AP US History Terms Flashcards

8019861298	Boston Massacre	Occurred after large detachment of British soldiers were sent to Boston to keep peace following colonial protest of Townshend Acts; March 5, 1770, a mob threw rock-filled snowballs at a group of soldiers who responded with gunfire, killing five. RESULT: The incident On March 5, 1770 fueled colonial opposition to British influence.	0
8019889249	Massachusetts Bay Charter	enacted in 1629; provided the method by which inhabitants of the Massachusetts Bay Colony practiced self-government. Although they were technically ruled by the king, the colony was administered by a general court voted by white male property holders. Company's proprietors required to consult all freemen before making laws.	1
8019905595	Declaration of Independence	signed July 4, 1776; commissioned by Continental Congress and written largely by Thomas Jefferson; listed colonies' disagreements with the British government; articulated the government's responsibility to serve its citizens and declared that all men have an equal right to life, liberty, and happiness RESULT: with it's signing, the revolution officially became a war for independence	2
8019914408	Boston Tea Party	colonial protest against British taxes; Boston colonists refused to allow tea-bearing ships to unload in their harbor because they were upset that the British were imposing new duties on tea sales; British prevented ships from leaving; December 16, 1773 a group of colonists poorly disguised as Native Americans boarded a ship and dumped 10,000 British pounds' worth of tea into the harbor RESULT: England responded with the Coercive Acts	3
8019964305	Common Sense	published pamphlet by Thomas Paine in January of 1776; Paine argued for independence from Britain and for the virtues of a republican form of government; highly effective propaganda piece; sold more than 100,000 copies in its first few months and greatly increased public support for revolution	4
8019974009	Bill of Rights	refers to first 10 amendments in the Constitution; proposed by James Madison in 1789 to protect individual rights against possible abuses of the strong national government created by the Constitution; famous amendments include the first (right to free speech), the second (right to bear arms), and the sixth (right to a jury trial)	5
8019982078	proprietorships	several New World colonies began as proprietorships meaning there were owned by a single person who generally received them as a gift from the kind; Connecticut, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Carolina (eventually split into North and South Carolina); converted many of these colonies into royal colonies directly controlled by the king when the monarchy wanted to reassert control over the New World	6
8019992263	Roger Williams	minister in Salem Bay Settlement; his preaching was controversial as he advocated for the separation of church and state; banished by Puritans and founded a new colony that is the state of Rhode Island where they were granted free exercise of religion	7
8019999435	Bacon's Rebellion	1676; began because a group of Virginia settlers (including former indentured servants and free blacks) felt the colonial governor Sir William Berkeley was not supporting their armed fights against local tribes; led by Nathanial Bacon, rebels attacked the Doeg and Susquehannock tribes, then burned the colonial capital Jamestown to the ground; the rebellion is an earl example of a populist uprising in America	8
8020007810	pre-Columbian era	refers to time before Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World; between 1 million and 5 million Natives inhabited land north of Mexico at the time Columbus arrived; Natives survived by hunting, gathering, and farming; various tribes independent of each other and many competed for the same natural resources; Native Americans were slow to unite against the European settlers	9
8020016596	Middle Passage	route that traders used to transport slaves to the New World; the name refers to the middle leg of the triangular route that ships traversed between Europe, Africa, and the colonies; conditions on slave ships brutal; up to 2 million slaves died along Middle Passage	10
8020021012	mercantilism	popular economic theory during the colonial period; mercantilists believed that countries should do 2 things to maintain economic power which is 1. ensure a favorable balance of trader (export more than they import) and 2. control hard currency like gold; British valued American colonies primarily for economic reasons: colonies consumed British goods and produced raw materials that would otherwise have to be bought from a foreign country	11
8020038344	Stono Uprising	1739; one of the first slave rebellions in the New World; about 20 slaves in South Carolina used stolen guns to kill plantation owners and liberate other slaves; now numbering 100, the group then fled toward Florida but was captured by the colonial militia; some were killed on the spot and the rest was executed later; after uprising, many colonies passed more restrictive laws governing the behavior of slaves	12
8020048249	First Great Awakening	wave of religious sentiment that swept the colonies during 1730s and 1740s; typified by Congregationalist minister Jonathan Edwards who preached Calvinism in his speech "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" and by the Methodist preacher George Whitefield who preached a Christianity based on emotionalism and spirituality; First Great Awakening described as a reaction to the Enlightenment	13
8020055580	Second Great Awakening	like the First, was a revival of evangelicalism that began in the 1790s in New York and quickly spread across the country; movement strongest in the South and West during this period, with numerous formal churches forming in places that had previously had none; gave rise to a social reform movement in the Northeast with many religious leaders advocating against drinking, poverty, and other social problems	14
8020064454	Navigation Acts	passed between 1651 and 1673; expanded English control over colonial commerce; colonies were required to sell certain products only to England, to buy certain products only from England, and to import any non-British goods via English ports (with a fee attached); forbade colonies from producing many goods already produced by England; many New World merchants turned to smuggling to get around these restrictions	15
8020078985	indentured servants	received free passage to the New World in exchange for seven years of backbreaking and sometimes fatal labor; after years of service, an indentured servant won freedom and sometimes a small piece of land; 3/4 of the 13,00 Englishmen who migrated to the Chesapeake during the 17th century were indentured servants	16