Chapter 4 | Life in the American Colonies | U.S. History

Subsistence farming

Producing enough to meet the needs of their family, with little to none left for sale or trade.

Cash crop

Crops that could be sold easily in markets in the colonies and overseas.

Diversity

Variety, such as ethnic or national groups.

Triangular trade

A pattern of trade that developed in colonial times among the Americas, Africa and Europe

Slave Code

Rules focusing on the behavior and punishment of enslaved people; laws in Southern states that controlled enslaved people.

Representative government

A system in which people elect delegates to make laws and conduct government on their behalf.

Mercantilism

An economic theory that a nation's power depends on its ability to increase wealth by increasing exports and accumulating precious metals in return

Export

To sell goods to other countries

Import

To bring in goods from other countries.

English Bill of Rights

The ruler could not suspend Parliament's laws, impose taxes, or raise an army without Parliament's consent.

Navigation Acts

The law forced colonists to sell their raw materials to England even if they could get a better price elsewhere.

Immigration

The permanent movement of people into a country from other countries.

Epidemic

An illness that affects large numbers of people.

Apprentice

A person who learns a trade from a skilled craftsperson

Public Education Law

The Massachusetts Puritans required communities with 50 or more homes to have a public school

Great Awakening

A religious revival that inspired greater religious freedom

Jonathan Edwards

Minister from Massachusetts involved in the Great Awakening by giving powerful and convincing sermons.

The Enlightenment

The idea that knowledge, reason and science could improve society.

Censorship

The banning of printed materials because they contain unpopular or offensive ideas.

John Peter Zenger

Publisher of the New-York Weekly Journal who accused New York's governor of corruption

Militia

A military force made up of ordinary citizens.

Albany Plan of Union

This was to be for a united colonial government designed by Benjamin Franklin. Each colony would have to give up some of its power

French and Indian War

Conflict between the British and the French.

William Pitt

The Prime Minister of the British government that said Britain would pay for the French and Indian War knowing he would tax the colonists later to cover the cost of the war.

Treaty of Paris

This treaty forced France to give Canada and most of its land east of the Mississippi River to Great Britain.

Pontiac's War

Pontiac was the chief of an Ottawa village that captured British outposts. The forces killed settlers along the Pennsylvania and Virginia frontiers.

Iroquois Confederacy

The most powerful group of Native Americans in eastern North America

Alliance

Partnership

Middle Passage

The second or middle part of the three-part route across the ocean known as the triangular trade.