Period 2 APUSH Test

Based on test review

Jamestown (1607)

First permanent English colony, in Virginia, run by the Virginia Company for profit. Economic motive; nearly failed ("starving time"); saved by tobacco.

The Charter of Virginia Company

Guaranteed colonists same rights as Englishmen

Joint-stock company

Investors pool money to fund a colony and share profits. Explains why colonists wrote reports to attract investors and royal support.

Powhatan Confederacy

Powerful alliance of Algonquian peoples around Jamestown. Its strength limited early English expansion; later wars over land

Powhatan possibly saw English as

allies for trading (saw them as weaker due to struggles)

Tobacco/cash crop

Crop grown to sell for profit (tobacco in Chesapeake; rice and indigo in the Lower South). Created huge demand for labor, first indentured servants, then enslaved Africans

Headright system

50 acres of land for each person whose passage you paid, drew young, single male servants to the Chesapeake.

Indentured servant

Worked 4–7 years in exchange for passage to America, main Chesapeake labor source until the late 1600s

Bacon's Rebellion (1676)

Uprising of poor, landless Virginians against the governor and American Indians, planters shifted from indentured servants to enslaved Africans

House of Burgesses (1619)

First elected representative assembly in English America, start of colonial self- government

Mayflower Compact (1620)

Plymouth settlers agreed to form a "civil body politic" and follow its laws, early self-government by consent; participation limited to adult men

Puritans

English Protestants seeking to "purify" the church; founded Massachusetts Bay (1630). Tight, religious, family-based towns; little tolerance for dissent

Town meeting

Local self-government in New England towns. Voting was limited to male

church members

Anne Hutchinson

Puritan woman who held religious meetings and claimed direct revelation from God; banished 1638. Dissent challenged Puritan civil and religious authority

Roger Williams

Banished Puritan who founded Rhode Island (1636) Separation of church and state; religious toleration

Antinomianism

Belief that faith and God's grace, not church law, bring salvation, label used against Hutchinson

King Philip's War / Metacom's War (1675–76)

Wampanoag leader Metacom led a war against New England colonists, caused by English taking land; ended Native power in southern New England

Pueblo Revolt (1680)

Pueblo peoples, led by Popé, drove the Spanish out of New Mexico, Spanish returned and accommodated Pueblo culture more

Encomienda

Spanish system granting colonists the labor of American Indians, Spanish forced native people to work mines and plantations

Missions

Spanish religious settlements to convert American Indians to Catholicism, Spain pushed conversion far more than England

Casta system

Spanish social ranking by mixed ancestry, shows Spanish intermarriage and blending

Métis

People of mixed French and American Indian ancestry, shows French intermarriage and cooperation

Fur trade

French and Dutch trade of goods for furs with American Indians, needed Native partners, so it built alliances instead of taking land

Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy / Six Nations

Powerful alliance of nations in New York, pitted European powers against each other; allied with Britain

Columbian Exchange

Transfer of plants, animals, people and diseases between hemispheres, European crops and livestock changed the American landscape

Middle Passage

The brutal voyage of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic, part of the trans-Atlantic slave trade

Triangular trade / Atlantic economy

Trade linking Europe, Africa and the Americas, behind slavery and the Navigation Acts

Slave codes

Laws defining enslaved people as property and hereditary, built a strict racial hierarchy

Mercantilism

Belief that colonies exist to enrich the mother country (export more than import), motive for the Navigation Acts

Navigation Acts (1651, 1660, 1663)

Colonial trade must use English ships; key goods (tobacco, sugar, indigo) go only to England, England controlling the Atlantic economy

Salutary neglect

Britain loosely enforced its trade laws, let colonial assemblies gain power and autonomy

First Great Awakening (1730s–40s)

Religious revival with emotional preaching (Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield), "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" (1741); challenged traditional authority

Enlightenment

Ideas about reason, natural rights and consent (John Locke), different from the Great

Awakening: reason vs. emotion

Stono Rebellion (1739)

Slave revolt in South Carolina, example of resistance; led to harsher laws

Spain -

Main goal

Number of settlers

Treatment of American Indians

Religion

Intermarriage

Overall relationship

Gold, silver, sugar; spread Catholicism

Mostly men; moderate

Conquered and forced them to work (encomienda)

Aggressive conversion through missions

Common (casta system)

Blending, but by force

France -

Main goal

Number of settlers

Treatment of American Indians

Religion

Intermarriage

Overall relationship

Fur trade

Very few

Trade partners and allies

Jesuit missionaries, less forceful

Common (métis)

Cooperation and alliances

Dutch -

Main goal

Number of settlers

Treatment of American Indians

Religion

Intermarriage

Overall relationship

Fur trade and commerce

Very few

Trade partners

Little effort

Some

Cooperation

England -

Main goal

Number of settlers

Treatment of American Indians

Religion

Intermarriage

Overall relationship

Land for farming; profit and religious freedom

Many often whole families

Pushed them off the land

Little effort to convert

Rare

Separation and conflict

French and Dutch are the "similar pair"

few settlers, fur trade, alliances, intermarriage. They posed no demographic threat to Native land

England

differs from everyone: many settlers came as families, wanted to farm land permanently, and kept separate from American Indians.

