APUSH Midterm

Maize

Corn.

Encomienda

Spain's king granted natives who lived on a tract of land to individual Spaniards.

Asiento

Requires colonists to pay tax to the Spanish king on every enslaved person they brought to the Americas.

Middle Passage

The voyage across the Atlantic Ocean that was apart of the slave trade.

New Laws of 1542

These laws ended Indian slavery, halted forced Indian labor, and began to end the encomienda system that kept the Indians in serfdom.

Valladolid Debate

The debate over the role for Indians in the Spanish colonies. Bartolomé de Las Casas argued that Indians were completely human while Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda argued that they were less than human. Neither side persuaded the audience, and no rights were given.

Act of Toleration

The first colonial statute granting religious freedom to all Christians. This took place in Maryland after many wealthy Catholics moved there from England to evade persecution.

Antinomianism

The idea that since individuals receive salvation through their faith alone, they were not required to follow traditional moral laws.

Halfway Covenant

Offered to some clergy so that people could become partial members of the church, even if they had not felt a conversion.

Quakers

Believed that religious authority was found within each person and not in the Bible nor in any outside source.

Charter of Liberties 1701

Guaranteed the freedom of worship for all and unrestricted immigration.

Mayflower Compact

A document drew up and signed by the Pilgrims, in which they pledged to make decisions by the will of the majority.

Separatists

Radical dissenters who wanted to organize a completely separate church that was independent of royal control.

Pilgrims

Separatists that left England to pursue religious freedom.

Fundamental Orders of Connecticut 1639

Established a representative government with a legislature elected by popular vote and a governor chosen by that legislature.

Virginia House of Burgesses

First representative assembly in America, organized by Virginias colonists in 1619.

Royal Colony

Under direct authority/rule of the king's government.

Joint Stock Colony

A colony controlled by a business.

Proprietary Colony

A colony owned and ruled by one person who was chosen by the king.

Triangular Trade

A three way system of trade during 1600-1800s Africa sent slaves to America, America sent raw materials to Europe, and Europe sent guns and rum to Africa.

Mercantilism

An economic policy under which nations sought to increase their wealth and power by obtaining large amounts of gold and silver and by selling more goods than they bought.

Navigation Acts

Laws that governed trade between England and its colonies. Colonists were required to ship certain products exclusively to England. These acts made colonists very angry because they were forbidden from trading with other countries.

King Philip's War

1675 - A series of battles in New Hampshire between the colonists and the Wompanowogs, led by a chief known as King Philip. The war was started when the Massachusetts government tried to assert court jurisdiction over the local Indians. The colonists won with the help of the Mohawks, and this victory opened up additional Indian lands for expansion.

Bacon's Rebellion

A rebellion lead by Nathaniel Bacon with backcountry farmers to attack Native Americans in an attempt to gain more land.

New England Confederation

New England colonists formed the New England Confederation in 1643 as a defense against local Native American tribes and encroaching Dutch. The colonists formed the alliance without the English crown's authorization.

Indentured Servants

Immigrants who received passage to America in exchange for a fixed term of labor.

Headright System

Headrights were parcels of land consisting of about 50 acres which were given to colonists who brought indentured servants into America. They were used by the Virginia Company to attract more colonists.

Slavery

A system of enforced servitude in which some people are owned by other people.

Poor Richard's Almanac

Benjamin Franklin's highly popular collection of information, parables, and advice.

First Great Awakening

Religious revival in the colonies in 1730s and 1740s; George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards preached a message of atonement for sins by admitting them to God. The movement attempted to combat the growing secularism and rationalism of mid-eighteenth century America. Religious splits in the colonies became deeper.

Huguenots

French Protestants.

Enlightenment

A movement in the 18th century that advocated the use of reason in the reappraisal of accepted ideas and social institutions.

Nonsectarian

Not limited to or associated with a particular religious denomination.

Bartolomé de Las Casas

Spaniard who fought against the enslavement and colonial abuse of Native Americans.

Juan Gines de Sepulveda

The Spanish scholar who argued that Indians were not fully human and thus enslaving them was acceptable.

