Question | Answer |
enlightenment | movement that soread the idea that reason and science could improve society |
monarch | king or queen |
legislature | a group of people that makes laws |
precedent | a ruling that is used as the basis for a judicial decision in a later, similar case |
common law | a system of law based on precedent and customs |
natural rights | freedoms people possess to obtain citizenship |
social contract | an agreement among people in a society with a government |
colony | a group of people in one place who are ruled by a parent country elsewhere |
joint-stock company | investors provide partial ownership in a company orginized for profit |
charter | a written document granting land and the authority to set up colonial governments |
compact | an agreement, or contract, among a group of people |
proprietary colony | area with owner-controlled land and government |
royal colony | a colonial area of land controlled directly by king or other monarch |
religious dissenters | those who followed a religious faith other than the official religion of england |
puritans | religious dissenter who came to the colonies to purify, or reform, the anglican church |
pilgrams | colonial puritans who considered themselves people on a religious journey |
toleration | acceptance of other groups, such as religious groups |
indentured servant | workers who contracted with american colonists for food and shelter in return for their labor |
plantation | a large estate |
triangular trade | pattern of trade that developed in colonial timnes among the americas, africa, and europe |
tidewater | areas of low, flat plains near the seacoast of virginia and north carolina |
egalitarianism | the philosophy or spirit of equality |
mercantilism | the theory that the country should sell more goods to other countries than it buys |
boycott | the refusal to purchase certain goods |
repeal | to cancel a law |
delegate | a representative to a meeting |
independence | self-reliance and freedom from outside control |