-
A charter agreed to by King John of England at Runnymede, near Windsor, on 15 June 1215.
-
A multilateral system of trading in which a country pays for its imports from one country by its exports to another. It involved shipping goods from Britain to West Africa to be exchanged for slaves, these slaves being shipped to the West Indies and exchanged for sugar, rum, and other commodities, which were in turn shipped back to Britain.
-
A group of English Puritans fleeing religious persecution who sailed in the Mayflower and founded the colony of Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620.
-
The Mayflower Compact was the first governing document of Plymouth Colony. When the Pilgrims left England, they obtained permission from the King of England to settle on land farther to the south near the mouth of the Hudson River (in present-day New York).
-
The Puritans were a group of people who grew discontent in the Church of England and worked towards religious, moral and societal reforms. Escaping persecution from church leadership and the King, they came to America.
-
The Fundamental Orders were adopted by the Connecticut Colony council on January 15, 1639. The orders describe the government set up by the waters of Connecticut.
-
Men, women, and sometimes children signed a contract with a master to serve a term of 4 to 7 years. In exchange for their service, the indentured servants received their passage paid from England, as well as food, clothing, and shelter once they arrived in the colonies.
-
A European intellectual movement of the late 17th and 18th centuries emphasizing reason and individualism rather than tradition. It was heavily influenced by 17th-century philosophers such as Descartes, Locke, and Newton.
-
An evangelical and revitalization movement that swept Protestant Europe and British America, and especially the American colonies. It left a permanent mark on American Protestantism.
-
The British began to tax the colonists without reason. This later became one of the major causes of the American Revolution by Patrick Henry.
-
An act of the British Parliament that exacted revenue from the American colonies by imposing a stamp duty on newspapers and legal and commercial documents. This also played a role in the cause of the Revolutionary War.
-
The British started taxing the colonist's tea. They thought it was a way to reduce the massive amount of tea held by the financially troubled British East India Company in its London warehouses and to help the struggling company survive.
-
A political protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, on December 16, 1773. Colonists dressed up as Indians and poured gallons of tea in the Boston Harbor.
-
The Coercive Acts are names used to describe a series of laws relating to Britain's colonies in North America and passed by the British Parliament in 1774. Four of the acts were issued in direct response to the Boston Tea Party of December 1773.
-
a meeting of delegates from twelve of the Thirteen Colonies that met at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, early in the American Revolution. The representatives gathered to discuss their response to the British "Intolerable Acts."
-
War between the British and the 13 colonies of America. The colonists fought for freedom from British rule.
-
The second Congress managed the colonial war effort, and moved incrementally towards independence, adopting the United States Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.
-
Document written by Thomas Jefferson declaring the colonies separation from British rule.
