UNIT 2 - Period 2: 1607-1754

Vocabulary-style flashcards covering major terms, people, events, and concepts from the lecture notes on Period 2 (1607–1754).

Jamestown

The first permanent English colony in North America, founded in 1607 by the Virginia Company; later prospered with tobacco after early survival challenges.

Plymouth

1620 English settlement founded by Puritan Separatists (Pilgrims) in present‑day Massachusetts.

Mayflower Compact

1620 agreement aboard the Mayflower establishing self-government and rule by the consent of the governed.

Virginia Company

A joint‑stock company that funded the Jamestown settlement and sought profit in the Americas.

Joint‑stock company

A business venture funded by multiple investors; used to finance early English colonization.

Headright

A grant of 50 acres of land given to settlers or sponsors to attract colonists.

Indentured servant

A laborer who worked for a set number of years in exchange for passage to the Americas.

Enslaved Africans

Africans forcibly brought to the colonies to provide permanent labor, increasingly replacing indentured servants.

RAC (Royal African Company)

English company that monopolized the slave trade in the late 17th century until competition increased.

Royal colony

A colony governed directly by the monarch and his/her authorities.

Proprietary colony

A colony granted to individuals by the king, who appointed governors (e.g., Maryland, Pennsylvania).

Corporate colony

A colony run by a joint‑stock company, with initial governance by the company.

Mercantilism

Economic theory that wealth is measured by a favorable balance of trade and that colonies exist to enrich the mother country.

Navigation Acts

A series of laws (1650–1673) restricting colonial trade to English ships and ports and enumerated goods to England.

Dominion of New England

1686–1689 administrative union of New England colonies under Sir Edmund Andros; ended by the Glorious Revolution.

Great Awakening

1730s–1740s religious revival that emphasized personal faith, challenged established churches, and fostered new denominations.

Jonathan Edwards

Puritan minister famous for the sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God and leadership during the Great Awakening.

George Whitefield

Evangelist who spread the Great Awakening through large outdoor sermons across the colonies.

Cotton Mather

Puritan minister and writer who contributed to religious thought in colonial New England.

Zenger case

1735 trial of John Peter Zenger that supported the idea that truth could be a defense against libel, an early step toward free press.

Maryland Act of Toleration

1649 law granting religious tolerance to Christians in Maryland, but with penalties for denying Jesus’s divinity.

Roger Williams

Puritan minister who founded Providence (Rhode Island) after banishment, advocating religious freedom and fair treatment of Native Americans.

Providence

Capital of Rhode Island, founded by Roger Williams as a haven for religious liberty.

Rhode Island

Colony founded on religious toleration; allowed diverse beliefs and paid Native Americans for land.

Anne Hutchinson

Puritan dissenter banished for antinomian beliefs; founded Portsmouth, Rhode Island.

Hartford

Town in Connecticut founded by Thomas Hooker; site of early self‑government experiments.

Fundamental Orders of Connecticut

1639 document considered the first written constitution in America, establishing a representative government.

Puritans

English Protestants seeking to reform the Church of England; settled heavily in New England.

Pilgrims

Separatists who left England for Holland, then settled Plymouth in 1620.

Great Migration

Mass migration of Puritans to Massachusetts Bay in the 1630s seeking religious freedom.

Massachusetts Bay Colony

Puritan colony (1629) centered around Boston and the Massachusetts Bay area.

New England Confederation

1643–1684 military alliance of four New England colonies for mutual defense.

Frame of Government

1682–1683 Penn’s framework for governance in Pennsylvania, including a representative assembly.

Charter of Liberties

1701 Pennsylvania charter guaranteeing freedom of worship and immigration.

William Penn

Creator of Pennsylvania; a Quaker who promoted the Holy Experiment and liberal governance.

Quakers

Religious group (Religious Society of Friends) that advocated religious tolerance and equality.

The Holy Experiment

Pennsylvania’s liberal policy framework aimed at religious freedom and fair governance.

Philadelphia

Delaware River city planned by Penn; became a major colonial trading center.

Delaware

Lower three counties of Pennsylvania with its own assembly beginning in 1702.

New York

Originally New Amsterdam; seized from the Dutch in 1664 and renamed New York.

New Jersey

Split from New York (1664) and later formed as a royal colony with its own assembly.

Georgia

1732 last mainland English colony; founded as a debtor colony and buffer against Spanish Florida; later became royal.

South Carolina

Colony with wealth from rice and indigo; large slave plantations; port of Charleston.

North Carolina

Frontier colony with smaller plantations and fewer harbors; later developed democratic tendencies.

Virginia House of Burgesses

1619 first representative assembly in America, established in Virginia.

Town meetings

Local New England governance where eligible men voted on community decisions.

Metacom/King Philip’s War

1675–1676 conflict in which Metacom united tribes to resist English encroachment; colonial victory.

Bacon’s Rebellion

1676 revolt led by Nathaniel Bacon against colonial governor Berkeley, highlighting frontier grievances.

Powhatan Confederacy

Alliance of Native American groups in Virginia; relations with settlers fluctuated over time.

Pueblo Revolt

1680 rebellion of Pueblo Indians against Spanish rule in New Mexico; Spanish reconquest in 1692.

Triangular Trade

Three‑part Atlantic trade network among Europe, Africa, and the Americas (goods, enslaved people, sugar).

Middle Passage

The brutal sea voyage that enslaved Africans endured across the Atlantic to the Americas.

Mercantilist policies (Acts of Trade and Navigation)

Regulations that promoted the mother country’s wealth at colonies’ expense; limited manufacturing in the colonies.

Population growth (colonial America)”

Rapid population increase from immigration and high birthrates; by mid‑18th century, colonies grew enormously.

Enslavement laws

Laws in various colonies that made enslaved status lifelong and hereditary; codified racial slavery.

Encomienda/pueblo system (Spanish)

Spanish labor policy in the Americas that forced Native labor under Catholic missions; trigger for Pueblo Revolt.

salutary neglect

British policy of lax enforcement of trade laws before 1763, allowing colonial economic growth.