Visual vocabulary American Revolution

Stamp Act British tax on all paper goods, colonists boycott and this act is repealed

Quartering Act Colonists are forced to house British troops in their homes

Townshend Acts British places tax on glass, lead, paint, and tea for colonists; repealed except tea

Tea Act tax that gave British East India Company a monopoly over tea in the colonies

Intolerable Acts act designed to punish Boston for the Boston Tea Party, by closing Boston Harbor

Sons of Liberty secret society that organized protests and sometimes resorted to violence

Propaganda - ideas or information designed and spread to influence opinion

Committees of Correspondence – group that wrote about the grievances to protest against the British

Patriots – American colonists who fought for independence from Great Britain during the Revolution

Continental Army – militia created by the Second Continental Congress to defend the American colonies from Great Britain

Second Continental Congress – meeting of colonial delegates that created the Olive Branch Petition and established the Continental Army

Loyalist – colonists that sided with Britain in the American Revolution, Tories

Olive Branch Petition – final request for peace written to King George III asking that Britain protect the colonists’ rights

Common Sense – pamphlet written by Thomas Paine that convinced many American colonists of the need to break away from Britain

Declaration of Independence – document written to declare the colonies free from British rule

Preamble – introduction to the Declaration of Independence