APUSH -- UNIT #1 PEOPLE

John Smith

John Smith became the leader of Jamestown in September 1608 and tried to bring discipline to the struggling colony. He required colonists to work for the colony and promoted the rule “He that will not worke shall not eate.” During his leadership, Jamestown depended on trade with Native Americans for food, and no settlers died of starvation during the winter. Smith eventually left Virginia after being injured.

Chief Powhatan

Chief Powhatan was the leader of the Powhatan people living around Jamestown. Jamestown depended heavily on trade with his people for food during its early years. After John Smith left, Powhatan attempted to starve the English by stopping food trade and attacking Englishmen who searched for food, causing relations between the Powhatan and English to deteriorate.

Pocahontas

Pocahontas was the daughter of Chief Powhatan. In 1613, Samuel Argall captured her and intended to use her as a way to obtain English prisoners, weapons, and tools held by the Powhatan. She later converted to Christianity and married John Rolfe in 1614. Their marriage helped create peaceful relations between the Powhatans and English for almost eight years.

John Rolfe

John Rolfe developed a tobacco crop that could compete with Spanish tobacco and sent the first barrels of Virginia tobacco to England in 1614. Other colonists began growing tobacco, and Virginia became increasingly dependent on tobacco as a one-crop economy. Rolfe also married Pocahontas in 1614, and their marriage helped establish a period of peace between the Powhatan people and the English.

John Endicott

John Endicott led an advance group of Puritans to New England in 1628 and expanded the settlement at Salem between 1628 and 1630. His expedition was connected to the development of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the larger Puritan migration to New England.

John Winthrop

John Winthrop became governor of Massachusetts Bay in 1630 and led about 700 colonists on four ships to New England during the Great Migration. He chose Boston rather than Salem as the center of the colony. Winthrop envisioned Massachusetts as a “city upon a hill,” believing the colony had an important religious mission from God. Under his leadership, Puritan beliefs strongly influenced the colony's government and society.

Thomas Morton

Thomas Morton was an early Massachusetts Bay settler whose religious beliefs and behavior differed from those of the Puritans. John Winthrop presided over his trial and banishment from Massachusetts Bay. Morton later attempted to have Massachusetts Bay's charter taken away. His conflict with Massachusetts Bay demonstrates the colony's lack of tolerance toward people who challenged Puritan beliefs and authority.

Roger Williams

Roger Williams was a religious dissenter in Massachusetts Bay who opposed the colony's treatment of Native American land and argued for complete religious freedom. He believed there should be a separation of church and state and that no single church should receive tax money. Massachusetts Puritans considered his ideas unacceptable, so he was banished. Williams and other dissenters helped establish areas that became Rhode Island and New Hampshire.

Anne Hutchinson

Anne Hutchinson was a religious dissenter who challenged Massachusetts Bay's emphasis on religious law and human behavior. During the Antinomian Controversy, she argued that salvation depended on God's grace rather than a person's actions and questioned the idea that people could prove they were among the elect through their behavior. More than 80 people gathered in her home to hear her ideas. She was arrested for heresy, found guilty, and banished from Massachusetts Bay in 1637.

Thomas Hooker

Thomas Hooker was a religious dissenter connected to the development of Connecticut. He challenged Massachusetts Bay's religious system and, along with other dissenters, helped establish communities outside Massachusetts Bay. His role demonstrates how disagreements over Puritan religious authority contributed to the creation of new colonies.

John Wheelwright

John Wheelwright was a religious dissenter associated with Anne Hutchinson and the Antinomian Controversy. He challenged the Puritan emphasis on religious law and human actions in relation to salvation. His opposition to Massachusetts Bay's religious beliefs contributed to the conflict between religious dissenters and Puritan authorities.

George Calvert

George Calvert was a Catholic convert who wanted to establish a colony where Catholics could practice their religion freely. In 1632, he received a charter for Maryland, which was intended to provide a place where Catholics and Protestants could settle. Maryland therefore developed as a colony with greater religious tolerance than Massachusetts Bay.

William Penn

William Penn was a Quaker who received Pennsylvania from Charles II in 1681 as a proprietary colony because of a debt owed to Penn's family. Penn created a colony with unusually broad religious tolerance and no official church. He also promoted Quaker pacifism in relations with Native Americans, formed a friendship with the Lenni Lenape, and bought their land at a fair price. Pennsylvania also relied heavily on indentured servants, using a headright system that offered 50 acres to people who completed their service.

George Fox

George Fox founded the Society of Friends, also known as the Quakers, in England in the late 1640s. Quakers rejected Puritanism and predestination and believed that everyone possessed an “inner light.” They emphasized social equality and practiced pacifism. These beliefs later influenced the development of Pennsylvania under William Penn.

Nathaniel Bacon

Nathaniel Bacon led Bacon's Rebellion in Virginia in 1676. Frontier colonists were angry with Governor William Berkeley's policies toward Native Americans and believed Berkeley was not adequately protecting them. Bacon became the leader of the rebellion and led colonists against Berkeley's authority. During the rebellion, Black and White laborers fought together after promises of freedom for military service. Bacon died of typhus in 1676, and his successors surrendered in January 1677.

William Berkeley

William Berkeley was the governor of Virginia during Bacon's Rebellion. During the conflict with Native Americans, Berkeley favored a defensive strategy rather than the aggressive attacks demanded by many frontier colonists. Colonists accused him and his wealthy allies of benefiting financially from the situation and believed he was failing to protect them. Berkeley eventually considered Bacon and his followers traitors, and after the rebellion he executed rebel leaders before royal troops restored order.

James Moore

James Moore was the governor of Carolina who led colonists and Native American allies in attacks against Spanish missions in the Southeast. Between 1700 and 1703, his raids devastated Guale and Mocama provinces and attacked St. Augustine. In 1704, Moore attacked the Apalachee province, where large numbers of Apalachee people were killed or enslaved. His campaigns weakened Spanish influence and alliances with Native Americans while strengthening British relationships with groups such as the Creek and Cherokee.

Tituba

Tituba was the Caribbean slave of Reverend Samuel Parris and one of the first people accused during the Salem Witch Trials. The accusations began in 1692 after young girls in Salem displayed strange behavior that was interpreted as evidence of witchcraft. Tituba's connection to the accusations shows how Puritan fears about Satan and witchcraft contributed to the Salem hysteria.

Samuel Parris

Samuel Parris was a minister in Salem whose household became the starting point for the witchcraft accusations in 1692. His daughter and niece were among the young girls who displayed strange behavior, and his Caribbean slave, Tituba, was among the first people accused of witchcraft. The accusations eventually developed into the Salem Witch Trials.

Blackbeard

Blackbeard was a pirate who blockaded Charleston's harbor in 1718. His actions contributed to the dangers and problems faced by Carolina settlers and increased dissatisfaction with the Lords Proprietors. In 1719, South Carolina became a Royal Colony.

John Trenchard & Thomas Gordon

John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon wrote Cato's Letters, a collection of 144 pamphlets published between 1720 and 1723. The writings emphasized England's commitment to liberty and warned readers to remain alert for threats to their freedom. The pamphlets helped spread ideas about liberty throughout the British Empire.