history chapter 11 Virginia leads the way

Joint-Stock Company

An investment company in which members buy shares.

Plantation

A complex of which households are a part; an established settlement; an estate or farm tended by resident labor.

Lost Colony

The first English settlement in North America at Roanoke Island, whose inhabitants vanished after its governor sailed to England for supplies.

Geneva Bible

Popular sixteenth-century English translation of the Bible featuring notes written from a strongly Reformed theological perspective.

Virginia Company

A joint-stock company chartered by King James for the purpose of establishing an English colony in the New World.

London Group

A group of Virginia Company investors who wanted to settle the southern part of Virginia.

Plymouth Group

A group of Virginia Company investors who wanted to settle the northern part of Virginia.

Jamestown

The first permanent English settlement in North America, located in Virginia and named in honor of King James I.

Gunpowder Plot

A Roman Catholic conspiracy to assassinate King James I and members of Parliament by blowing up the Parliament building to return England to Roman Catholicism.

Gentry

The social rank of an individual born into a prominent family positioned directly below the nobility.

Common Storehouse

An early American form of communism where the fruits of labor were held jointly and distributed regardless of contribution, resulting in laziness and starvation.

Indentured Servant

An individual who owes a debt and must perform labor for a specified period of time in order to pay off the obligation.

Chattel Slavery

A system of bondage in which an individual becomes the personal property of the master.

House of Burgesses

The first legislative assembly of Virginia; served as the forerunner of Virginia's legislature.

Royal Colony

A colony under the direct control and governance of the monarchy.

John White

Leader of the English colonial expedition to Roanoke Island, the first English settlement attempt in the New World.

Virginia Dare

The first child born to English parents in the New World.

James I

The first of the Stuart Kings in England whose vision of extending England's domain led to the initial English colonization efforts in North America.

Guy Fawkes

Conspirator in the Gunpowder Plot who was tried and executed for treason after attempting to murder the king and members of Parliament.

John Smith

Colonial leader whose strict discipline and trade negotiations with local Native Americans preserved Jamestown through starvation.

Chief Powhatan

Powerful Native American leader in Virginia who once nearly executed John Smith; father of Pocahontas.

Pocahontas

Daughter of Chief Powhatan who allegedly saved the life of John Smith, later converted to Christianity, and married John Rolfe.

John Rolfe

Leading Jamestown colonist who married Pocahontas and rescued the settlement economically by introducing tobacco cultivation.

Thomas West, Lord De La Warr

Governor of Virginia whose timely arrival with additional settlers and provisions prevented the colonists from abandoning Jamestown.

Sir Thomas Gates

Acting governor of Jamestown who arrived during a severe crisis and started all the settlers back toward England before turning around.

Sir Edwin Sandys

English parliamentary leader and London Company treasurer who reformed Jamestown by instituting a representative assembly, sending wives to colonists, and allowing private land ownership.