Early American History Vocabulary Flashcards

A set of comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering terms, key figures, events, and historical concepts from the lecture notes.

Virgin Land

North America viewed as untouched land ready to be manipulated (16th century onwards); seen as private property and a commodity providing agricultural opportunities that encouraged European immigration.

Beaver

17th-century commodity whose pelts drove a global market; overhunting lowered beaver populations, transformed ecosystems into agricultural lands, and impacted Indigenous trade and practices.

Domesticated animals

17th-century central component of European agriculture viewed as movable wealth; differing Indigenous practices led Europeans to wrongly view Native culture as primitive and lacking land ownership claims.

Ownership v. Sovereignty

17th-century conflict between European views of land as a buyable/sellable fixed commodity and Native views of land as heritage where only user rights/fruits could be traded, leading to land dispossession.

Land as a commodity

17th-century perception of land as a scarce economic asset and supreme status symbol used by European colonists to structure societal relationships and justify dispossessing Native populations.

Freehold Property

18th-century land ownership with no obligations, which drew immigrants and indentured servants, established family self-sufficiency, created Native tensions, and nationalized colonists into true Americans.

Subsistence Farming

17th-century practice of farming to sustain oneself, which promoted family independence, economic self-reliance, individual liberty, and democratic representation.

Empire of Goods

17th-century concept describing how American colonies were bound to Britain through consumer markets (e.g., fine porcelain) and the spread of Enlightenment and Great Awakening ideas.

Colonial Cities

17th-century urban centers established by imperial powers that served as resource transport hubs and centers for spreading Enlightenment and Great Awakening ideas questioning authority.

George Whitefield

1730s-1740s popularizer of the Great Awakening who emphasized personal devotion, individual prayer, and questioning authority, increasing political and religious tensions with Great Britain.

Haudenosaunee

17th-century league of the Iroquois that became the largest political superpower in North America by mass-producing wampum to trade with Europeans for firearms and goods.

Santa Fe

17th-century Spanish colonial settlement and state capital that served as a hub for converting Pueblo people to Catholicism and later became the site of the Pueblo Revolt.

Puritans

17th-century religious group seeking to purify the Church of Catholicism; migrated in families, placed heavy emphasis on literacy and Bible education, and engaged in major conflicts like the Pequot War.

Pequot War

1630s conflict between the Pequot and English over control of wampum trade, leading to massacres, population decline, and Puritans viewing Indigenous people as hostile and demonic.

Pueblo Revolt

1680s coordinated mass uprising by Pueblo people against Spanish rule that successfully expelled Spanish power from the region for a decade.

Bacon’s Rebellion

1676 uprising of indentured servants and colonists that burned Jamestown, highlighted class conflicts, escalated anti-Native violence, and catalyzed the shift to chattel slavery.

King Philip’s War

1670s war led by Metacom between Native tribes and New England colonists that resulted in severe casualties, nearly destroyed English colonies, and deepened Puritan hostility toward Natives.

Middle Passage

16th-19th century transatlantic voyage of enslaved Africans characterized by mass mortality from disease, murder, and suicide due to intense apprehension of bondage.

Chattel Slavery in the Americas

1500s-1900s system defining human beings as total movable property, providing the economic base for market production of tobacco, rice, and cotton, and codifying white supremacy into law.

Transition to Slavery in the Chesapeake

1650-1700s shift in the Chesapeake from indentured servitude to codified chattel slavery to support profitable tobacco cultivation, forming the largest slave society.

African Diaspora

1501-1900 global community connected by remembered or envisioned ties to a distant African homeland, providing collective identity and cultural support for enslaved peoples.

Crusades

11th-13th century religious wars to punish non-Christians and capture Muslim-controlled lands, setting the ideological backdrop for the Reconquista and Atlantic voyages.

Reconquista

8th-century campaigns to retake the Iberian peninsula from Muslim rule, which established concepts of blood purity and freed resources for Columbus's 1492 voyage.

Limpieza de Sangre

15th-century racial concept of blood purity that framed religious converts as inherently unworthy and established an early foundation for modern racism.

Saö Tome and Principe

15th-century African islands conquered by Portugal that served as early testing grounds for slave trade, forced labor, and resource extraction models.

Adelantados

15th-16th century Spanish conquerors who funded their own expeditions in exchange for sharing discovery wealth with the crown, creating a business model used by Columbus.

Tainos

Indigenous inhabitants of the Caribbean encountered by Columbus who were subjected to the encomienda system as early victims of European colonial exploitation.

The Great Dying

16th century onward catastrophic decline of Native American populations caused by forced labor and European diseases, sparking debates among high and low counter historians.

Columbian Exchange

16th-century onward widespread transfer of plants, animals, foods, human populations, diseases, and ideas between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres.

Ayuba Suleiman Diallo

18th-century educated Muslim African who escaped American slavery by sending a written letter to London, leaving a rare historical record of an enslaved person returning to Africa.

Beringia

Land bridge existing around 15,000 BP connecting Siberia to Alaska and the Yukon, enabling initial human migration from Asia into North America.

North Atlantic Warming Period

Climate period from 1350-1400 BC that enabled squash and corn cultivation, fostering urbanization, agricultural development, and complex societies.

Medieval American cities

10th-14th century urban centers in North America that processed agricultural surplus and trade, demonstrating the complexity of pre-Columbian Native civilizations.

Chaco Canyon

10th-century primary settlement located in the Four Corners region of New Mexico that challenges historic myths of Indigenous peoples being purely nomadic.

Cahokia

Major Mississippian metropolitan center founded around 1050 CE that rivaled European cities and spread cultural traditions like chunkey across the region.

Chunkey

10th-century hoop and pole sport originating in Mississippian culture that spread across North America to resolve inter-group conflicts without war.

Covenant chain

18th-century diplomatic alliance system between British colonies and Native groups like the Haudenosaunee, securing firearms for Natives and stable fur trade for the British.

Great Lakes region

18th-century upper country (pays d'en haut) where French traders relied on Native alliances and intermarriage to extract beaver and raccoon pelts.

Balance of power diplomacy

18th-century strategic balance where rivalries between Great Britain and France forced imperial powers to negotiate with Native nations, preserving Indigenous autonomy.