Colonial America

Question 1

John Smith

Answer 1

English explorer who helped found the colony at Jamestown, Virginia; was said to have been saved by Pocahontas. He wrote the first written history of America called the “Generall Historie of Virginia” (1580-1631)

Question 2

Pilgrims

Answer 2

English colonists who founded the first permanent settlement in New England at Plymouth in 1620. Also known as ‘separatists’ as they wanted to break away from the Church of England.

Question 3

Puritans

Answer 3

a member of a group of Protestants that arose in the 16th century within the Church of England, demanding the simplification of doctrine and worship, and greater strictness in religious discipline. Along with Pilgrims and other English, were apart of the settlers to come over on the Mayflower in 1620.

Question 4

Quakers

Answer 4

A member of the Religious Society of Friends. The Quakers are a group of Christians who use no scripture and believe in great simplicity in daily life and in worship. Their services consist mainly of silent meditation.Primarily settled the Pennsylvania colony.

Question 5

Jamestown

Answer 5

The first permanent English settlement in North America, founded in 1607 in Virginia. Jamestown was named for King James I of England. The first 5 years most of the colonists died for various reasons until the cash crop of tobacco saved the colony. It was destroyed later in the seventeenth century in an uprising of Virginians against the governor.

Question 6

Indentured Servant

Answer 6

a labor system whereby young people paid for their passage to the New World by working for an employer for a certain number of years, usually 7 years. It was widely employed in the 18th century in the British colonies in North America and elsewhere.

Question 7

Middle Colonies

Answer 7

The Middle Colonies comprised the middle region of the Thirteen Colonies of the British Empire in North America (Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and Delaware). European ethnic groups as manifold as English, Swedes, Dutch, Germans, Scots-Irish and French lived in closer proximity than in any location on continental Europe.

Question 8

New England Colonies

Answer 8

Consisting of the states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut: settled originally chiefly by Puritans in the mid-17th century.

Question 9

Southern Colonies

Answer 9

The southern colonies were Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and Georgia. They were supported by slave labor and farming, for the most part.

Question 10

Roger Williams

Answer 10

Roger Williams was an English Protestant theologian who was an early proponent of religious freedom and the separation of church and state. In 1636, he began the colony of Providence Plantation (Rhode Island), which provided a refuge for religious minorities.

Question 11

Pocahontas

Answer 11

Powhatan princess who befriended the English colonists at Jamestown and is said to have saved Capt. John Smith from execution by her people. She was taken prisoner and then married the colonist John Rolfe (1614) and later traveled to England, where she died.

Question 12

William Penn

Answer 12

William Penn (1644-1718) an English Quaker who established the American colony of Pennsylvania on land given to him by King Charles II. He made it a place of safety for Quakers and all other religious groups, and called this a ‘holy experiment’.

Question 13

Anne Hutchinson

Answer 13

Anne Hutchinson (1591-1643) was an outspoken and controversial figure in the religious development of Massachusetts Bay Colony. After migrating there in 1634, Anne organized weekly meetings to discuss recent sermons, in which she also expressed her own theological views. In particular, she stressed the individual’s relationship with God as opposed to reliance upon ministers. Massachusetts Governor John Winthrop considered Anne Hutchinson’s opinions blasphemous and led the successful counterattack against her. She was convicted of “traducing [slandering] the ministers” and banished from Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Question 14

Lord Baltimore

Answer 14

George Calvert, First Lord Baltimore (c. 1580-1632) George Calvert was the first person to dream of a colony in America where Catholics and Protestants could prosper together. He was created the colony of Maryland.

Question 15

Bacon’s Rebellion

Answer 15

Bacon’s Rebellion was an armed rebellion in 1676 by Virginia settlers led by Nathaniel Bacon against the rule of Governor William Berkeley. The colony’s disorganized frontier political structure, combined with accumulating grievances (including leaving Bacon out of his inner circle, refusing to allow Bacon to be a part of his fur trade with the Native Americans), helped to motivate a popular uprising against Berkeley, who had failed to address the demands of the colonists regarding their safety. About a thousand Virginians of all classes rose up in arms against Berkeley, attacking Native Americans, chasing Berkeley from Jamestown, Virginia, and ultimately torching the capital. Government forces from England arrived soon after and spent several years defeating pockets of resistance and reforming the colonial government to one more directly under royal control.

Question 16

Metacom’s War

Answer 16

King Philip’s War, 1675–76, the most devastating war between the colonists and the Native Americans in New England. The war is named for King Philip, the son of Massasoit and chief of the Wampanoag. His Wampanoag name was Metacom, Metacomet, or Pometacom.

Question 17

James Oglethorpe

Answer 17

James Edward Oglethorpe was a British general, Member of Parliament, philanthropist, and founder of the colony of Georgia. As a social reformer, he hoped to resettle Britain’s poor, especially those in debtors’ prisons, in the New World.

Question 18

Mayflower Compact

Answer 18

An agreement reached by the Pilgrims on the ship the Mayflower in 1620, just before they landed at Plymouth Rock. The Mayflower Compact bound them to live in a civil society according to their own laws. It remained the fundamental law of their colony of Plymouth until the colony was absorbed into Massachusetts in the late seventeenth century.

Question 19

Fundamental Orders of Connecticut

Answer 19

The Fundamental Orders, inspired by Thomas Hooker’s sermon of May 31, 1638, provided the framework for the government of Connecticut colony from 1639 to 1662. The orders describe the government set up by the Connecticut River towns, setting its structure and powers. It has the features of a written constitution, and is considered by some as the first written Constitution in the Western tradition, and thus earned Connecticut its nickname of The Constitution State.

Question 20

Middle Passage

Answer 20

The sea journey undertaken by slave ships from West Africa to the West Indies.The Middle Passage, the second leg of the Triangle Trade of transatlantic slavery, was a horrific ordeal for the millions of Africans kidnapped from their home nations.

Question 21

The French and Indian War

Answer 21

The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was the North American theater of the worldwide Seven Years’ War. The war was fought between the colonies of British America and New France, with both sides supported by military units from their parent countries of Great Britain and France, as well as Native American allies.The name French and Indian War is used mainly in the United States and refers to the two main enemies of the British colonists: the royal French forces and the various Native Americans allied with them.

Question 22

The Salem Witch Trials

Answer 22

Trials held in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692 that led to the execution of twenty people for allegedly practicing witchcraft. The trials are noted for the hysterical atmosphere in which they were conducted; many townspeople were widely suspected of witchcraft on flimsy evidence.