Unit 2.1 Vocab

Jamestown

The first permanent English colony in the present-day United States.

Starving Time

A period when supplies were lost at sea, relations with Native Americans worsened, and colonists fought a slow guerrilla war with the Powhatan; disaster nearly destroyed the colony.

John Rolfe

He successfully grew tobacco in Jamestown, Virginia, and married Pocahontas.

Headright Policy (1618)

Granted 50 acres of land to anyone who migrated to Virginia, plus 50 more acres for each person whose passage they paid.

Indentured Servants

People who signed contracts to work for a set number of years in exchange for passage to America.

House of Burgesses

The first limited representative assembly in Jamestown, made up of white landowners.

Middle Passage

The horrific transatlantic journey where European slavers transported millions of Africans to the Americas.

Bacon’s Rebellion

A 1676 uprising caused by tensions between settlers and Native Americans, and between wealthy landowners and poor frontier settlers.

King Philip’s War

A bloody conflict (1675–1676) where Native tribes resisted English expansion in New England but were defeated, securing English dominance.

Roger Williams

A dissenter exiled from Massachusetts who founded Providence (1636), negotiated fairly with Natives, and established religious and political freedom.