Jamestown to Puritans: Key Terms from the Early English Colonies

Vocabulary flashcards covering Jamestown, labor systems, key individuals, tobacco’s rise, slavery, and the Puritan era in New England.

Jamestown

First permanent English colony in the present-day United States, founded in 1607 on a James River peninsula in Virginia.

Susan Constant

One of the three ships that carried the Jamestown settlers to Virginia in 1607.

Godspeed

One of the three ships that carried the Jamestown settlers to Virginia in 1607.

Discovery

One of the three ships that carried the Jamestown settlers to Virginia in 1607.

James River

Virginia river named after James I, the site of the Jamestown settlement.

Virginia

Colony named for Queen Elizabeth I (the Virgin Queen); location of Jamestown.

Powhatan Confederacy

Network of Algonquian-speaking tribes led by Powhatan in the Chesapeake region; about 10,000 people.

Wahunsenacawh

Powhatan’s self-designated name; leader of the Powhatan Confederacy during Jamestown’s early years.

Pocahontas

Daughter of Powhatan who intervened to save John Smith; later married John Rolfe; died in England.

John Smith

Leader of Jamestown who asserted a work ethic with the motto 'He that will not work shall not eat'.

John Rolfe

English colonist who married Pocahontas and helped establish tobacco as a profitable crop in Virginia.

Headright policy

1618 policy granting 50 acres of land for each new migrant and 50 more for each paid immigrant passage.

House of Burgesses

First representative assembly in what would become the United States; established in Jamestown in 1619.

Tobacco

Cash crop that transformed Virginia’s economy, driving settlement and labor demand; production grew dramatically.

Indentured servant

Laborers who signed contracts to work for a set period in exchange for passage to America.

Indentures

Contracts binding servants to work for a fixed term to obtain passage and potential land.

Opechancanough

Powhatan’s brother who led the 1622 surprise attack on Jamestown, killing many colonists.

1622 attack

Powhatan assault that killed about 350 colonists, shifting power toward Native Americans.

Anthony Johnson

Angolan man sold into servitude who completed his indenture and became a tobacco planter, an early African success story.

Slavery

System of forced labor tied to race; began with Africans sold in 1619 and evolved into a codified racial system.

Plymouth Colony

Settlement founded in 1620 by Separatists (Pilgrims) in present-day Massachusetts.

Puritans

English religious reformers who sought to purify the Church of England; Calvinist; dominant in New England.

Great Migration

Mass movement of about 20,000 Puritans to New England between 1630 and 1640.

Calvinism

Theological system emphasizing predestination and the authority of the Bible, influential among Puritans.

Elect

In Calvinism, the subset of people preselected by God for salvation.

City upon a Hill

John Winthrop’s vision of New England as a model Christian community for reformers.

Starving Time

Winter of 1609–1610 in Jamestown when famine was rampant and cannibalism occurred; most settlers died.

Noxious weed

Label used by King James I for tobacco before its economic importance was recognized.

Atlantic slave trade

Transatlantic system that organized the sale and transport of enslaved Africans, laying the groundwork for American slavery.