Chesapeake Settlement and Early Virginia: Essential Vocabulary

Vocabulary terms from the Chesapeake/early Virginia and Maryland notes (Jamestown, tobacco economy, governance, slavery, and related concepts).

Protestant Reformation

16th-century religious reform movement that challenged the authority of the Catholic Church and led to the creation of Protestant churches.

Primogeniture

Inheritance system where the eldest son inherits the main estate or family wealth.

joint-stock company

A business venture where many investors pool capital and share profits and risks.

Virginia Company

Private company chartered to establish English settlements in Virginia; its charter guaranteed rights of Englishmen to colonists.

Rights of Englishmen

Legal protections guaranteed to English subjects, incorporated into colonial charters and documents.

Jamestown

First permanent English settlement in North America, founded in 1607 along the James River.

House of Burgesses

First representative colonial assembly in English America, established in Virginia in 1619.

Act of Toleration (Maryland, 1649)

Maryland law guaranteeing toleration to all Christians, with penalties for denying the divinity of Jesus.

Barbados Slave Code

Early laws (1661–1662) that regulated slavery and defined Blacks as property; influenced slave codes in other colonies.

John Smith

Early Jamestown leader who enforced labor and restraint; famous for the saying, “He who does not work, does not eat.”

Pocahontas (Matoaka)

Powhatan woman who interacted with the Jamestown settlers; married John Rolfe and symbolizes early colonial-Native relations.

John Rolfe

Jamestown settler who perfected tobacco cultivation and helped stabilize the colony; married Pocahontas.

soil butchery

Soil depletion caused by repeated tobacco cultivation without crop rotation or rest.

“poor man’s crop”

Tobacco described as a cash crop accessible to small farmers and vital to the colonial economy.

Lord Baltimore

George Calvert, founder of Maryland; proprietor who established a proprietary colony.

James Oglethorpe

Founder of Georgia; promoted the colony as a philanthropic haven for debtors.

indentured servant

Person who signs a contract to work for a fixed term (often 5–7 years) in exchange for passage and freedom dues.

headright system

Land grant of 50 acres for each person whose passage to the colony was paid.

Bacon’s Rebellion

1676 revolt in Virginia led by Nathaniel Bacon against Governor Berkeley; highlighted frontier tensions and push for land/independence.

Powhatan Confederacy

Network of Algonquian-speaking tribes in the Chesapeake region that interacted with Jamestown.

Tobacco (economic impact)

Cash crop that anchored the Virginia economy and supported the plantation system, often exhausting soil.

1619 (pivotal year)

Year marking the arrival of the first Africans in Virginia and the establishment of the House of Burgesses.

The Atlantic Slave Trade

Global system transporting enslaved Africans to the Americas; major destinations included the Caribbean, Brazil, and North America.

The Middle Passage

The brutal sea voyage that enslaved Africans endured from Africa to the Americas.

Slave Codes (1662)

Laws making enslaved Africans property for life, restricting literacy and basic rights, and denying church-based freedom.

Proprietary colony

Colony granted by the Crown to an individual or group who owned and governed it.

Royal colony

Colony governed directly by the Crown through a royal governor.

Widowarchy

Concept describing high mortality among husbands/fathers in the Chesapeake, giving surviving women more autonomy and property.

St. Mary’s City

Early Maryland capital established around 1634 as the center of colonial administration.