LIFE IN THE COLONIES                              SOCIAL STUDIES VOCABULARY

                                                 GRADE 8                   

 

1. Legislature: a group of people who have the power to make laws

 

2. Bill of Rights: a written list of freedoms that a government promises to protect

 

3. Habeas Corpus: the principle that a person cannot be held in prison without

                                      being charged with a specific crime

 

4. Freedom of the Press: the right of journalists to publish the truth without

                                                   restriction or penalty

 

5. Libel: the publishing of statements that damage a person’s reputation

 

6. Extended Family: a family that includes, in addition to the parents and their

                                         children, other members such as grandparents, aunts, uncles,

                                         and cousins

 

7. Apprentice: someone who learns a trade by working for someone in that trade

                              for a certain period of time

 

8. Gentry: the upper class of colonial society

 

9.  Middle Class: a group of people made up of small planters, independent farmers,

                                  and artisans

 

10. Indentured Servant: one who signed a contract to from 4 to 10 years in the

                                                  colonies for anyone who would pay for his or her ocean

                                                  passage to the Americans

 

11. Triangular Trade: a three-way trade between the colonies, the islands of the

                                             Caribbean, and Africa

 

12. Racism: the belief that one race is superior or inferior to another

 

13. Slave Codes: strict laws that restricted the rights and activities of slaves

 

14. Public School: a school supported by taxes

 

15. Dame School: schools that women opened in their homes to teach girls and

                                    boys to read and write.

 

16. Anne Bradstreet: the first colonial poet whose poetry expressed the joys and

                                            hardships of life in Puritan New England.  

 

17. Phillis Wheatley: a colonial poet who was an enslaved African in Boston

 

18. Benjamin Franklin: colonial businessman, community leader, scientist,

                                                inventor, writer, and diplomat. His most popular work was

                                                Poor Richard’s Almanac.

 

19. Jonathon Edwards: a Massachusetts’ preacher who called on people to examine

                                               their lives and commit themselves to God.  He was part of

                                               the Great Awakening.

 

20. Natural Rights: rights that belong to every human being from birth

 

21. Divine Right: the belief that monarchs get their authority to rule directly from

                                   God

 

22. Separation of Powers: division of the power of government into separated

                                                     branches