Colonial America Period 2 - Vocabulary Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, people, events, and concepts from the Colonial America notes (Period 2).

Jamestown

First permanent English settlement in North America (founded 1607 by the Virginia Company); faced early hardships but stabilized with tobacco economy and the establishment of the House of Burgesses.

Starving Time

The period (1609–1610) of extreme food shortages in Jamestown when many colonists died.

Virginia Company

A joint‑stock company that financed Jamestown and offered settlers rights and some self-government as an incentive to colonize.

Tobacco

Cash crop that saved Jamestown financially, spurred westward expansion toward Indian lands, and increased demand for labor (eventually contributing to slavery).

Headright System

Colonial land policy granting 50 acres of land to any master who paid the passage of an indentured servant.

Indentured Servitude

Labor system where individuals worked for 5–7 years in exchange for passage, room, board, and eventual freedom dues.

House of Burgesses

The first representative assembly in the American colonies, established in Virginia in 1619.

Bacon’s Rebellion

1676 uprising led by Nathaniel Bacon against Governor Berkeley, highlighting frontier tensions and the demand for more land and labor.

Triangular Trade

Transatlantic exchange of slaves, cash crops, and manufactured goods between Africa, the Americas, and Europe.

Atlantic Slave Trade

Large‑scale system of enslaving Africans and transporting them to the Americas; intensified slavery in English colonies.

Middle Passage

The brutal sea voyage that brought enslaved Africans to the Americas as part of the triangular trade.

Maryland Act of Toleration (1649)

Law granting religious freedom to Christians in Maryland, while excluding non‑Christians (an early step toward toleration with limits).

Puritans

English religious group seeking to purify the Church of England; settled Massachusetts Bay; emphasized education and a “city upon a hill.”

Separatists

Puritans who broke from the Church of England and founded Plymouth Colony; signed the Mayflower Compact for self‑government.

Mayflower Compact

The 1620 agreement establishing a self‑governing colonial government for Plymouth.

Plymouth Colony

Settlement founded by Separatists in 1620; later merged with Massachusetts Bay; celebrated the first Thanksgiving.

Massachusetts Bay Colony

Puritan colony founded in 1630; strong religious leadership; “City upon a Hill”; large-scale Great Migration settled it.

Calvinism

Doctrine of predestination and the Elect; influenced Puritan beliefs and social life.

Visible Saints

Puritan belief that church members must demonstrate signs of grace to be part of the Elect.

Protestant Work Ethic

Puritan idea that hard work and frugality demonstrated God’s grace and ensured social status.

Anne Hutchinson

Puritan dissenter banished for challenging predestination and gender roles; helped spur Rhode Island colonization as a haven for dissenters.

Salem Witch Trials

1692–1693 hysteria in Massachusetts leading to executions; signaled limits of Puritan religious authority.

Roger Williams

Puritan minister who founded Rhode Island and advocated religious toleration and fair treatment of Native Americans.

Rhode Island

Colony founded by Roger Williams offering religious liberty and separation of church and state.

William Penn

Quaker founder of Pennsylvania; promoted religious toleration and democratic ideals in the “Holy Experiment.”

Pennsylvania

Founded by William Penn in 1681; diverse, tolerant colony with a representative assembly and a liberal charter (Charter of Privileges).

Great Awakening

Religious revival in the 1730s–1740s led by new lights (Edwards, Whitefield) challenging established churches and promoting religious democracy.

Jonathan Edwards

New England preacher of the Great Awakening; famous for Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God and emotional conversion.

George Whitefield

Dynamic preacher who spread the Great Awakening through open‑air preaching across the colonies.

Glorious Revolution

1688 overthrow of James II; Parliament sovereignty established; led to the relaxation of strict mercantilist enforcement and the rise of salutary neglect.

Dominion of New England

Royal administrative union (1686–1689) under Andros aimed at enforcing Navigation Acts; ended by the Glorious Revolution.

Salutary Neglect

British policy (roughly 1710s–1763) of lax enforcement of mercantilist laws, allowing colonial self‑rule and growth.

Navigation Acts

Mercantilist laws restricting colonial trade to English ships and goods; designed to benefit England; contributed to colonial tensions.

Leisler’s Rebellion

1689–1691 revolt in New York against Dominion rule; highlighted colonial resistance to imperial authorities.

New Netherlands / New York

Dutch colony (New Netherland) with New Amsterdam; taken by the English in 1664 and renamed New York.

Henry Hudson

Explorer whose voyages for the Dutch established Dutch claims to the Hudson River area and fur trade routes.

Barbadian Slave Code (1661)

Early slave laws imported to the Caribbean that influenced later slave codes in the American colonies.

Paxton Boys

1763 unrest by Scots‑Irish frontiersmen in Pennsylvania against Native Americans and Quaker governance.