Unit 2 Vocabulary European Colonization of the Americas 1607-1754

Joint-Stock Company

Short-term partnership between multiple investors to fund a commercial enterprise; such arrangements were used to fund En gland's early colonial ventures.

Charter

Legal document granted by a government to some group or agency to implement a stated purpose, and spelling out the attending rights and obligations. British colonial charters guaranteed inhabitants all the rights of Englishmen, which helped solidify colonists' ties to Britain during the early years of settlement.

Jamestown

First permanent English settlement in North America founded by the Virginia Company.

House of Burgesses

Created by Virginia colonists in 1619, it was the first representative assembly in America

Act of Toleration

Passed in Maryland, it guaranteed toleration to all Christians but decreed the death penalty for those, like Jews and atheists, who denied the divinity of Jesus Christ. Ensured that Maryland would continue to attract a high proportion of
Catholic migrants throughout the colonial period.

squatters

Frontier farmers who illegally occupied land owned by others or not yet officially opened for settlement. Many of North Carolina's early settlers were squatters, who contributed to the colony's reputation as being more independent-minded and "democratic" than its neighbors.

Puritans

English Protestant reformers who sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic rituals and creeds. Some of the most devout Puritans believed that only "visible saints" should be admitted to church membership. (47)

Mayflower Compact

(1620): Agreement to form a majoritarian government in Plymouth, signed aboard the Mayflower. Created a foundation for self-government in the colony.

Massachusetts Bay Colony

Established by non-separating Puritans, it soon grew to be the largest and most influential of the New England colonies.

Great Migration

Migration of seventy thousand refugees from England to the North American colonies, primarily New England and the Caribbean. The twenty thousand migrants who came to Massachusetts largely shared a common sense of
purpose—to establish a model Christian settlement in the new
world.

Antinomianism

Belief that the elect need not obey the law of either God or man; most notably espoused in the colonies by Anne Hutchinson.

Fundamental Orders of Connecticut

Drafted by settlers in the Connecticut River Valley, document was the first "modern constitution" establishing a democratically controlled government. Key features of the document were borrowed for Connecticut's colonial charter and
later, its state constitution.

King Philip's War

Series of assaults by Metacom, King Philip, on English settlements in New England. The attacks slowed the westward migration of New England settlers for several decades.

New England Confederation

In 1643, four New England colonies (Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut, and New Haven) organized for their mutual protection and formed a military alliance. The board had limited powers to act on boundary disputes, the return of runaway servants, and dealings with Native Americans

Dominion of New England

Administrative union created by royal authority, incorporating all of New England, New York, and East and West Jersey. Placed under the rule of Sir Edmund Andros who curbed popular assemblies, taxed residents without
their consent and strictly enforced Navigation Laws. Its collapse after the Glorious Revolution in England demonstrated colonial
opposition to strict royal control.

Navigation Acts

Series of laws passed, beginning in 1651, to regulate colonial shipping; the acts provided that only English ships would be allowed to trade in English and colonial ports, and that all goods destined for the colonies would first pass through
England.

Glorious Revolution

Relatively peaceful overthrow of the unpopular Catholic monarch, James II, replacing him with Dutch-born William III and Mary, daughter of James II.
William and Mary accepted increased Parliamentary oversight and
new limits on monarchical authority.

salutary neglect

Unofficial policy of relaxed royal control over colonial trade and only weak enforcement of Navigation Laws. Lasted from the Glorious Revolution to the end of the French and Indian War in 1763.

Quakers

A religious group of Christians who called themselves the Society of Friends and due to their beliefs, they were persecuted in England. William Penn created a colony in North America for this group that he hoped would provide refuge.

Indentured Servants

Migrants who, in exchange for transatlantic passage, bound themselves to a colonial employer for a term of service, typically between four and seven years. Their migration addressed the chronic labor shortage in the colonies and facilitated settlement.

Headright System

Employed in the tobacco colonies to encourage the importation of indentured servants, the system allowed an individual to acquire fifty acres of land if he paid for a laborer's passage to the colony.

Bacon's Rebellion

Uprising of Virginia farmers and indentured servants led by planter Nathaniel Bacon; initially a response to Governor William Berkeley's refusal to protect backcountry settlers from Indian attacks, the rebellion eventually grew into a broader conflict between impoverished settlers and the planter elite.

Royal African Company

English joint-stock company that enjoyed a state-granted monopoly on the colonial slave trade from 1672 until 1698. The supply of slaves to the North American colonies rose sharply once the company lost its monopoly privileges.

Middle Passage

Transatlantic voyage slaves endured between Africa and the colonies. Mortality rates were notoriously high.

Half-Way Covenant

Agreement allowing unconverted offspring of church members to baptize their children. It signified a waning of religious zeal among second and third-generation Puritans.