APUSH Block 2 test

Indentured servants

A system of labor in which young men and women would bind themselves to a contract holder (typically for 4-5 years). In return for their labor they would receive passage to America, food and shelter.

Impressment

The act in which people would be kidnapped and forced into indentured servitude by aggressive investors and promoters.

Headright system

A system in which settlers already in the colonies would receive large land grants in return for every servant they imported.

Seasoning

The slow process in the south, in which the settlers slowly developed immunity to local diseases.

Midwives

The role women would take in the medical field. They would assist women in childbirth, but they would also give out other medical advice such as using herbs or other natural remedies.

Humoralism

A medical concept created in the second-century. The idea was that the human body was controlled by four 'humours': yellow bile, black bile, blood, and phlegm.

Bleeding

The medical practice in which the patient would be cut, and have their blood drained. The idea was that as the blood left the body so would the illness.

Scientific method

A method of reasoning that had little support in the early seventeenth century. The method relied on observation and experimentation, instead of inherited faiths.

Enlightenment

An intellectual movement in the late seventeenth century that had great faith in human reason and the ability of individuals and societies to create better lives.

Patriarchal

A system in which a family is dominated by the male head.

Puritanism

The Puritan lifestyle. They placed a high value on the family, which was the main economic and religious unit in every community.

Coffles

These were created when Native African chieftains would capture members of enemy tribes defeated in battle, and tie them together in long lines.

Enslaved Africans

The African people who would be captured and then forcefully transferred to the colonies in the Americas.

Middle passage

The name given to the journey enslaved Africans would go on to America. The travel conditions were awful, and the Africans were faced with extremely inhumane treatment.

Royal African Company

An English company that had a monopoly over slave trade in the mainland colonies.

Slave codes

A set of laws that limited the rights of enslaved people, and gave almost absolute power to slaveholders.

Huguenots

French Calvinists, they were some of the earliest non-English immigrants to the Americas.

Edict of Nantes

A royal proclamation that had basically allowed the French Calvinists to practically become a state in Roman Catholic France. However, when this edict was revoked many French Calvinists left the country.

King Louis XIV

He was also known as the "Sun King". He led wars that left Catholics and Protestants in Germany devastated.

Palatinate

The name given to the Rhineland of southwestern Germany. The people in the area faced extreme hardships because they were so close to France, and were exposed to slaughter at the hands of invaders.

Pennsylvania Dutch

The name given to the German settlers in Pennsylvania by the English settlers. Quaker colonies were a common destination for German immigrants, many of whom were Moravians and Mennonites who had similar views to those of the Quakers.

Scots-Irish

They were the most numerous group of non-English immigrants to the Americas. They had previously been ruthless in their suppression of the Catholic Irish Natives. However, they were later forced to leave Ireland as it became unaffordable to live there. They were coldly received in the colonies, and were pushed to the outskirts of the colonies. They occupied land and did not care who it belonged to, they would suppress Native Americans with the same intensity they had towards Native Irishmen.

Tobacco

An important cash crop in the Chesapeake region. It was the basis of the economy, however it was not in stable demand. The overproduction of the crop would often cause the price and demand to go down. As a result the crop's demand followed a 'boom-and-bust' pattern.

Rice

This crop was a staple in the economies of Georgia and South Carolina. Farmers would create dams and dikes in order to create rice paddies. Cultivation of rice was extremely arduous work, and white workers would often refuse to perform this task. Due to this planters in South Carolina and Georgia were even more reliant on enslaved Africans.

Indigo

Another crop that became extremely important to the economy of South Carolina. It was cultivated by Eliza Lucas, who discovered the crop could be grown on the highgrounds of South Carolina, where rice could not be grown. The harvest of this crop occurred while rice was still growing, and it became an important complement to rice. The plant was used to make blue dye which was in great demand in Europe.

Saugus Ironworks

An ironworks established in Massachusetts. It was established after iron ore deposits were discovered in the region. The works used water power, and it was technologically successful. It was not economically successful however, and it was forced to shut down due to financial difficulties.

Peter Hasenclever

He was a German ironmaster credited with the creation of the largest industrial enterprise in all of English North America. His enterprise was located in northern New Jersey.

