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Pennsylvania Dutch


frontier or West

section of the colonies where most Scot-Irish settlers were located

war or military supply

Activity in which many colonial merchant princess made fortunes that aroused fears of "Europeanization"

jayle birds

popular term for convicted criminals dumped on colonies by British authorities

plagues or epidemics

dreaded epidemics of disease, especially smallpox and diphtheria


a once-despised profession that rose in prestige after 1750 because its practitioners defended colonial rights

triangular trade

small but profitable trade route that linked New England, Africa and the West Indies


Popular colonial centers of recreation, gossip, and political debate


term for tax-supported condition of congregational and anglican churches, but not of baptists, quakers, and roman catholics

Great Awakening

spectacular, emotional religious revival of the 1730's and 1740s

new lights

ministers who supported the Great Awakening against the "old light" clergy who rejected it



Zenger case

the case that established the precedent that true statements about public officials cold not be prosecuted as libel




commodity that a person had to own a certain amount of in order to be eligible to vote

the high natural fertility of the colonial population

led to the increase of American population to one-third of England's in 1775

the heavy immigration of Germans, Scots-Irish, Africans and others into the colonies

resulted in the development of a colonial "melting pot" only one-half English by 1775

the large profits made by merchants as military suppliers for imperial wars

increased the wealth of the eighteenth century colonial elite

American merchants' search for non-British markets

was met by British attempts to restrict colonial trade (molasses act)

Clerical dry intellectualism and lay liberalism

weakened religious commitment in the early eighteenth century

The Great Awakening

stimulated more emotional styles of religion and greater intercolonial unity

The Zenger case

marked the beginning of freedom of printed political expression in the colonies

the appointment of unpopular or incompetent royal governors to colonies

prompted colonial assemblies to withhold royal governors' salaries

upper-class fear of "democratic excesses" by poor whies

reinforced colonial property qualifications for voting

the lack of artistic concerns, cultural tradition, and leisure in the colonies



leading city of he colonies; home of Benjamin Franklin


largest non-English group in the colonies


group that gettled the frontier, made whiskey, and hated the british and other government authorities

Paxton Boys and Regulators

Scot-Irish frontiersmen who protested against colonial elites of Pennsylvania and North Carolina

Patrick Henry

eloquent lawyer-orator who argued in defense of colonial rights

Molasses Act

attempt by British authorities to squelch colonial trade with French Weset Indies

Anglican church


Jonathan Edwards

brilliant New england theologian who instigated the Great Awakening

George Whitefield

itinerant British evangelist who spread the Great Awakening throughout the colonies

Phillis Wheatly

former slave who became a poet at an early age

Benjamin Franklin

author, scientist, printer, "first civilized American"

John Peter Zenger

colonial printer whose case helped begin freedom of the press

Lord Cornbury

worst example of a corrupt and incompetent royal governor


Non established religious group that benefited from the Great Awakening

John Singleton Copley

colonial painter who studied and worked in Britain

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