Colonial America Exam 2

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering seventeenth-century colonial British North America and the Caribbean, focusing on political developments, religious movements, labor systems, and major historical crises.

Caribbean

The front line against Spanish expansion, a market for mainland agricultural goods, a major source of sugar, and the model for slavery in mainland colonies.

Barbados

An English island colony founded in 1627 that initially featured small farms growing tobacco, cotton, and indigo before experiencing a sugar boom in the 1640s characterized by wealthy absentee owners.

Barbados Slave Code (1661)

A 1661 legal statute that severely restricted the lives of enslaved people by prohibiting legal marriages, barring them from raising their own children, and forbidding them from practicing medicine.

McCusker and Menard

Historians who prefer the phrase 'sugar boom' (a major increase in production) over 'sugar revolution' (a complete transformation) to describe the economic shift in the Caribbean.

Puritans

English religious reformers who sought to purify the Church of England, opposed church hierarchy, favored simpler religious ceremonies, and recognized only two sacraments: Baptism and the Eucharist.

Separatists

A religious faction that viewed the Church of England as too corrupt to fix and sought to establish a completely independent and separate church.

Plymouth

A settlement founded by Separatists in 1620 governed under the Mayflower Compact that struggled economically and relied on subsistence farming.

Massachusetts Bay

A colony established by Puritans in 1630, primarily populated by middle-class families who arrived voluntarily and organized towns and governance around church covenants.

Great Migration

The departure of more than 30,000 people from England to New England between 1630 and 1642, driven largely by religious persecution.

Halfway Covenant

A church compromise granting children of church members halfway membership, allowing them to baptize their offspring and vote in secular elections, though denying them votes on church leadership.

John Winthrop

Puritan leader who described Massachusetts as a 'City upon a Hill' to serve as a model Christian community bound together by a holy covenant and an organic body metaphor of mutual dependence.

Pequot War

A 1636 conflict between English colonists and the Pequot people triggered by trade rivalries with the Dutch and a mistaken accusation regarding a trader's death, culminating in the destruction of Mystic.

John Eliot

A Puritan missionary who translated the Christian Bible into the Massachusetts language.

Praying towns

Designated settlements established in New England for Native American converts to Christianity.

William Berkeley

The elitist governor of Virginia beginning in 1660 who refused to hold legislative elections for 16 years, monopolized Native trade, and favored wealthy allies.

Nathaniel Bacon

A wealthy landowner who opposed Governor Berkeley, attacked Native Americans, and led a 1676 rebellion that resulted in the burning of Jamestown.

Declaration to the People

A proclamation issued by Nathaniel Bacon during his rebellion that promised freedom to indentured servants and enslaved laborers who allied with his cause.

Hatfield

A historian who argued that Bacon's Rebellion did not single-handedly cause racial slavery, but rather accelerated an ongoing transition from indentured servitude to enslaved labor.

Fundamental Constitutions

A governing document for Carolina drafted by John Locke for the proprietors, providing for representative government and religious toleration while imposing property mandates for office-holding and voting.

Goose Creek Men

A faction of South Carolina settlers primarily from Barbados who promoted the Church of England, resisted religious toleration, and actively engaged in the Native American slave trade.

Naval stores

Pine-derived materials essential to the South Carolina economy, specifically timber, pitch, tar, and resin.

Task system

A labor regime used in lowcountry rice cultivation under which enslaved laborers were assigned specific daily tasks and allowed self-direction upon their completion.

Carney

A historian who argued that enslaved West Africans, particularly women with traditional agricultural expertise, introduced essential knowledge and milling techniques that enabled rice production.

Edelson

A historian who challenged Carney's conclusions regarding the African origins of rice culture, asserting that Carney over-relied on inference and overstated enslaved people's bargaining leverage.

King Philip’s War

A 1675–1676 conflict led by Metacom resisting English territorial expansion and missionary encroachment, resulting in the destruction of one-third and damage to another one-third of New England towns.

Dominion of New England

An administrative consolidation formed by King James II in 1685 that united New England, New York, and New Jersey under centralized royal authority.

Edmund Andros

The royal governor of the Dominion of New England who alienated colonists by levying taxes without an assembly and conducting Anglican services inside Puritan meetinghouses.

Glorious Revolution

The 1688–1689 political coup in England that ousted James II in favor of William of Orange, sparking colonial rebellions that toppled Edmund Andros and the Dominion.

Spectral evidence

A controversial form of courtroom testimony accepted during the 1692 Salem Witch Trials based on claims that an accused person's ghost or apparition had appeared to afflict the victim.

Adam Jortner

A historian who linked the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 to widespread institutional breakdown, arguing that the loss of Massachusetts' charter and collapse of legal authority created a fertile ground for mass hysteria.

1627

what year was barbados founded?

1692

When did Salem Witch Trials occur?

1688–1689

When did the Glorious Revolution take place?

1685

When did the Dominion of New England begin?

1675–1676

When did King Philip’s War take place?

1676

When did Bacon’s Rebellion occur?

1636

When did the Pequot War take place?

1630-1642

When did the Great Migration occur?

1630

When was Massachusetts Bay colony founded?

1620

When was Plymouth colony founded?

1661

When did the Barbados Slave Code pass?

1640s

When did the sugar boom occur in Barbados?

baptism and eucharist

What sacraments did the Puritans believe in?

City Upon a Hill

The idea that Massachusetts should be an example of a perfect Christian society

Body Metaphor

Everyone in the community depends on one another

John Mayhew

Who worked with Wampanoag converts?

causes of virginia’s crisis

• Tobacco prices fell because production increased

• Land became scarce

• Former indentured servants wanted farms

• Settlers encroached on Native land

• Navigation Acts increased shipping costs 

• Berkeley favored wealthy friends and controlled Native trade

Navigation Acts

Required that goods from Asia, Africa, or America could only travel to England, Ireland, or an English colony in English ships

1651

What year did the Navigation Acts pass?

favoritism, monopolizing native trade, failure to protect

Bacon’s accusations against Berkeley

1664

When was New York founded?

1664

When was New Jersey founded?

1680

When was Pennsylvania founded?

1663

When were the Carolinas founded?

rewarded supporters with colonial charters

What did Charles II do when he returned to power?

1670

When was Charles Town founded?

more than 50,000

How many Native Americans enslaved from 1670-1715?

New England supported Parliament during Civil War

Charles wanted more colonial control

Why did Massachusetts lose its charter?