Early American Literature Vocabulary
An area or country under the political control of another country.
What is a colony?
He was responsible for putting the Continental Congress’s ideas into the Declaration of Independence.
Who was Thomas Jefferson?
The Declaration’s immediate political purpose was to announce that the colonies were no longer under this country’s rule.
What is Great Britain?
Award 100 points to any (quiet) group.
The preamble of the Declaration explains why the colonies believe they have the right to separate.
What is and introduction or what is the purpose of justifying independence?
DAILY DOUBLE!!!! (double your points)
The art of speaking or writing persuasively.
What is rhetoric?
This intellectual movement of the 1600s and 1700s emphasized reason, logic, and philosophy, and influenced Jefferson.
What was the Enlightenment?
This body of colonial representatives drafted the statement declaring independence from Britain in 1776.
What was the Second Continental Congress?
This famous principle in the Declaration says that all men are created equal.
What is the Declaration’s statement that “all men are created equal”?
The process by which a country establishes control over another area, often settling it with people from their country.
What is colonization?
This appeal draws on a speaker’s or writer’s credibility, expertise, or character.
What is ethos?
DAILY DOUBLE!!!!
Control of a state’s or country’s government by its citizens.
What is self-government?
This principle holds that a government’s authority depends on the agreement of the people it governs.
What is consent of the governed?
The Declaration says governments derive their just powers from this group.
From whom do governments derive their just powers? The people.
This intellectual movement emphasized reason, logic, and philosophy.
What was the Enlightenment?
Award 300 points to any (quiet) group
This term describes peoples whose cultures and communities originated in a particular place.
What does Indigenous mean?
This war between the American colonies and Great Britain resulted in the colonies’ independence.
What was the Revolutionary War?
These two prominent figures, along with Jefferson, were among the writers involved in preparing the Declaration.
Who were Benjamin Franklin and John Adams?
According to the Declaration, people may alter or abolish a government when it fails to do this.
What is protect (or secure) their natural rights or unalienable rights?
The use of logical thinking to understand ideas and make decisions.
What is reason?
The unjust or cruel use of power to control or harm people.
What is oppression?
Award 400 points to any (quiet) group.
Early American literature included written and oral works from these three groups of voices.
Which groups are Indigenous, European, and African peoples?
This historical tension complicates the Declaration’s ideals: Jefferson wrote about liberty while enslaving people, and the document did not secure equality for all.
What is the contradiction between the Declaration’s ideals and the exclusion of enslaved people, Indigenous peoples, and women?
Award 500 points to any (quiet) group.
The Declaration lists these three unalienable rights that all people are endowed with by their Creator.
What are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?
John Locke and Thomas Hobbes helped shape this broad area of Enlightenment thought, which considered political authority, equality, and people’s rights.
What is political philosophy?
This describes the variety of cultural backgrounds, languages, and traditions represented in early American life.
What is diversity?