Period 2 key concepts

Corporate Colonies

Colonies operated by joint

Royal Colonies

Colonies under the direct authority and rule of the king's government.

Proprietary Colonies

Colonies under the authority of individuals granted charters by the king.

Jamestown (1607)

The first lasting English colony, settled on a swampy area of the James River in Virginia.

House of Burgesses (1619)

The first representative government established in the English colonies.

Introduction of Tobacco

Introduced by John Rolfe and Pocahontas, it became Virginia's vital cash crop.

Headright System

Granted 50 acres of land to each immigrant or planter who paid an immigrant's passage.

Bacon's Rebellion (1676)

Insurrection highlighting deep economic tensions between wealthy planters and the landless poor.

Mayflower Compact (1620)

Plymouth agreement establishing self-government and decisions by the will of the majority.

Massachusetts Bay Colony (1629)

Puritan colony established via royal charter with John Winthrop as governor.

Great Migration

Influx of about 15,000 Puritan settlers to Massachusetts Bay due to the English Civil War.

Maryland Act of Toleration (1649)

Law granting religious freedom to all Christians, created as a haven for Catholics.

Roger Williams & Rhode Island

Banished minister who established Providence (1636) based on the separation of church and state.

Fundamental Orders of Connecticut (1639)

Considered the first written constitution in American colonial history.

Halfway Covenant (1660s)

Allowed partial church membership to ease declining Puritan conversion rates.

New England Confederation (1643-1684)

Military alliance of New England colonies for protection against Indian, French, and Dutch attacks.

King Philip's War (1675-1676

Devastating conflict led by Wampanoag chief Metacom that effectively ended Indian resistance in New England.

Carolinas Split (1729)

Divided into North Carolina (small tobacco farms) and South Carolina (rice, indigo, slave plantations).

New York (1664)

Seized from the Dutch by the Duke of York, retaining Dutch religious and linguistic freedom.

Pennsylvania (1681)

Founded by William Penn as a 'Holy Experiment' and safe refuge for Quakers.

Georgia (1733)

Founded by James Oglethorpe as a debtor colony and buffer zone against Spanish Florida.

Mercantilism

Economic policy where government regulates trade and production to make the empire self

Navigation Acts (1650-1673)

British laws strictly regulating colonial trade, causing negative impacts on British-colonial relations.

Triangular Trade & Slavery

Transatlantic trade network; by 1775, enslaved people made up 20% of the colonial population.

Colonial Economic Regions

New England (fishing/trade), Middle Colonies (farming/manufacturing), Southern Colonies (plantations/cash crops).

Great Awakening (1730s - 1740s

Major religious revival movement featuring emotive preachers like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield

Enlightenment Thought

John Locke's ideas of natural rights, rights of man, and social contract that influenced colonial political thought.

John Peter Zenger Case

Landmark libel case that laid the foundation for greater freedom of the press in the colonies.

Colonial Legislatures

Bicameral assemblies that controlled taxes through their 'power of the purse'.