Key Terms in Early American Colonial and Native History

Huguenots

French Protestants influenced by John Calvin

Edict of Nantes

document that granted religious freedom to the Huguenots

coureurs de bois

runners of the woods

voyageurs

French-Canadian fur traders and adventurers

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.

Roanoke Island

Sir Walter Raleigh's failed colonial settlement off the coast of North Carolina

Spanish Armada

The great fleet sent from Spain against England by Philip II in 1588; defeated by the terrible winds and fire ships.

primogeniture

right of inheritance belongs exclusively to the eldest son

joint-stock company

a company whose stock is owned jointly by the shareholders.

Virginia Company

The first joint-stock company in the colonies; founded Jamestown; promised gold, conversion of Indian to Christianity, and passage to the Indies

charter

a written grant of authority from the king

Jamestown

First permanent English settlement in North America

First Anglo-Powhatan War

Series of clashes between the Powhatan Confederacy and English settlers in Virginia. English colonists torched and pillaged Indian villages, applying tactics used in England's campaigns against the Irish.

Second Anglo-Powhatan War

Indians last effort to dislodge Virginians, they were defeated. Peace treaty of 1646 stopped any hope of creating native peoples into Virginia society or peace with coexisting.

New Netherland

Dutch holdings in North America

Iroquois Confederacy

a group of Native American nations in eastern North America joined together under one general government

Elizabeth I

English Queen and politique who united Protestants and Catholics through compromise

Sir Francis Drake

first Englishman to sail around the world

Sir Walter Raleigh

founder of England's first American colony

James I

The first Stuart to be king of England and Ireland from 1603 to 1925 and king of Scotland from 1567 to 1625

Captain John Smith

English explorer who helped found the colony at Jamestown, Virginia

Powhatan

Indian chief and founder of the Powhatan confederacy of tribes in eastern Virginia

Pocahontas

chief powhatan's daughter

married john rolfe

Lord De La Warr

New governor of Jamestown who arrived in 1610, immediately imposing a military regime in Jamestown and declaring war against the Powhatan Confederacy. Employed "Irish tactics" in which his troops burned houses and cornfields.

John Rolfe

Jamestown colony leader who showed that tobacco could be grown successfully in Virginia

Hiawatha

Legendary founder of the powerful Iroquois Confederacy