2. The Planting of English America 1500–1733 - Key Terms Flashcards
Act of Toleration
(1649) Passed in Maryland, it guaranteed toleration to all Christians but decreed the death penalty for those, like Jews and atheists, who denied the divinity of Jesus Christ. Ensured that Maryland would continue to attract a high proportion of Catholic migrants throughout the colonial period.
Barbados slave code
(1661) First formal statute governing the treatment of slaves, which provided for harsh punishments against offending slaves but lacked penalties for the mistreatment of slaves by masters. Similar statutes were adopted by Southern plantation societies on the North American mainland in the 17th and 18th centuries.
buffer
In politics, a territory between two antagonistic powers, intended to minimize the possibility of conflict between them. In British North America, Georgia was established as a buffer colony between British and Spanish territory.
charter
Legal document granted by a government to some group or agency to implement a stated purpose, and spelling out the attending rights and obligations. British colonial charters guaranteed inhabitants all the rights of Englishmen, which helped solidify colonists’ ties to Britain during the early years of settlement
First Anglo-Powhatan War
(1614) Series of clashes between the Powhatan Confederacy and English settlers in Virginia. English colonists torched and pillaged Indian villages, applying tactics used in England’s campaigns against the Irish.
House of Burgesses
Representative parliamentary assembly created to govern Virginia, establishing a precedent for government in the English colonies.
Iroquois Confederacy
Bound together five tribes—the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the Senecas—in the Mohawk Valley of what is now New York State.
Jamestown
First permanent English settlement in North America founded by the Virginia Company
Joint-stock company
Short-term partnership between multiple investors to fund a commercial enterprise; such arrangements were used to fund England’s early colonial ventures.
primogeniture
Legal principle that the oldest son inherits all family property or land. Landowner’s younger sons, forced to seek their fortunes elsewhere, pioneered early exploration and settlement of the Americas.
Protestant Reformation
(16th Century) Movement to reform the Catholic Church launched in Germany by Martin Luther. Reformers questioned the authority of the Pope, sought to eliminate the selling of indulgences, and encouraged the translation of the Bible from Latin, which few at the time could read. The reformation was launched in England in the 1530s when King Henry VIII broke with the Roman Catholic Church.
Roanoke Island
(1585) Sir Walter Raleigh’s failed colonial settlement off the coast of North Carolina.
Second Anglo-Powhatan War
(1644–1646) Last-ditch effort by the Indians to dislodge Virginia settlements. The resulting peace treaty formally separated white and Indian areas of settlement.
Spanish Armada
(1588) Spanish fleet defeated in the English Channel in 1588. The defeat of the Armada marked the beginning of the decline of the Spanish Empire.
Squatters
Frontier farmers who illegally occupied land owned by others or not yet officially opened for settlement. Many of North Carolina’s early settlers were squatters, who contributed to the colony’s reputation as being more independent-minded and “democratic” than its neighbors.
