Early US History: Colonies

Indentured servant

Laborer who agreed to work without pay for a certain period of time in exchange for passage to America

New England Colonies: Name them

New Hampshire, Massachusetts (includes present day Maine), Rhode Island and Connecticut

Middle Colonies: Name them

New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware

Southern Colonies: Name Them

Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and Georgia

Plymouth, MA

settlement location of the Pilgrims

Mayflower Compact

1620.The first attempt at democratic government in the U.S. Pilgrims had no legal basis for being there, so 41 men signed the document also pledging allegiance to the King.

New England Colonies: Economy

Forests → lumber

Oceans → commercial fishing

Good harbors → trading centers, commerce main jobs=traders, shipbuilders, fishermen

Southern Colonies: Climate, Soil, Environment

Climate: Warm summers, very mild winters, Soil: very fertile, long growing season Environment: no natural harbors, tidal rivers, wide coastal plain

New England Colonies: Climate, Soil, Environment

Climate: Cold Winters Soil: Rocky, Short growing season, Environment: mountains, forests, rivers, natural harbors

Fundamental Orders of Connecticut

First Constitution in the Colonies

Hooker, Thomas

Founder of Connecticut for Religious Freedom

Hutchinson, Anne

This woman questioned the Puritan Church and was kicked out of Massachusetts. As a result, many of her followers began to migrate out of Massachusetts Bay, especially to New Hampshire and Maine.

Middle Colonies: Climate, Soil, Environment

Climate: Mild Soil: Fertile Environment: Rivers, Natural Harbors

Why was New York so valuable to the British?

Important Trading Port/Harbor

Penn, William

Founder of Pennsylvania for the Quaker Religion. He believed that the land belonged to the Indians, and he was careful to see that they were reimbursed for it, and during his lifetime the colony had no major conflicts with the natives. More than any other English colony, Pennsylvania prospered from the outset but Penn went bankrupt

Oglethorpe, James

Founder of Georgia, built a fortified town at the mouth of the Savannah River in 1733 to stand as a military buffer between South Carolina and the Spanish settlements in Florida. He also wanted a refuge for British men and women without economic prospects in England.

Triangular Trade

Transferring of slaves, cash crops, and manufactured goods between West Africa, American colonies and the European colonial powers

Middle Colonies: Economy

Farmers grew cash crops (wheat,barley, rye, corn), industries i.e. lumber (for ship building) and iron mills, and New York and Philadelphia were large trading centers (due to natural harbors) Main jobs=traders, shipbuilders,farmers

Southern Colonies: Economy

Good soil for farming cash crops like tobacco, rice, indigo, and cotton main jobs: farming, some specialized jobs (shoemaker, carpenter, etc.)

Cash Crop

a readily salable crop that is grown and gathered for the market (as vegetables or cotton or tobacco)

Middle Passage

A voyage that brought enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to North America and the West Indies

Slave Codes

In 1661 a set of "codes" was made. It denied slaves basic fundamental rights, and gave their owners permission to treat them as they saw fit.

Navigation Acts

1660 passed by British parliament to increase colonial dependence on Great Britain for trade; limited goods that were exported to colonies; tariffs; caused great resentment in American colonies.

Bacon's Rebellion

Frontier farmers burned homes of the elite in Jamestown due to not being protected from Indians (It started by first outlashing at the Indians)

Charter

A document that gives the holder the right to organize settlements in an area

Royal Colony

A colony ruled by a governor who was appointed by the king or queen

Jamestown

The first permanent English settlement in North America, found in East Virginia

Patroon

A land owner in new Netherlands who had to bring 50 settlers to the colony to help settle his land

Pilgrims

Group of Puritan separatists who established Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts to seek religious freedom from the Anglican church after having lived briefly in the Netherlands. William Bradford became their first governor. 10% of Americans can trace ancestry to Mayflower.

Puritans

A religious group who wanted to purify the Church of England. They came to America for religious freedom and settled at Massachusetts Bay.

Duke of York

brother to King Charles II and "founder" of New York

Quakers

A form of Protestantism in which the believers were pacifists and would shake at the power of the word of the Lord; believed in Peacefulness & Equality for all. originated in mid-seventeenth-century England and grew into an important force as a result of the preachings of George Fox, a Nottingham shoemaker, and Margaret Fell.

Mercantilism

Economic policy based on the idea that the American colonies existed primarily to provide economic benefits for Great Britain; British bought raw materials from the colonists and sold them finished products; required that most (only) colonial trade occur within the British Empire. The theory was that there was a fixed amount of wealth in the world, and any wealth a nation acquired was, in effect, taken away from some other nation.

Middle Colonies: Diversity

Diversity in religion and nationalities. (New Amsterdam aka New York)

Virginia House of Burgesses (1619)

First representative (or self-governing) body in colonial America, bi-cameral (2 house) legislature modeled after British Parliament that could raise taxes and make laws.

