Colonial Settlement and Life in British America

Vocabulary flashcards covering key historical terms, entities, dates, and concepts from the lecture on 15th to 17th century European expansion and British colonization in North America.

American Yawl

The assigned textbook for the course, chapter three of which touches on European colonization and developing interests throughout North and South America.

Sixteenth Century

The historical period referring to the years 1500 to 1599, during which Spain and Portugal led exploration efforts in the Atlantic.

Enclosure Acts

English laws passed in the 1600s that privatized land based on established borders, excluding poor workers from farmland and creating a surplus of unemployed young men.

Roanoke Colony

An English colony settled in 1587 by 115 people that was found completely abandoned when a supply ship returned in 1590.

Croton

The Native American name for a nearby island carved into a wooden post, serving as the sole physical clue regarding the whereabouts of the lost Roanoke settlers.

Virginia Company

A for-profit private joint-stock enterprise operating under a charter from King James I that assumed the financial risk of establishing the Jamestown colony.

Jamestown

The first permanent successful English settlement in North America, established in Virginia in 1607 as a profit-driven venture.

Brackish Water

The unsafe mixture of seawater and freshwater surrounding the Jamestown settlement that caused widespread disease among early English colonists.

Captain John Smith

An English officer who governed early Jamestown under a strict rule declaring 'he that will not work shall not eat,' keeping 38 of the initial 105 settlers alive through the first nine months.

Powhatan Empire

A confederacy led by paramount chief Powhatan (Wanashinikwanaqwa) consisting of 32 tribes and 15,000 to 25,000 people across more than 200 villages.

Obagashinnakwa

The brother of Chief Powhatan who assumed leadership after Powhatan's death in 1618, broke the peace truce, and launched the Anglo-Powhatan Wars against English colonists.

March 22, 1622

The date Powhatan warriors launched coordinated attacks on English settlements, killing nearly one-third of the colonists in Jamestown and surrounding areas in a single day.

John Rolfe

The Jamestown colonist who introduced Spanish American tobacco seeds to Virginia in 1616 and married Pocahontas in 1614 to establish a brief peace.

Indentured Servitude

A labor system where individuals signed contracts to work for 3 to 10 years in exchange for passage to the Americas, food, and promised land rights upon completion.

1619 African Arrival

The year marking the first known historical record of 20 captured Africans brought to the Virginia colonies by Dutch settlers.

Richard Fretthorpe

An indentured servant in Virginia who wrote a desperate letter to his parents in 1623 describing extreme hunger, disease, and constant fear of combat.

Mayflower Compact

A document signed in 1620 by 78 men aboard the Mayflower establishing collective self-governance, fair laws, and shared property for the Plymouth colony.

Wapanagua

The Native American tribe that assisted the Plymouth settlers with farming corn and fishing, leading to a 1621 peace pact celebrated with a harvest festival.

Massachusetts Bay Colony

A colony established in 1630 by reformer Puritans seeking to create a model Christian community known as a 'city upon the hill'.

Great Migration

The movement between 1620 and 1640 in which over 20,000 Puritans from more than 500 English parishes migrated to New England.