Colonial America Study Guide Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering key topics, dates, organizations, and concepts from the Colonial America study guide.

New England Town Meetings

A form of direct democracy where local landowning men gathered in meetinghouses to vote directly on local laws, taxes, and policies rather than electing representatives.

Indentured Servants

Laborers who signed contracts (indentures) agreeing to work without pay for 4 to 7 years in exchange for passage to America, food, and shelter.

European Diseases Impact on Native Americans

Smallpox, measles, and influenza wiped out up to 90% of Indigenous populations because Native Americans had no prior biological exposure or natural immunity to Old World pathogens.

Mayflower Compact (1620)

The first agreement for self-government in English America, signed by Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower, which established a "civil body politic" governed by majority rule under allegiance to the King.

Germantown Quaker Protest (1688)

The first written public protest against slavery in North America, drafted by German Quakers and Mennonites in Pennsylvania, arguing that slavery violated the Golden Rule and Christian principles.

Coureurs des bois

French trappers who formed strong military and economic alliances with Native American tribes (such as the Huron and Algonquian) to support New France's beaver fur trade.

Powhatan Confederacy

A powerful alliance of over 30 Algonquian-speaking tribes in coastal Virginia led by Chief Powhatan, formed to maintain regional security, collect tribute, and present a united front against enemies and English settlers at Jamestown.

English vs. French/Dutch Colonial Growth

English colonies grew far more rapidly in population due to permanent family settlements, high natural birth rates, and large-scale migration, whereas French and Dutch colonies covered vast geographic areas for trading networks with small settler populations.

Middle Colonies Transportation

Navigable rivers (such as the Hudson, Delaware, and Susquehanna) that allowed farmers in the "Breadbasket Colonies" (PA, NY, NJ, DE) to easily transport wheat and grain surplus to major port cities like Philadelphia and New York.

Primary Motivations for English Colonization

Wealth and economic competition (seeking gold, raw materials, and new trade markets under mercantilism), religious freedom (Puritans, Quakers), and strategic rivalry with Spain.

Southern Colonies Dependence on Enslaved Labor

Economic reliance on labor-intensive cash crops (tobacco, rice, and indigo) grown on large plantation systems, prompting landowners to shift to enslaved African labor as the supply of indentured servants declined.

New England Shipbuilding Industry Drivers

Geographic conditions where thin, rocky soil prevented large-scale farming, combined with vast forests of dense oak and pine trees along natural deep-water coastlines.

Triangular Trade System

A three-way transatlantic trade route connecting Europe (manufactured goods like guns, textiles, rum to Africa), West Africa (enslaved Africans to the Americas via Middle Passage), and the Americas (raw materials like sugar, tobacco, cotton, molasses to Europe).

Bacon’s Rebellion (1676)

An uprising of frustrated former indentured servants that led colonial elites to view indentured labor as volatile and risky, accelerating the transition to permanent, hereditary racial slavery.

Codification of Slave Codes (1705)

Laws that explicitly tied legal status and servitude to race, stripping basic rights from Black individuals.

Middle Passage

The brutal forced voyage of millions of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the New World, characterized by unsanitary, cramped conditions below deck with mortality rates often reaching 15–20% per journey.