AP U.S. History - Period 2 Vocabulary & Historical Significance

Vocabulary terms and concise definitions for AP U.S. History Period 2 (1607-1754) sourced directly from AMSCO Key Terms and College Board CED cross-references.

John Cabot

Italian-born navigator who sailed for England in 1497 and claimed lands in North America for the English crown.

joint-stock company

Business organization in which multiple investors pooled money and shared the risks and potential profits of an overseas venture.

Cecil Calvert, Lord Baltimore

Second Lord Baltimore and proprietor of Maryland who continued his father's plan to make the colony a refuge for English Catholics.

Act of Toleration

Maryland law of 1649 that protected worship for people who professed belief in Jesus Christ, while still imposing severe penalties on some forms of religious dissent.

Roger Williams

Puritan dissenter banished from Massachusetts Bay who founded Providence and advocated liberty of conscience and separation of civil authority from religion.

Providence

Settlement founded by Roger Williams in 1636 after his banishment from Massachusetts Bay; it later became part of Rhode Island.

Anne Hutchinson

Puritan dissenter banished from Massachusetts Bay after challenging religious leaders and traditional ideas about salvation and authority.

antinomianism

Belief associated with Anne Hutchinson that salvation came through faith and divine grace rather than strict obedience to traditional moral laws.

Rhode Island

New England colony created from settlements founded by religious dissenters, especially Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson's followers.

halfway covenant

New England Congregational policy, formalized in 1662, that allowed baptized but unconverted adults to have their children baptized even though the adults were not full church members eligible for Communion.

Quakers

Members of the Religious Society of Friends who emphasized an inner spiritual light, spiritual equality of men and women, pacifism, and liberty of conscience.

William Penn

Quaker proprietor who founded Pennsylvania as a refuge for Quakers and other persecuted groups and as a profitable colony.

Holy Experiment

William Penn's effort to build Pennsylvania around Quaker principles such as religious toleration, representative government, and peaceful relations.

Charter of Liberties (1701)

AMSCO's label for Pennsylvania's 1701 Charter of Privileges, which protected liberty of conscience for people who acknowledged one God and confirmed important powers of the elected assembly.

rice-growing plantations

Large southern farms, especially in South Carolina and Georgia, that produced rice for export using large amounts of enslaved labor.

tobacco farms

Farms and plantations in the Chesapeake and parts of North Carolina that grew tobacco as a major export crop.

Jamestown

First permanent English settlement in North America, founded in Virginia by the Virginia Company in 1607.

Captain John Smith

Jamestown leader who imposed discipline during the colony's difficult early years and wrote accounts of Virginia and its Native peoples.

John Rolfe

Virginia colonist who helped develop tobacco as a profitable export crop and married Pocahontas.

Pocahontas

Powhatan woman who interacted with Jamestown colonists and later married John Rolfe.

Virginia

English Chesapeake colony founded at Jamestown in 1607 and later converted from company control to a royal colony.

Plymouth Colony

New England colony founded in 1620 by Pilgrims who arrived aboard the Mayflower.

Separatists

English Protestants who wanted to leave the Church of England entirely rather than reform it from within.

Pilgrims

Separatist Protestants who founded Plymouth Colony in 1620 after seeking greater religious independence.

Mayflower

Ship that carried the Pilgrims and other settlers to New England in 1620.

Massachusetts Bay Colony

Large Puritan colony founded in 1630 around Boston under the Massachusetts Bay Company.

Puritans

English Protestants who wanted to reform or 'purify' the Church of England rather than separate from it completely.

John Winthrop

Puritan leader and longtime governor of Massachusetts Bay who described the colony as a covenant community and 'city upon a hill.'

Great Migration

Large migration of Puritan families and other English settlers to New England, especially Massachusetts Bay, during the 1630s amid religious and political conflict in England.

Thomas Hooker

Puritan minister who led settlers from Massachusetts into the Connecticut River Valley and helped found Hartford.

