AP US History: Period 2 (1607-1754) Colonial America

Vocabulary flashcards reviewing English colonization, religious groups, key conflicts, and social structures in North America between 1607 and 1754.

English Protestant Reformation

The religious movement launched in the 1530s when King Henry VIII broke with the Roman Catholic Church, establishing Protestantism in Britain and intensifying rivalry with Catholic Spain.

Roanoke Island Colony

An early failed English attempt at colonization in the New World promoted by Sir Walter Raleigh, better known as 'The Lost Colony.'

Spanish Armada

The Spanish naval fleet defeated by Britain in 1588, which opened the door for Britain to cross the Atlantic and take the lead in American colonization.

Virginia Company

A joint-stock company that received a charter from King James I in 1606 to establish Jamestown, guaranteeing settlers the same rights as Englishmen in Britain.

Captain John Smith

The leader who took control of Jamestown in 1608 and introduced order and discipline through his 'no work, no food' policy.

Starving Time

The desperate winter period in Jamestown where colonists resorted to eating cats, dogs, rats, and even deceased colonists ('powdered wife').

First Anglo-Powhatan War

A conflict that ended in 1614 with a peace settlement sealed by the marriage of Pocahontas to colonist John Rolfe.

Second Anglo-Powhatan War

A war lasting from 1644 to 1646 that ended in peace terms effectively banishing the Chesapeake Indians from their ancestral lands.

Culture of Exclusion

The British colonial approach of banishing or displacing Native Americans from their lands once settlers could grow their own food and no longer needed them.

House of Burgesses

A representative committee established in Virginia in 1619 to handle local issues, marking the birth of representative self-government in America.

Lord Baltimore

The founder of Maryland in 1634, who established the colony as a safe haven and refuge for persecuted Catholics.

Act of Toleration 1643

A Maryland statute that guaranteed religious toleration to all Christians, but decreed the death penalty to Jews, atheists, and others who denied the divinity of Jesus Christ.

Bacon's Rebellion

A 1676 uprising led by Nathaniel Bacon against Governor Berkeley in Jamestown over unresponsive Indian policies, marking a key turning point from indentured servitude to slave labor.

Protestant Work Ethic

The Calvinist practice of working hard from dusk to dawn to seek 'conversions' and demonstrate signs of being among the predestined.

Separatists

A devout faction upset with the Anglican Church that vowed to break away completely because 'saints' had to sit with the 'damned'; they later became known as the Pilgrims.

Mayflower Compact

A 1620 agreement signed by Pilgrims setting rules to obey, establishing a foundational step toward self-rule and standards for future constitutions.

William Bradford

A prominent leader chosen governor of Plymouth 30 times in annual elections who helped the colony survive through fur, fish, and lumber trade.

John Winthrop

The governor or deputy governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony for 19 years who led the 'City on a Hill' Bible Commonwealth through prosperity in shipbuilding, fishing, and fur trade.

Puritan Dissidents

Key figures like Ann Hutchinson and Roger Williams who challenged church norms and laid early foundations for religious freedom and separation of church and state.

Pequot War

A 1637 conflict where English settlers set fire to a Pequot village on Connecticut's Mystic River, annihilating the tribe and establishing forty years of tentative peace.

King Philip's War

A 1876 war that slowed colonial expansion westward but permanently ended Native American resistance in New England after Metacom was killed.

Dominion of New England

A administrative union created in 1686 to bolster colonial defense against Native Americans and enforce the Navigation Acts.

Sir Edmund Andros

The head of the Dominion of New England who outraged colonists by curbing town meetings, restricting courts and the press, revoking land titles, and taxing without consent.

William Penn

An English Quaker who established Pennsylvania's 'Holy Experiment' based on religious toleration, democratic principles, and peaceful relations with Native Americans.

The Restoration

The period following Oliver Cromwell's ten-year rule when King Charles II was restored to the English throne, re-initiating colonial charters such as Carolina in 1670.

Slave Codes

Strict legal statutes originating in places like Barbados that defined the legal status of enslaved people, gave masters complete authority, and exacted severe punishments.

Gentry Culture

A Southern upper-class social system modeled after the English aristocracy, led by wealthy landowning clans like the Fitzhughs, Lees, Washingtons, Randolphs, Pinkneys, and Rutleges.

Harvard College

An educational institution established in 1636 by Massachusetts Puritans for the primary purpose of training men to become ministers.