Chapter 2 Flashcards
(35 cards)
Jamestown
The first permanent British colony in North America. It was established in eastern Virginia in 1607-8 by the Virginia Company.
John Smith
A captain famous for world travel. As a young man, he took control in Jamestown. He organized the colony and saved many people from death the next winter. He also initiated attacks on Natives. He was the council president of Jamestown beginning in 1608
Virginia Company
Originally the London Company. A joint stock company that was chartered by the Crown. They founded Jamestown and several other colonies in Virginia
Tobacco
It was introduced to the colonies surrounding the Chesapeake Bay, and it transformed the society there. Tobacco farming required much more land than the colonies in Virginia actually had. The colonists sold the tobacco to the English.
Headright system
The Virginia wasn’t making any money off of the Virginian colonies. In 1618, they launched this system. Headrights were land grants that new settlers each got one headright, which encouraged citizens to move with their families, servants, and slaves. Typically, each headright was fifty acres.
Indentured Servants
A person who works for a certain amount of time (typically 7 years) under contract in exchange for payment for their passage over the Atlantic Ocean
Powhatan Indians
an Indian tribe that resisted the English expansion. Thomas Dale led attacks against them for two years and kidnapped the chief’s daughter. They attacked first, but were eventually overwhelmed.
Pocahontas
The kidnapped daughter of the Powhatan chief. Her father wouldn’t ransom her and so she became Christian and married John Rolfe.
Royal Colony
When the Virginia Company became bankrupt, the king revoked its charter and brought the Virginia colony under his control, and it became a Royal Colony. Another example is the colony made in 1729 from the Province of North Carolina. Organized after seven of the original eight Lord Proprietors sold their tracts back to the crown.
Proprietary Colony
Used solely for the purpose of British rulers staking a claim on more and more land.
Charter Colony
Formed when the crown gives a charter to a deserving citizen. Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts Bay were charter colonies
Bacon’s Rebellion
Led by Nathaniel Bacon. He and his group of rebels were dissatisfied with their representation in the government, among other things. The rebellion was ultimately unsuccessful and Bacon died during it, but it forced many people to think and led to an increase in slavery so there were less people like the rebels who had no land and were angry with the way things worked
Plymouth Plantation
Separatists who were dissenters from the Church of England moved to Holland to find freedom, but they didn’t find it. They then went to New England and founded Plymouth.
Mayflower Compact
Established a civil government which was based on majority for the pilgrims in Plymouth. It is named after their boat, the Mayflower. Written by the Puritan Separatists
William Bradford
Governor of Plymouth over and over again. He convinced the Council for New England to give the people of Plymouth legal permission to live there
John Winthrop
Wealthy Puritan lawyer. Chosen as Governor of Massachusetts. He was very dominant in politics, and he founded several communities on the MA Bay and the Charles River
Massachusetts Bay Colony
Founded by the Massachusetts Bay Company; an English settlement on the east coast of North America in the 17th century.
Theocracy
Government of a state by immediate divine guidance or by officials who are regarded as divinely guided. Massachusetts basically became a theocracy partially because ministers held so much sway on their congregation.
Roger Williams
A Puritan dissenter in Rhode Island. He wanted Massachusetts to abandon all connections to the Church of England and completely separate church and state. He was banished, and he established the town of Providence.
Anne Hutchinson
Puritan woman from Boston. She argued that very few of the clergy were of the “elect,” and that because of that, they had no authority. She was banished, and she moved into New Netherland and died during an Indian uprising.
Pequot War
An armed conflict spanning the years 1634-1438 between the Pequot tribe against and alliance of the Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Saybrook colonies who were aided by their Native American allies. This led to King Phillip’s War because the Wampanoags believed that only armed resistance could protect them from English incursions into their lands and from the efforts by the colonial governments to impose English law on the natives.
King Phillip’s War
After the Pequot war, the Wampanoags, led by a chief that the settlers called “King Philip,” began to rise up against the settlers. The struggle began in 1675 and lasted 3 years. They destroyed 20 Massachusetts towns. The settlers managed to fight back and eventually prevailed, with the aid of the Mohawks, the Wampanoags’s enemies. Greatest “war” in 17th century New England.
English Civil War
King Charles I dissolved parliament and gained the dislike of many of his citizens for his religious views. The war took place between the Cavaliers and the Roundheads. It lasted seven years, and the supporters of the king eventually lost. Oliver Cromwell took charge of the country as the protectorate.
New York Colony
A proprietary colony that was formed during England’s restoration period. An English territory that originally included modern day New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Vermont, along with portions of Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, and Pennsylvania. Charles II granted the territory to his brother James, the duke of York in 1624.
