Loyalists made up some of the Loyalist community.
- Quebec Acts (1774)
- An Act of the Parliament of Great Britain setting procedures of governance in the Province of Quebec. The Quebec Act restored the former French civil tradition for private law, which had been ended in 1763, and allowed public office holders to practice the Roman Catholic faith. It replaced the oath to Elizabeth I and her heirs with one to George III that had no reference to the Protestant faith. In other words, for the first time since becoming a British colony, French Canadians were able to participate in the affairs of the colonial government. However, there was no elected legislative assembly; the province was to be governed by an appointed governor and legislative council.[1] As a result of this act, the American revolutionaries failed to gain the support of the Canadians during the American Revolution.
- First Continental Congress (1774)
- The First Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from twelve British North American colonies that met in 1774, early in the American Revolution. Called in response to the passage of the Intolerable Acts by the British Parliament, the Congress was held in Philadelphia, attended by 55 members appointed by the legislatures of the Thirteen Colonies, except for the Province of Georgia, which did not send delegates. The Congress met briefly to consider options, organize an economic boycott of British trade, publish a list of rights and grievances, and petition King George for redress of those grievances.
- Lexington/Concord
- The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War. They were fought on April 19, 1775, in Middlesex County, Province of Massachusetts Bay, within the towns of Lexington, Concord, Lincoln, Menotomy (present-day Arlington), and Cambridge, near Boston. The battles marked the outbreak of open armed conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and its thirteen colonies in the mainland of British North America.
- Tea Act (1773)
- An Act of the Parliament of Great Britain that allowed a drawback of the duties of customs on the exportation of tea to any of his Majesty's colonies or plantations in America; to increase the deposit on bohea tea to be sold at the East India Company's sales; and to empower the commissioners of the treasury to grant licences to the East India Company to export tea duty-free. Ultimately, this act led to widespread boycotts of tea throughout the colonies, and, eventually, to the Boston Tea Party where American colonists, believed to be the Sons of Liberty, dressed up like Native Americans and threw 342 crates of tea from the East India Company ships Dartmouth, the Eleanor, and the Beaver into Boston Harbor. This act, and the retaliatory measures taken by the British government afterwards, united the colonies even more in their frustrations against Britain, and was one of the many causes of the American Revolution
- Gaspee Incident
- The Gaspée Affair was a significant event in the American Revolution. HMS Gaspée, a British revenue schooner that had been vigorously enforcing unpopular trade regulations, ran aground in shallow water, on June 9, 1772 near what is now known as Gaspee Point in the city of Warwick, Rhode Island while chasing the packet boat Hannah. In an act of defiance that gained considerable notoriety, the ship was attacked, boarded, stripped of valuables and torched by American patriots led by Abraham Whipple. This attack can be considered the first shot of the American Revolution.