Period 2 (1607-1754)
Study Guide Notes
I. Colonial Powers
Spanish: Conquest, gold, Christian conversion; encomienda system; Pueblo Revolt (1680) temporarily expelled Spanish.
French/Dutch: Focused on fur trade and commerce; alliances with Native groups (Hurons, Algonquins); few permanent settlers.
British: Established permanent colonies; motives = religion (Puritans in New England) and profit (Virginia Company in Chesapeake); less intermarriage with Natives.
II. Regional Development
New England Colonies (MA, CT, RI, NH):
Founded for religious motives (Puritans).
Economy: small farms, fishing, shipbuilding, trade.
Society: close-knit towns; town meetings = early democracy.
Conflicts: Pequot War, King Philip’s War (1675).
Middle Colonies (NY, PA, NJ, DE):
Ethnically and religiously diverse (e.g., Quakers in Pennsylvania).
Economy: “breadbasket colonies” → wheat, grain exports; major trade centers (NY, Philadelphia).
Chesapeake Colonies (VA, MD):
Tobacco = cash crop economy.
Labor: Headright system, indentured servants → shift to African slavery.
Social tensions: Bacon’s Rebellion (1676) revealed tensions between poor farmers, elites, and Native Americans.
Religion: Maryland Toleration Act (1649) granted religious freedom for Christians.
Southern Colonies & West Indies (SC, GA, Barbados):
Economy: rice, indigo, sugar plantations.
Society: Enslaved African majority in some areas; harsh slave codes.
West Indies sugar trade influenced the Carolinas.
III. Labor Systems
Transition from indentured servants to African slavery by late 1600s.
Middle Passage: Deadly transatlantic journey for enslaved Africans.
Slave Codes: Strict legal restrictions limiting movement, rights, and freedoms.
African culture survived through language, music, religion (syncretism), and resistance (rebellion, running away, sabotage).
IV. Society, Culture, and Ideas
Self-Government: House of Burgesses (1619), New England town meetings, colonial assemblies.
Religion: First Great Awakening (1730s–1740s) → emotional sermons (Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield), challenged established churches, promoted religious pluralism.
Intellectual Movements: Enlightenment (John Locke: natural rights, social contract, government by consent).
V. Imperial Policies and Colonial Response
Mercantilism: Colonies supplied raw materials and markets for British goods.
Navigation Acts (1650s–1670s): Restricted colonial trade to benefit England → widespread smuggling.
Salutary Neglect: Weak enforcement of trade laws fostered colonial autonomy and self-government.
VI. Events & Documents
1607: Jamestown founded.
1619: House of Burgesses established; first Africans arrive in Virginia.
1620: Mayflower Compact (self-government).
1630: Puritans found Massachusetts Bay (“City upon a Hill” – John Winthrop).
1676: Bacon’s Rebellion.
1680: Pueblo Revolt.
1730s–1740s: First Great Awakening.
1754: Albany Plan of Union (“Join or Die” – Ben Franklin).
⚡ Big Picture: Colonies developed distinct regional identities, slavery became central, intellectual and religious movements spread, and self-government expanded under weak imperial control — laying groundwork for eventual independence.
Key Terms
Act of Religious Toleration
an act passed by Maryland Assembly granting religious freedom to all Christians, including Catholics.
Anglo-Powhatan Wars
series of conflicts between the Powhatan Confederacy and English settlers in Virginia and Maryland.
Bacon’s Rebellion
uprising in Virginia led by Nathaniel Bacon. Bacon and his followers were upset by the Virginia governor’s unwillingness to send troops to intervene in conflicts between settlers and American Indians and by the lack of representation of western settlers in the House of Burgess.
Cash crop
a crop produced for profit rather than for subsistence. Tobacco was the main cash crop in the Chesapeake region in the 1600s / 1700s, and sugar was most commonly grown in the Carribean colonies.
Dominion of New England
the consolidation of northeastern colonies by King James II in 1686 to establish greater control over them, resulting in the banning of town meetings, new taxes, and other unpopular policies. The Dominion was dissolved during the Glorious Revolution.
Enlightenment
a European cultural movement spanning the late 1600s-1700s, emphasizing rational and scientific thinking over tradition religion and superstition.
First Great Awakening
series of religious revivals in colonial America that began in 1720 and lasted until around 1750.
Iroquois Confederacy
a group of allied American Indian nations that included the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and later the Tuscarora. The Confederacy had largely dissolved by the final decade of the 1700s.
Impressment
the forced enlistment of civilians into the army or navy. The impressment of residents of colonial seaports into the British navy was a major source of complaint.
Indentured servitude
condition of being contracted to work for a set period of time without pay.
Joint-stock company
a company in which large numbers of investors own stock. Such a company could quickly raise large amounts of money and share risk/reward equally among investors.
Mayflower Compact
written agreement created by the Pilgrims upon their arrival in Plymouth. It was the first written constitution adopted in North America.
Metacom’s War
AKA “King Philip’s War”, a conflict between English settlers and an alliance of Native Americans led by the Wampanoag tribe. The settlers were the eventual victors, but fights were fierce and casualties on both sides were high.
Middle Passage
the brutal transatlantic portion of the forced journey of enslaved Africans from Africa to the Americas. Historians estimate that millions of Africans died before they arrived in the Americas.
Mercantilism
an economic system centered on maintaining a favorable balance of trade for the home country, with more gold and silver flowing into that country than flowed out (exports>imports). Mercantilism largely shaped British colonial policy.
Navigation Acts
acts passed by Parliament in the 1650s and 1660s that prohibited smuggling, established guidelines for legal commerce, and set duties on trade items.
Powhatan Confederacy
large and powerful confederation of Algonquian-speaking Native Americans in Virginia. The Jamestown settlers had a complicated and often combative relationship with the leaders of the Powhatan Confederacy.
Pueblo Revolt
an uprising of Pueblo Indians against Spanish forces in New Mexico that led to the Spaniards’ temporary retreat from that area. The uprising was sparked by mistreatment and the suppression of Pueblo culture and religion.
Stono Rebellion
an uprising by enslaves Africans and African Americans in South Carolina, which intensified white fear of slave revolts.
SAQ Practice
SAQ 1: Colonial Regions
a) Briefly describe ONE reason for the development of the New England colonies’ economy.
b) Briefly describe ONE way the Chesapeake colonies’ economy differed from New England’s.
c) Briefly explain ONE effect of these regional economic differences on colonial society or politics.
SAQ 2: Labor Systems
a) Briefly describe ONE factor that led to the transition from indentured servitude to African slavery in the Chesapeake colonies.
b) Briefly explain ONE way enslaved Africans resisted the institution of slavery in the 17th or 18th century.
c) Briefly explain ONE effect the use of African slave labor had on the Southern colonies’ economy or society.
SAQ 3: Religion and Intellectual Movements
a) Briefly describe ONE cause of the First Great Awakening (1730s–1740s).
b) Briefly explain ONE effect of the First Great Awakening on colonial society.
c) Briefly explain ONE way Enlightenment ideas influenced colonial political thought.
SAQ 4: Imperial Control
a) Briefly describe ONE purpose of the Navigation Acts.
b) Briefly explain ONE way colonists responded to the Navigation Acts.
c) Briefly explain ONE long-term effect of salutary neglect on the colonies.