Vocab SS

plantation: A large estate farmed by many workers.

representative government: A political system in which voters elect representatives to make laws for them.

charter: A legal document giving certain rights to a person or company.

Protestant Reformation: A movement to reform the Roman Catholic Church in the 1500s that led to the creation of many different Christian churches.

precedent: An act or decision that sets an example for others to follow.

religious tolerance: The willingness to let others practice their own beliefs.

proprietary colony: An English colony in which the king gave land to proprietors in exchange for a yearly payment.

royal colony: A colony under direct control of the English crown.

debtor: A person who cannot pay money that he or she owes.

racism: The belief that one race is superior to another.

Great Awakening: A religious movement in the English colonies in the mid-1700s.

libel: The act of publishing a statement that may unjustly damage a person's reputation.

mercantilism: The theory that a nation's economic strength comes from selling more than it buys from other nations.

export: A trade product sent to markets outside of a country.

import: A trade product brought into and sold in a country that does not make that product.

bill of rights: A written list of freedoms the government promises to protect.

common law: Laws made by judges through their decisions in court cases (precedent), rather than by representatives of government passing laws (statutes).