Spain

worked harder than England to convert American Indians and relied on their forced labor. St. Augustine, Florida (1565) is the oldest continuous European settlement in the U.S.; Spanish Florida was a chain of forts and missions

New England -

Why settled

Who came

Economy

Life expectancy

Slavery (1750)

Government

Religion (Puritans, Pilgrims)

Families; balanced men and women

Small farms, fishing, shipbuilding, trade

Longer, stable families

About 5% of population

Town meetings; church members vote

Middle Colonies -

Why settled

Who came

Economy

Life expectancy

Slavery (1750)

Government

Trade, religious toleration (Quakers in PA)

Diverse Europeans

Wheat and grain (“breadbasket”)
Moderate

Small

Assemblies; tolerant

Chesapeake (VA, MD) -

Why settled

Who came

Economy

Life expectancy

Slavery (1750)

Government

Profit

Young single men, indentured servants

Tobacco

Short; high disease

About 36% (Upper South)

House of Burgesses; planter elite

Lower South (SC, GA)

Profit (settled from Barbados)

Planters and enslaved Africans

Rice and indigo

Very short

About 58% - a Black majority

Planter elite

Why slavery differed by region

Climate and geography, long growing seasons and good soil in South supported cash crops on plantations, which demanded huge amount of labor. New England’s cold climate and rocky soil did not.

Settlement geography (1740)

English colonies hugged the Atlantic coast and spread up river valleys (James, Potomac, Hudson, Susquehanna) and were blocked by the Appalachian Mountains. Expansion meant taking American Indian land.

Jamestown and the Chesapeake

• Founded 1607 by a joint-stock company looking for profit (gold at first). Colonists were economic migrants, not religious refugees.

• Early years were disastrous: disease, hunger, and gentlemen who refused to work. John Smith’s rule: those who don’t work don’t eat.

• Colonists depended on trade with Powhatan for corn. Strength of Powhatan Confederacy limited early expansion, relations turned hostile/violent as English took more land.

• The fort’s walls (palisade) show fear of attack by American Indians.

• Lesson learned: colonists had to focus on farming instead of gold. John' Rolfe’s tobacco (1612) became cash crop

• Colonists wrote reports like Smith’s to win support from king and investors.

• VA developed self-government (H of B 1619), came to rely on many enslaved laborers.

New England and Puritans

• Mayflower Compact (1620): Pilgrims agreed to make/obey laws for “general good.” Purpose: organize rules and order. It planted idea of government by consent which grew into local representative assemblies. Only adult men (in MA, male church members) took part.

• MA Bay (1630): John Winthrop’s “city upon a hill.” Closed, homogeneous communities of believers. Church and government were closely linked.

• Dissenters challenged authority: Anne Hutchinson (put on trial 1637, banished) and Roger Williams (founded RI). Winthrop’s view was that of Puritan leaders/ministers - she “troubled the peace” and acted in a way not “fitting” for a woman.

• King Philip’s (Metacom’s) War 1675-76: the Wampanoag fought back against loss of land/threats to their sovereignty. Result was dramatic decline/scattering of New England’s Native population.

• Environmental change (historian William Cronon): English fences, livestock and private property transformed the land, so Native ways of living became impossible, result - more intense warfare.

Spanish colonies and Pueblo Revolt

• Spain’s empire (by 1640) stretched across Mexico, Caribbean, and South America, rich in gold, silver and sugar.

• Maximizing profit - Spain subjugated native people as laborers (encomienda) and later used enslaved Africans.

• Wealth fueled an exchange of goods/people among Europe, Africa, and Americas. Some Spanish thinkers (Francisco de Vitoria, 1530s) argued against converting people by forced - but Spain still pushed conversion much harder than Britain.

• Pueblo Revolt (1680): Pueblo peoples killed about 400 Spaniards and drove Spain out of New Mexico. When Spain returned (1692), it showed greater accommodation to Native culture (tolerating some Pueblo religious practices).

American Indian adaptation, trade and treaties

• American Indians were not passive - they traded, allied, fought and played empires against each other.

• The Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) allied with Britain. A Mohawk leader in British clothing (Theyanoguin/Hendrick, 1775) shows the long history of Native commerce with European traders, not surrender or assimilation.

• Colonial governments signed treaties (like Lancaster, 1744, with the Six Nations) mainly to prevent conflict caused by colonists’ westward expansion and to gain land.

Slavery and the creation of racial hierarchy

• The trans-Atlantic slave trade: most enslaved Africans went to Brazil and the Caribbean (sugar). British North America received a small share, so it had a lower demand than other colonies.

