Encomienda System
A system used by Spaniards in which Indians were given to colonists to use for labor
The Slave Trade
The buying, transporting, and selling of Africans in the Americas
Columbian Exchange
The transmission and interchange of plants, animals, diseases, cultures, human populations (including slaves), and technologies between the New World and the Old World.
Joint Stock Company
Companies that are owned by shareholders
Maize
A large grain plant first domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mexico about 10,000 years ago
Smallpox
A deadly disease that Europeans brought to the New World.
Pueblos
Native American tribe that was located in the Southwest who lived in apartment like structures
Lakota Sioux
comprised of seven tribal bands and are the largest and most western of the three groups, occupying lands in both North and South Dakota
Mayans
Members of a Mesoamerican Indian people inhabiting southeast Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize
Incas
members of a South American Indian people living in the central Andes before the Spanish conquest
Aztecs
Members of the American Indian people dominant in Mexico before the Spanish conquest of the 16th century.
Conquistadors
Spanish conquerors of Mexico and Peru in the 16th century
Hernando Cortes
Spanish explorer and conquistador who conquered Aztec Mexico for Spain
Roanoke Island
an island in Dare County, present-day North Carolina, United States that was found abandoned without a trace of the colonists
Compass
Technological innovation from the Renaissance that made traveling by ocean more accurate while in open waters.
Christopher Columbus
Italian explorer who discovered the Americas in 1492 for the Spanish
Iroquois Confederation
Group of Native American Indians which was originally composed of 5 tribes consisting of the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca peoples
Henry Hudson
The english explorer who sailed for the dutch and explored the rivers and bay in the new york area from 1609-1611.
Bartolome de Las Casas
A Spanish missionary who was disgusted and outraged by the poor treatment of Native Americans especially the encomienda system, advocated for their rights.
Colonizers
a country that sends settlers to a place and establishes political control over it.
New England
Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire
Middle Colonies
New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware
Chesapeake Colonies
Virginia and Maryland
Southern Colonies
North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia
British West Indies
the islands in and around the Caribbean that were part of the British Empire
Puritans
A religious group who wanted to purify the Church of England. They came to America for religious freedom and settled Massachusetts Bay.
Jamestown
the first successful permanent English settlement in North America.
Mayflower Compact
The first agreement for self-government in America
Virginia House of Burgesses
the first elected legislative assembly in the New World, established in Virginia in 1619
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.
Triangular Trade
trade routes that carried British manufactured goods to Africa and the Colonies, Colonial products (like tobacco, indigo, sugar, and rice) to Europe, and Slaves from Africa to the New World. Northern Colonies participated in this trade too by shipping slaves south.
Navigation Act
Law that required that all European goods that were to be sent to any of the colonies (including the 13 original) had to go through England first, in order to make sure that all foreign imports to the colonies were paying proper taxes on those goods.
Metacom/King Philp’s War
A series of battles in New Hampshire between the colonists and the Wompanoags
Pueblo Revolt
a revolution against Spanish religious, economic, and political institutions imposed upon the Pueblos
Bacon’s Rebellion
an armed rebellion held by Virginia settlers that took place from 1676 to 1677. It was led by Nathaniel Bacon against Colonial Governor William Berkeley, after Berkeley refused Bacon's request to drive Native American Indians out of Virginia.
Headright system
A land grant system that gave land to investors who paid for immigrants to move to Colonial America.
Chattel Slavery
A system of bondage in which a slave has the legal status of property and so can be bought and sold like property.
Indentured Servants
Passage paid for poor young men and women to come to colonies; in return, they worked for the person who paid their passage for a set number of years, usually 5-7 years, after which they gained their freedom.
Slave Labor
Being forced to do a certain job, and not getting paid for it to account for the large amount of labor needed on plantations in the Americas
Middle Passage
middle segment of the forced journey that slaves made from Africa to America throughout the 1600's; it consisted of the dangerous trip across the Atlantic Ocean; many slaves perished on this segment of the journey.
Enlightenment
an eighteenth-century movement in Western philosophy, promoting democracy, natural rights, and revolution.
The First Great Awakening
A revival that swept Protestantism in the British colonies and changed the fabric of religion in early America.
William Penn
an English Quaker, founded Pennsylvania in 1682, after receiving a charter from King Charles II the year before. He launched the colony as a "holy experiment" based on religious tolerance.
Act of Toleration
An act passed in Maryland in 1649 that granted freedom of worship to all Christians; although it was enacted to protect the Catholic minority in Maryland, it was a benchmark of religious freedom in all the colonies.
Cecil Calvert
second Lord Baltimore, founded the colony of Maryland to promote freedom of religion for Catholics and all people in the colony.
Roger Williams
Separatist leader and the founder of the colony of Providence Plantations, which became Rhode Island. He is best remembered for his advocacy of religious freedom and separation of church and state
Providence
colony founded by Roger Williams in 1636, recognized Native Americans' rights and paid them for use of their land, and government provided complete religious toleration.
Anne Hutchinson
A Puritan woman who was well learned that disagreed with the Puritan Church in Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Antinomianism
an interpretation of Puritan beliefs that stressed God's gift of salvation and minimized what an individual could do to gain salvation
Halfway Covenant
Puritan church document, In 1662, allowed partial membership rights to persons not yet converted into the Puritan church; It lessened the difference between the "elect" members of the church from the regular members; Women soon made up a larger portion of Puritan congregations.
Quakers
a radical Protestant sect; wanted to restore the simplicity and spirituality of early Christianity. Pennsylvania was a refuge for them.
Holy Experiment
William Penn supposed to serve everyone and provide freedom for all, was the first colony to allow many different religions to live together.
Poor Richard’s Almanack
Provided affordable information to common people. Ben Franklin sought to improve the colonies' morality, monetary status, and virtue
Religious Toleration
To allow freedom of religion.