Studied by 159 people
Vocab from Chapters 1-4 of "Give Me Liberty" by Eric Phoner.
Arawak
First Indian tribe encountered by Columbus in 1492. Also known as the Taino.
Tenochtitlan
Located on an island on lake Texcoco, it was the capital of the Aztec empire.
Chinampas
The floating gardens made by the Aztecs.
League of Peace / Iroquois
A democracy between five Iroquois-speaking tribes—the Seneca, Cayuga, Oneida, Onondaga, and Mohawk. This group was created around 1450. It aimed to secure peaceful relationships between their communities and originally had nothing to do with stopping European colonization.
Encomienda
Land grants that included the right to demand labor or taxes from Native Americans.
Matrilineal
Relating to a social system in which family descent and inheritance rights are traced through the mother
Christian Liberty
An idea common in Europe that freedom would come from abandoning the life of sin to embrace the teachings of Christ.
Protestantism
General wave of religious dissent against the Catholic church; generally held to have begun with Martin Luther's attack on Catholic beliefs in 1517; included many many varieties of religious belief.
Divine Right
The belief that a ruler’s authority comes directly from god.
Coverture
The legal status of a married woman, considered to be under her husband's protection and authority.
Hispanoila
Caribbean island, present day Haiti and the Dominican Republic. This is is island that Columbus landed on, eventually decimating the Taino / Arawak population that had lived there.
Caravel
A small, highly maneuverable three-masted ship used by the Portuguese and Spanish in the exploration of the Atlantic between the 15th and 17th centuries.
Mestizo
A person of mixed Spanish and Native American descent.
Bartolome de las Casas
Devoted most of his life to protecting Native American peoples from exploitation. His major achievement was the New Laws of 1542, which limited the ability of Spanish settlers to compel Natives to labor. Unfortunately he suggested the use of African slavery.
Black Legend
It was the belief that Spain was a cruel and exploitative empire. It was partly spread through Bartolome’s writings.
Amerigo Vespucci
An Italian explorer who first realized that what Columbus “found” was a new continent with distinct peoples, not the East Indies. America is named after him. (1501, 1502)
St. Augustine
The first colony set up by the Spanish in the Americas.
Pueblo Revolt
Native Americans revolted against the Spanish in 1680 after they were tired of their culture being oppressed. They expelled the Spanish for over 10 years until 1692 when New Mexico (present-day) was recaptured. Spain began to take an accommodating approach to Natives after the revolt.
Protestant Reformation
A religious movement of the 16th century that began as an attempt to reform the Roman Catholic Church and resulted in the creation of Protestant churches.
Joint - Stock Company
A company made up of a group of shareholders. Each shareholder contributes some money to the company and receives some share of the company's profits and debts. It was pooling resources and sharing the risk of sea travel.
Patroons
Shareholders who agreed to transport tenants for agricultural labor.
John Winthrop
Puritan governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony. Speaker of "City upon a hill".
Massachusetts Bay Colony
A group of Puritans established this area along the upper coast of North America. The port town of Boston soon became the colony's thriving capital.
Virginia Company
Joint-Stock Company in London that received a charter for land in the new world. Charter guarantees new colonists same rights as people back in England.
Jamestown
The first permanent English settlement in North America, found in East Virginia (1607).
Henry VII
English king who created the Church of England after the Pope refused to annul his marriage (divorce with Church approval).
Church of England (Anglican Church)
Church created in England as a result of a political dispute between Henry VIII and the Pope, Pope would not let Henry divorce his wife
Roanoke Colony
The first attempted colony in the Americas (1584). it ultimately failed - no one know where the inhabitants went
English Motives for Colonization
most common: promise of independence coming from owning land, economic freedom, and possibility to pass it on to children; saw New World as place of opportunity for laborers and criminals
Spanish Motivations for Colonization
3 G’s of conquest (God, Glory, Gold)
French Motivations for Colonization
Fur trading economy, spread Catholicism.
Dutch Motivations for Colonization
Fur Trade
Masterless Men
Those without regular jobs or otherwise outside the control of their social superiors - the english feared these people
Indentured Servitude
A worker bound by a voluntary agreement to work for a specified period of years often in return for free passage to an overseas destination.
