Colonial Period

Puritan

A Protestant who wanted to reform or "purify" the Church of England.

Separatists

Protestants who wanted to completely separate from the Church of England because they believed it could not be reformed.

Plymouth Colony

Founded in 1620 by Separatists, also called Pilgrims, who came to America seeking religious freedom.

Mayflower

The ship that carried the Pilgrims from England to America in 1620.

Mayflower Compact

A founding document and social contract signed in 1620 that established self-government and helped begin democracy in the colonies.

Massachusetts Bay Colony

A colony founded by Puritans who wanted to create a religious community based on their beliefs.

Pequot War

A conflict between New England colonists and the Pequot people over land and control of the region.

King Philip's War

A major conflict between New England colonists and Native Americans led by Metacom, also known as King Philip.

Wampanoag

A Native American people who helped the Plymouth colonists survive and were initially allied with them.

New Netherland

A Dutch colony in North America that included present-day New York and was later taken over by England.

Proprietary Colony

A colony that the king gave to a proprietor, or owner, who controlled and governed it.

Royal Colony

A colony directly controlled by the king and the royal government.

Self-Governing Colony

A colony in which the colonists had the power to govern themselves and make decisions through their own government.

Quakers

A religious group that believed in equality, religious tolerance, and a direct relationship with God.

Fundamental Orders of Connecticut

A founding document and social contract from 1639 that established self-government, democracy, and three branches of government in Connecticut.

Joint-Stock Company

A business in which several investors combined their money to fund a colony in hopes of making a profit.

Indentured Servant

A person who agreed to work for someone for a limited number of years, usually four to seven, in exchange for passage to America, food, and shelter.

Jamestown

The first permanent English settlement in North America, founded in Virginia in 1607 by the Virginia Company.

First House of Burgesses

The House of Burgesses was the first representative lawmaking body in colonial America, established in Virginia in 1619.

Powhatan

The powerful Native American chief who led a group of tribes in the Virginia region when the English established Jamestown.

Parliament

England's lawmaking body that shared governing power with the monarch.

John Winthrop

A Puritan leader and governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony who wanted the colony to become a model Christian society.

John Smith

A leader of Jamestown who helped the struggling colony survive by requiring colonists to work and by getting food from the Powhatan people.

Roger Williams

A Puritan dissenter who supported religious freedom and separation of church and government and founded Rhode Island.

Anne Hutchinson

A Puritan dissenter who challenged religious leaders in Massachusetts and was banished from the colony.

Massasoit

A Wampanoag leader who formed an alliance with the Plymouth colonists and helped maintain peace between the two groups.

Metacom

Also called King Philip by the English, a Wampanoag leader who led Native Americans against New England colonists in King Philip's War.

William Penn

A Quaker who founded Pennsylvania as a colony where people could practice their religions freely.

Mercantilism

An economic system in which colonies supplied raw materials to their mother country and bought its manufactured goods to increase the mother country's wealth.

Salutary Neglect

Britain's policy of loosely enforcing colonial laws, which allowed the colonies to develop greater independence and self-government.

Navigation Acts

English laws that controlled colonial trade so that England would benefit from the colonies' economy.

Cash Crop

A crop grown mainly to be sold for profit rather than for personal use.

European Slave Trade

The forced capture, transportation, and sale of millions of Africans into slavery, including to the Americas.

Triangular Trade

A system of trade connecting Europe, Africa, and the Americas through the exchange of goods and enslaved people.

Middle Passage

The brutal voyage across the Atlantic Ocean that forcibly transported enslaved Africans from Africa to the Americas.

Stono Rebellion

A 1739 uprising in South Carolina in which enslaved Africans rebelled in an attempt to gain their freedom.

Enlightenment

An intellectual movement that emphasized reason, science, natural rights, and the idea that people could improve society.

Great Awakening

A religious revival in the colonies that encouraged people to develop a more personal and emotional connection with their faith.

Olaudah Equiano

A formerly enslaved African who wrote about the horrors of slavery and the Middle Passage and became an abolitionist.

Benjamin Franklin

An American writer, scientist, inventor, and Enlightenment thinker who believed in reason, education, and self-improvement.

Jonathan Edwards

A preacher and important leader of the Great Awakening who used powerful sermons to encourage people to strengthen their religious faith.