| Term | Definition |
| headright | the right to acquire a certain amount of land, (50 acres), granted to the person who finances the passage of a laborer or family member |
| disenfranchise | to take away someone's right to vote |
| middle passage | the portion of the triangle trade that transported Africans to America to begin their lives as slaves |
| menial | lacking prestige or not requiring much skill |
| militia | an armed force of citizens who are usually called out to defend only in emergencies; "full time farmers/part time farmers" |
| sect | a group that has separated from an established church; a nonconformist church |
| gentry | wealthy landowners with social standing |
| domestic | concerning the internal affairs of a country |
| mutinous | willful disobedience or revolt by subordinate soldiers against their commander |
| strategic | carefully designed or planned movement or placement of military forces in order to gain an advantage |
| guerilla warfare | unconventional combat of the time waged by the smaller military units of the colonies that used a type of "hit and run" tactic |
| seige | a military tactic which surrounds and attacks a particular area for a sustained period of time |
| insurrection | a rebellion against political authorities |
| mercantilism | an economic theory which subjected the colonial economy to be subordinated for the benefit of the British empire |
| protective tariffs | taxes on imported goods to raise their prices so that people would support domestic producers |
| virtual representation | the theory that a class of persons would be represented in a lawmaking body without having the benefit of a direct vote |
| non-importation agreement | pledges to boycott certain goods from abroad |
| duty | a customs tax on the export and/or import of goods |
| desert | to leave official or military service without permission |
| denounce | to PUBLICLY state that something is wrong |
| evade | to avoid something, i.e., escape paying (tax or duty), especially by illegitimate presentation of one's finances |
| autonomy | having freedom from external control or influence; independence |
| unalienable | cannot be taken away or transferred to another |
| disperse | to move in different directions or to spread apart |
| ally | a person, group, or country that has joined with another to achieve a common purpose |
| virtuous | "honest and moral" |
| misguided | influenced by goals that are wrong or improper |
| Pontiac's Rebellion | Native Americans groups surprised and captured British forts during the spring of 1763 as a result of British settlers encroaching on their lands in the Ohio River Valley as well as western Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. |
| Join, or Die | political cartoon created by Benjamin Franklin in support of the Albany Plan of Union |
| salutary neglect | England's policy of allowing its colonies local self-rule |
| minutemen | Patriot militia who responded quickly to calls for soldiers |
| republic | a country which provides opportunities to reward merit rather than inherited privilege; a state in which supreme power is held by the people and their elected representatives, and which has an elected or nominated president rather than a monarch |
| natural rights | an Enlightenment idea that believes that we are born with certain liberties that cannot be taken away by a government |
| mercenaries | Hessians or "soldiers who fought for hire" |
| manumission | voluntary freeing of slaves by their owners |
| Bloody Massacre | propaganda by Paul Revere used to depict "the brutality" of the British soldiers in Massachusetts |
| Proclamation of 1763 | Britain's attempt to appease the Native Americans after the end of the French and Indian War which set the Appalachian Mountains as the boundary for English colonists' westward expansion. |
| Treaty of Paris 1783 | recognized American independence and granted generous boundaries to the United States, (as if it was theirs to give!) |
| Treaty of Paris 1763 | ended the French and Indian War with British victory which allowed them to keep Canada, the Great Lakes region, the Ohio River Valley and Florida |
