Regulator Movement
It was a movement during the 1760's by western North Carolinians, mainly Scots-Irish, that resented the way that the Eastern part of the state dominated political affairs. They believed that the tax money was being unevenly distributed. Many of its members joined the American Revolutionists.
Old and New Lights
In the early 1700's, old lights were simply orthodox members of the clergy who believed that the new ways of revivals and emotional preaching were unnecessary. New lights were the more modern- thinking members of the clergy who strongly believed in the Great Awakening. These conflicting opinions changed certain denominations, helped popularize missionary work and assisted in the founding educational centers now known as Ivy League schools.
triangular trade
Triangular trade was a small, profitable trading route started by people in New England who would barter a product to get slaves in Africa, and then sell them to the West Indies in order to get the same cargo of goods that would help in repeating this process. This form of trading was used by New Englanders in conjunction with other countries in the 1750's.
Molasses Act
A British law passed in 1773 to change a trade pattern in the American colonies by taxing molasses imported into colonies not ruled by Britain. Americans responded to this attempt to damage their international trade by bribing and smuggling. Their protest of this and other laws led to revolution.
Scots-Irish
A group of restless people who fled their home in Scotland in the 1600s to escape poverty and religious oppression. They first relocated to Ireland and then to America in the 1700s. They left their mark on the backcountry of Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia. These areas are home to many Presbyterian churches established by the Scots-Irish. Many people in these areas are still very independent like their ancestors.
Paxton Boys
They were a group of Scots-Irish men living in the Appalachian hills that wanted protection from Indian attacks. They made an armed march on Philadelphia in 1764. They protested the lenient way that the Quakers treated the Indians. Their ideas started the Regulator Movement in North Carolina.
Great Awakening
The Great Awakening was a religious revival held in the 1730's and 1740's to motivate the colonial America. Motivational speakers such as Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield helped to bring Americans together.
Catawba Nation
A group of the remains of several different Indian tribes that joined together in the late 1700's. The Catawba Nation was in the Southern Piedmont region. Forced migration made the Indians join in this group.
Phillis Wheatley
Born around 1753, Wheatley was a slave girl who became a poet. At age eight, she was brought to Boston. Although she had no formal education, Wheatley was taken to England at age twenty and published a book of poetry. Wheatley died in 1784.
John S. Copley - 1738-1815
a famous Revolutionary era painter, Copley had to travel to England to finish his study of the arts. Only in the Old World could Copley find subjects with the leisure time required to be painted, and the money needed to pay him for it. Although he was an American citizen, he was loyal to England during The Revolution.
Edwards, Johnathan
Johnathan Edwards, an American theologian and Congregational clergyman, whose sermons stirred the religious revival, called the Great Awakening. He is known for his " Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God " sermon.
Benjamin Franklin
He was born January 17, 1706 in Boston Massachusetts. Franklin taught himself math, history, science, English, and five other languages. He owned a successful printing and publishing company in Philadelphia. He conducted studies of electricity, invented bifocal glasses, the lighting rod, and the stove. He was a important diplomat and statesman and eventually signed the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.
Michel-Guillaume de Crevecour
French settler on America in the 1770's; he posed the question of what "American" is after seeing people in America like he had never seen before. American really became a mixture of many nationalities.
George Whitefield
Whitefield came into the picture in 1738 during the Great Awakening, which was a religious revival that spread through all of the colonies. He was a great preacher who had recently been an alehouse attendant. Everyone in the colonies loved to hear him preach of love and forgiveness because he had a different style of preaching. This led to new missionary work in the Americas in converting Indians and Africans to Christianity, as well as lessening the importance of the old clergy.