John Cabot

English explorer who claimed Newfoundland for England while looking for Northwest Passage.

Lord Baltimore

Founded the colony of Maryland and offered religious freedom to all Christian colonists. He did so because he knew that members of his own religion (Catholicism) would be a minority in the colony.

Roger Williams

He founded Rhode Island for separation of Church and State. He believed that the Puritans were too powerful and was ordered to leave the Massachusetts Bay Colony for his religious beliefs.

Anne Hutchinson

She preached the idea that God communicated directly to individuals instead of through the church elders. She was forced to leave Massachusetts in 1637. Her followers (the Antinomianists) founded the colony of New Hampshire in 1639.

William Penn

A Quaker that founded Pennsylvania to establish a place where his people and others could live in peace and be free from persecution.

Thomas Hooker

A Puritan minister who led about 100 settlers out of Massachusetts Bay to Connecticut because he believed that the governor and other officials had too much power. He wanted to set up a colony in Connecticut with strict limits on government.

John Davenport

In 1637, he founded a settlement south of Hartford, by the name of New Haven.

John Smith

English explorer who helped found the colony at Jamestown, Virginia.

John Rolfe

He was one of the English settlers at Jamestown (and he married Pocahontas). He discovered how to successfully grow tobacco in Virginia and cure it for export, which made Virginia an economically successful colony.

Metacom

Native American chief who fought against English colonists in King Philip's War.

Benjamin Franklin

American intellectual, inventor, and politician He helped to negotiate French support for the American Revolution.

Phillis Wheatley

First African American female writer to be published in the United States. Her book Poems on Various Subjects was published in 1773 and pioneered African-American literature.

Jonathan Edwards

Preacher during the First Great Awakening; "Sinners in the hands of angry god"

John Winthrop

Puritan governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony. Speaker of "City upon a hill"

George Whitefield

Credited with starting the Great Awakening, also a leader of the "New Lights."

Cotton Mather

Minister, scholar, one of first Americans to promote vaccination of smallpox when it was believed to be dangerous. Strongly believed in witches and encouraged witch trials in Salem

7 Years' War

Fought in both continental Europe and also in overseas colonies between 1756 and 1763; resulted in English capture of colonies in India and North America

Albany Plan of Union

Ben Franklin's plan to unite the colonies under one government to defeat France.

Pontiac's Rebellion

A 1763 conflict between Native Americans and the British over settlement of Indian lands in the Great Lakes area.

Proclamation of 1763

A proclamation from the British government which forbade British colonists from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains, and which required any settlers already living west of the mountains to move back east.

Salutary Neglect

An English policy of not strictly enforcing laws in its colonies.

Sons and Daughters of Liberty

Secret society who intimidated tax agents; tarred and feathered some tax collectors.

Stamp Act Congress

A meeting of delegations from many of the colonies, the congress was formed to protest the newly passed Stamp Act It adopted a declaration of rights as well as sent letters of complaints to the king and parliament, and it showed signs of colonial unity and organized resistance.

Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania

Written in response to the Townshend Acts by John Dickinson, this discourse asserted the idea that "no taxation without representation" was an essential part of English government, and that Parliament had no right to impose duties on British colonies.

Committee of Correspondence

An organization that spread political ideas and information through the colonies.

Intolerable Acts

Series of laws passed in 1774 to punish Boston for the Tea Party.

Stamp Act

An act passed by the British Parliament in 1756 that raised revenue from the American colonies by a duty in the form of a stamp required on all newspapers and legal or commercial documents.

Quartering Act

An act passed by the British that allowed British troops to live in the homes of the colonists.

Sugar Act

Law passed by the British Parliament setting taxes on molasses and sugar imported by the colonies.

Declaratory Act

Act passed in 1766 after the repeal of the stamp act; stated that Parliament had authority over the the colonies and the right to tax and pass legislation "in all cases whatsoever."

Townshend Acts

A tax that the British Parliament passed in 1767 that was placed on leads, glass, paint and tea.

