-
Petition of Right
document prepared by Parliament and signed by King Charles I of England in 1628; challenged by the idea of the divine right of kings and declared that even the monoarch was subjecct to the laws of the land -
English Bill of Rights
docuent written by the parliment and agreed on by William and Mary of England in 1689, designed to prevent abuse of power by English monarchs; forms the basis for mucch in American governments and politics today -
Albany Plan of Union
plan proposed by Benjamin Franklin in 1754 that aimed to unite the 13 colonies for trade, military, and other proposes; the plan was turned down by the colonies and the Crown -
Boston Massacre
the killing of five colonists by British regulars on March 5, 1770. It was the culmination of tensions in the American colonies that had been growing since Royal troops first appeared in Massachusetts in October 1768 to enforce the heavy tax burden imposed by the Townshend Acts. -
Boston Tea Party
a raid on three British ships in Boston Harbor in which Boston colonists, disguised as Indians, threw the contents of several hundred chests of tea into the harbor as a protest against British taxes on tea and against the monopoly granted the East India Company -
First Continental Congress
In response to the British Parliament's enactment of the Coercive Acts in the American colonies, the first session of the Continental Congress convenes at Carpenter's Hall in Philadelphia. Fifty-six delegates from all the colonies except Georgia drafted a declaration of rights and grievances and elected Virginian Peyton Randolph as the first president of Congress. Patrick Henry, George Washington, John Adams, and John Jay were among the delegates. -
Second Continental Congress
convention of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that started meeting in the summer of 1775, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, soon after warfare in the American Revolutionary War had begun. -
Declaration of Independance
which announced that the thirteen American colonies,[2] then at war with Great Britain, regarded themselves as thirteen newly independent sovereign states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. Instead they formed a new nation—the United States of America. John Adams was a leader in pushing for independence, which was unanimously approved on July 2. -
Articles of Confederation
Plan of government adopted by the Continental Congress after the Amerrican Revolution; established "a firm league of friendship" among the States, but allowed few powers among the central government -
Shay's Rebellion
an armed uprising that took place in Massachusetts (mostly in and around Springfield) during 1786 and 1787, which some historians believe "fundamentally altered the course of United States' history." -
Philadelphia Convention
The process began with the proposal of James Madison's Virginia Plan. Madison had dedicated the winter of 1787 to the study of confederacies throughout history and arrived in Philadelphia with a wealth of knowledge and an idea for a new American government. Virginia's governor, Edmund Randolph, presented Madison's plan to the convention. -
Virginia Plan
Plan presented by delegates from Virginia at the Constitutional Convention; called for a three branch government with a bicameral legislature in which states membership would determined by its population or its financial support for the central government -
New Jersey Plan
plan presented as an alteritive to the Virigna Plan at the Constitutional Convention; called for a unicameral legislature in which each State would be equally represented -
Magna Carta
Great Charter forced upon King John of England by his barons in 1215; established that power of the monarchy was not absolute and granteed by trial by jury and due process of law to the nobility
