Term | Definition |
Virginia Company | an English firm that planned to make money by sending people to America to find gold and other valuable natural resources and then ship the resources back to England. |
Tobacco | Cash crop that "saved" Jamestown colony. |
Jamestown | First successful English colony in North America. |
John Rolfe | Individual responsible for Jamestown's successful cultivation of Tobacco |
Powhatan | Powerful Indian Chief near Jamestown settlement. |
House of Burgesses | the first European-style legislative body in the New World. The representatives were both appointed by the company’s governor and elected by land-owning males of Virginia |
Bacon's Rebellion | Virginia farmers clashed with Indians and the House of Burgesses over frontier expansion. 1675 |
Indentured Servants | people who worked for a land owner in exchange for their passage to the New World in hopes of eventually claiming their own land. |
Slaves | Imported from Africa and used as labor after Bacon's Rebellion. The economy of the south would become dependent on it. |
Puritans | a group of English Reformed Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to "purify" the Church of England from all Roman Catholic practices. Founded colonies in New England. |
Half-Way Coventant | allowed partial church membership for the children and
grandchildren of the original Puritans. As a result, these “half way” church members were allowed the opportunity to participate in the governance of the colony. |
Salem Witch Trials | a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts beginning in 1692. The trials resulted in the executions of 20 people |
William Penn | an English entrepreneur, philosopher, Quaker and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania |
Quebec | The first permanent French settlement in North
America. |
New England Colonies | Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. Fishing, whaling, and commercial trade from harbors such as
Boston became important economic engines for the region. |
Southern Colonies | Maryland, Virginia, N. Carolina, S. Carolina, and Georgia. Agricultural economy. |
Middle Colonies | New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware. |
King Phillip's War | (1675–1676) was an early and bloody conflict between English and regional Native American tribal groups. As a result, Native American power in the region faded, and English colonization expanded. |