AP US History Period 2 Vocabulary

A set of vocabulary flashcards based on the Period 2 Vocabulary sheet for AP US History, categorized into fundamental, very important, and somewhat important key terms.

1607

The year Jamestown, Virginia was founded as the first permanent English settlement in North America.

fur

The primary commodity traded between European colonizers (especially the French and Dutch) and Native Americans.

intermarriage

Marriage between European settlers (primarily French and Spanish) and Native American women, fostering diplomatic and economic alliances.

Jamestown, Virginia

The first permanent English settlement in North America, established in 1607.

Henry Hudson

An English explorer hired by the Dutch who sailed into New York Harbor and the river bearing his name in 1609, establishing Dutch claims to New Netherland.

All 13 Original Colonies

The group of British colonies along the Atlantic coast of North America that eventually rebelled and formed the United States.

tobacco

The crucial cash crop introduced by John Rolfe that made Virginia economically viable and drove demand for land and labor.

Puritans

English Protestant reformers who sought to 'purify' the Church of England of Catholic practices and established the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

New England Colonies

The northern British colonial region (Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire) settled largely by Puritans, characterized by family farms, small towns, and commerce.

Middle Colonies

The central British colonial region (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware) known for ethnic and religious diversity, grain farming, and trade.

Chesapeake Colonies

The colonial region consisting of Virginia and Maryland, characterized by tobacco plantation agriculture and reliance on indentured servants and enslaved labor.

Southern Colonies

The southernmost British colonial region (North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia) characterized by long growing seasons, plantation economies focused on rice and indigo, and heavy reliance on slave labor.

Captain John Smith

The leader of the Jamestown colony who saved it from early collapse by enforcing strict discipline ('He who will not work shall not eat').

Maryland Act of Toleration

A 1649 law passed in Maryland granting religious freedom to all Trinitarian Christians, intended to protect Catholic settlers.

Plymouth

The colony established in 1620 in present-day Massachusetts by Separatist Pilgrims who arrived on the Mayflower.

John Winthrop

Puritan leader and governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony who famously envisioned the colony as a model 'City upon a Hill'.

Roger Williams

Puritan minister banished from Massachusetts for advocating religious freedom and separation of church and state, who subsequently founded Rhode Island.

Anne Hutchinson

Puritan woman banished from Massachusetts Bay Colony for challenging orthodox religious leadership and preaching antinomianism.

subsistence farming

A form of agriculture in which farmers grow enough food to feed their families rather than to sell for profit on the market.

William Penn

Quaker founder of Pennsylvania who established the colony as a haven for Quakers and a refuge of religious freedom and fair relations with Native Americans.

Quakers

A pacifist Protestant group (the Society of Friends) that rejected church hierarchy and advocated equality, settling primarily in Pennsylvania.

"breadbasket"

A nickname for the Middle Colonies due to their fertile soil and high export production of wheat, rye, and other grains.

House of Burgesses

Established in Virginia in 1619, the first representative legislative assembly in the American British colonies.

Town meetings

A form of direct democratic local government common in New England where townspeople gathered to vote on local laws, budgets, and officers.

Mayflower Compact

A 1620 agreement signed by the Pilgrims establishing self-government and rule by majority consent aboard the Mayflower.

Virginia Company

The English joint-stock company chartered by King James I that funded and founded the Jamestown colony.

John Rolfe

Jamestown settler who introduced a profitable strain of tobacco to Virginia and married Pocahontas.

Pocahontas

Powhatan woman who facilitated relations between her father's tribe and the Jamestown colonists and married John Rolfe.

Pilgrims

The group of English Separatists who established Plymouth Colony in 1620 seeking total separation from the Church of England.

Mayflower

The ship that transported the Pilgrims across the Atlantic Ocean to Plymouth in 1620.

Separatists

Radical English Protestants who withdrew completely from the Church of England, distinct from non-separating Puritans.

Great Migration

The mass movement of tens of thousands of English Puritans to New England during the 1630s.

Fundamental Orders of Connecticut

A 1639 document considered the first written constitution in America, creating a representative government for the Connecticut towns.

Halfway Covenant

A 1662 New England Puritan policy granting partial church membership to the children of non-converted church members in response to declining religious zeal.

James Oglethorpe

Founder of the colony of Georgia, envisioned as a fresh start for English debtors and a military buffer against Spanish Florida.

