APUSH Unit 1 Notecards

Columbian Exchange

Def: named after Christopher Columbus, was the widespread transfer of plants, animals, culture, human populations, technology, diseases, and ideas between the "New Worlds" (Americas & West Africa) & the "Old World" (Europe & Asia) in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Sig: A byproduct of the exchange was the introduction of new diseases & invasive species into the Americas. It also allowed for an increase in population in the New World, both with the support of new crops & livestock and the transfer of slaves into America, beginning African slavery in America.

Pueblo Revolt

Def: 1680 was an uprising of most of the indigenous people against the Spanish colonizers in the province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México. The revolt killed 400 Spaniards & drove the remaining 2000 settlers out of the province.

Sig: was the largest & most successful Native American history. It pointed to problems inherent in the Spanish style of colonization, like conversion to Christianity. And when the Spanish returned 13 years later to reconquer, they realized they could not force the Pueblo to Christianity.

Indentured Servants

Def: employee within a system of unfree labor who is bound by a signed or forced contract to work without pay for a period of time, usually for a specific payment or to meet a legal obligation. The contract lasted between 5-7 years, & few survived their contract.

Sig: was very common in British colonies, as it was a way for poor Europeans to immigrate to the colonies; they signed an indenture in return for a costly passage. Between one-half & two-thirds of European immigrants to the American colonies between the 1630's & American Revolution came under indenture.

Christopher Columbus

Def: was an Italian navigator who, in 1492, was granted a voyage of 3 ships. He sought out to find a quickest path to the Indies, but instead he wound up in the "New World."

Sig: Though he was not the first to reach the Americas from Europe, Columbus' voyages opened the path for future European exploration & successful establishment of European cultures in the New World.

Encomienda System

Def: was a labor system instituted by the Spanish crown in the American colonies, that rewarded conquerors with a number of native laborers who would pay him in tributes in exchange for his protection.

Sig: The Spanish tried to force Native American labor to run plantations & to mine precious materials, & in many cases were forced to do hard labor and were subjected to extreme punishment & death if they resisted. This, in combination with the Native American deaths caused by disease, led to a labor shortage, which caused Europeans to bring enslaved Africans to work.

Puritan

Def: English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries, who sought to purify the corrupt practices of the Church of England, who traveled to America after growing impatient with the slow processes of the Protestant Reformation & the English Reformation.

Sig: Some Puritans left for New England (1629-1640), supporting the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony & other settlements, & while they left to escape religious persecution, they were extremely intolerant. Puritans were great believes in education (New England Primer), they set up schools, & made Americans the most literate people in the world.

Church of England

Def: Anglican Church, founded by King Henry VII while separating from the Catholic Church, included both Roman Catholic & Protestant ideas, while still persecuting Catholics under the reign of Queen Elizabeth.

Sig: Because many groups, such as the Pilgrims and Puritans, believed the Church of England could not be reformed, they saw America/the colonies as a place to freely practice their beliefs (freedom of religion).

Roanoke Island

Def: North Carolina) was named after the Roanoke Carolina Algonquian people who inhabited the area in the late 16th century at the time of English exploration. It was established in 1587 and financed by Sir Walter Raleigh.

Sig: Roanoke Island was also known as the Lost Colony when in 1590, after Governor John White had returned from England from gathering supplies, he arrived only so see that the whole colony had vanished, and to this day, what happened to them remains unknown.

Virginia Company

Def: refers to 2 companies chartered under James I with the goal of establishing settlements on the coast of North America. They founded Jamestown, promised gold, conversion of Native Americans to Christianity, and passage to the Indies.

Sig: As corporations, the companies were empowered by the crown to govern themselves, and while it failed in 1624, the right to self-govern was not taken from the colony. The principle was established that a royal colony should be self-governing, & this is credited with the genesis of democracy in America.

John Rolfe

Def: English settlers at Jamestown (he married Pocahontas). He discovered how to successfully grow tobacco in Virginia and cure it for export, which made Virginia an economically successful colony.

Sig: Because John Rolfe introduced tobacco as a crop for export, which ensured the colony profits, he also brought on eight years of peace between Indians and colonists through his marriage to Pocahontas.

