Unit 1 Key Terms and People to Know (APUSH)

Roanoke Island

Island colony founded by Sir Walter Raleigh that mysteriously disappeared in the 1580s

Spanish Armada

"Invincible" group of ships sent by King Philip II of Spain to invade England in 1588; Armada was defeated by smaller, more maneuverable English "sea dogs" in the Channel; marked the beginning of English naval dominance and fall of Spanish dominance.

Barbados Slave Code

Established in 1661, it gave masters virtually complete control over their slaves including the right to inflict vicious punishments for even slight infractions.

Mayflower Contract

Document written by the Pilgrims while at sea enumerating the scope of their government and its expectations of citizens.

Great Migration

Movement of over 300,000 African American from the rural south into Northern cities between 1914 and 1920

Fundamental Orders

In 1639 the Connecticut River colony settlers had an open meeting and they established a constitution called the Fundamental Orders. It made a Democratic government. It was the first constitution in the colonies and was a beginning for the other states' charters and constitutions.

Dominion of New England

1686 - The British government combined the colonies of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Connecticut into a single province headed by a royal governor (Andros). The Dominion ended in 1692, when the colonists revolted and drove out Governor Andros.

Navigation Laws

Series of laws passed, beginning in 1651, to regulate colonial shipping; the acts provided that only English ships would be allowed to trade in English and colonial ports, and that all goods destined for the colonies would first pass through England.

Salutary Neglect

an English policy of relaxing the enforcement of regulations in its colonies in return for the colonies' continued economic loyalty

Indentured Servant

Colonists who received free passage to North America in exchange for working without pay for a certain number of years

Bacon’s Rebellion

A rebellion lead by Nathaniel Bacon with backcountry farmers to attack Native Americans in an attempt to gain more land

Paxton Boys

Armed march on Philadelphia by Scotts-Irish frontiersmen in protest against the Quaker establishment's lenient policies toward Native Americans.

Regulator Movement

Eventually violent uprising of backcountry settlers in North Carolina against unfair taxation and the control of colonial affairs by the seaboard elite.

Molasses Act

A British law that imposed a tax on sugar, molasses, and rum imported from non-British colonies into North American colonies. It was intended to maintain the monopoly of the American sugar market by the West Indies sugarcane growers. It was the least successful of the Navigation Acts, since it was avoided by smuggling.

Great Awakening

Religious revival in the American colonies of the eighteenth century during which a number of new Protestant churches were established.

Royal Colonies

Colonies controlled by the British king through governors appointed by him and through the king's veto power over colonial laws.

Proprietary Colonies

Colonies in which the proprietors (who had obtained their patents from the king) named the governors, subject to the king's approval.

King William’s War

War fought largely between French trappers, British settlers, and their respective Indian allies from 1689-1697.

Queen Anne’s War

Second in a series of conflicts between the European powers for control of North America, fought between the English and French colonists in the North, and the English and Spanish in Florida. Under the peace treaty, the French ceded Acadia (Nova Scotia), Newfoundland, and Hudson Bay to Britain.

War of Jenkin’s Ear

Land squabble between Britain and Spain over Georgia and trading rights. Battles took place in the Caribbean and on the Florida/Georgia border. The name comes from a British captain named Jenkins, whose ear was cut off by the Spanish.

Sir Francis Drake

English explorer and admiral who was the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe and who helped to defeat the Spanish Armada

Sir Walter Raleigh

An English adventurer and writer, became an explorer of the Americas. In 1585, Raleigh sponsored the first English colony in America on Roanoke Island in present-day North Carolina. It failed and is known as " The Lost Colony."

Captain John Smith

Organized Jamestown and imposed a harsh law "He who will not work shall not eat".

Powhatan

An Indian chieftain who dominated the peoples in the James River area. All the tribes loosely under his control came to be called Powhatan's confederacy. The colonists innacurately called all of the Indians powhatans.

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.

James Oglethorpe

Founder and governor of the Georgia colony. He ran a tightly-disciplined, military-like colony. Slaves, alcohol, and Catholicism were forbidden in his colony. Many colonists felt that Oglethorpe was a dictator, and that caused the colony to break down and Oglethorpe to lose his position as governor.

William Bradford

A Pilgrim, the second governor of the Plymouth colony, 1621-1657. He developed private land ownership and helped colonists get out of debt. He helped the colony survive droughts, crop failures, and Indian attacks.

John Winthrop

As governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, Winthrop was instrumental in forming the colony's government and shaping its legislative policy. He envisioned the colony, centered in present-day Boston, as a "city upon a hill" from which Puritans would spread religious righteousness throughout the world.

Anne Hutchinson

A Puritan woman who was well learned that disagreed with the Puritan Church in Massachusetts Bay Colony. Her actions resulted in her banishment from the colony, and later took part in the formation of Rhode Island. She displayed the importance of questioning authority.

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.

Henry Hudson

An English explorer who explored for the Dutch. He claimed the Hudson River around present day New York and called it New Netherland. He also had the Hudson Bay named for him

Nathaniel Bacon

a farmer in the backcountry, his resentment of Berkeley and the unbalanced power of the Virginia government, lead to a rebellion, by him and other backcountry farmers. When Berkeley refused to let Bacon and other farmers fight nearby Indians, he went into Jamestown, with his own militia, burned most of the city, and drove Berkeley out of town.

William Berkeley

A Governor of Virginia, appointed by King Charles I, of whom he was a favorite. He was governor from 1641-1652 and 1660-1677. Berkeley enacted friendly policies towards the Indians that led to Bacon's Rebellion in 1676.

Jonathan Edwards

American theologian whose sermons and writings stimulated a period of renewed interest in religion in America; preacher during the First Great Awakening

George Whitefield

English clergyman who was known for his ability to convince many people through his sermons. He involved himself in the Great Awakening in 1739 preaching his belief in gaining salvation.

Samuel de Champlain

French explorer in Nova Scotia who established a settlement on the site of modern Quebec