John Davenport

Puritan minister who, with Theophilus Eaton and other settlers, helped establish New Haven Colony on Long Island Sound in 1638.

Connecticut

New England colony centered initially on Hartford and other settlements in the Connecticut River Valley; the separate New Haven Colony on Long Island Sound was later absorbed into Connecticut.

New Hampshire

New England colony separated from Massachusetts Bay and made a royal colony in 1679.

the Carolinas

Colonial region south of Virginia that eventually divided into North Carolina and South Carolina.

New York

Middle colony taken by England from the Dutch in 1664 and renamed for the Duke of York.

New Jersey

Middle colony created from land separated from New York and later combined into a royal colony.

Pennsylvania

Middle colony founded by William Penn as a Quaker refuge and proprietary colony.

Delaware

The Three Lower Counties on the Delaware, controlled by William Penn, that began meeting in a separate assembly in 1704 while continuing to share a governor with Pennsylvania.

Georgia

Thirteenth British mainland colony, chartered in 1732 and settled in 1733 as a defensive buffer against Spanish Florida and as a social-reform experiment intended to offer opportunity to the 'worthy poor.'

James Oglethorpe

Georgia Trustee and principal founder who led the colony's early settlement and defense.

Fundamental Orders of Connecticut (1639)

Written framework for government created by Connecticut River towns that established representative political institutions.

Frame of Government (1682–1683)

William Penn's plan for Pennsylvania government that provided for a representative assembly elected by landowners.

Virginia House of Burgesses

Representative assembly first organized in Virginia in 1619, dominated by property-owning planters.

Mayflower Compact

Agreement signed by Mayflower passengers in 1620 to form a civil political body and make decisions through majority rule.

corporate colonies

Colonies initially operated by joint-stock companies under charters from the English crown.

royal colonies

Colonies governed under the direct authority of the English crown through appointed officials.

proprietary colonies

Colonies granted by the crown to individuals or groups who held ownership and governing authority.

Virginia Company

English joint-stock company chartered by King James I that founded Jamestown.

Chesapeake colonies

Colonial region centered on Virginia and Maryland around Chesapeake Bay.

triangular trade

Atlantic trading pattern connecting Europe, Africa, the Caribbean, and the North American colonies through exchanges of goods and enslaved people.

mercantilism

Economic theory and imperial policy that treated colonies as sources of raw materials and markets intended to strengthen the wealth and power of the parent country.

Navigation Acts

Series of English laws regulating colonial shipping and trade to direct commerce through the British Empire.

Dominion of New England

Administrative union created by King James II in 1686 that combined several northern colonies under tighter royal control.

Sir Edmund Andros

Royal governor appointed to administer the Dominion of New England.

Glorious Revolution

1688 overthrow of King James II in England and replacement by William and Mary.

Wampanoag

Native people of southern New England whose communities interacted with Plymouth settlers and later resisted English expansion under Metacom.

Metacom

Wampanoag leader, called King Philip by English colonists, who helped organize Native resistance in southern New England in 1675–1676.

King Philip's War

1675–1676 conflict in New England between English colonists and a Native alliance led by Metacom, with some Native groups allied to the colonists.

Sir William Berkeley

Royal governor of Virginia whose policies favored large planters and who resisted Nathaniel Bacon's demands for aggressive frontier war.

Bacon's Rebellion

1676 Virginia uprising led by Nathaniel Bacon against Governor Berkeley that also included violent attacks on Native communities.

New England Confederation

Military alliance formed in 1643 by several New England colonies for mutual defense and cooperation.

indentured servants

Workers who agreed to labor for a master for a set period, usually several years, in exchange for passage to the colonies and basic support.

headright system

Virginia policy granting 50 acres of land to immigrants who paid their own passage or to sponsors who paid another person's passage.

slavery

System in which people were treated as property and forced to labor without freedom; in the British colonies it became increasingly racial and hereditary.

