Key Terms

confiscation acts

state-wide acts that made it legal for state governments to seize Loyalists’ property

Continental currency

the paper currency that the Continental government printed to fund the Revolution

Dunmore’s Proclamation

the decree signed by Lord Dunmore, the royal governor of Virginia, which proclaimed that any enslaved or indentured servants who fought on the side of the British would be rewarded with their freedom

Hessians

German mercenaries hired by Great Britain to put down the American rebellion

Mecklenburg Resolves

North Carolina’s declaration of rebellion against Great Britain

minutemen

colonial militias prepared to mobilize and fight the British with a minute’s notice

popular sovereignty

the practice of allowing the citizens of a state or territory to decide issues based on the principle of majority rule

republicanism

a political philosophy that holds that states should be governed by representatives, not a monarch; as a social philosophy, republicanism required civic virtue of its citizens

thirteen colonies

the British colonies in North America that declared independence from Great Britain in 1776, which included Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, the province of Massachusetts Bay, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, South Carolina, and Virginia

Yorktown

the Virginia port where British General Cornwallis surrendered to American forces