Key Colonial Conflicts and Figures in Early American History

A set of vocabulary flashcards covering major conflicts, key figures, regional colonies, legislation, and systems in early American history.

Pequot War (1636-1638)

Conflict between the Pequot tribe & English settlers.

King Philip's War (1675-1676)

Conflict between Native Americans & English settlers in New England.

Bacon's Rebellion (1676)

Armed rebellion led by Nathaniel Bacon against Governor William Berkeley.

Pope's Rebellion

Successful uprising by the Pueblo people against Spanish colonizers in present-day New Mexico.

First Great Awakening (1730s-1740s)

Religious revival movement in American Colonies emphasizing personal faith.

Stono Rebellion (1739)

Slave uprising in South Carolina.

Chesapeake Colonies

Colonies in the Bay area primarily in Virginia & Maryland known for tobacco farming & plantation economy.

New England Colonies

In NE USA, including Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, & New Hampshire.

Middle Colonies

Between New England & Southern colonies, known for trade.

John Smith

English explorer who played a crucial role in the establishment of Jamestown.

John Rolfe

Early English settler who introduced tobacco to Virginia, which became a profitable cash crop.

John Winthrop

First governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Roger Williams

A Puritan minister who founded Rhode Island for religious freedom.

Anne Hutchinson

Religious objector in Massachusetts Bay Colony who challenged Puritan orthodoxy & was eventually banished.

William Penn

Founder of Pennsylvania.

Jonathan Edwards

Preacher known for his sermon, 'Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.'

George Whitefield

Anglican preacher, key figure in the Great Awakening.

Jamestown

1st permanent English settlement in North America, established in 1607 in Virginia.

Mayflower Compact

Agreement between Pilgrims in 1620 establishing a self-governing colony in America.

Southern and West Indies Colonies

Long growing seasons; built plantation economies reliant on slave labor to export cash crops (rice, indigo, sugar).

Mercantilism

Economic system where colonies exist to enrich the mother country by providing raw materials.

Navigation Acts

British laws (1660) forcing colonies to trade only with England; widely ignored through smuggling.

Salutary Neglect

British policy of ignoring colony trade violations as long as colonies remained profitable.

House of Burgesses

First representative legislative assembly in colonial America, established in Virginia (1619).

Fundamental Orders of Connecticut (1639)

First constitution in written history (1639). Established a democratically controlled government.

Indentured Servitude

System where workers traded years of labor for free passage to America.

Headright system (1618)

Policy giving 50 acres of land to anyone who paid for a laborer's passage to Virginia.

Chattel Slavery

System where enslaved people were legally treated as personal property bought and sold for life.

Middle Passage

The brutal forced sea voyage carrying enslaved Africans across the Atlantic to the Americas.

Maryland Toleration Act (1649)

Law guaranteeing religious freedom to all Christians, protecting Catholics from Protestant majority.