Chapter 2: European Colonies and Native Nations (1600-1660) Flashcards

Practice flashcards covering topics on early English colonization, native encounters, the Chesapeake, New England Puritans, and early political conflicts from Chapter 2.

Who were Manteo and Wanchese, and what was the purpose of their 1584 trip to London?

They were two Native American explorers from Ossomocomuck (North Carolina's Outer Banks) who traveled to England to meet with Parliament and Queen Elizabeth's court to learn about goods for trade and formalize an alliance.

What was the population of London around the time Manteo and Wanchese visited in 1584?

Approximately 150,000 people.

What arguments did Richard Hakluyt present in his 1584 work, A Discourse Concerning Western Planting?

He listed twenty-three reasons for English colonization, including striking a blow against Catholic Spain's empire, spreading Protestantism, expanding English trade, and reducing home poverty by transferring England's surplus population to America.

What was the enclosure movement in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England?

A process where landlords fenced off open public commons and evicted small farmers to raise sheep for the wool trade and introduce crop rotation, forcing thousands of uprooted peasants into English cities or vagrancy.

What proportion of English settlers arrived in seventeenth-century America as indentured servants?

Nearly two-thirds of all English settlers.

What were freedom dues?

A payment, sometimes including land, given to an indentured servant upon the successful completion of their term of service to help them become free members of society.

When was Jamestown founded, and who sponsored the expedition?

Jamestown was established in 1607 along the James River in Virginia, sponsored by the Virginia Company, a private business organization.

What was the headright system introduced by the Virginia Company in 1618?

A policy that awarded fifty acres of land to any colonist who paid for his own or another person's passage to Virginia.

What was the political significance of the House of Burgesses when it first convened in 1619?

It was the first elected legislative assembly in colonial America.

When did the first enslaved Africans arrive in Virginia, and what was their background?

They arrived in August 1619, having been captured in Angola and later seized by Dutch-flagged British pirates from a Portuguese slave ship.

Who was Angela in early colonial Virginia history?

An enslaved African woman sold in Virginia in 1619 who later worked in the household of a wealthy planter.

Who was Powhatan (Wahunsonacock), and what was his relationship with Jamestown's initial settlers?

He was the supreme leader of around 15,000 to 25,000 Algonquian-speaking people in the Chesapeake region who initially engaged in trade and alliance with English colonists while attempting to integrate them into his realm.

What event brought a temporary end to the First Anglo-Powhatan War in 1614?

The conversion to Christianity and marriage of Pocahontas to English colonist John Rolfe.

What trigger launched the Second Anglo-Powhatan War in 1622?

A surprise attack led by Powhatan's brother, Opechancanough, which killed 300 settlers—a quarter of Virginia's English population—in a single day.

Why did Virginia become a royal colony in 1624?

The Virginia Company surrendered its charter to the crown because it had failed to turn a profit and suffered devastating losses from war, disease, and mismanagement.

What agricultural commodity became the main source of wealth and economic expansion in colonial Virginia?

Tobacco, introduced by John Rolfe.

What legal rights did a widow possess in the English colonies under the rule of dower rights?

She had a claim to one-third of her deceased husband's property during her lifetime.

Who founded Maryland in 1632, and what religious goal did he have for the colony?

Cecil Calvert, Lord Baltimore, who envisioned Maryland as a proprietary domain and a safe refuge for persecuted Catholics.

What was the significance of Maryland's 1649 Act Concerning Religion (Maryland Toleration Act)?

It guaranteed the free exercise of religion to all Christian denominations, marking a milestone in the history of religious freedom in colonial America.

How did Governor John Winthrop define moral liberty in his 1645 speech?

He defined it as 'a liberty to that only which is good,' which relied on subjection to religious and secular authority rather than unrestrained personal action.

What was the Mayflower Compact, signed in 1620?

The first written frame of government in what is now the United States, signed by forty-one adult male Pilgrims agreeing to abide by just and equal laws enacted by chosen representatives.

Who was Squanto, and how did he assist the Plymouth Pilgrims?

A Patuxet man who spoke English after having been kidnapped to Europe; he taught the Pilgrims how to fish and plant corn and mediated an alliance with Massasoit's Wampanoags.

What was the Great Migration to New England during the 1630s?

The emigration of approximately 21,000 Puritans to the Massachusetts Bay Colony between 1630 and 1642.

When was Harvard College founded, and what was its original purpose?

It was established in 1636 to train an educated ministry for the colony.

What happened during the attack on the Pequot village at Mystic River in May 1637?

A combined force of English colonists, Narragansetts, and Mohegans surrounded and burned the fortified town, killing over 500 Pequot men, women, and children.

Why was Roger Williams banished from Massachusetts in 1636, and what colony did he establish?

He was banished for advocating 'soul liberty' and the separation of church and state; he subsequently established Rhode Island.

What were the Fundamental Orders of 1639 in Hartford, Connecticut?

A frame of government modeled on Massachusetts, with the key difference that men did not need to be church members to vote.

Why was Anne Hutchinson put on trial for sedition in Massachusetts in 1637?

She accused local ministers of faulty preaching and claimed to receive direct divine revelations from God, challenging the authority of church leaders and social conventions.

What was the Half-Way Covenant of 1662?

A Puritan compromise that allowed grandchildren of Great Migration immigrants to receive baptism and subordinate church membership without testifying to a full conversion experience.

Who were the Levellers, and what document did they draft during the English Civil War era?

A radical democratic movement in England that drafted the Agreement of the People, advocating for a written constitution, an expanded franchise, and the abolition of the monarchy.

Why was Mary Dyer executed by hanging in Massachusetts in 1660?

She was a former disciple of Anne Hutchinson who converted to Quakerism and repeatedly returned from exile in defiance of colonial anti-Quaker laws.

What diplomatic role did wampum strings and belts fulfill among Native nations in Northeastern North America?

They were used to initiate and close negotiations, propose alliances, make peace, console the bereaved, and confirm reciprocal pledges.