APUSH CH 3 & 4 Key Terms

Proprietorship

A colony granted by the king to an individual owner who governed it with wide authority. Maryland and Pennsylvania were proprietorships.

Quakers

Members of the Society of Friends who believed in an inner light, pacifism, and equality. William Penn founded Pennsylvania as their refuge in 1682.

Navigation Acts

Laws from 1651 to 1673 requiring colonial trade to use English ships and certain goods to be sold only in England. They tied the colonies to mercantilism.

Dominion of New England

A 1686 union of northern colonies under Sir Edmund Andros that abolished local assemblies. It collapsed after the Glorious Revolution.

Glorious Revolution

The 1688 overthrow of James II in favor of William and Mary. It produced the English Bill of Rights and ended the Dominion of New England.

South Atlantic System

The trade network linking Europe, Africa, and the Americas through slaves, tobacco, and sugar.

Middle Passage

The brutal transatlantic voyage that carried enslaved Africans to the Americas. Roughly one in five died during the crossing.

Stono Rebellion

A 1739 slave uprising in South Carolina, the largest of the colonial era. It led to much harsher slave codes.

Gentility

An elite ideal of refined manners, dress, and taste that shaped colonial consumption in the 1700s. It marked the growing gap between rich and poor.

Salutary Neglect

Britain's loose enforcement of colonial trade laws, allowing the colonies to govern themselves. It encouraged habits of self-government.

Mercantilism

The belief that national power rests on wealth and a favorable balance of trade. Colonies existed to supply raw materials and buy English goods.

Household mode of production

Family farming in which the household made most of what it consumed.

Squatters

Settlers who farmed land they had no legal title to, common on the frontier. They fueled conflicts with Native Americans and landowners.

Enlightenment

An intellectual movement stressing reason, science, and natural law over tradition. It shaped colonial politics and religion.

First Great Awakening

A religious revival of the 1730s and 1740s that emphasized emotional, personal faith. It split churches and weakened established authority.

Pietism

A movement stressing personal devotion and religious feeling over doctrine and ritual. It fueled the Great Awakening.

Natural Rights

Rights thought to belong to all people from birth, such as life, liberty, and property. They became a core justification for revolution.

Deism

The belief in a Creator who set natural laws in motion but does not intervene. Deists rejected miracles and revealed religion.

Revival

A large, emotional religious gathering meant to reawaken faith. Revivals spread the Great Awakening through the colonies.

Poor Richard's Almanac

Franklin's almanac of practical advice and proverbs, published from 1732 to 1758. It spread Enlightenment values of thrift and self-government.

French and Indian War

The 1754 to 1763 war in which Britain and its allies defeated France in North America. The victory ended French power east of the Mississippi.

Albany Plan of Union

Franklin's 1754 proposal for a colonial union to coordinate defense. Both the colonies and the Crown rejected it.

War Hawks

Young Republicans who pushed for war with Britain in 1812. Led by Clay and Calhoun, they blamed Britain for Indian attacks and trade restrictions.

Paxton Boys

Frontier vigilantes who massacred Conestoga Indians in 1763 and marched on Philadelphia. They highlighted backcountry resentment of eastern elites.