• Why slavery grew: European demand for colonial crops (tobacco, rice, sugar, indigo). After Bacon’s Rebellion (1676) planters preferred enslaved Africans over indentured servants.

• Laws built a racial caste system.:

  • VA Law

    • 1705 ban on marriage between white and Black people → racial hierarchy enforced by law (1705 slave codes)

    • 1670 Black people and American Indians could not own white Christian servants → race, not religion, set status

    • 1667 Baptism does not free an enslaved person → closed a path to freedom

    • 1662 A child’s status follows the mother → slavery became hereditary

• These laws show an increasing preference for enslaved labor and created a more rigid social hierarchy

• Lower South Black majority: because enslaved people outnumbered whites, they had relative autonomy to preserve and adapt African traditions

• Resistance: enslaved people resisted in everyday ways (slowing work, keeping families, culture and religion) and openly (Stono Rebellion, 1739). Building their own families was a way to resist dehumanization

• Ira Berlin - slavery was a “negotiated relationship” always contested. Best evidence: a slaveholder’s diary about daily plantation life

• Slavery contradicted colonies own principle of consent which grew from the autonomy of colonial legislatures

Mercantilism, trade and self-government

• Mercantilism: colonies supply raw materials and buy mother country’s goods.

• Navigation Acts (1660): trade in English ships only; enumerated goods (sugar, tobacco, indigo, cotton) go only to England. Caused by growing Atlantic economy; motivated by mercantilist goals.

• Salutary neglect: Britain enforced these laws loosely, so colonial assemblies grew strong/independent; colonies were used to governing themselves.

Religion: the First Great Awakening

• Revival of the 1730s-1740s, preachers such as Jonathan Edwards (“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” 1741) and George Whitefield

• Style: emotional, fiery, fear of God’s wrath, personal conversion. Recognize the language: God’s wrath, hell, fire, a spider held over flames.

• Effects: new churches, challenges to established authority, more enslaved people converting to Christianity

• Different from Enlightenment

Women, family and class

• Chesapeake: few women, high death rates, many widows who sometimes held property - because young single men immigrated

• New England: families immigrated, longer lives, stable families

• Nancy Woloch: despite these differences gender roles in the family shaped women’s lives more than region. Female subordination (male authority, wifely submission) crossed the Atlantic intact

• England’s rigid class structure weakened in America, meant more economic opportunity for white male migrants (especially through land).

England did ___ intermarry much or push conversion hard.

NOT

Spain did ___ reject assimilation

NOT

France did ___ enslave American Indians more than Spain.

NOT

Great Awakening vs. Enlightenment vs. Quakers

Hellfire and emotion = Great Awakening.

Reason = Enlightenment. Quakers stressed an "inner light" and peace

Name one way the French and Dutch were similar in dealing with American Indians

they treated Indians as trade partners and allies

Explain why the English more often separated from American Indians

English focused more on self-profit versus trading with Indians, relationships between the two were also tense

Explain the cause and the result of King Philip's War.

Caused by English taking Indian territory, resulted in the end of Native power in southern New England

Explain what changed in Spanish policy after the Pueblo Revolt.

More tolerance to Pueblo culture

Describe why Jamestown struggled and what saved it.

Jamestown settlers did not have enough food (starving period), economy was failing but was saved by tobacco

Explain the purpose of the Mayflower Compact and what it led to.

Settlers agreed to create and obey laws, early form of self-government, “civil body politic”

Explain why Anne Hutchinson was put on trial.

She challenged the Puritan civil and religious authority

Put the Virginia slave laws of 1662, 1667, 1670 and 1705 in order and say what each did.

1662 - A child’s status follows the mother, slavery became hereditary

1667 - Baptism does not free an enslaved person, closed a path to freedom

1670 - Black people and American Indians could not own white Christian servants, race, not religion, sets status

1705 - Ban on marriage between white and Black people, racial hierarchy enforced by law (the 1705 slave codes)

Explain why the Lower South had a Black majority and one effect on enslaved people's culture.

Lots of large plantations increased need of slaves, by outnumbering whites, they had relative autonomy to preserve and adapt African tradition

Explain what the Navigation Acts required and why Parliament passed them.

Required English to only trade with English, Parliament was influenced by mercantilism and the want to enrich their economy

Identify a Great Awakening quote and its preacher.

“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” - Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield

Compare women's lives in the Chesapeake and New England, then explain Woloch's argument

Chesapeake: very few women, high death rates, mant widows held property bcuz men immigrated

New England: families immigrated, longer lives, stable families

The gender roles of women shaped their lives more than what region they lived in

Explain why colonies signed treaties like the 1744 Treaty of Lancaster.

To prevent conflict caused by colonists’ upward expansion and to gain land

Explain where colonial settlements grew on a map and why.

Along Atlantic coastline and river valleys which helped production and transportation of resources, and were blocked by Appalachian Mountains (protection)