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CH 2
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Enlightenment | movement that spread 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 posses relating to life, liberty, and property |
| 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 organized for profit |
| charter | a written document granting land and the authority to set up colonial governments or a government document granting permission to organize a corporation |
| 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 a 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 |
| Pilgrims | 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 times among the Americas, Africa, and Europe |
| tidewater | are of low, flat plains near the seacoast of Virginia and North Carolina |
| egalitarianism | the philosophy or spirit of equality |
| mercantilism | theory that a country's power depends on it's wealth |
| boycott | refusal to purchase certain goods |
| repeal | cancelled |
| delegate | a representative to a meeting |
| independence | self-reliance and freedom from outside control |