Salutatory Neglect
The unofficial and long-term 17th & 18thcentury British policy of avoiding strict
enforcement of parliamentary laws meant
to keep American colonies obedient to
England.
King George III
King George III or George William Frederick, was
king of Great Britain and Ireland from 1760-1820.
He took the throne just as the French and Indian
War was coming to a close, and was kind during
the American Revolution.
French & Indian War
Parliament
The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was
fought between the American Colonies and the
French who had assistance from Native
Americans, who were angered by British colonist
seizing their land. Both the French and the British
colonist had claimed the Ohio River Valley. It
was part of a larger war occurring in Europe
between the French and British called the Seven
Years War. George Washington became well
known due to his role in the fighting.
The British legislature, consisting of the
House of Lords, and the House of
Commons. After the French and Indian
War they began taxing the American
Colonies in hopes of paying of the huge
debt that the war had caused.
Sons of Liberty
The Sons of Liberty was an organization of American
colonists that was centered in Boston Massachusetts.
The secret society was formed to protect the rights of the
colonists and to fight taxation by the British government.
At times they broke laws with their protests. They would
tar & feather tax collectors and caused millions of dollars
in damages with the Boston Tea Party.
Sam Adam
Organizer of Boston’s Sons of Liberty, Adams
conceived of the Boston Committee of
Correspondence (informal government created to
rebel against England’s policies) and coordinated
Boston’s resistance to the Tea Act, which
climaxed in the famous Tea Party. He
represented Massachusetts in the Continental
Congress from 1774 through 1781, and was
elected to the Massachusetts convention on the
ratification of the Constitution in 1787.
John Adams
Patriots
John Adams was a lawyer and a Founding Father
of our nation. He was a critic of Great Britain’s
authority in colonial America and viewed the
British’s high taxes and tariffs as a tool of
oppression. He was a delegate to the Continental
Congress, served as a diplomat in Europe and was
America’s first vice president. He then served a
term as the nation’s second president.
Patriots (also known as Rebels, Revolutionaries,
Continentals, or American Whigs) were those
colonists of the Thirteen Colonies who violently
rebelled against British control during the
American Revolution and in July 1776 declared
the United States of America an independent
nation.
Loyalist
American colonist that wanted to stay loyal the
British and King George III. Most Americans
were ‘Fence-Sitters’ those who were not sure
what side to take. Patriots such as Thomas
Paine tried to convince those undecided to join
the Patriot cause with pamphlets such Common
Sense. Around 80,000 Loyalist returned to
England or fled to Canada during and after the
Revolution.
Paul Revere
Member of the Sons of Liberty, famous for
his midnight ride to Lexington & Concord to
warn Sam Adams and John Hancock that
the British were headed their way. He was
a silversmith and engraver. Many of his
images were used as propaganda against
the British in Patriot newspapers.
Stamp Act
An act of the British Parliament in 1756
that exacted taxes from the American
colonies by imposing a stamp duty on
newspapers and legal and commercial
documents. Colonial opposition led to the
act's repeal in 1766 and helped encourage
the revolutionary movement against the
British Crown.
Townshend Duties
Put taxes on glass, lead, paint, paper and
tea imported into the colonies. England
hoped the acts would pay for its expenses
in the colonies, but many Americans
viewed the taxation as an abuse of power.
In 1770, Parliament repealed all the
Townshend duties except the tax on tea,
leading to a temporary truce between the
two sides in the years before the American
Revolution.
Boycott
Quartering Troops
In response to higher taxes on goods
imported by the British, Patriots boycotted
the item, refusing to buy them. The
movement was led by women, who out of
protest refused to buy English cloth
wearing ‘homespun’ or handmade fashions
instead.
After the French & Indian War, the British troops
did not return to England. In The Quartering Act
of 1765, the colonist were expected to provide
housing, food and supplies to the British soldiers.
They could pay to build barracks or if needed
troops would stay in inns, uninhabited houses
even barns. The colonist resented the act and
wanted the troops to return to England.
Intolerable Acts
In response to the Boston Tea Party the British
passed the coercive acts, what the colonist
called the Intolerable Acts. Boston Harbor was
closed to trade until the owners of the tea were
compensated. Only food and firewood were
permitted into the port. Town meetings were
banned, and the authority of the royal governor
was increased in addition General Gage, the
British commander of North American forces,
was appointed governor of Massachusetts.
Greater freedom was granted to British officers
who wished to house their soldiers in private
dwellings.
Petition
A formal written request, typically one signed by
many people, appealing to authority with respect
to a particular cause.
During the Revolutionary time period the colonist
wrote numerous petitions to Parliament in protest
to what they believed were unfair taxes.
Continental Congress
The Continental Congress was a
convention of delegates called together
from the Thirteen Colonies which became
the governing body of the United States
(USA) during the American Revolution.
The Congress met from 1774 to 1789 in
three different times. During the Second
Continental Congress the Declaration of
Independence was signed.
No Taxation Without Representation
"No taxation without representation" is a
slogan used by the American colonists.
They did not vote for representatives in
Parliament and as a result did not think if
was fair they should pay taxes to a
government they had no say in. The
phrase was coined by James Otis. It is
one of the major causes of the American
Revolution.
Boston Tea Party
Boston Massacre
A protest against taxation. On the night of
December 16, 1773, Samuel Adams and the Sons
of Liberty boarded three ships in the Boston harbor
and threw 342 chests of tea overboard. This
resulted in the passage of the punitive Coercive
Acts (Intolerable Acts) in 1774 and pushed the two
sides closer to war.
The Boston Massacre was a street fight that
occurred on March 5, 1770, between a "patriot"
mob, throwing snowballs, stones, and sticks, and
a squad of British soldiers stationed in the city.
The incident was used by the Patriots to rally
colonist to their side.
Lexington & Concord
General Gage, the commander of the
British Army, sent his troops to arrest the
leaders of the Sons of Liberty (Sam Adams
& John Hancock) outside of Boston in the
town of Lexington. The British troops would
then move on to Concord to seize the
group’s store of gun powder. Spies warned
the group however and the British were
met by the Minutemen (the colonial militia).
The battles that occurred as a result mark
the beginning of the American Revolution.
John Hancock
Owner of a shipping business he was one of the
leaders of the Sons of Liberty. Hancock used his
wealth and influence to aid the movement for
American independence. He was president of the
Second Continental Congress from 1775 to 1777,
when the Declaration of Independence was
adopted and the United States was born.