Question | Answer |
Precedent | a past ruling that judges use to help decide a case |
Colony | a group of people that live in a territory but keep ties to their parent country |
Charter | a written document that grants land and the authority to set up colonial governments |
Enlightenment | a cultural movement that started in England in the 1600s |
Natural rights | rights such as life, liberty and property, that no government can take away (written by John Locke) |
Common law | a system of law that rests on court decisions rather than regulations written by lawmakers |
Joint-stock company | a company that provides investors partial ownership and a share in future profits |
Social contract | a contract in which people agree to obey the government, while the government agrees to protect their rights |
Legislature | an organized government body that has the power to make laws |
Compact | an agreement among a group of people |
Royal colony | a colony owned and ruled by a king |
Pilgrims | people on a religious journey |
Plantation | a large estate that is usually worked by people who also live there |
Indentured servant | someone who is bound to work for another person in return for payment of his or her travel expenses |
Puritans | religious reformers who founded Massachusetts |
Proprietary colony | an owner controlled colony, ie when New York was granted to the Duk of York |
Toleration | the government policy of accepting unofficial religions |
Religious dissenters | people in New England and the Middle Colonies who followed a religious faith other than the Anglican religion |
Triangular trade | a system of shipping slaves that included America, Africa, and the West Indies |
Egalitarianism | the belief in human equality, with respect to social, political, and economic rights |
Tidewater | land that includes low plains near the coast of North Carolina |
Delegate | a representative to a convention or conference |
Merchantilism | an economic system based on the theory that a country’s power depends on its wealth |
Boycott | refusal to buy something |
Independence | the state of being self-governing and free from outside control |
Repeal | to call back or cancel an act through legal means |
monarch | a king or queen who rules a nation |
magna carta | a contract that limited the power of a monarch by pledging that no one would be above the law, not even the king or queen |
parliment | the English legislature |
merchantilism | the theory that a country should sell more goods to other countries than it buys |
delegates | representatives |
self-reliance | freedom |
"Common Sense" | a pamphlet written by Thomas Paine supporting the colonists independence |
Declaration of Independence | a document that announced the independence of the United States from British rule |
Thomas Jefferson | the main author of the Declaration of Independence |
consitution | a written plan of government |
bicameral | a two house system of government |
confederation | a group of individuals or state governments that band together for common cause |
Articles of Confederation | created the first constitution of the United States of America |
1781 | the year the Articles of the Confederation was ratified |
amend | to change |