SOCIAL STUDIES GRADE 8 CHAPTER 5 VOCABULARY

 

George Washington: A 21-year-old surveyor in the Virginia military who responded to the    

                                        French claim to the land between Lake Erie and the Ohio River

 

Militia: A force made up of civilians trained as soldiers but not part of the regular army

 

Alliance: An agreement between countries to help each other against other countries

 

Cede: To surrender

 

Duty: An import tax.

 

Boycott: An organized campaign to refuse to buy certain products. Charles C. Boycott seems to have become a household word because of his strong sense of duty to his employer. An Englishman and former British soldier, Boycott was the estate agent of the Earl of Erne in County Mayo, Ireland. The earl was one of the absentee landowners who as a group held most of the land in Ireland. Boycott was chosen in the fall of 1880 to be the test case for a new policy advocated by Charles Parnell, an Irish politician who wanted land reform. Any landlord who would not charge lower rents or any tenant who took over the farm of an evicted tenant would be given the complete cold shoulder by Parnell's supporters. Boycott refused to charge lower rents and ejected his tenants. At this point members of Parnell's Irish Land League stepped in, and Boycott and his family found themselves isolated without servants, farmhands, service in stores, or mail delivery. Boycott's name was quickly adopted as the term for this treatment, not just in English but in other languages such as French, Dutch, German, and Russian.

 

Petition: A written request to government

 

Writs of Assistance: Court orders that allowed officials to make searches without saying for

                                      what they were searching

 

John Adams: A well-known Massachusetts lawyer and a leading defender of colonial rights

 

Samuel Adams: Cousin to John Adams, established the Committee of Correspondence, which   

                              kept people informed of British actions

 

Monopoly: Total control of a market for a certain product

 

Repeal: Official end

 

Minutemen: Citizen soldiers who could be ready to fight at a minute’s notice

 

Blockade: The shutting off of a port by ships to keep people or supplies from moving in or out

 

Mercenary: Soldier who serves another country for money