History 101 Exam 1

James Town

1607- First permanent English settlement in North America; tobacco and labor shaped Virginia.

Plymouth settlement

1620- Pilgrim settlement associated with the Mayflower Compact and community self-government.

Bacon’s Rebellion

1676- Revealed tensions over land, Native American relations, and class in Virginia.

Dominion of New England and the Glorious Revolution era

1680s- Showed growing conflict over imperial control and colonial political rights.

First Great Awakening

1730s-1740s Religious revival challenged established religious authority and encouraged individual religious experience.

French and Indian War

1754-1763 Expanded British debt and intensified conflicts over colonial taxation and western lands.

Stamp Act

1765- Direct taxation provoked colonial protests over representation and parliamentary authority.

Boston Massacre

1770- Became a powerful symbol in Patriot resistance to British policies.

Tea Act

1773- Taxed tea making it a symbol of how powerful parliament

Boston Tea Party

1773- Protest against British tea policy and imperial authority.

Intolerable Acts and First Continental Congress

1774- Were a series of punitive laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 to punish the colony of Massachusetts Bay for the Boston Tea Party

Battles of Lexington and Concord

1775- Began the American Revolutionary War on April 19, 1775, as colonial militia resisted British efforts to seize their weapons.

Declaration of Independence

1776- Asserted natural rights and the colonies’ independence.

Articles of Confederation take effect; British surrender at Yorktown

1781 Established the first national framework while the war moved toward its conclusion.

Treaty of Paris

1783- Britain recognized American independence.

Shays’ Rebellion

Demonstrated that the Articles of Confederation created a national government that was too weak to handle major domestic problems, helping lead to the creation of the U.S. Constitution.

Constitutional Convention

1787- Drafted the U.S. Constitution, replacing the Articles of Confederation and establishing the framework of the current U.S. government.

Constitution ratified

1788- Ratification by nine states in 1788 allowed the Constitution to take effect, and the new federal government began operating in 1789.

Bill of Rights ratified

1791- Protected individual liberties and address concerns that the new Constitution did not sufficiently protect people's rights.

New England Colonies

Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire. Their economies relied on fishing, shipbuilding, trade, and small farms.

Founders of New England

English Puritans and other religious groups who established colonies in New England.

Visible Saints

People considered to have demonstrated true Christian faith and who were accepted as full members of Puritan churches.

Massachusetts Bay Company (1629)

A company that received a royal charter to establish and govern the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

John Winthrop

Puritan leader and governor of Massachusetts Bay who wanted the colony to serve as an example of a godly community.

General Court

Massachusetts Bay's colonial legislature, which eventually became a representative governing body.

Great Migration (1629–1642)

The movement of thousands of English Puritans to New England, especially Massachusetts Bay.

Diversified economy

An economy that relies on several different industries rather than just one.

Harvard College

Founded in 1636 to educate ministers and other colonial leaders; it became the oldest institution of higher education in what is now the United States.

Salem Witch Trials (1692–1693)

Trials in colonial Massachusetts in which people were accused of witchcraft; 20 people were executed, and others died in custody.

Middle Colonies

New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. They had diverse populations, fertile farmland, and important trading cities.

New France

France's North American colonial empire, centered on Canada and the St. Lawrence River, with settlements and trading networks extending farther inland.

New Spain

Spain's colonial territories in North America, including Mexico and areas of the present-day American Southwest.

Mosaic of society

A society made up of different ethnic, religious, and cultural groups.

“The Best Poor Man's Country”

A description of Pennsylvania as a place where ordinary people could find land, economic opportunity, and greater independence.

Pueblo Revolt (1680)

An uprising by Pueblo peoples against Spanish colonial rule in present-day New Mexico. They drove the Spanish out temporarily.

Quakers (Religious Society of Friends)

A Christian group that emphasized inner spiritual experience, equality, and, among many members, pacifism and religious tolerance.

William Penn

Quaker founder of Pennsylvania who promoted religious toleration and planned a colony with representative government.

“Holy Experiment”

William Penn's effort to establish Pennsylvania as a colony based on Quaker ideals, religious tolerance, and peaceful settlement.

Inner Light”

The Quaker belief that everyone can experience divine guidance within themselves.

Frame of Government (1682)

William Penn's plan for governing Pennsylvania, which provided for a representative legislature and limits on political authority.

Lenape (Delaware)

Indigenous peoples whose ancestral homelands included parts of present-day Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and New York.

Wheat

An important Middle Colonies crop that supported farming, flour production, and trade.

City-country trade networks

Connections through which cities exchanged manufactured goods and services with surrounding rural areas that supplied food and raw materials.

Factionalism

The formation of competing groups within a community or political system, often because of different interests or beliefs.

Southern Colonies

Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Their economies relied heavily on agriculture and, increasingly, enslaved labor.

Plantation

A large agricultural estate that produced cash crops such as tobacco, rice, and indigo, often using enslaved labor.

Plantation South

The southern colonial economy and society built around large farms, export crops, and a rigid social hierarchy.

Anthony Ashley Cooper

An English politician and one of the Lords Proprietors involved in founding Carolina; he helped shape its early government.

Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina (1669)

A proposed governing framework for Carolina that promoted a hierarchical society and protected the power of wealthy landowners.

Charles Town

The original name of Charleston, South Carolina, an important port and center of plantation commerce.

Barbados

A Caribbean English colony whose sugar plantation economy and slave system influenced the development of slavery in mainland English colonies, especially South Carolina.