Iron Act of 1750

An act put in place by the English parliament that restricted metal processing in the colonies. Similar acts prevented the colonies from having explosive industrial growth.

Merchants

A person/people who are involved in trade, they will sell goods or services.

Transatlantic Trade

Trade that linked the North American colonies to England, Europe, and the West coast of Africa.

Triangular Trade

A trade system that emerged between the North American colonies, the West Indies (Caribbean), and England. Merchants would bring rum and other goods from the colonies to Africa, in exchange for enslaved people who would be brought to the West Indies.

Navigation Acts

Acts that excluded all non-British ships from the colonial carrying trade. These acts allowed the merchant class of the North to enjoy protection for foreign competition.

Consumerism

The act of buying consumer goods. People began to buy more consumer goods as a way to demonstrate their rank in society.

Plantations

Large clearings of land where crops would be grown. They could greatly vary in size.

Gullah

A hybrid language developed by enslaved Africans, combining English and African languages, allowing conversations that slave owners could not understand.

Stono Rebellion

One of the most important slave revolts during the colonial period, occurring in South Carolina where about 100 enslaved people rose up, took weapons, and killed several white people.

Covenant

A characteristic of New England settlements, binding members in a religious and social commitment to unity and harmony.

Meeting house

A building in New England villages arranged around a central pasture for community gatherings.

Common

The central pasture around which the meetinghouse in New England villages was arranged.

Town meeting

A yearly meeting held by residents of a town to decide important questions and choose a group of selectmen.

Selectmen

A group of men chosen to govern the town until the next town meeting.

Visible saint

Residents who could give evidence of grace and were confident in salvation due to a conversion experience, admitted to full membership in the Church.

Conversion

An experience in which a person undergoes a sudden and profound spiritual transformation.

Halfway covenant

A system allowing residents of a settlement to participate in Church without having undergone a conversion experience.

Primogeniture

An English system of inheritance where all inherited property is passed to the firstborn son.

Salem Witch Trials

A period of hysteria in Salem where a group of teenage girls accused several West Indian Servants of witchcraft, resulting in the deaths of 19 residents.

Church of England

Also known as the Anglican Church, established as the official faith in Virginia, Maryland, New York, the Carolinas, and Georgia.

Congregationalism

A system of Christian church organization in which local churches are self-governing.

American Baptists

Believed to have been introduced to America by Roger Williams, asserting that rebaptism is necessary when believers reach maturity.

Calvinists

Followers of Calvinism who believed in predestination.

Catholics

A Christian minority in the colonies who did not easily receive toleration.

New France

What is now Canada, which had a large population of Catholics, seen as threats by New Englanders.

Jewish

A religious minority in North America, with the largest community in New York City, and smaller groups in Newport and Charles Town.

Secular

The idea that not everything had to be connected to religious or spiritual matters, growing in urban areas with commercial prosperity.

Jeremiads

Sermons of despair preached by ministers to show disapproval of declining piety.

Declension

A decline in morals that upset New Englanders as religious piety began to fade.

Great Awakening

A new kind of religious fervor in the colonies, appealing especially to women and younger sons of the third or fourth generation of settlers.

John & Charles Wesley

Powerful evangelists from England who helped to spread the revival and were the founders of Methodism.

George Whitefield

A powerful open air preacher who was an associate of the Wesleys and drew tremendous crowds during his evangelizing tours through the colonies.

Jonathan Edwards

A deeply orthodox Puritan and original theologian who preached traditional Puritan ideas of absolute sovereignty of God, predestination, and salvation by God's grace alone.

New & Old Lights

A division of congregations resulting from the Great Awakening, consisting of New light revivalists and Old Light traditionalists.

Natural laws

Laws discovered by scientists and thinkers that regulate the workings of nature and celebrate the power of human reason and scientific inquiry.

Public education

A law in Massachusetts requiring every town to have a public school, reflecting the high value placed on education by colonists.

Dame school

Schools conducted by widows or unmarried women who held private classes in their homes.

Benjamin Franklin

The most celebrated amateur scientist in America, known for his experimental proof of the nature of lightning and electricity, and his invention of the lightning rod.

