Early American and Colonial History Vocabulary

Vocabulary flashcards covering the historical terms listed on Page 1 of the lecture notes.

Cahokia

A major pre-Columbian Native American city and mound-building culture located near modern-day St. Louis.

Pueblo Bonito

The largest great house in Chaco Canyon, constructed by the Ancestral Puebloans in present-day New Mexico.

King Afonso I

Ruler of the Kingdom of Kongo in the 16th century who adopted Christianity and protested the abuses of the Portuguese slave trade.

lançados

Portuguese settlers and traders along the West African coast who integrated into local communities and acted as trade intermediaries.

Elmina

A major trading post and fortress established by the Portuguese in present-day Ghana, which became a center for the Atlantic slave trade.

Sunni Ali

The founder and first monarch of the West African Songhai Empire, ruling from 1464 to 1492.

Queen Nzinga

Monarch of the Mbundu kingdoms of Ndongo and Matamba who led sustained resistance against Portuguese colonization in Angola.

Nicolás de Ovando

Spanish governor of Hispaniola (1502–1509) who institutionalized the encomienda system and expanded Spanish control in the Caribbean.

encomenderos

Spanish settlers granted rights to Indigenous labor and tribute under the encomienda system.

coureur de bois

French-Canadian fur traders who traveled into North American wilderness areas to trade directly with Indigenous peoples.

habitants

French settlers who established small subsistence or tenant farms along the St. Lawrence River in New France.

The Black Legend

A historical narrative promoted by Spain's European rivals depicting Spanish colonizers as exceptionally cruel and destructive.

Francis Drake

English sea captain and privateer who raided Spanish settlements and shipping and completed a circumnavigation of the globe.

charter

An official document issued by a government or monarch granting specific land rights, monopoly trading privileges, or political authority.

joint-stock company

A business entity where capital is pooled by multiple investors who share both financial risks and potential profits.

headright system

A Virginia land-grant policy that awarded 50 acres of land to anyone who paid for their own or another person's transportation to the colony.

indenture

A legal labor contract binding a person to work for a specified number of years in exchange for passage to the colonies and basic maintenance.

House of Burgesses

The first elected legislative assembly in North America, established in colonial Virginia in 1619.

The Reconquista

A centuries-long series of military campaigns by Christian kingdoms to reclaim the Iberian Peninsula from Muslim rule, completed in 1492.

adelantados

Spanish commanders or military governors licensed by the Crown to conquer and administer frontier territories.

Prince Henry the Navigator

Portuguese royal prince who sponsored early Atlantic exploration, navigation technological advances, and coastal African voyages.

Puritans

English religious reformers who sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic traditions and founded colonies in New England.

The Great Migration

The movement of thousands of English Puritans to New England and the Caribbean during the 1630s.

Roger Williams

Puritan minister banished from Massachusetts who established Rhode Island on principles of religious liberty and church-state separation.

Antinomian Controversy

A religious conflict in Massachusetts (1636–1638) centered around Anne Hutchinson's theological challenges to mainstream Puritan clergy.

The Pequot War

An armed conflict (1636–1638) between the Pequot nation and English colonists from Massachusetts and Connecticut alongside Native allies.

Praying Towns

Settlements established by New England Puritans to convert Indigenous inhabitants to Christianity and European cultural practices.

The Navigation Acts

A series of English mercantilist laws restricting colonial trade to English vessels and English ports.

The task system

A labor organization method on rice and indigo plantations where enslaved workers were assigned daily tasks and permitted free time once finished.

The Yamasee War

A conflict (1715–1717) between British colonists in South Carolina and a coalition of Native nations reacting against trade abuses and enslavement.

The Stono Rebellion

A 1739 uprising of enslaved people in South Carolina attempting to reach freedom in Spanish Florida, resulting in stricter slave codes.

Popé

A Tewa religious leader who organized and directed the successful Pueblo Revolt of 1680 against Spanish rule in New Mexico.

Metacom’s War

A major conflict (1675–1678) between New England English colonists and an Indigenous alliance led by the Wampanoag chief Metacom.

Halfway Covenant

A 1662 New England church policy permitting partial church membership rights for grandchildren of full members without requiring a personal conversion account.

Edmund Andros

The royal governor of the Dominion of New England whose authoritarian policies drew widespread resistance until his removal in 1689.

Nathaniel Bacon

A Virginia planter who led Bacon's Rebellion in 1676 against Governor William Berkeley over frontier security and colonial policy.

William Berkeley

The royal governor of colonial Virginia who clashed with Nathaniel Bacon during the 1676 uprising.

Salem Witch Trials

A series of hearings and legal prosecutions in Massachusetts (1692–1693) that resulted in the execution of individuals accused of witchcraft.

The Great Awakening

A widespread evangelical religious revival movement that swept through the American colonies in the 1730s and 1740s.

The Enlightenment

An 18th-century intellectual movement promoting reason, empirical science, individual rights, and critical examination of traditional political and religious institutions.