Important Documents
They were certain basic rights that all subjects of the English king or queen were believed to have.
What are rights of Englishmen?
The colonists elected representatives to their colonial legislatures.
What is representative government?
The law banned settlement in certain western lands. Its purpose was to reduce tensions between the colonists and Native Americans.
What is the Proclamation of 1763?
Their mission was to make sure that each colony knew about events and opinions in the other colonies.
Who were the committees of correspondence?
The rallying cry of the American Revolution.
What was "no taxation without representation?"
A system of social, economic, and political organization based on the exchange of land.
What is feudalism?
The powers of the colonial governments were divided among three branches.
What is separation of powers?
The purpose of the law was to stop the smuggling of goods into and out of the colonies.
What is the Sugar Act?
The colonists attempted to prevent the unloading of a cargo of tea that had arrived in Boston Harbor.
What is the Boston Tea Party?
The purpose of the Congress was to decide on the best response to the actions of the British government.
What was the First Continental Congress?
Perhaps the most important early example of a written statement of law limiting the power of a ruler.
What is the Magna Carta?
The people who made and enforced the laws did not have unlimited power and they, too, had to obey the laws.
What is rule of law?
The law imposed a tax on every legal document, newspaper, pamphlet, and deck of cards coming int the colonies.
What is the Stamp Act?
British troops opened fire on a crowd of protesters outside the customs house in Boston. Five people died as a result.
What is the Boston Massacre?
This meeting resulted in George Washington being named the leader of the Continental Army and the drafting of the Declaration of Independence.
What is the Second Continental Congress?
This law gave certain rights to Parliament that further limited the powers of the monarch.
What is the English Bill of Rights?
In many colonies, the branches of government shared power, but one branch could check the use of power by another branch.
What are checks & balances?
The law required colonists who were innkeepers or public officials to house and feed the British soldiers.
What is the Quartering Act?
Organized resistance to the Stamp Act. Mobs of people attacked the homes of tax collectors. Burned effigies, or straw dummies, made to look like royal officials. They marched in the streets and sometimes committed violent acts.
Who were the Sons of Liberty?
On April 19, 1775, fighting broke out between Great Britain and the American colonies.
What was the Battle of Lexington & Concord?
Stated that the king could only raise taxes with the consent of Parliament. Strengthened the idea that English subjects had certain rights that government could not violate.
What is the Petition of Right?
Colonial governments were based on the idea that the purpose of government is to protect the people's natural rights to life, liberty, and property.
What are natural rights?
The law stated that Parliament had the right to pass laws for the colonies in "all cases whatsoever."
What is the Declaratory Act?
They helped to make the boycott of British trade effective. Instead of buying British goods, they began spinning their own yam and making their own linen.
Who were the Daughters of Liberty?
This colony did not send representatives to the First Continental Congress.
What is Georgia?