Poor Richard's Almanack

A book written and published by Benjamin Franklin meant to provide colonists with moral guidance.

Harvard

The first American college established by the General Court of Massachusetts to create a training center for ministers.

General Court

The legislature of Massachusetts that established Harvard college.

John Harvard

The Charles Town minister after whom Harvard is named, who died and left his library and half his estate to the college.

William and Mary College

A college established in Virginia by Anglicans, named after the King and Queen of England, intended to train clergymen.

Yale

A college founded by conservative Congregationalists who felt Harvard was becoming too liberal, named after benefactor Elihu Yale.

Theology

The study of the nature of God and other religious beliefs.

Royal Society of London

The leading English scientific organization that heavily promoted scientific research and reasoning.

Smallpox inoculation

The practice of deliberately infecting a person with a mild case of smallpox to immunize them against the disease.

Trial by jury

An essential and ancient right adopted by the American legal system where a jury listens to a court case to determine the outcome.

Libel

A published false statement that slanders someone and is a form of written defamation.

John Peter Zenger

A New York publisher put on trial who was defended by Andrew Hamilton; the court ruled that criticism of the government is not libel if true.

Self-government

The creation of American institutions due to distance from royal government, allowing local communities to run their own affairs.

Colonial assemblies

Communities that maintained strict control over their delegates and exercised many powers that Parliament exercised in England.

Governors

Appointed by the Crown with broad powers on paper, but their influence was limited, often lacking control over appointments and contracts.

Great Britain

The name given to the island that contains England and Scotland, after a union of the two countries.

Royal colonies

Colonies that were under direct control of the king. There were a total of eight royal colonies including New Jersey, Georgia, and the Carolinas (North & South).

Navigation Acts

Parliament passed laws to supplement these acts, and to further strengthen mercantilist programs.

Mercantilism

An economic system that was used by England/Britain. The basis of the system was to increase exports while minimizing imports.

King George I

He was a German-born British king. He was unaccustomed to English ways.

King George II

He was king following George I, and was also German-born. Similarly he was not accustomed to English ways.

Prime Minister

They are parliamentary leaders. They began to take more control of parliament during the rule of George I/II, and at that time they did not hold their position by the king's favor, but instead by their ability to control a majority in parliament.

Cabinet

They are ministers appointed by the King. They worked alongside the Prime Minister. They, along with the Prime Minister, began to take a more executive role, as the German-born kings were not as involved in English affairs.

Parliament

The British legislature. Their power increased due to the weak monarchy.

Taxes

These were enforced by the government, often used as a way for them to garner revenue. They would often come in the form of tariffs, and would heavily affect trade.

Robert Walpole

He was considered the first of the modern prime ministers. He purposefully refrained from enforcing the Navigation Acts, as he thought that relaxed trading restrictions would benefit commerce.

Board of Trade and Plantations

The administration of colonial affairs was decentralized and inefficient. They were closest equivalent to a colonial office in London, they were a small advisory board that had little role in any actual decisions.

Privy Council

They were the central administrative agency for the government as a whole.

Ben Franklin

He was an agent sent from the colonial assemblies to England in order to lobby for American interests.

Salutary neglect

This was an unofficial British policy of lightened enforcement of parliamentary laws in the American colonies. This allowed the colonies to develop a stronger sense of self-governance and autonomy.

Customs

This is the official agency/process for regulating goods and people that are crossing national borders. This also included the collection of import duties. The collectors of this agency in the colonies regularly waived duties on goods when merchants paid them to.

Colonial legislatures

These were the legislative bodies of government in the American colonies. This is where the resistance to imperial authority was centered.

Iroquois Confederacy

Made up of five Native American nations: Mohawk, Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, and Oneida. They had been the most powerful tribal presence in the Northeast since they had fought and won a war against the Hurons. They forged an important commercial relationship with the English and Dutch along the eastern seaboard, while they continued to trade with the French. They managed to remain independent and maintain some semblance of power by pitting the English and French against each other.

President general

The new central government would have this person appointed and paid by the king just as colonial governors were.

Grand council

The new central government would have a legislature elected by the colonial assemblies.