Proprietor
Someone who received a royal grant of land from the king
William Penn
A Quaker that founded Pennsylvania to establish a place where his people and others could live in peace and be free from persecution. He was extremely kind to the Indigenous people, offering them refuge.
Chesapeake
The region of Virginia and Maryland. In contrast to New England, this region was distinguished by indentured servants, cash crops, and African slavery.
English view of Indigenous People
They did not seek to intermarry with them, they sought to displace them
Headright System
Parcels of land consisting of about 50 acres were given to colonists who brought indentured servants into America. The Virginia Company used them to attract more immigrant colonists. Sometimes colonists would get more land if they brought many indentured servants with them.
Starving Time
A brutal winter of 1609 to 1610. Only sixty members of the original four-hundred Jamestown colonists survived. The rest died of starvation because they did not possess the skills that were necessary to obtain food in the new world.
John Smith
English explorer who helped found the colony at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607. He takes charge by forcing people to work or else they will not eat.
House of Burgesses
Elected assembly in colonial Virginia. The first legislative body in colonial America (not really Democracy). Only limited to landowners. It laid down the foundations for English society to be based on slave-owning planters.
John Rolfe
He was one of the English settlers at Jamestown (and he married Pocahontas). He discovered how to successfully grow tobacco in Virginia and cure it for export, which made Virginia an economically successful colony.
Pocahontas
A native Indian of America, daughter of Chief Powahatan, who was one of the first to marry an Englishman, John Rolfe, and return to England with him; about 1595-1617.
Uprising of 1622
Unsuccessful uprising of the Powhatan Tribe in VA led by Openchancanaga (Powhatan’s brother) that wiped out 1/3 of the settler population, but ultimately led to the settlers gaining supremacy.
Colony of Maryland
Proprietary colony (a land grant that gives total gov. authority to an individual) granted to George Calvert (Lord Baltimore) intended to profit but also founded as a haven for Catholics. It was later given to his son Cecillius Calvert (second Lord Balitmore). 1632.
Puritans
A religious group who wanted to purify the Church of England. They came to America for religious freedom and settled Massachusetts Bay.
John Calvin
A religious reformer who believed in predestination and a strict sense of morality for society, played important role in Protestant Reformation.
Moral Liberty
The Puritan idea of "liberty to that only which is good"; could entail restraints on speech, religion, and personal behavior.
Roger Williams
A dissenter who clashed with the Massachusetts Puritans over the separation of church and state and was banished in 1636, after which he founded the colony of Rhode Island to the south. He believed in religious toleration and criticized the King of England for taking land for the natives w/o payment.
Anne Hutchinson
She believed that most of Massachusetts’s priests were guilty of faulty preaching (because they believed that being elect or damned depended on things such as morals and church attendance). Not only was she “combative and articulate” as a woman, but she also claimed to have had a direct revelation with God, a violation of the Puritan faith. Her actions resulted in her banishment from the colony (1638), and later took part in the formation of Rhode Island. She displayed the importance of questioning authority.
Pilgrims
Group of English Protestant dissenters who established Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts in 1620 to seek religious freedom after having lived briefly in the Netherlands.
Mayflower Compact
A legal contract in which 41 Pilgrim men agreed to have fair laws to protect the general good. This was significant because it was the first written frame of laws in present day U.S.
The Great Migration
21,000 puritans immigrated to Massachusetts between 1629 and 1642.
Puritan Family Structure
Patrilineal structure, with the wife and children under the mans authority. Women’s purpose was to have and take care of children, and were occasionally beat by their husbands. John Winthrop said that women achieved their freedom by embracing their inferiority and “subjecting to her husbands authority”.
Pequot War
The expansion of the New England colonies caused tension with the Indigenous people. War started in 1637 when the Pequots killed a fur trader (CA and MA soldiers then massacred many Indians). The war opened the Connecticut River Valley to white settlement and caused other Indians to fear Europeans.
