APUSH Chapter 3 Notes

Joint stock company

Allowed many different investors to buy and sell shares of an enterprise. Allowed accumulation of more resources than any one person might have, yet reduced risk for each individual involved.

Mayflower Compact

1620 agreement made among the Pilgrims and others on board the ship that brought them to Plymouth to ‘get along.’

The Charter of the Massachusetts Bay Company

Legal charter given to the London-based corporation that launched Massachusetts Bay Colony

Halfway Covenant

Plan adopted in 1662 by New England clergy that allowed adults who had been baptized because their parents were church members, but who had not yet experienced conversion, to have their own children baptized.

Proprietary colony

Colony created when the English monarch granted a huge tract of land to an individual as his private property

ex) Maryland

Headright system

A system of land distribution during the early colonial era that granted settlers a set amount of land for each “head” who settled in the colony

ex) Maryland > made VERY popular