Key Terms

Boston Massacre

a confrontation between a crowd of Bostonians and British soldiers on March 5, 1770, which resulted in the deaths of five people, including Crispus Attucks, the first official casualty in the war for independence

Coercive Acts

four acts (Administration of Justice Act, Massachusetts Government Act, Port Act, Quartering Act) that Lord North passed to punish Massachusetts for destroying the tea and refusing to pay for the damage

Committees of Correspondence

colonial extralegal shadow governments that convened to coordinate plans of resistance against the British

Daughters of Liberty

well-born British colonial women who led a non-importation movement against British goods

direct tax

a tax that consumers pay directly, rather than through merchants’ higher prices

indirect tax

a tax imposed on businesses, rather than directly on consumers

Intolerable Acts

the name American Patriots gave to the Coercive Acts and the Quebec Act

Loyalists

colonists in America who were loyal to Great Britain

Massachusetts Circular

a letter penned by Son of Liberty Samuel Adams that laid out the unconstitutionality of taxation without representation and encouraged the other colonies to boycott British goods

no taxation without representation

the principle, first articulated in the Virginia Stamp Act Resolutions, that the colonists needed to be represented in Parliament if they were to be taxed

non-importation movement

a widespread colonial boycott of British goods

Proclamation Line

a line along the Appalachian Mountains, imposed by the Proclamation of 1763, west of which British colonists could not settle

Sons of Liberty

artisans, shopkeepers, and small-time merchants who opposed the Stamp Act and considered themselves British patriots

Suffolk Resolves

a Massachusetts plan of resistance to the Intolerable Acts that formed the basis of the eventual plan adopted by the First Continental Congress for resisting the British, including the arming of militias and the adoption of a widespread non-importation, non-exportation, and non-consumption agreement

vice-admiralty courts

British royal courts without juries that settled disputes occurring at sea