APUSH Chapter 3: Colonial Society, Religion, and Thought

Vocabulary flashcards covering key religious movements, economic practices, social systems, and intellectual shifts in colonial North America, including the Enlightenment, the Great Awakening, and the transatlantic slave trade.

Slave codes

Laws designed to control enslaved people by defining Africans as property, stripping them of rights, solidifying racial hierarchy, making slavery hereditary, and restricting movement.

stono rebellion

• Definition: A slave rebellion in South Carolina in which enslaved Africans fought for their freedom.

• Significance: It was one of the largest slave uprisings in the British colonies and led to stricter slave codes that limited the rights and freedoms of enslaved people.

trial of john peter zengal

• Definition: A trial in which newspaper publisher John Peter Zenger was accused of libel for criticizing New York’s royal governor.

• Significance: Zenger’s acquittal helped establish the principle of freedom of the press by showing that truthful criticism of the government should not be punished

Gullah

A hybrid dialect blending English and African languages that allowed enslaved Africans to communicate, plan, organize, and preserve elements of their African culture.

Inoculation

The deliberate injection of a small strain of a virus, such as smallpox, to build immunity and reduce mortality, establishing the groundwork for safer vaccines during the Scientific Revolution.

Deism

An Enlightenment religious belief asserting that God created an orderly universe run by natural law and endowed humanity with free will; it influenced natural rights philosophy in the Declaration of Independence and the separation of church and state.

Jeremiads

Loud, impassioned sermons designed to capture attention and urge colonists to return to church and religious piety, serving as a precursor and feature of religious revivals.

Covenant

A formal agreement among Puritans to uphold church and community practices, creating a stable religious and social framework.

Extractive industries

Colonial operations that harvested raw resources—such as minerals (gold and silver), timber for shipbuilding, and oil—to export to Europe for economic gain, which displaced Native Americans and incited land conflicts.

Saugus Iron Works

One of the first successful iron- and steel-producing operations in colonial America, representing an early development in the American Industrial Revolution.

John Locke

An English political theorist who posited the concept of tabula rasa, arguing that individuals are born good and shaped by experience, and that government actions must treat people properly to maintain a good society.

Cotton Mather

A Puritan minister in colonial America who championed smallpox inoculation, blending religious devotion with scientific inquiry and research despite public tension.

John and Charles Wesley

Missionary brothers who founded Methodism, preaching a more inclusive view of God to revitalize church attendance and fueling the Great Awakening.

Jonathan Edwards

A prominent revivalist minister whose dramatic delivery and sermon 'Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God' helped catalyze the First Great Awakening.

George Whitefield

A charismatic Anglican theologian and central figure in the First Great Awakening who traveled widely on preaching tours, delivering dynamic and theatrical sermons to crowds across the colonies.

Scots-Irish

Presbyterian immigrants from Scotland and Ireland who adhered to predestination, fled persecution to settle the Appalachian frontier, and contributed to westward expansion while frequently clashing with Native Americans.

Huguenots

French Calvinists who escaped religious persecution to settle in the Americas, held beliefs in predestination, and engaged in trade, intermarriage, and cooperation with Native Americans through the fur trade.

"Old Lights" vs. "New Lights"

A schism within colonial congregations where Old Lights adhered to traditional, conservative orthodoxy, while New Lights embraced emotional, expressive worship and promoted a direct, personal connection with God.

Triangular trade

A transatlantic commercial network connecting Africa, the Americas, and Europe, in which enslaved people were shipped to the Americas, agricultural raw materials were sent to Europe, and European manufactured goods and rum were traded to Africa.

Middle Passage

The treacherous transatlantic voyage from Africa to the Americas endured by captive Africans under horrific conditions, resulting in high mortality and solidifying racial chattel slavery.

Salem witch trials

A series of court proceedings in Massachusetts (1680s–1690s) in which over 200 people were accused of witchcraft and 20 were executed, illustrating mass hysteria, extreme religious fervor, and the collapse of legal due process.

Scientific Revolution

An intellectual movement from the 1500s through the 1700s that transformed how humanity understood the universe by prioritizing observation, logic, and experimentation over traditional religious dogma.

Enlightenment

A philosophical movement from 1685 to 1815 that challenged church authority and traditional governance, questioning the divine right of kings and establishing rationalist ideas that underpinned the American Revolution, Declaration of Independence, and U.S. Constitution.

Great Awakening

A wave of Protestant religious revivals spanning the British North American colonies from the 1730s to the 1770s that birthed new denominations, enhanced religious diversity, and created conflict between Old Lights and New Lights.