Acts
This 1765 act required colonists to pay a direct tax on all printed paper goods, including legal documents, playing cards, and newspapers.
What is the Stamp Act?
This famous 4-word colonial rallying cry expressed anger over paying British taxes without having a vote or voice in Parliament.
What is "No taxation without representation"?
The Preamble of the Declaration identifies these three specific "unalienable rights."
What are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness?
Primary author credited with drafting the Declaration of Independence in June and July of 1776.
Who is Thomas Jefferson?
The complaint against paying British taxes without having a voice in Parliament.
What is taxation without representation? (or "imposing taxes without consent")
This act forced colonists to provide housing, food, and supplies to British soldiers stationed in their towns.
What is the Quartering Act?
In protest of the Tea Act, the Sons of Liberty disguised themselves and dumped 342 chests of British tea into Boston Harbor during this famous 1773 event.
What is the Boston Tea Party?
European Enlightenment philosopher whose ideas about natural rights and government directly influenced Thomas Jefferson when writing the Declaration.
Who is John Locke?
The political idea that people agree to form a government and obey its laws in exchange for the protection of their basic rights.
What is the Social Contract?
The complaint against forcing colonists to house and feed British soldiers.
What is quartering troops?
These acts placed taxes on essential imported goods like glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea.
What are the Townshend Acts?
To resist British taxes like the Stamp Act and Townshend Acts, colonists frequently organized this economic strategy—refusing to buy or import British goods.
What is a boycott?
According to the Declaration, where do human beings get their natural rights?
What is from their Creator (they are born with them)?
When a government becomes "destructive" and repeatedly violates people's rights, the Declaration states citizens have the right to take this major action.
What is to alter or abolish it (and create a new government)?
The complaint against British courts taking away a fair trial by a group of local peers.
What is suspending trial by jury?
Nicknamed by colonists for their extreme harshness, these acts punished Boston by closing its harbor, suspending local town meetings, and putting Massachusetts under military rule
What are the Intolerable Acts (or Coercive Acts)?
This pamphlet, written by Thomas Paine in early 1776, used clear language to convince everyday colonists that it was time to break away from King George III.
What is Common Sense?
According to natural rights philosophy, this is the fundamental purpose of government.
What is to protect/secure the people's natural rights?
The Declaration states that governments derive their "just powers" from this principle, meaning the permission of the people.
What is the consent of the governed?
What King George III did to the colonial assemblies whenever local leaders spoke out or protested against British laws.
What is dissolving legislatures? (or shutting down local governments)
Passed in 1766 right after repealing the Stamp Act, this law stated that Great Britain had total authority to pass any law binding the colonies "in all cases whatsoever."
What is the Declaratory Act?
In response to the Intolerable Acts, delegates from 12 of the 13 colonies met in Philadelphia in 1774 to coordinate a unified colonial response.
What is the First Continental Congress?
The Declaration states that rights are "____________." This word means rights cannot be taken away or transferred because people are born with them.
What is unalienable (or inalienable)?
A rule-of-law concept where government power is restricted by laws and constitutions so that rulers cannot rule with absolute power.
What is limited government?
What King George III did to make sure local courts would always side with him instead of being fair to colonists.
What is limiting judicial powers? (or controlling judges' salaries and jobs)