New England Economy
Ship building, Whaling, Fishing, Timber, Furs, Small Scale Farming
Half-Way Covenant
Created in 1662, it allowed Church membership to be given on ancestry, not religious conversion / commitment. This was necessary because religion was becoming less popular, which Puritan leaders saw as a betrayal of faith.
Magna Carta
The royal charter of political rights given to rebellious English barons by King John in 1215. It was significant because it defined liberties as based on equal rights, not social class.
English Civil War
Conflict from 1640 to 1660; civil war in England between the Parliamentarians and the Royalists under Charles I; religious battles; ended with the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 following execution of previous king
Oliver Cromwell
English general and statesman who led the parliamentary army in the English Civil War. He brought the rebellious colonies under control. He ruled England from 1653 - 1658. It was his armies that took Ireland under British control. He did not want religious toleration, and he aggressively promoted Protestantism. He banned the public practice of Catholicism.
Levellers
Group who thought that poor men should have equal say in government with the upper classes
English Liberty
The idea that English people were entitled to certain liberties, including trial by jury, habeas corpus, and the right to face one's accuser in court. These rights meant that even the English king was subject to the rule of law. British believed that Liberty and Power were antagonists.
Quakers
Protestant reformers who believed in the equality of all people and the importance of individual conscience. They believed liberty belonged to everyone, not one person.
Maryland Act of Toleration
1649 - Ordered by Lord Baltimore after a Protestant was made governor of Maryland at the demand of the colony's large Protestant population. The act guaranteed religious freedom to all Christians.
Navigation Acts
Acts passed in 1660 passed by British parliament to increase colonial dependence on Great Britain for trade; limited goods that were exported to colonies; caused great resentment in American colonies.
Mercantilism
Colonies exist to benefit the mother country only, the mother country would seek a positive trade balance; colonies provide raw materials and import goods
Enumerated Goods
Certain specified goods from the Colonies, including tobacco, cotton, sugar, and furs, which were to be shipped only to England or other English colonies.
King Phillip’s War
The last significant effort by the Indians of southern New England to drive away English settlers. The Indians were led by Metacom, the Pokanoket chief whom English setters called "King Philip." However the war caused the view of Indians as savages to be in engraved in New England’s view. Long term, the war paved the way for more white settlement expansion.
Royal African Company
A trading company chartered by the English government in 1672 to conduct its merchants' trade on the Atlantic coast of Africa. (p. 507)
Rights in New York
Married women could not conduct business in their name, free blacks faced discrimination and couldn't have skilled jobs anymore. However, the elite and government favorites were given land grants and had their freedoms expanded by English rule in NY.
Covenant Chain
Alliance formed in the 1670s between the English and the Iroquois nations. They pledged to help each other in the territorial acquisition and defeat of other tribes. It led the Iroquois to adopt a policy of neutrality.
Charter of Liberties
Gave colonists in Pennsylvania the right to elect representatives to the legislative assembly
Founding of Carolinas
Founded when Charles 11 granted 8 business owners (proprietors) the right to establish a colony in 1663. They where meant to keep Spanish expansion in Florida in check. Settlers first arrived in 1670.
Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina
Written by John Locke, The constitution would have set up a feudalistic government headed by an aristocracy which owned most of the land, but it was never put into effect. Also gave a generous headright system. Made the state hierarchical system revolve around slave owners.
John Locke
17th-century English philosopher who opposed the Divine Right of Kings and who asserted that people have a natural right to life, liberty, and property.
1667 Virginia Slave Law
A child of a slave woman became the property of the owner regardless of the status of the father-even if the father and mother were married.
Bacon’s Rebellion
1676 - Rebellious indentured servitude people were angry at Virginia Governor Berkeley for having a corrupt rule, maintaining peaceful relations with the Indians, and preventing the whites from expanding on their land. VA settlers led by Nathanial Bacon (🥓) defeated Indians and then marched on Jamestown and burned the city. This was one of the leading factors in the switch from indentured to chattel slaves.
Glorious Revolution
The political events of 1688-1689, when James II abdicated his throne after a coup led by aristocrats and a Dutch prince. They had been mad that James II had decreed religious tolerance for protestants and Catholics. He was replaced by his daughter Mary and her husband, Prince William of Orange. This revolution secured the protestant domination and caused Catholics and dissenters to suffer discrimination.
