Colonial America to Revolution Review

Flashcards covering key vocabulary from colonial American history up to the American Revolution, including colonization efforts, social structures, conflicts, and political developments.

Jamestown

England’s first permanent settlement, founded in 1607 by the Virginia Company, initially a profit-seeking venture.

American Yawp

A historical text that emphasizes the diversity, competing interests, and dynamic communities of colonial America.

Indentured Servitude

A labor system in the 1600s where migrants worked 4–7 years in exchange for passage to the colonies, essential to early labor supply but destabilizing.

Bacon’s Rebellion

A 1676 uprising in Virginia highlighting frustrations between landless former servants and elite planters, accelerating the shift toward African slavery.

Royal African Company

A company that lost its monopoly in 1697, leading to a surge in imports of enslaved Africans to the colonies.

The Great Awakening

A major revivalist movement in the 1730s–40s emphasizing personal conversion, emotional sermons, and salvation by grace, democratizing religion and weakening traditional church authority.

Jonathan Edwards

A figure of the Great Awakening known for his fiery sermon 'Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God' (1741).

Triangular Trade

An economic system linking rum, slaves, and sugar between New England, Africa, and the Caribbean.

Zenger Trial

A 1734 trial in New York that established a precedent for freedom of the press.

Salutary Neglect

British policy for much of the 17th and early 18th centuries of largely ignoring strict enforcement of trade laws, fostering colonial autonomy.

French and Indian War

A conflict (1754–1763) that led Britain to reverse salutary neglect, seeking to tax and regulate colonies to pay debts and manage new territories.

Sugar Act

A 1764 Parliament-imposed measure that raised economic and constitutional objections among colonists.

Stamp Act

A 1765 Parliament-imposed measure creating internal taxes, leading to colonial resistance and the cry 'no taxation without representation.'

Townshend Acts

A series of 1767 Parliament-imposed measures that raised economic and constitutional objections among colonists.

Stamp Act Congress

A 1765 body that organized colonial resistance, declaring 'no taxation without representation.'

Sons of Liberty

A resistance movement that organized protests, boycotts, and sometimes violence against imperial reforms.

Boston Tea Party

A 1773 act of defiance by colonists in response to British policies.

Coercive Acts

British retaliation (1774) to colonial defiance, closing Boston’s port and curtailing self-government, which colonists called the 'Intolerable Acts.'

Suffolk Resolves

Adopted by the First Continental Congress (1774), advocating resistance and preparation for armed conflict against Britain.

Lexington and Concord

Clashes in April 1775, known as the 'shot heard ’round the world,' marking the beginning of the Revolutionary War.

Declaration of Independence

A 1776 document drafted by Jefferson, asserting the right of revolution and listing grievances against King George III, drawing on Enlightenment ideas.

Battle of Saratoga

A decisive Patriot victory in 1777 that secured the French alliance and military support during the Revolutionary War.

Yorktown

The site of the combined Franco-American victory in 1781 that forced British surrender in the Revolutionary War.

Treaty of Paris (1783)

The treaty that recognized U.S. independence, set generous territorial boundaries, and granted fishing rights, marking the end of the Revolutionary War.

Encomienda System

A Spanish method of colonization that forced Native labor under Spanish lords.

Bartolomé de las Casas

A critic of Spanish brutality who argued for the humanity of Indigenous people, shaping debates about colonization.

Métis Culture

A culture arising from French traders intermarrying with Native women in French colonization efforts.

Virginia Company

A joint-stock company that funded early English settlements like Jamestown.

Starving Time

A period in Jamestown (1609–1610) when disease, starvation, and Native conflicts nearly caused the colony’s collapse.

John Rolfe

The colonist credited with successfully cultivating tobacco around 1612, transforming Virginia’s economy.

Headright System

A 1618 system granting land to those who paid for settlers’ passage, encouraging migration and social stratification in Virginia.

House of Burgesses

The first representative assembly established in the Virginia colony in 1619.

Powhatan Confederacy

A Native American group whose relations with English colonists in Virginia shifted from fragile peace to war.

Massachusetts Bay Colony

Founded in 1630 by Puritans with aspirations to build a 'City on a Hill' – a model Christian society.

John Winthrop

A Puritan leader whose sermon emphasized covenant theology and communal responsibility for the 'City on a Hill' ideal.

Roger Williams

A dissenter banished from Puritan society who argued for liberty of conscience and separation of church and state, founding Rhode Island.

Anne Hutchinson

A dissenter banished from Puritan society for challenging gender norms and Puritan orthodoxy through claims of direct revelation.

Pequot War

A conflict (1636–1638) that ended in the near extermination of the Pequot, justified by colonists as divine providence.

King Philip’s War

A devastating conflict (1675–1676) between colonists and Native Americans in New England, resulting in widespread destruction and hardened racial boundaries.

Half-Way Covenant

A 1662 measure reflecting declining church membership and challenging Puritan unity by granting partial church membership to unconverted children of visible saints.

Paleo-Indians

The first Americans who migrated from Asia via the Bering land bridge during the Ice Age.

Aztecs

A militaristic, urban society in Mexico centered at Tenochtitlán, known for its complex tribute system.

Incas

A vast empire in Peru with advanced roads/terracing and centralized rule.

Mayas

A civilization in Yucatán known for mathematics, astronomy, and writing.

Roanoke Island

A failed English colonization attempt in the 1580s, funded by Sir Walter Raleigh, which mysteriously vanished ('Lost Colony').

Anglican Church

The church created by Henry VIII's break with Rome in 1534, making England firmly Protestant under Elizabeth I.

Mayflower Compact

A governing document signed by Pilgrims at Plymouth in 1620.

Maryland

A colony founded by the Calverts as a refuge for Catholics.

Georgia

A buffer colony founded by James Oglethorpe, initially for debtors.

Middle Passage

The sea journey undertaken by enslaved Africans across the Atlantic to the West Indies.

Stono Rebellion

A 1739 slave uprising in South Carolina, a notable instance of resistance to slavery.

Enlightenment

An intellectual movement emphasizing reason, science, and natural rights (e.g., Locke).

Pontiac’s Rebellion

A conflict with Native Americans after the French and Indian War, prompting Britain to seek to tax colonies for defense.

Republican Motherhood

A concept after the Revolution emphasizing women's role in educating future citizens but granting little legal gain.

Articles of Confederation

The foundational document (1781) establishing a weak central government with no power to tax or regulate trade, leaving most power to the states.