Eliza Lucas Pinckney

South Carolina planter who helped make indigo a profitable export crop in the 1740s.

Indigo

A plant used to produce blue dye; it became an important cash crop in South Carolina.

Virginia Slave Codes (1662)

Laws that made a child's legal status follow the mother's status, helping establish hereditary slavery in Virginia.

Royal African Company (1672–1698)

An English company granted a monopoly over much of England's African slave trade for a period; it transported enslaved Africans to the Americas.

Black Codes

Laws restricting the rights and freedom of Black people. In the colonial period, such laws helped enforce racial slavery and maintain white control.

Middle Passage

The forced voyage of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas under brutal and deadly conditions.

Transition to slavery

The gradual shift in many colonies from a mixed labor system, including indentured servants, toward a racialized system of lifelong, hereditary enslavement.

Backcountry

Inland areas beyond the older coastal settlements, often settled by farmers and migrants moving westward.

Settlement of the Backcountry

The movement of European settlers into inland areas, increasing competition and conflict over Indigenous lands.

Colonial Life in Urban America

Life in colonial cities, where people worked in trade, crafts, shipping, and other occupations.

Great Valley

The Great Valley of the Appalachian region, a fertile inland corridor that attracted farmers and migrants.

Scots-Irish

People of Scottish ancestry, many of whom had lived in Ulster, Ireland, before migrating to North America.

Germans

German-speaking immigrants who settled especially in Pennsylvania and contributed to its farming and craft industries

“White Indians”

A historical colonial term for Europeans who adopted Indigenous customs or ways of life. The term reflected colonial attitudes toward cultural identity.

Charles Woodmason

An Anglican clergyman in the colonial southern backcountry who criticized settlers' religious practices and lifestyles.

Social stratification

The division of society into levels or classes based on wealth, status, occupation, or power.

Master craftsman

A skilled craft worker who owns or operates a workshop and may train apprentices and employ journeymen.

Journeyman

A trained craft worker who has completed an apprenticeship and works for wages, often to gain experience.

Apprentice

Someone who learns a trade from an experienced craft worker in exchange for work and training. Apprentices were often bound by a contract for several years.

Commonwealth

A political community or society organized for the public good. In your notes, check how your textbook uses this term in discussing colonial society.

White families in the North and South

White colonial families had different experiences depending on region, wealth, and occupation. Southern wealthy families were more likely to own plantations, while northern families often participated in farming, trade, and crafts.

The Enslaved Family\

Families formed by enslaved African Americans despite laws and practices that denied them legal protections and sometimes separated relatives through sale.

Authoritarian family structure

A family arrangement in which authority is concentrated in a household head, and other members are expected to obey.

Dowry

Property or money brought by a bride or her family into a marriage.

Patriarchy

A social system in which men generally hold greater authority and power in families and public life.

Coverture

English common-law doctrine under which a married woman's separate legal identity was largely absorbed into her husband's, limiting her independent legal and economic rights.

Stono Rebellion (1739)

A major uprising by enslaved people near Charleston, South Carolina, in which rebels sought freedom and moved toward Spanish Florida.

Fictive kinship

Family-like relationships between people who are not biologically related, such as close friends treated as relatives. These bonds could provide support within enslaved communities.

Task system

A labor system in which enslaved workers were assigned specific tasks to complete each day. It was especially associated with rice plantations in parts of the South.

Gang system

A labor system in which enslaved workers labored in groups under close supervision for much of the working day.

Enlightenment in America

An intellectual movement emphasizing reason, science, observation, and questioning traditional authority.

The Great Awakening

A series of religious revivals in the 1730s and 1740s that encouraged emotional religious experiences and challenged some established church authorities.

Scientific questioning

Using observation, evidence, and reason to investigate how the natural world works.

Anglicization

The adoption of English or British customs, products, language, and cultural practices by colonists.

John Locke

English philosopher who argued that people possess natural rights and that government depends on the consent of the governed. His ideas influenced American political thought.

Benjamin Franklin

American printer, scientist, inventor, writer, and statesman who promoted Enlightenment ideas and practical education.

Almanacs

Publications containing calendars, weather predictions, astronomical information, and practical advice. Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack became especially popular.

Jonathan Edwards

New England preacher whose sermons helped launch the Great Awakening.

“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” (1741)

A sermon by Jonathan Edwards emphasizing God's judgment and the need for repentance.

George Whitefield

Influential evangelical preacher who traveled throughout the colonies and helped spread the Great Awakening.

Baptists

Protestant Christians who emphasize baptism of believers and the importance of individual faith; Baptist groups grew during the Great Awakening.

New York Conspiracy (1741)

A series of fires and alleged plots in New York City that led to panic, trials, and the execution or deportation of numerous enslaved and free Black people and some white colonists.

Consumer Revolution

The eighteenth-century increase in colonial consumption of imported goods, including tea, clothing, ceramics, and household items.

Tea drinking

A popular British cultural practice that spread among colonial consumers and became associated with social status and sociability.

Gentry

Wealthy, socially prominent landowners and members of the upper classes who often held political and community influence.

Economic ties

Trade and business relationships connecting the American colonies to Britain and the wider Atlantic economy.

Political structures

The institutions and arrangements through which a government exercises authority.

French and Indian War (1754–1763)

The North American part of the wider Seven Years' War, fought primarily between Britain and France and their Indigenous allies. Britain won control of much of France's former territory in North America.

Parliament

Britain's lawmaking body, which passed laws and taxes affecting the colonies.