John Smith

Def: was an English soldier, sailor, & author, and is remembered for his role in establishing the first permanent English settlement in North America at Jamestown, Virginia, and his brief association with the Native American Pocahontas during an altercation with the Powhatan Confederacy.

Sig: Jamestown's survival was largely due to Smith's leadership; established harsh material law in the colony to ensure that those who did not work would not eat. He was also a leader of the Virginia colony (1607-1609), and led an exploration along the rivers of Virginia & the Chesapeake Bay.

Pequot War

Def: was an armed conflict that took place from 1636-1639 in New England between the Pequot tribe, and many colonists allied with Narragansett Indians. The Pequots killed 1 fur trader, & the whites killed about 500 Pequots and sold about 200 more into slavery in the West Indies.

Sig: was the sole determinant for total English domination of New England & subjugation of natives. It established a pattern for English policy towards natives, & also alerted the Native Americans to how violent/brutal the Europeans & their fighting techniques can be.

Jamestown

Def: the first permanent English settlements in America & was funded by the London Company. Settlers moved there with the goals of finding gold, converting Indians to Christianity, and finding a new passage to the Indies.

Sig: In 1612, Jamestown began making profit off of the tobacco the Native Americans had planted, and the tobacco industry became a cornerstone of Virginia's economy. And as land & labor demands emerged, so did the plantation system.

Mayflower Compact (1620)

Def: the first agreement for self-government in America. It was signed by 41 on of the 102 people on the Mayflower and set up a government for Plymouth Colony (social contract).

Sig: The Compact's framework was democratic in nature, with the signers electing a governor who executed laws based on majority rule. It is also widely considered to be the first step towards the nation building a democratic republic, as well as a precursor to the U.S. Constitution (It was a contract, not a constitution).

John Winthrop/"City on a Hill"

Def: a Puritan leader, and as governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Winthrop was instrumental in forming the colony's government and shaping its legislative policy.

Sig: had envisioned the colony, centered in present-day Boston, as a "City on/Upon a Hill" from which Puritans would spread religious righteousness throughout the world. The phrase "City on/Upon a Hill" is still used as a popular political phrase in America today.

Anne Hutchinson

Def: Puritan woman who organized and led meetings to discuss weekly sermons in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. She challenged the beliefs & power of the clergy, and was charged a heretic and banished as a woman "not fit for our society" in 1638.

Sig: challenged gender roles and church authority. Although she lived in a Puritan community, she didn't rely on ministers to help her form her opinions and made decisions. Her actions contributed to ideas of separation of church and state found in the U.S. Constitution.

Maryland Toleration Act (1649)

Def: was passed by the Maryland Assembly, and it granted religious freedom to Trinitarian Christians, but sentenced to death anyone who denied the divinity of Jesus (Repealed permanently in 1692).

Sig: It was the second law requiring religious tolerance in British North American Colonies & created one of the pioneer statutes passed by the legislative body of an organized colonial government to guarantee any degree of religious liberty. It helped inspire/pave the way for later legal protections for freedom of religion in the United States.

House of Burgesses

Def: was the first legislative assembly in the New World, established in the Virginia Colony in 1619, set up by England to make laws and levy taxes, but, England could veto its legislative acts.

Sig: As it was the first elected general assembly in the colonies, the House paved the way for the democratic society formed during the Revolution. After it was established in Virginia, other English colonies demanded their own elected bodies of government, which made their declaration of independence inevitable, & the transition to a democratic republic easier.

Uprising of 1622

Def: was when Powhatan Indians, under chief Openchancanough, rose against English settlers in Virginia & led a series of coordinated attacks of the Powhatan Confederacy that killed 347 people, a quarter of the English population of Jamestown.

Sig: The most immediate impact of the uprising was that in 1624 the Virginia Company lost title over the colony to the Crown of England. Englishmen also began calling this a "massacre", encouraging future American's to view Native Americans as violent, savage people & justifying their own violence against them.

Massachusetts Bay Colony

Def: In 1629, King Charles gave the Puritans a right to settle and govern a colony in the Massachusetts Bay area, and the colony established political freedom and a representative government.

