APUSH 2.4-2.9 vocab

Imperialism

A policy of expanding the border and increasing the global power of a nation, typically via military force.

Subsistence Farmers

Farmers who grow crops for their own needs rather than for profit.

Leisler’s Rebellion

Class revolt by urban artisans and landless renters led by Merchant Jacob Leisler in 1689 New York over new taxes and centralized rule.

Redemptioners

Immigrants who borrowed money from shipping agents to cover the costs of transport to America, loans that were repaid, or “redeemed,” by colonial employers. Redemptioners worked for their “redeemers” for a set number of years.

Walking Purchase

1737 treaty that allowed Pennsylvania to expand its boundaries at the expense of the Delaware Indians. The treaty, likely a forgery, allowed the British to add territory that could be walked off in a day and a half.

Mercantilism

Economic system centered on maintaining a favorable balance of trade for the home country, with more gold and silver flowing into that country than flowed out. Seventeenth

Navigation Acts

Acts passed by Parliament in the 1650s and 1660s that prohibited smuggling, established guidelines for legal commerce, and set duties on trade items.

Consumer Revolution

A process through which status in the colonies became more closely linked to financial success and a refined lifestyle rather than birth and family pedigree during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The consumer revolution was spurred by industrialization and increased global trade.

Middle Passage

The brutal voyage of slave ships laden with human cargo from Africa to the Americas. It was the middle segment in a triangular journey that began in Europe, went first to Africa, then to the Americas, and finally back to Europe.

Slave laws

A series of laws that defined slavery as a distinct status based on racial identity and which passed that status on through future generations.

Gang labor

A particularly harsh labor system that forced enslaved Africans and African Americans to work at a continuous pace throughout the day.

Stono Rebellion

1739 uprising by enslaved Africans and African Americans in South Carolina. In its aftermath, white fear of slave revolts intensified.

Anglo

Powhatan Wars:

Covenant Chain

The alliance formed between Iroquois leaders and colonists during a meeting Albany in 1677 in hopes of salvaging their fur trade and preventing future conflict.

Tuscarora War

War launched by Tuscarora Indians from 1711 to 1715 against European settlers in North Carolina and their allies from the Yamasee, Catawba, and Cherokee nations. The Tuscaroras lost their lands when they signed the peace treaty and many then joined the Iroquois Confederacy to the north.

Yamasee War

A pan

Queen Anne’s War

1702–1713 war over control of Spain and its colonies; also known as the War of the Spanish Succession. Although the Treaty of Utrecht that ended the war in 1713 was intended to bring peace by establishing a balance of power, imperial conflict continued to escalate.

Treaty of Utrecht

1713 Treaty that ended Queen Anne’s War. It aimed to achieve peace by balancing the interests of European powers and their colonial possessions.

King George’s War

1739–1748 war between France, Spain, and England fought in North America.

Enlightenment

European cultural movement spanning the late seventeenth century to the end of the eighteenth century emphasizing rational and scientific thinking over traditional religion and superstition.

Original Sin

Christian belief that all humans are born into sin because of the biblical sin of Adam eating the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden.

New Light Clergy

Colonial clergy who called for religious revivals and emphasized the emotional aspects of spiritual commitment. The New Lights were leaders in the Great Awakening.

Old Light Clergy

Colonial clergy from established churches who supported the religious status quo in the early eighteenth century.

Pietist

German Protestants who criticized the power of established churches and urged individuals to follow their hearts rather than their heads in spiritual matters. Pietism had a profound influence on the leaders of the Great Awakening.

Methodism

A form of Protestantism based on Pietist ideas, founded by Englishman John Wesley.

Great Awakening

Series of religious revivals in colonial America that began in 1720 and lasted to about 1750.

Impressment

The forced enlistment of civilians into the army or navy. The impressment of residents of colonial seaports into the British navy was a major source of complaint in the eighteenth century.

Seditious

Behavior or language aimed at starting a rebellion against a government.

Libel

A false written statement designed to damage the reputation of its subject.