Middle Passage

Forced transatlantic voyage that carried enslaved Africans to the Americas under brutal and deadly conditions.

Benjamin West

Pennsylvania-born painter who later became a leading artist in Britain.

John Copley

John Singleton Copley, Massachusetts-born portrait painter who began his career in colonial Boston and later worked in Britain.

Benjamin Franklin

Printer, writer, scientist, inventor, and colonial public figure whose work reflected the practical and intellectual culture of the 18th-century colonies.

Poor Richard's Almanack

Popular annual publication by Benjamin Franklin containing calendars, practical information, aphorisms, and advice.

Phillis Wheatley

West African-born enslaved poet who was brought to Boston in 1761, became widely known for her poetry, and published a collection in 1773.

John Bartram

Self-taught colonial botanist from Philadelphia known for studying and collecting North American plants.

ministry

Religious profession of ministers and clergy, one of the most respected educated occupations in colonial communities.

physicians

Colonial medical practitioners, often trained through apprenticeship rather than formal medical schools.

lawyers

Legal professionals whose importance increased as colonial trade, property disputes, and political conflicts became more complex.

religious toleration

Acceptance of multiple religious groups or practices within a colony, though the degree of freedom varied widely.

established church

Church officially supported by a colonial government, often through taxes or legal preference.

Great Awakening

Series of Protestant religious revivals in the 1730s and 1740s emphasizing emotional conversion and personal religious experience.

Jonathan Edwards

New England Congregational minister and major theologian of the Great Awakening, known for sermons emphasizing sin and the need for conversion.

George Whitefield

Traveling British evangelical preacher whose dramatic sermons drew large crowds throughout the colonies during the Great Awakening.

Cotton Mather

Influential New England Puritan minister and writer associated with the older religious culture of colonial Massachusetts.

sectarian

Connected to or controlled by a particular religious denomination or sect.

nonsectarian

Not officially tied to one religious denomination.

subsistence farming

Farming focused mainly on household and local consumption rather than producing a large export surplus.

Germans

German-speaking immigrants who settled heavily in Pennsylvania and maintained distinctive languages, customs, and religious traditions.

Scotch-Irish

Protestant migrants from northern Ireland, many of Scottish ancestry, who settled heavily on the colonial frontier.

Huguenots

French Protestants who migrated to British North America, often seeking refuge from religious persecution.

Dutch

People from the Netherlands who established New Netherland and continued to influence New York and nearby colonies after English conquest.

Swedes

Scandinavian settlers who established small communities along the Delaware River before the region came under Dutch and then English control.

Africans

People of African origin in the colonies, most of whom arrived through forced migration and were enslaved, though some became free.

immigrants

People who moved voluntarily to the colonies from Europe or other regions in search of land, work, religious freedom, or other opportunities.

social mobility

Ability of individuals or families to improve their economic position or social status.

hereditary aristocracy

Social class whose wealth, titles, and status are inherited across generations.

John Peter Zenger

New York printer tried for seditious libel in 1735 after publishing criticism of the royal governor; the jury acquitted him.

Andrew Hamilton

Lawyer who defended John Peter Zenger and argued that truthful criticism should not be treated as libel.

Enlightenment

European intellectual movement emphasizing reason, natural laws, scientific inquiry, and the possibility of improving society through human understanding.

governor

Chief executive of a colony, chosen by the crown, a proprietor, or in a few colonies by voters.

legislature

Lawmaking body in a colony, usually including an elected lower house and an upper council.

town meetings

Local gatherings, especially common in New England, where eligible residents debated and voted directly on community matters.

Atlantic economy

Interconnected system of trade linking Europe, Africa, the Americas, and the Caribbean through the movement of commodities, labor, and people.

salutary neglect

Later label for Britain's practice of loosely or inconsistently enforcing many imperial trade regulations in the colonies before 1763.