U.S. History & Government: The Colonial Era to the Articles of Confederation

Vocabulary practice covering the U.S. Colonial Era, the path to independence, and the first American government.

Anglican Church

The established Church of England that persecuted those with differing beliefs, leading Protestants and Puritans to seek refuge in the New World.

Jamestown

Established in 1607, it was the first permanent English settlement in America.

Virginia Stock Company

A group of investors who funded the Jamestown settlement in hopes of making a profit from finding gold and land resources.

John Rolfe

The colonist who saved Jamestown by planting tobacco, a cash crop that thrived in the swampy Virginia soil.

Cash crop

Agricultural products grown to be sold for profit rather than for personal use, such as tobacco, rice, indigo, and cotton.

Indentured servants

Laborers who signed a contract to work for 5-7 years in exchange for passage to America, food, and clothing, after which they were set free.

Middle Passage

The brutal journey across the Atlantic Ocean where enslaved Africans were transported to the Americas in cramped, inhumane conditions.

Chattel Slavery

A system of slavery where individuals are considered personal property rather than human beings to justify their treatment by colonizers.

Bacon’s Rebellion

A 1676 uprising of indentured servants against Governor William Berkeley that led wealthy Southerners to rely more heavily on African slaves.

Virginia House of Burgesses

Established in 1619, this was the first form of representative self-government in the American colonies.

Mayflower Compact

A 1620 contract in which the Pilgrims agreed to a self-ruling government based on majority rule.

Great Migration

The period during the 1630s when thousands of Puritans arrived in America, many settling in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Fundamental Orders of Connecticut

The first written constitution in America, establishing a government for the colony of Connecticut.

Quakers

A religious group led by William Penn in Pennsylvania who were pacifists and advocated for fair treatment of Native Americans.

Magna Carta

An English document that limited the power of the monarch and guaranteed that the rights of the people would not be taken away.

John Locke

An Enlightenment thinker who theorized that people are born with natural rights to life, liberty, and property.

Social contract

An agreement between the government and the people where the government protects natural rights in exchange for the consent of the governed.

John Peter Zenger

A New York publisher whose 1735 acquittal for seditious libel helped establish the principle of freedom of the press.

Mercantilism

The economic theory that a nation's power depends on its gold supply and that colonies exist solely for the benefit of the mother country.

Salutary Neglect

The English policy of loosely enforcing trade laws, which allowed the colonies to develop significant self-governance.

Proclamation Line of 1763

A British order issued after the French and Indian War that prohibited colonists from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains.

Stamp Act

A 1765 internal tax on printed materials, including newspapers and legal documents, which led to the cry "No taxation without representation."

Sons of Liberty

A group of patriots, including Samuel Adams and Paul Revere, who organized protests and boycotts against British taxation.

Intolerable Acts

Also known as the Coercive Acts, these were punitive laws passed in 1774 in response to the Boston Tea Party, closing Boston Harbor and suspending the Massachusetts legislature.

Common Sense

A pamphlet written by Thomas Paine that used simple logic to argue why the colonies should seek independence from England.

Battle of Saratoga

The 1777 turning point of the Revolutionary War that resulted in France becoming an official ally of the American colonists.

Articles of Confederation

The first national government of the United States (1781–1789), characterized by a loose alliance of states and a weak central government.

Northwest Ordinance of 1787

A law that established a process for territories to become states and prohibited slavery in the Northwest Territory.

Shay’s Rebellion

A 1786 uprising of Massachusetts farmers that demonstrated the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation and the need for a stronger central government.