Sig: was the first English chartered colony whose board of governors did not reside in England. This independence helped the settlers to maintain their Puritan religious practices without interference from the King, Arch bishop Laud, or the Anglican Church.

Half-Way Covenant (1662)

Def: was a Puritan Church document that allowed partial membership rights to people not yet converted into the Puritan Church. It lessened the difference between the "elect" members from regular members & allowed women to make up a larger portion of Puritan congregations.

Sig: The covenant reflected the difficulty of maintaining the religious devotion of the founding generations. However, it widened the religious participation as it weakened the distinction between the elected and the regular people.

Great Migration (1630-1642)

Def: T was when about 70,000 Puritan refugees from England migrates to the North American colonies leading up to the English Civil War.

Sig: The population of the New England colonies became much more diverse with so many family migrates, as there are now more women in the colonies. They also developed a high rate of literacy from both the migration of people educated in England and the importance Puritans put on education.

Plymouth Colony

Def: was a colony founded by pilgrims in the winter of 1620 that was only able to survive due to relations with the Indians. It opened up the idea of religious toleration. It was also absorbed by the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1691.

Sig: As the began to grow, more European settlers began to follow the pilgrim's footsteps in settling in America. It was also one of the first colonies to being to open up the idea of religious tolerance in America.

Fundamental Orders of Connecticut (1639)

Def: defined the powers of colonial government, allowed more men to vote in Massachusetts, and established an open meeting of the Connecticut River Colony settlers.

Sig: The orders created a Democratic government, and it was the first constitution in the colonies. It was also s beginning for the other states' charters and constitutions.

Headright System

Def: was a land grant program designed to attract settlers. Tracts of land called "headrights" were offered to settlers who would come & work the land. A typical headright was 50 acres. Wealthy individuals would "sponsor" a headright for an indentured servant & would acquire many tracts of land.

Sig: allowed for poorer people to come to the New World, who would otherwise not have been able to afford it. The system was important to the growth of the colonies, especially in the South with tobacco farming.

Mercantilism

Def: was adapted by Europe during the time of the Colombian exchange, and is an economic system/policy that is designed to maximize imports, promote imperialism, & promote the idea that a country's power is based off its wealth.

Sig: Britain put limits on what goods the colonies could produce, whose ships they could use, and most importantly, with whom they could trade. They also put taxes on imported goods to discourage mercantilism in the colonies, unless it was to buy British goods.

Salem Witch Trials (1692-1693)

Def: were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial MA. They resulted in the execution of 20 people, mostly women, & 12 other women previously executed in the 17th century.

Sig: While the MA government later apologized because there was never enough evidence to convict anyone, people still felt that those who where convicted had their rights violated. This also contributed to the idea in courts today that everybody is innocent until proven guilty.

Society of Friends (Quakers)

Def: , was a Christian group that arose in mid-17th century England, who were dedicated to living in accordance with the "Inward Light" or direct inward apprehension of God, without creeds, clergy, or other ecclesiastical forms.

Sig: r missionaries first arrived in America in the mid-1650's. Quakers, who practiced pacifism, played a key role in both the abolitionist and women's rights movements.

Navigation Acts (1650-1654)

Def: were laws that governed trade between England and its colonies. Colonists were required to ship certain products exclusively to England. These acts made colonists angry because they were forbidden from trading with other countries.

Sig: The Trade and both helped and hurt the economic development of the British North American Colonies, and would eventually become a catalyst for sparking the American Revolution.

Bacon's Rebellion (1676)

Def: was an uprising of western farmers against Governor Berkeley, culminating in the burning of Jamestown on September 19, 1676. Nathaniel Bacon led an armed revolt of about 1,000 Virginians because they resented Berkeley's close relations to Native Americans.

Sig: In the wake of , the wealth class remained in power in Virginia, and their distrust of the poor grew. This actually led to the growth of the slave trade, as they sought a more reliable, controllable, permanent labor source than indentured servants.

King Philip's War (1675)

Def: was a series of battles in New Hampshire between the colonists and the Wampanoags, led by Metacom. The war started when the MA government tried to assert court jurisdiction over the local Indians. The war resulted in the decimation of Indian bands in New England.