Tea Act

An act passed in 1773, that eliminated import tariffs on tea entering England and allowed the British East India Company to sell directly to consumers rather than through merchants. Led to the Boston Tea Party.

Coercive Act

A law passed by the British Parliament in response to the Boston Tea Party which called for the blocked of Boston Harbor until the lost tea was repaid by the colonists.

Quebec Act

Extended boundaries of Quebec and granted equal rights to Catholics and recognized legality Catholic Church in the territory; colonists feared this meant that a pope would soon oversee the colonies.

First Continental Congress

Delegates from all colonies except Georgia met to discuss problems with Britain and to promote independence.

Second Continental Congress

They organized the Continental Army, called on the colonies to send troops, selected George Washington to lead the army, and appointed the committee to draft the Declaration of Independence.

Declaration of the Causes and Necessities for Taking Up Arms

An address issued by Congress with the object of justifying to the American people and to the world the necessity for armed resistance.

Olive Branch Petition

An offer of peace sent by the Second Continental Congress to King George lll.

Declaration of Independence

The document recording the proclamation of the Second Continental Congress (July 4, 1776) asserted the independence of the colonies from Great Britain.

Loyalists

American colonists who remained loyal to Britain and opposed the war for independence.

Patriots

American colonists who were determined to fight the British until American independence was won.

Treaty of Paris (1783)

This treaty ended the Revolutionary War and recognized the independence of the American colonies. It also granted the colonies the territory from the southern border of Canada to the northern border of Florida, and from the Atlantic coast to the Mississippi River.

Republican Motherhood

Expectation that women would instill Republican values in children and be active in families; helped increase education for women.

Northwest Ordinance of 1787

A law that established a procedure for the admission of new states to the Union,

Shay's Rebellion

A series of attacks on courthouses by a small band of farmers led by Daniel Shays (revolutionary war captain) to block foreclosure proceedings.

Federalists

Supporters of the Constitution.

Antifederalists

People who opposed the Constitution.

Federalism

A system in which power is divided between the national and state governments.

Constitutional Convention

A meeting in Philadelphia in 1787 that produced a new Constitution.

Separation of Powers

The Constitutional division of powers among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. The Legislative branch makes the law, the Executive applies and enforces the law, and the Judiciary interprets the law.

Checks and Balances

A system that allows each branch of government to limit the powers of the other branches in order to prevent abuse of power.

Virginia Plan

"Large state" proposal for the new Constitution, calling for proportional representation in both houses of a bicameral Congress. The plan favored larger states and thus prompted smaller states to come back with their own plan for apportioning representation.

New Jersey Plan

A Constitutional proposal that would have given each state one vote in a new Congress.

Conneticut Plan (Great Compromise)

Created two houses of congress, one where the number of votes determined the population of each state (House of Representatives) and one where each state had equal votes (Senate).

Three-Fifths Compromise

Agreement that each slave counted as three-fifths of a person in determining representation in the House for representation and taxation purposes (negated by the 13th amendment).

Electoral College

A group of people named by each state legislature to select the president and vice president.

Bill of Rights

The first ten amendments to the Constitution.

Federalists Party

Wanted a strong federal government and supported industry and trade.

Democratic-Republican Party

Led by Thomas Jefferson. Believed people should have political power, favored strong STATE governments, emphasized agriculture, strict interpretation of the Constitution, pro-French, and opposed the National Bank.

Washington's Farewell Address

Warned Americans not to get involved in European affairs, not to make permanent alliances, not to form political parties and to avoid sectionalism..

Alien and Sedition Acts

Series of four laws enacted in 1798 to reduce the political power of recent immigrants.

Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions

Republican documents that argued that the Alien and Sedition Acts were unconstitutional.

Proclamation of Neutrality

A formal announcement issued by President George Washington on April 22, 1793, declaring the United States a neutral nation in the conflict between Great Britain and France.

Jay Treaty

Treaty in which Britain agreed to evacuate its posts on the US Western frontier (1794).

Pickney's Treaty

Settled the border and trade disputes with Spain.