AP US History: Colonial Society, Enlightenment, and Imperial Control (1607-1754)

A set of vocabulary flashcards covering AP US History Period 2 concepts including social structures, the Enlightenment, the Great Awakening, the French and Indian War, and British imperial policies.

Freeholder

A landowner in colonial society whose property ownership granted social identity and economic status above indentured servants.

Household Mode of Production

A system of economic interdependence adopted by colonial families as land became scarce and increasingly subdivided among sons by the 1730s.

Enlightenment

An 18th-century European intellectual movement emphasizing empirical research and scientific reasoning, brought to the colonies through trans-Atlantic trade and uncensored print presses.

John Locke

An English Enlightenment philosopher who advocated for natural rights—life, liberty, and property—and asserted that political authority derives from the people rather than God.

Benjamin Franklin

An American scientist, writer, outspoken deist, publisher of Poor Richard's Almanac (1732-1757), inventor of bifocals and the lightning rod, who repudiated slavery and proposed the Albany Plan of Union.

Great Awakening

A colonial religious movement spreading from European trade connections that emphasized pious behavior, personal spiritual union with God, and emotional, enthusiastic worship.

Old Lights

Traditional religious ministers and believers who opposed the emotional fervor and enthusiastic worship of the Great Awakening.

New Lights

Evangelical ministers and followers who embraced the Great Awakening's passionate spiritual expression, leading to new denominations and colleges such as Princeton and Columbia.

George Whitefield

An English minister who toured the American colonies starting in 1739, spreading the Great Awakening through passionate displays of preaching and religious conversion.

French and Indian War

A conflict sparked by overlapping British and French land claims in the Ohio Valley, forming part of the global Seven Years' War won by Great Britain.

Albany Plan of Union

A proposal presented by Benjamin Franklin at the Albany Congress calling for a single combined government to unite the American colonies.

Pontiac's Rebellion (1763)

An Indian uprising led by Chief Pontiac that captured much of the Ohio Valley from the British following the post-war replacement of French traders with Anglo-American settlers.

Proclamation Line of 1763

A British decree issued after Pontiac's Rebellion declaring the region west of the Appalachian Mountains off-limits to colonial settlement.

Proprietorship

A colony granted by the crown to a single family or individual owner, such as William Penn's Pennsylvania, rather than managed by a joint-stock company.

William Penn

Quaker founder of Pennsylvania who established "the Holy Experiment" based on religious toleration, pacifism, anti-predestination, and friendly relations with Native Americans.

Navigation Acts

17th-century British mercantilist trade regulations requiring all colonial goods to be carried exclusively on English ships.

Dominion of New England

A 17th-century royal attempt to consolidate control over the New England colonies into a single administrative unit governed directly by the crown.

Southern Gentry

A social elite of wealthy plantation owners in the Southern colonies whose authority and power derived from land ownership and cash crop production.

Middle Passage

The dangerous and brutal trans-Atlantic sea voyage that forcibly transported enslaved Africans to working plantations in the Americas.

Stono Rebellion (1739)

A slave revolt in South Carolina that resulted in colonial authorities imposing significantly harsher slave codes.

Killer Crops

High-mortality agricultural crops, primarily rice and sugar in the West Indies and South Carolina, which demanded harsh labor conditions compared to Chesapeake tobacco.

Salutary Neglect

An unofficial British policy during the early 18th century where relaxed government supervision allowed American colonies to function with self-governance as long as trade revenue remained profitable.