APUSH Chapter 3: Settling the English Colonies (1619–1700) Vocabulary

Flashcards testing knowledge of vocabulary terms, key historical figures, documents, and major events regarding the English colonies from 1619 to 1700.

John Rolfe

Colonist who perfected a tobacco strain that English consumers liked, turning tobacco into Virginia's economic foundation and making it a profitable cash crop.

Headright system

A land incentive system that rewarded those who paid for immigrants' passage with acreage, encouraging immigration and helping create large plantations.

House of Burgesses (1619)

The first representative assembly in English North America, created in 1619 to give property-owning male colonists in Virginia a representative legislative body.

Maryland

A proprietary colony granted to Lord Baltimore (the Calvert family) as a Catholic refuge, which developed into a tobacco-growing Chesapeake colony with a Protestant majority.

Act of Toleration (1649)

Maryland law passed in 1649 that protected Christians who accepted the divinity of Jesus, but excluded non-Christians and did not grant full religious liberty.

Barbados slave code

A harsh legal system that legally defined enslaved Africans as property and gave masters sweeping control, serving as a model for mainland colonial slave codes.

West Indies sugar economy

A highly profitable colonial economic system characterized by large plantations, heavy capital requirements for mills, and dependence on a vast force of enslaved African labor.

Charleston

A major southern port and commercial center located in South Carolina.

South Carolina

A southern rice plantation colony strongly influenced by Barbados practices and reliant on enslaved African labor.

James Oglethorpe

The colonial founder associated with establishing Georgia alongside its trustees in 1733.

Georgia

The last of the thirteen colonies, founded in 1733 as a defensive buffer against Spanish Florida and a place for poor English settlers, which later developed plantation slavery.

Pilgrims / Separatists

A group of English religious dissenters who believed the Church of England was too corrupt to reform and sought complete separation from it.

Mayflower Compact (1620)

An agreement signed in 1620 by male settlers aboard the Mayflower to form a civil government and obey majority-made laws, serving as an early precedent for self-government.

Plymouth

The colony founded in present-day Massachusetts in 1620 by Separatist Pilgrims.

John Winthrop

Governor and leading figure of the Massachusetts Bay Colony who famously described the colony as a 'city upon a hill'.

Great Migration

The movement during the 1630s that brought thousands of English Puritans to New England.

Massachusetts Bay Colony

Major non-Separatist Puritan colony founded in 130 to build a model Christian society.

General Court

The representative lawmaking body/legislature of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Harvard College (1636)

Higher education institution founded in 136 to train educated ministers, reflecting the Puritan emphasis on literacy and religion.

Roger Williams

Puritan dissenter banished from Massachusetts for advocating religious liberty, separation of church and state, and fair dealings for Native land; founder of Rhode Island.

Anne Hutchinson

Puritan dissenter who held religious meetings, challenged clergy authority, and advocated a covenant of grace before being banished from Massachusetts.

Rhode Island

Colony founded by dissenters rejected elsewhere, renowned for broad religious toleration and separation of church and state.

Puritan covenant

The belief that individuals and the community had a collective religious obligation to obey God's law together.

Bible Commonwealth

A term describing the strongly religious political and social culture of Massachusetts Bay.

Fundamental Orders of Connecticut (1639)

An early written framework of colonial self-government adopted in 1639 that broadened political participation beyond strict church membership.

Thomas Hooker

Puritan leader who helped establish Hartford and was associated with the founding of Connecticut.

Half-Way Covenant (1662)

A 1662 agreement allowing partial church membership for descendants of Puritans who lacked a personal conversion experience.

Salem witch trials (1692)

A series of prosecutions in 1692 resulting in over 20 deaths, reflecting social, religious, and political tensions in Puritan New England.

New England economy

A colonial economy based on mixed farming, fishing, commerce, shipbuilding, and small-scale manufacturing rather than staple-crop plantations.

Pequot War (1636–1637)

A conflict from 136 to 137 that resulted in the near destruction of Pequot power in southern New England.

King Philip’s War (1675–1676)

A conflict between New England colonists and a Native coalition led by Metacom that severely weakened Native resistance in southern New England.

Metacom / King Philip

Wampanoag leader who formed a Native coalition to resist English colonial expansion during King Philip's War.

Navigation Laws

A series of English mercantilist laws designed to restrict and regulate colonial trade for England's benefit.

Salutary neglect

An unofficial English policy of loose enforcement of imperial trade rules, allowing colonial self-government and autonomy to grow.

William Penn

Quaker proprietor who received a charter in 1681 to found Pennsylvania as a haven based on religious toleration and representative government.

Quakers

Religious group that believed in an 'Inner Light' and spiritual equality, while rejecting elaborate ceremonies, oaths, war, and rigid social hierarchies.

Pennsylvania (1681)

A proprietary Quaker colony established in 1681 known for religious toleration, ethnic diversity, representative governance, and peaceful Native relations.

Middle Colonies

The region consisting of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, characterized by commercial growth, grain production, ethnic diversity, and religious pluralism.

Bread colonies

A nickname given to the Middle Colonies due to their major production and export of grain, especially wheat.