Magna Carta (1215); English Bill of Rights (1689)

Limited the power of the King; emphasized the King was not above the law; representative government and the law outweighed the power of any monarch

Columbus, Christopher

Italian explorer comissioned by Queen Isabella of Spain in 1492 to find a western trade route to the East Indies. Commanding ninety men and three ships— the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa María—Columbus left Spain in August 1492 and sailed west into the Atlantic. He landed in the Bahamas and then Hispaniola.

Queen Isabella

The queen of Spain who financed Christopher Columbus is exploration in search of a trade route to India

Soto, Hernando de

The explorer from Spain who was the first to see the Mississippi River.

Spanish Missions

Began as Catholic establishments and often became towns such as Santa Fe New Mexico.

Coronado, Francisco

Traveled north from Mexico (1540-1542) into what is now New Mexico in a fruitless search for gold and jewels; in the process, he helped open the Southwest of what is now the United States to Spanish settlement.

Santa Fe

The capital of New Mexico

Massachusetts (Bay Colony)

One of the original 13 colonies. Puritans obtained a grant of land in from Charles I for most of the area now comprising Massachusetts and New Hampshire; It's success encouraged future colonization such as Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire. Its government resembled a theocracy, a society in which there is no clear line between church and state.

Wampanaug Indians

Native Americans who lived in the forest near Plymouth. Lead by Massasoit.

Massasoit

Leader of the Wampanaug Indians

Squanto

Native American who taught the pilgrims how to grow corn, how to hunt deer, and hunt turkeys in the forest. A Pawtuxet who earlier in his life had been captured by an English explorer and taken to Europe, spoke English and was helpful to the settlers in forming an alliance with the local Wampanoags, under Chief Massasoit. After the first harvest, in 1621, the settlers marked the alliance by inviting the Indians to join them in an October festival, the first Thanksgiving.

St. Lawrence River

An important river used by the French to trade with Native Americans.

Williams, Roger

Started the city of Providence later known as the colony of Rhode Island who lived for a time in Salem, Mass and was a religious dissenter

Providence

City in Rhode Island where there was freedom of religion for all.

Pennsylvania

A colony started by William Penn, a Quaker who sought religious freedoms for his people.

King Louis of France

The king who wanted to find a shortcut to Asia.

Cartier, Jacques

Explorer who found and claimed Saint Lawrence river and called it the area New France.

Salle, Sieur de la

Explorer from France who discovered the Mississippi river and the Gulf of Mexico.

French

Nationality who traded with American Indians for their animal furs.

American Indians

Indigenous people who taught the French to trap animals and how to use canoes to travel on rivers

New France

The land from the mouth of the St. Lawrence rivers on the East Coast, past the Mississippi River West, and down to the Gulf of Mexico.

St. Louis

One of two cities built by the French.

Tordesillas Treaty

Agreement of the Pope giving Portugal American land east of line and Spain land west of the line. Spain got more land.

Spanish Conquistadors

They conquered Native Americans, searched for gold, and developed haciendas throughout the New World.

Spanish Armada

1588. Philip II of Spain assembled one of the largest military fleets in the history of warfare to carry his troops across the English Channel and into England, but the smaller English fleet destroyed them and ended Spain's domination of the Atlantic. Their defeat shifted future colonization of North America to the English, French, and Dutch.

Charles II

Developed proprietary colonies such as New York, New Jersey, and the Carolinas.

New York, Philadelphia, & Boston

These northern cities became major trade hubs, integral for the economic development of the colonies.

French and Indian War

1754-1763 (Part of 7 years war in Europe) Conflict between Native Americans (Iroquois Confederacy on side of British, all others on side of French) and Europeans over land, specifically Louisiana Territory and Ohio Valley. Unified the colonists and dramatically changed the territorial boundaries of North America in favor of the British.

Proclamation of 1763

British announced that the land won during the French & Indian War (land west of the Appalachian mountains) was reserved for Native Americans

Antinomianism

What critics called the teachings of Anne Hutchinson from the Greek word meaning "hostile to the law"),

Archaic Period

This is a scholarly term for the history of humans in America during a period of about 5,000 years beginning around 8000 BCE. In the first part of this period, most humans continued to support themselves through hunting and gathering,

Aztec

Meso-American tribes conquered by Cortes, after small-pox weakened them.

Clovis People

Established one of the first civilizations in the Americas. Archaeologists believe that they lived about 13,000 years ago. They were among the first people to make tools and to eat other animals.

Mather, Cotton

The Puritan who heard of the practice of infecting people with mild cases of smallpox in order to immunize them. despite opposition, he urged inoculation on his fellow Bostonians during an epidemic in the 1720s. The results confirmed the effectiveness of the technique. Other theologians (including Jonathan Edwards) took up the cause.

Courerus de bois

Adventurous fur traders and trappers—who also moved far into the wilderness and developed an extensive trade that became one of the underpinnings of the French colonial economy.

Magellan, Ferdinand

Portuguese in the employ of the Spanish, found the strait that now bears his name at the southern end of South America. His expedition went on to complete the first known circumnavigation of the globe (1519-1522), even though he died before completed.

