Study Guide for American Revolution Test (Part One)


Students will be expected to match vocabulary words to their definitions, answer multiple choice questions related to information in bold, and write short answers about two of the eight “Rights of Englishmen” and two of the five Intolerable Acts.

Vocabulary:

  1. ally: a nation that has promised to help another nation in wartime
  2. assembly: a group of representatives who gather to make laws
  3. boycott: refusal to have dealings in order to force a change in policy
  4. immigrant: a person from one country who comes into another country to live
  5. militia: a volunteer citizens’ army
  6. repeal: to cancel or do away with


  1. King George III became ruler at age 22; inherited a 130 million pound debt.      

   Great Britain/England is the mother country to the colonies.


  1. The French and Indian War
  2. The British fought against the French; both sides had Indian allies.
  3. The British were determined to take Fort Duquesne and drive the 

French out of the Ohio River valley.

  1. King George III wrote the Proclamation of 1763, saying no colonists could 

          settle west of the Appalachian Mountains. 


III. Parliament, Great Britain’s law-making group, passed the Quartering Act.

  1. It said that colonists were required to provide quarters to British soldiers.


  1. Parliament passed the Stamp Act. Colonists had to buy special tax stamps from    

     a tax collector.  It taxed almost everything on printed paper.


  1. The Sons of Liberty organized a boycott of British goods.
  2. Many colonists, to show they were frustrated with the taxation without    

      representation, harassed British soldiers, tarred and feathered tax collectors.


VII. Together the Sons and Daughters of Liberty were given the name Patriots.


VIII. The Boston Massacre (March 5, 1770)

  1. A crowd of men and boys jeered a British soldier.
  2. Someone called out, “Fire!” 
  3. The soldiers shot at the crowd and five colonists died.
  4. Crispus Attucks was the first black person to die for the cause of

    American liberty.

  1. Paul Revere, who was a silversmith and Son of Liberty,

  made a copper engraving of the massacre.


  1. “No taxation without representation” was an important chant of the colonists.  It      

      meant that they should not be taxed without their consent (without getting a say  

      or a voice in Parliament). 


  1. Sam Adams was a leader in organizing the Sons of Liberty.  


  1. Members of the Committee of Correspondence would write to each other if      

      anything happened.

XII. The Tea Act (1773)

  1. Parliament lowered the price of tea, but kept a tax on it.
  2. Colonists did not buy the tea on principle.
  3. Colonists bought tea from the Dutch, who were smuggling it in.


XIII. The Boston Tea Party

  1. British tea ships headed for the colonies to deliver tea.
  2. Sons of Liberty stopped the ships from docking in many ports.
  3. They sent a letter to the captain telling him not to unload.
  4. Some ships headed back to Great Britain and others just waited.
  5. Three ships entered the Boston Harbor.
  6. Colonists demanded that the governor order them to leave, but

    the governor refused to make the ships leave.

  1. Colonists took matters into their own hands (December 16, 1773)
  2. They dressed as Indians and rowed to the ships.
  3. They dumped 342 chests of tea into the harbor.


XIV. The Intolerable Acts  (Know two of these acts really well, so you can write them)

  1. Parliament passed laws to punish the colonies.
  2. The Boston Port Act closed the Boston Harbor until 

the spilled tea was paid for.

  1. The Massachusetts Government Act took away Massachusetts 

right to self government (appointed a governor).

  1. The Administration of Justice Act stated that those accused of

committing a crime were taken to England for trial.

  1. The Quartering Act said that soldiers were to be 

quartered in taverns and unoccupied buildings.


  1. Colonies come to Massachusetts’s rescue by sending supplies, money, etc.


XVI. First Continental Congress (1774)

  1. 56 colonial leaders from 12 colonies came.
  2. George Washington, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, and

Sam Adams were some of the people in attendance.

  1. They issued a “Declaration of Rights”.
  2. They voted to stop all trade with Great Britain until the

Intolerable Acts were repealed.

  1. The colonies united and started thinking of them-

selves as one country.


Be able to write two of these rights -- The Rights of Englishmen—the colonists believed they shared these rights with England’s citizens:

  1. The government cannot just take away your house, land, ship or other property.
  2. The government cannot just show up and search your home or business whenever it feels like it.
  3. The government cannot put you in jail unless you were accused of breaking a law.
  4. The government cannot keep you in jail indefinitely.
  5. You have a right to a trial before a jury of fellow citizens.
  6. The government cannot stop you and other citizens from gathering peaceably to talk about a problem.
  7. The government cannot stop you and other citizens from protesting something.
  8. You have a right to petition the government, asking it to change a law, do something, or stop doing something.