american history notes
🔑 Key Terms & Concepts (Short Answer)
Q: What is a charter?
A: A document granting permission for a group or company to settle in a specific location.
Q: What is a joint-stock company?
A: A business where investors pooled money for colonial ventures and shared profits.
Q: Define mercantilism.
A: An economic system where colonies existed to enrich the mother country through trade and resources.
Q: What were the Navigation Acts?
A: British trade laws that required colonial goods to pass through England.
Q: Who were indentured servants?
A: People who worked for a set number of years in exchange for passage to the colonies.
Q: What was the headright system?
A: Land was granted to settlers who paid for their own or others’ passage to Virginia.
Q: What is slavery in the colonial context?
A: The forced labor of Africans brought via the Middle Passage.
Q: What was the Triangular Trade?
A: A trade route linking Europe, Africa, and the Americas, often exchanging slaves, sugar, and manufactured goods.
Q: What was the Halfway Covenant?
A: Allowed partial church membership to Puritan descendants.
Q: What are corporate, royal, and proprietary colonies?
A: Corporate were company-run, royal were crown-run, and proprietary were owned by individuals/families.
👤 Important People (Short Answer)
Q: Who was John Cabot?
A: An English explorer who claimed lands in North America for England.
Q: Who was John Smith?
A: The strong leader of Jamestown who helped the colony survive.
Q: Who was John Rolfe?
A: Introduced profitable tobacco farming; married Pocahontas.
Q: Who was Pocahontas?
A: Daughter of Powhatan; wife of John Rolfe who helped Jamestown.
Q: Who were the Puritans?
A: Reformers who wanted to purify the Church of England.
Q: Who were the Separatists?
A: Radicals who wanted to break completely from the Church of England.
Q: Who were the Pilgrims?
A: Separatists who traveled on the Mayflower and founded Plymouth in 1620.
Q: Who was John Winthrop?
A: Puritan leader of Massachusetts Bay; said the colony would be a “city upon a hill.”
Q: Who was Roger Williams?
A: Founder of Providence; supported religious freedom and separation of church/state.
Q: Who was Anne Hutchinson?
A: Banished for challenging Puritan leaders; promoted antinomianism.
Q: Who was Thomas Hooker?
A: Founded Connecticut, supporting more democratic principles.
Q: Who was John Davenport?
A: Helped found New Haven colony, later part of Connecticut.
Q: Who was Cecil Calvert (Lord Baltimore)?
A: Proprietor of Maryland who supported religious toleration.
Q: Who was William Penn?
A: Quaker who founded Pennsylvania as a “Holy Experiment.”
Q: Who was James Oglethorpe?
A: Founder of Georgia as a buffer colony and debtor refuge.
Q: Who was Charles I?
A: King of England executed in 1649.
Q: Who was Sir William Berkeley?
A: Virginia governor targeted during Bacon’s Rebellion.
Q: Who was Metacom (King Philip)?
A: Wampanoag leader who fought settlers in King Philip’s War.
Q: Who was Sir Edmund Andros?
A: Governor of the Dominion of New England, disliked for his harsh rule.
📜 Events, Laws & Documents (Short Answer)
Q: Why was Jamestown important?
A: It was the first permanent English settlement in 1607.
Q: What was the House of Burgesses?
A: The first representative assembly in the colonies.
Q: What was the Mayflower Compact?
A: Agreement for self-government signed by the Pilgrims in 1620.
Q: What was the Act of Toleration (1649)?
A: A Maryland law granting freedom of worship to all Christians.
Q: What were the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut (1639)?
A: The first written constitution in America.
Q: What was the Frame of Government (1682)?
A: William Penn’s plan for representative government in Pennsylvania.
Q: What was the Charter of Liberties (1701)?
A: Pennsylvania law granting freedoms such as elected legislature.
Q: What was the Dominion of New England?
A: Royal consolidation of colonies under Edmund Andros.
Q: What was Bacon’s Rebellion (1676)?
A: A revolt of frontier settlers against Virginia’s governor.
Q: What was King Philip’s War (1675–1678)?
A: Conflict between New England colonists and Native Americans.
Q: What were Writs of Assistance?
A: General search warrants used to stop smuggling.
Q: What was the Gaspee Affair (1772)?
A: Colonists burned a British customs ship; Britain denied jury trials in colonies.
Q: What was the New England Confederation?
A: Early colonial alliance for defense against Natives and the Dutch.
Q: What was the Virginia Company?
A: A joint-stock company that founded Jamestown.
Q: What were Committees of Correspondence?
A: Colonial groups formed to unify communication against British policies.
Q: Who were the Minutemen?
A: Colonial militia ready to fight at a minute’s notice.
Q: What was guerrilla warfare?
A: Hit-and-run fighting style using surprise attacks.
Q: What was the Olive Branch Petition (1775)?
A: Last colonial attempt at peace with King George III, rejected.
Q: What was a custom duty?
A: A tax on imports and exports.
Q: What was inflation in the colonial era?
A: Decline in value of money, raising prices.
Q: What was a nonimportation agreement?
A: A colonial pledge to boycott British goods.
Q: What is a republic?
A: Government where power rests with citizens who vote.
Q: What is emancipation?
A: The process of freeing enslaved people.
Q: What is manumission?
A: Voluntary freeing of enslaved people by owners.
📜 British Acts on the Colonies (Short Answer)
Q: What was the Proclamation of 1763?
A: Banned settlement west of the Appalachians.
Q: What was the Sugar Act (1764)?
A: Tax on sugar and molasses imports.
Q: What was the Stamp Act (1765)?
A: Required stamps for printed items.
Q: What were the Quartering Acts?
A: Colonists had to house British soldiers.
Q: What were the Townshend Acts (1767)?
A: Taxes on imports like paper, glass, and tea.
Q: What was the Tea Act (1773)?
A: Gave the British East India Company monopoly on tea sales.
Q: What were the Intolerable Acts (1774)?
A: Punished Boston after the Tea Party by closing its harbor and limiting self-rule.
📅 Fill-in-the-Blank (Important Dates)
Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement, was founded in _______.
➡ 1607The Pilgrims arrived on the Mayflower in the year _______.
➡ 1620The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut were adopted in _______.
➡ 1639The Act of Toleration was passed in Maryland in _______.
➡ 1649The Great Migration of Puritans to Massachusetts Bay occurred during the _______.
➡ 1630sThe Charter of Liberties in Pennsylvania was written in _______.
➡ 1701Charles I, King of England, was executed in _______.
➡ 1649The Glorious Revolution in England took place in _______.
➡ 1688