Fundamental Constitution for Carolina in 1669

The Earl of Shaftesbury, troubled by the instability in England, wanted a planned and well-ordered community. With the aid of the English philosopher John Locke, he drew up the Fundamental Constitution for Carolina in 1669, which created an elaborate system of land distribution and an elaborately designed social order.

Calvert, George (Lord Baltimore)

The first Lord Baltimore, a recent convert to Catholicism and a shrewd businessman, who founded Maryland for the persecuted English Catholics. He died and his son, Cecil, became second Lord Baltimore and finished his mission in Maryland.

Headrights

Fifty-acre grants of land, which new settlers could acquire in a variety of ways. Masters received additional land grants for every servant they imported.

Hudson, Henry

In 1609, This English explorer in the employ of the Dutch sailed up the river that was to be named for him in what is now New York State.

Cortes, Hernando

1518. Led a small military expedition of about 600 men into Mexico after he heard of great treasures. Met resistance from Aztecs and leader Montezuma. Smallpox weakened Aztecs and he conquered them.

Incas

Created the largest empire in the Americas in Peru

Encomiedas

Oñate distributed them to the Spanish settlers. They were licenses to exact labor and tribute from the natives in specific areas

Indigo

1740s. Eliza Lucas discovered that it could grow on the high ground of South Carolina, which was unsuitable for rice planting, and that its harvest came while the rice was still growing. It became an important complement to rice and a popular import in England.

Iroquois Confederacy

The most powerful native group that did not get along with the French. It was made up of the five Indian nations (Mohawk, Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, and Oneida) that had formed a defensive alliance.

Rolfe, John

1612, the Jamestown planter who produced tobacco crops of high quality and found ready buyers in England. Tobacco cultivation quickly spread up and down the James. He also married Pocahontus.

Winthrop, John

Governor for Massecheutes Bay Colony, an affluent, university-educated man who had been instrumental in organizing the migration, and he commanded the expedition that sailed for New England in 1630.

King Philip's War

1675. Wampanoags, under the leadership of a Metacomet (known to the whites as "King Philip") terrorized a string of New England towns for 3 years. The war weakened the society and economy of Massachusetts. In 1676, the white settlers fought back and won. The very high casualties on both sides were a result of the use of advanced rifles.

Calvert, Cecil (Lord Baltimore)

Named one of his brothers, Leonard Calvert, governor of Maryland and sent him with another brother to oversee the settlement of the province.

Middle Ground

What Americans called the fusion of cultures in America that was often uneasy.

New Orleans

1718. Founded to service the French plantation economy at the mouth of the Mississippi River at the Gulf of Mexico.

New York

James, Duke of York, renamed the colony of the New Netherlands after himself after the Dutch surrendered to the British. In 1673, the Dutch briefly reconquered New Amsterdam. But they lost it for good in 1674.

Pennsylvania Dutch

Germans fleeing religios persecution. Most made their way to Pennsylvania, where they received a warm welcome.

Peace of Paris of 1763

Treaty ending French and Indian War/7 Years War. Under its terms, the French ceded to Great Britain some of their West Indian islands and most of their colonies in India. They also transferred Canada and all other French territory east of the Mississippi, except New Orleans, to Great Britain. They ceded New Orleans and their claims west of the Mississippi to Spain, thus surrendering all title to the mainland of North America.

Pequot War

1637. Hostilities broke out between English settlers in the Connecticut Valley and the Indians of the region. The Indians were nearly wiped out.

Seigneuries

French agricultural estates along the St. Lawrence River

New Jersey

James gave a large portion of that land to Sir John Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. Carteret named the territory after the island in the English Channel on which he had been born. In 1702, they ceded the territory back to the Crown as a royal colony.

Dale, Thomas (Sir)

1611. Sent to Jamestown to rebuild and manage it.

Tenochtitlán

1300 CE,the Mexica (Aztecs) established this city on a large island in a lake in central Mexico, (present-day Mexico City). They incorporated other tribes into their society, and it became the greatest city in the Americas to that point, connected to water supplies from across the region by aqueducts.

Islands English claimed in the West Indies

Antigua, St. Kitts, Jamaica, and Barbados.

Quebec

First permanent settlement in North America by French, less than a year after the English started their first colony at Jamestown.

Western Africa

Most of the African men and women who were forcibly taken to America came from a large region in west Africa below the Sahara Desert, known as Guinea. It was the home of a wide variety of peoples and cultures. Over half of all the new arrivals in the New World between 1500 and 1800 were Africans.

Raleigh, Walter (Sir)

Recruited his cousin, Sir Richard Grenville, to lead a group of men (most of them from the English plantations in Ireland) to Roanoke to establish a colony.

Vespucci, Amerigo

Who America was named after. A Florentine merchant and a member of a later Portuguese expedition to the New World who wrote a series of vivid descriptions of the lands he had visited and who recognized the Americas as new continents.

Queen Elizabeth

Sir Walter Raleigh named Virginia after her, "the virgin queen."