Colonial America Vocabulary Flashcards

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering geographic, political, economic, and social characteristics of the Southern, Northern, and Middle Colonies.

Virginia Company of London

The joint-stock company that financed the initial settlement of the Southern colonies, where early settlers hoped to find gold.

Headright system

A land-grant policy used in the Southern colonies to attract new settlers and encourage the accumulation of land and labor.

House of Burgesses

The representative democracy assembly established in colonial Virginia, known today as the General Assembly.

Bacon’s Rebellion

An armed revolt led by poor, disenfranchised Western settlers against Governor Berkley and his Indian policy.

Starving Time

A period of severe starvation and high mortality rate during the early years of the Jamestown settlement associated with John Smith.

Powhatan Confederacy

A group of Native American tribes that formed a temporary alliance with Southern settlers, leading to conflict in the 1620s.

Middle Passage

The dangerous transatlantic route used to transport enslaved Africans to the Southern cash-crop plantations.

Conversion relation

A personal relationship and commitment to God through which followers of Martin Luther and John Calvin believed salvation was achieved.

Jonathan Winthrop

Puritan leader who advocated for Massachusetts Bay to be a moral model for society, described as a 'City on a Hill'.

Mayflower Compact

A colonial document establishing a covenant community and a 'Civil Body Politic' among the Pilgrims.

Congregationalism

A system of church governance advocated by John Cotton in which ministers held political authority within a local community.

Dissenters

Religious figures such as Roger Williams (Rhode Island), Anne Hutchinson (Antinomians), and Thomas Hooker (Connecticut) who were banished or rejected for opposing Puritan orthodoxy.

Praying Towns

Settlements established by New England Puritans to convert Native Americans to Christianity and assimilate them into European culture.

King Philip’s (Metacom) War

A major 1670s military conflict between New England colonists and an alliance of Native American tribes led by Metacom.

Dominion of New England

A centralized administrative structure opposed by Northern colonists under Sir Edmund Andros prior to the Glorious Revolution of 1688/89.

Yankee work ethic

A Northern societal value system rooted in discipline, perseverance, self-sacrifice, and active civic participation.

Quakers

A religious group led by William Penn that emphasized the 'Inner Light', equality, generosity to all, and peaceful relations with Native Americans.

Act for Religious Toleration

A landmark Maryland law that granted freedom of worship to Christians and served as a Catholic sanctuary.

Restoration Colonies

The second wave of proprietor-run colonies—including Georgia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New York—that filled geographic gaps along the Atlantic coast.

James Ogelthorpe

The proprietor of Georgia who designed it as a sanctuary for debtors, focused on silk production, and initially banned slavery.

Patroon system

A manor-based landowning system created under proprietary rule in New York.