APUSH Time Period 2 Vocab

Indentured Servants - Definition

Colonists (often poor Europeans) who agreed to work for a set number of years in exchange for passage to the Americas; they were the primary labor force before African slavery became dominant. (CCOT)

Indentured Servants - CCOT

Over time, the labor system shifted from indentured servitude toward African chattel slavery, changing who provided labor and how labor was controlled in the colonies.

Puritan Town Meetings - Definition

Local government assemblies in New England where male church members made decisions democratically—an early example of participatory self-government in the colonies.

Puritan Town Meetings - Causation

The town meetings began to represent a more democratic form of government, paving the way for the democratic practices that became necessary to the U.S. Constitution.

Elite Planters - Definition

Wealthy landowners in the Southern colonies who dominated the economy and politics, often through enslaved labor and control of vast forced labor camps often called plantations.

Elite Planters - Causation

The power and interests of elite planters shaped colonial laws, social hierarchies, and policies that expanded and entrenched slavery.

Atlantic Economy - Definition

A transatlantic trading system that linked Europe, Africa, and the Americas, exchanging goods, enslaved people, and raw materials in what became known as the "Triangular Trade."

Atlantic Economy - Causation

This network drove the expansion of plantation agriculture, the Atlantic slave trade, and economic ties that shaped colonial development.

Metacom’s War (King Philip’s War) - Definition

A brutal conflict (1675–1676) between New England colonists and Native Americans led by Wampanoag chief Metacom; it ended major Native resistance in the Northeast.

Metacom’s War (King Philip’s War) - Causation

The war reduced Native power in New England and accelerated colonial expansion and consolidation of English control.

Pueblo Revolt - Definition

A 1680 uprising by indigenous peoples known to the Spanish as the Pueblo in present-day New Mexico against Spanish rule and forced religion, temporarily driving the Spanish out and demonstrating successful short term Native resistance to colonization.

Pueblo Revolt - Causation

The revolt forced the Spanish to modify colonial policies and demonstrated indigenous capacity for organized resistance.

First Great Awakening - Definition

A religious revival movement in the 1730s–1740s emphasizing personal faith, emotional preaching, and individual connection to God, which challenged established churches and promoted new denominations.

First Great Awakening - Causation

The movement challenged established churches and authority, encouraging individualism and ideas that later fed into revolutionary thinking.

Enlightenment - Definition

An intellectual movement emphasizing reason, science, and individual rights that influenced colonial leaders and laid the groundwork for ideas about liberty and self-government.

Enlightenment - Causation

Enlightenment ideas directly shaped colonial arguments about government, rights, and justified resistance to perceived tyranny.

Anglicization - Definition

The process by which colonial Americans adopted British customs, culture, and political practices, even while developing distinct identities.

Anglicization - CCOT

Colonists became more culturally British over time, but later diverged politically as colonial identity and resistance to imperial control grew.

Protestant Evangelicalism - Definition

A Christian movement emphasizing personal conversion, the authority of the Bible, and emotional expression of faith, popularized during the First Great Awakening.

Protestant Evangelicalism - Causation

The spread of evangelical beliefs altered social and political life—promoting new congregations, challenging elites, and encouraging individual moral responsibility.

Mercantilism - Definition

An economic theory where colonies existed to benefit the mother country by providing raw materials and markets; it led to British trade restrictions and growing colonial resentment.

Mercantilism - Causation

British mercantilist policies restricted colonial trade and contributed to resentment and the growth of smuggling and political resistance.

Atlantic Slave Trade - Definition

A system of forced migration where millions of Africans were kidnapped and transported to the Americas as part of the Triangular Trade; it fueled forced labor/plantation economies and reshaped societies.

Atlantic Slave Trade - Causation

The trade created labor systems and demographic changes that built colonial wealth and institutionalized racial slavery.

Racial Superiority Theory - Definition

A belief system developed by Europeans to justify enslavement and colonialism, claiming that people of African and Native descent were inherently inferior.

Racial Superiority Theory - Causation

This ideology provided moral and legal rationales for slavery and discriminatory policies that structured colonial and later American society.

Africans’ Forms of Resistance

Enslaved Africans resisted through rebellion (e.g., Stono Rebellion), escape, sabotage, and preserving cultural practices like music, religion, and family structures.

Africans’ Forms of Resistance - CCOT

Resistance showed continuity (persistent cultural preservation) and change (different tactics and scale) across time as conditions and opportunities shifted.

British Imperialism (and Perceived Corruption Within This System)

Colonists increasingly viewed British rule as exploitative and corrupt—especially through trade restrictions and favoritism toward elites—planting seeds of distrust.

British Imperialism (and Perceived Corruption Within This System) - Causation

Perceptions of corruption and unfair economic controls fueled colonial grievances and organized resistance.

Beginnings of Colonial Resistance - Definition

Colonial resistance began with opposition to mercantilist policies like the Navigation Acts, smuggling, and growing demands for more local control.

Beginnings of Colonial Resistance - Causation

These early acts of resistance created political networks and norms (petitioning, boycotts) that escalated into broader revolutionary movements.

Ideas of Colonial Self-Government - Definition

Colonists developed local institutions like assemblies and town meetings that gave them a voice in governance, reinforcing expectations of rights and autonomy.

Ideas of Colonial Self-Government - CCOT

Local self-government evolved over time from informal practices to more formal political claims that ultimately shaped revolutionary demands.