Transatlantic Trade

The triangular ocean trade system exchanging manufactured goods, raw materials, and enslaved people across the Atlantic between Europe, Africa, and the Americas.

mercantilism

An economic doctrine holding that colonies exist to enrich the mother country through strict state regulation of trade and extraction of wealth.

Middle Passage

The horrific ocean voyage across the Atlantic that forced enslaved Africans into human bondage under inhumane conditions.

Mother Country

The imperial nation (such as Great Britain) in relation to its colonial possessions.

Navigation Acts

A series of English laws designed to enforce mercantilism by requiring colonial goods to be transported on English ships and routed through English ports.

salutary neglect

The unofficial British policy of lax enforcement of colonial trade laws, allowing the colonies relative economic and political autonomy.

Atlantic economy

The global network of trade routes connecting goods, labor, capital, and people across Europe, Africa, and the Americas.

Dominion of New England

A administrative union created by the English crown in 1686 to consolidate control and enforce the Navigation Acts in the northeastern colonies.

Sir Edmund Andros

The autocratic royal governor of the Dominion of New England whose repressive policies deeply angered colonists until his overthrow.

Glorious Revolution of 1688

The bloodless overthrow of King James II of England, leading to the collapse of the Dominion of New England and the restoration of colonial charters.

King Philip's War

A bloody 1675–1676 conflict between New England colonists and an alliance of Native American tribes led by Metacom, ending widespread Native resistance in southern New England.

Bacon's Rebellion

A 1676 armed uprising in Virginia led by Nathaniel Bacon against Governor Berkeley over Native American policies and colonial inequalities, accelerating the transition from indentured servitude to racial slavery.

King Philip (Metacom)

Wampanoag chief who organized a confederation of tribes to fight against English colonial expansion in New England.

Pueblo Revolt

A successful 1680 uprising of Pueblo people led by Popé against Spanish colonial rule in present-day New Mexico, temporarily expelling the Spanish.

Wampanoag Native Americans

The Native American tribe in southern New England that interacted with the Pilgrims at Plymouth and later resisted English encroachment during King Philip's War.

Sir William Berkeley

The royal governor of Virginia whose corrupt administration, land policies, and resistance to attacking Native Americans led to Bacon's Rebellion.

slave codes

Colonial statutes enacted to define the legal status of enslaved Black people as chattel property and systematically strip them of human rights.

Indentured servants

Laborers who signed contracts agreeing to work without pay for a set period (usually 4–7 years) in exchange for passage to America and basic living provisions.

1619

The year the first recorded group of enslaved Africans was brought to Virginia.

Headright system

A colonial land policy offering 50 acres of land to anyone who paid for their own or another person's passage to Virginia, encouraging labor importation.

Stono Rebellion

A 1739 slave uprising in South Carolina where armed enslaved people marched toward Spanish Florida before being suppressed, leading to harsher slave codes.

pluralism

The coexistence of diverse ethnic, religious, and cultural backgrounds within a single society, characteristic of the American British colonies.

First Great Awakening

A major religious revival movement during the 1730s and 1740s that swept through the colonies, emphasizing personal salvation, emotional faith, and challenging religious authority.

European Enlightenment

An 18th-century intellectual movement emphasizing reason, science, individual rights, and democratic governance that profoundly influenced colonial thinking.

Jonathan Edwards

Prominent theologian and preacher during the First Great Awakening, known for his vivid description of hell in 'Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God'.

George Whitefield

Charismatic British preacher whose tour of the American colonies helped ignite the First Great Awakening through passionate outdoor sermons.

John Locke

English philosopher whose ideas on natural rights (life, liberty, property) and the social contract deeply shaped colonial political thought.

Anglicization

The process through which American colonies adopted English culture, political institutions, legal structures, and religious customs.

uniquely American identity

The distinct cultural and political identity forged by American colonists through shared colonial experiences, regional adaptations, pluralism, and ideological revivals.

"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"

Famous 1741 sermon delivered by Jonathan Edwards warning sinners of divine judgment and urging repentance.

"Old Lights"

Traditional, established ministers who opposed the emotionalism and revivalism of the First Great Awakening.

"New Lights"

Pro-revivalist ministers and believers who embraced the emotional, personal style of worship characteristic of the First Great Awakening.