US History Unit 1 & 2 Names

Chief Powhatan (Wahunsenacawh)

Leader of Native groups in Virginia when Jamestown began in 1607; traded and fought with settlers.

Pocahontas

Powhatan's daughter; was taken captive by English settlers and married John Rolfe in 1614.

Metacom (King Philip)

Wampanoag leader who fought English settlement in New England in 1675–1676.

Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea)

Mohawk leader who supported Britain during the Revolutionary War.

Christopher Columbus

Sailed for Spain in 1492 looking for Asia; reached the Caribbean instead.

Amerigo Vespucci

Explorer whose reports helped show the Americas were not Asia; America was named for him.

Ponce de León

Spanish explorer linked to the 1513 expedition to Florida.

Ferdinand and Isabella

Spanish king and queen who paid for Columbus's 1492 trip.

Queen Elizabeth I

English queen during the Roanoke attempts; Virginia was named for her.

Sir Walter Raleigh

Backed England's failed Roanoke colony in the 1580s.

King James I

English king who gave the Virginia Company a charter; Jamestown was named for him.

John Smith

Early Jamestown leader who pushed settlers to work and helped get food through trade.

John Rolfe

Made tobacco profitable in Virginia; married Pocahontas.

William Bradford

Pilgrim leader and longtime governor of Plymouth; wrote about its early years.

John Winthrop

Puritan leader of Massachusetts Bay; wanted a model Christian community.

Roger Williams

Banished from Massachusetts; founded Providence in Rhode Island and backed religious freedom.

Anne Hutchinson

Questioned Puritan religious leaders; was banished from Massachusetts.

John Eliot

Puritan missionary linked to New England's praying towns.

Lord Baltimore (Calvert family)

Family behind Maryland; hoped it would be safer for English Catholics.

William Penn

Quaker who founded Pennsylvania in 1681 and supported religious tolerance.

Nathaniel Bacon

Led a 1676 rebellion in Virginia over land, Native policy, and unfair colonial leadership.

William Berkeley

Virginia governor challenged by Nathaniel Bacon in 1676.

Jonathan Edwards

Great Awakening preacher known for his 1741 sermon about sin and God's judgment.

John Locke

English thinker who said people have natural rights and government needs their consent.

James II

English king removed in the Glorious Revolution of 1688.

William III and Mary II

Became joint rulers after the Glorious Revolution; monarchy had to accept limits.

Benjamin Franklin

Suggested the Albany Plan and Join or Die; later helped negotiate US peace with Britain.

Pontiac

Ottawa leader linked to Native resistance against British forts and policies in 1763.

King George III

British king during colonial protests and Revolution; refused the Olive Branch Petition.

George Grenville

British prime minister linked to the Sugar Act and Stamp Act after the French and Indian War.

James Otis

Massachusetts lawyer who challenged British searches and argued for colonial rights.

Samuel Adams

Boston Patriot organizer tied to protests, Sons of Liberty, and communication between colonies.

Crispus Attucks

One of five people killed at the Boston Massacre in 1770.

Paul Revere

Made a famous Boston Massacre protest image; also rode to warn colonists in 1775.

Patrick Henry

Virginia Patriot who said 'Give me liberty or give me death' in 1775.

John Dickinson

Wrote most of the 1775 Olive Branch Petition asking the king for peace.

Thomas Paine

Wrote Common Sense in 1776 to persuade colonists to support independence.

Thomas Jefferson

Main writer of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

Abigail Adams

Asked her husband John Adams to 'remember the ladies' when making new laws.

John Adams

Patriot leader, Abigail's husband, and one of the US peace negotiators in 1783.

John Jay

American diplomat who helped negotiate the Treaty of Paris in 1783.

George Washington

Led the Continental Army; kept it going through hard losses and won at Yorktown with France.

Thomas Gage

British general who sent troops toward Lexington and Concord in April 1775.

William Franklin

Benjamin Franklin's son; stayed loyal to Britain and was New Jersey's royal governor.

John Burgoyne

British general who surrendered at Saratoga in 1777.

Horatio Gates

American general who led the Patriot army that won at Saratoga.

Benedict Arnold

Helped Patriots early in the war, then tried to betray West Point to Britain in 1780.

Baron von Steuben

Prussian officer who taught Washington's soldiers drills and discipline at Valley Forge.

Marquis de Lafayette

French officer who helped Washington and the American army.

Charles Cornwallis

British general whose army surrendered at Yorktown in 1781.

Admiral de Grasse

French naval commander who blocked British escape by sea at Yorktown.

Anthony Wayne

American general whose troops helped push Cornwallis toward Yorktown in Virginia.

James Armistead Lafayette

Enslaved Black Patriot spy who helped Lafayette and later won his freedom.

Prince Estabrook

Enslaved Black soldier who fought and was wounded at Lexington.

Phillis Wheatley

Enslaved African-born poet whose book was published in 1773.

Mary Ludwig Hays (Molly Pitcher)

Woman linked to carrying water and helping at a cannon during the Battle of Monmouth.

Deborah Sampson

Woman who dressed as a man called Robert Shurtliff to fight in the Continental Army.

Betsy Ross

Traditionally said to have made the first US flag, but the story lacks solid proof.

Lord Dunmore

British governor of Virginia who offered freedom to enslaved people escaping Patriot owners to join Britain.