US HIstory Module 2 vOCAB: The American Colonies

joint-stock companies

British colonies where investors pooled wealth in support of a colony in hopes of yielding profit

peninsula

piece of land surrounded by/protruding into water

John Smith

adventurer and soldier who became leader of Jamestown

Powhatan

Native tribe that provided colonists with food

headright system

anyone who paid for their own or another’s passage to Virginia received 50 acres land

indentured servant

agree to limited term servitude in exchange for passage to North American, food/shelter

Royal colony

Colony under direct control of King

Nathaniel Bacon

Plants that grew tired of native attacks

Puritans

English who wanted to “purify” or reform the Church of England (Anglican church

Plymouth colony

2nd permanent English colony

Massachusetts bay colony

Colony founded by puritans

John Winthrop

Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony who called it a “city upon a hill”

Roger Williams

Extreme separatist

Pequot War

1st major conflict between settlers and Natives resulting in the tribe being nearly wiped out

Metacom

Wampanoag chief that Puritans called King Philip who organized his people and other tribes to fight back

King Philip’s war

War where Wampanoag chief organized several tribes to fight puritans

New Netherland

Dutch settlement on Atlantic coast (now NYC)

William Penn

Received charter to found Pennsylvania

Quakers

Protestants who were unpopular in England