Sig: The war was a devastating loss for the various Native American bands involved, as they had already suffered population loss due to diseases brought by European colonists. After the war, the Wompanoags & their allies lost their land and resources in New England, making it impossible for them to resist/stop the expansion of English settlement.

William Penn

Def: , an aristocratic Englishmen, received a grant in 1681 from King Charles to establish a colony. He was an early advocate of democracy and religious freedom. He was also one of the few colonists to have good relations with Indians, making several successful treaties.

Sig: chartered a colony in Pennsylvania for the Quakers because he was especially interested in governing Pennsylvania under Quaker ideals, specifically pacifism and religious tolerance.

Iroquois Confederacy

Def: was a group of six Indian tribes that inhabited upper New York state in the 17th & 18th centuries. They had a well-organized society and were one of the most powerful native groups in North America. They played a strategic role in conflicts between the English and French.

Sig: was an example to other Native American tribes/groups that showed how Native Americans could keep their autonomy and protect themselves against colonies if they all worked together as an organized unit.

Stono Rebellion (1739)

Def: was an early slave revolt in South Carolina, where 50+ slaves gathered arms to rise up against their masters and march to Spanish Florida. They were ultimately found and killed by the militia.

Sig: In response to the uprising, South Carolina soon passed the Negro Act of 1740, further restricted slaves' activities. It also made it harder for slave-owners to free their slaves (manumission). The government believed that the presence of free blacks in the colony would make slaves more restless and likely to rebel. However, it did also cause the government to pass laws limiting cruel treatment of slaves.

Middle Passage

Def: was the middle segment of the forced journey that slaves made from Africa to America throughout the 1600's. It consisted of the dangerous trip across the Atlantic Ocean. Many slaves perished on this segment of the journey.

Sig: The moving of slaves to America led to a huge boom in slavery in America, racism, a population decrease in Africa, disputers of the morality of slavery, and eventually the American Civil War.

Triangular Trade

Def: , when referring to the trans-Atlantic slave trade, was a trade route originating in Europe that used to supply colonies in the New World with slave labor. Africa (slaves) -> America (goods) -> Europe (goods) (and repeat).

Sig: model allowed for the swift spread of slavery into the New World. The slave labor supplied the colonies the labor needed to allow for the proliferation of plantations, which in turn helped with the growth and prosperity of the New World.

James Oglethorpe

Def: was a British General and a member of the House of Parliament. He formed the colony of Georgia in 1732 as a place for the poor of Britain to resettle. His ban of slavery made him unpopular and he was regarded by some in the colony as a dictator.

Sig: ideals creating a debtors free colony free of vice were a distinction from other colonies. Also, his high ideals in GA, such as bans on slavery and run, slowed growth, as large settlement did not occur until after slavery was brought to Georgia.

Great Awakening (1739-1744)

Def: was a period of religious revival promoted by religious leaders. It was characterized by corporate prayer, doctrine, emotionalism, music, open air meetings, testimonies, emphasis on the Holy Spirit, and social action. There was a decline in Puritanism & Quakerism, and an increase in other denominations, such as Methodists & Baptists.

Sig: had a lasting effect on both the religious and political fabric of America. The personal views of the revival, and its messages of equality, contributed to more populist, democratic viewpoint among the colonists, which helped shape the country's mentality leading up to the Revolution.

George Whitefield

Def: was a preacher and public figure who led many revival meetings both in England and the American colonies. He became a religious icon who spread a message of personal salvation and a more democratic Christianity.

Sid: Everyone in the colonies loved to hear him preach of love & forgiveness. This led to new missionary work in the Americans in converting Indians and Africans to Christianity, as well as lessening the importance of the old clergy.

Jonathan Edwards

Def: s was an American preacher during the Great Awakening who attacked new doctrines of easy salvation for all. He preached anew the traditional ideas of Puritanism related to sovereignty of God, predestination, and salvation by God's grace alone.

Sig: is widely regarded as one of America's most important and original philosophical theologians. And his influence of the intellectual character of American Protestantism for a century after his death was very pronounced, and he was widely read in the British Isles.