English Toleration Act
The 1689 act that allowed all types of protestants to worship freely in MA. It was significant because it benefited non Puritan merchants and landowners, but the act created a lot of tension by forcing Puritans to accept Protestants into their communities and leadership roles.
Maryland Uprising
Many revolts began occurring along the East Coast after the overthrowing of James II (Glorious Revolution). Maryland's Protestant Association overthrew the government of the colony's Catholic Proprietor, Lord Baltimore in 1689 - The uprising was successful and Lord Baltimore's family converted before proprietary power was restored in 1715
Leisler’s Rebellion
Jacob Leisler seized control of lower New York from 1689 to 1691. The uprising, which occurred in the midst of Britain's "Glorious Revolution," reflected colonial resentment against the policies of King James II. Royal authority was restored in 1691 by British troops. Leisler was captured and brutally cut up.
Salem Witch Trials
Several accusations of witchcraft led to sensational trials in Salem. 18 people were hanged as witches. The accusations were spread partly because of the tensions between Salem Town (merchants) and Salem Village (farmers) who had to pay Salem Town taxes. Afterward, most of the people involved admitted that the trials and executions had been a terrible mistake. 1692-93
German Migration
110,000 Germans migrated to America from 1683 - 1776 b/c of Lutheran v Protestant strife in Germany usually in NY or PN. German migration was unique because they arrived with their whole family and formed farming communities.
Consumer Revolution
The time period during which the desire for exotic imports increased dramatically due to economic expansion and population growth. It put Great Britain ahead of the Dutch as the leading “producer + trade of inexpensive goods”. Unlike modern day consumerism, it did not include mass production or advertising.
New England Colonies
Massachusetts (MA), Connecticut (CT), Rhode Island (RI), New Hampshire (NH)
Middle Colonies
New York (NY), New Jersey (NJ), Delaware (DE), Pennsylvania (PA)
Southern Colonies
Maryland (MD), Virginia (VA), North Carolina (NC), South Carolina (SC), Georgia (GA)
Anglicization
The process of becoming more English. It is a desire to emulate English society, including English taste in foods, customs, and architecture, etc,
Chattel Slavery
Absolute legal ownership of another person, including the right to buy or sell that person. Not by choice, for life, hereditary (passes through the mother), and racial.
Triangular Trade
A three way system of trade during 1600-1800s Africa sent slaves to America, America sent Raw Materials to Europe, and Europe sent manufactured goods to Africa and America. Europe benefited the most and Africa benefited the least.
Salutary Neglect
an English policy of relaxing the enforcement of regulations in its colonies in return for the colonies' continued economic loyalty; When you ignore a law or do not strictly enforce a law because it is too difficult or expensive to do so. This led into the American Revlution.
Middle Passage
the sea journey undertaken by slave ships from West Africa to the West Indies.
Rice Kingdoms
The plantations in South Carolina required large-scale cultivation (because more expensive to produce) by slaves; the population was mostly slaves. Led to a black majority by the 1730s.
Task System
A system of slave labor under which a slave had to complete a specific assignment each day. After they finished, their time was their own. Used primarily on rice plantations.
Stono Rebellion
The most serious slave rebellion in the colonial period in which 100 African Americans from South Carolina rose up, got weapons, killed several whites then tried to march to Florida, where they were hoping to for freedom. The uprising was crushed and the participants were executed. The main form of rebellion was running away, though there was nowhere to go. It led to harsher slave laws in SC.
Republicanism
Promoted public life participation by being economically independent, could only be virtuous if you owned property.
Liberalism
Focused on individuals and private life. Believed that the government should protect natural rights (life, liberty, property) as long as you shielded your religious beliefs, family relations, etc.
Colonial governors
Some colonies’ governors were appointed by the King, others were appointed by a proprietor, and in RI and CT, these were elected by popular vote.
Colonial Assemblies
Existed in all of the British colonies in America; House of Burgesses in Virginia was the first one. Members of these were almost always members of the upper classes of colonial society.
