General Colonial History Flashcards
Hiacoomes and Mittark
Martha’s Vinyard Praying Indian preachers
1746 Massachusetts Guardian Law
Law that hired white agents to act as ‘guardians’ over Indian lands. Decisions about Indian land use would rest in the hands of these white guardians.
Congregationalism
The Congregational tradition was brought to America in the 1630s by the Puritans—a Calvinistic group within the Church of England that desired to purify it of any remaining teachings and practices of the Roman Catholic Church. As part of their reforms, Puritans desired to replace the Church of England’s episcopal polity (rule by bishops) with another form of church government. Some English Puritans favored presbyterian polity (rule by assemblies of presbyters), as was utilized by the Church of Scotland, but those who founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony organized their churches according to congregational polity (rule by members of the local church).
Presbyterianism
Puritans who favored presbyterian polity (rule by assemblies of presbyters i.e. elders or ministers of the Christian Church).
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (1701)
Anglican competitor to Puritan missions. SPG, primarily a missionary organization. Involved in the West Indies and both owned and converted slaves.
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (1698)
Anglican competitor to Puritan missions. SPCK, designed to distribute books and establish schools
Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge (1709)
SSPCK, a Presbyterian missionary organization that both distributed books and supported missionaries throughout the Atlantic.
Thomas Bray
Founded the SPG and SPCK.
The Associates of Dr. Thomas Bray (1723)
Created by Thomas Bray’s associates. Attempted to spread Protestantism in places where Puritan missions failed to reach.
John Eliot’s Account on King Philip (1670s)
A fictional recounting of King Philip being successfully converted to Puritanism. Intended to show how converting an Indian King might lead to a domino effect whereby other Indians would follow their leader.
SPG and Slavery
The Christianization of SPG slaves (who had the word “SOCIETY” branded upon them) was highly important to the Anglican Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, which owned plantations in the West Indies.
Spiritual vs. Temporal Freedom
Idea that “Christian spiritual liberty” only implied spiritual freedom, rather than actual freedom, which allowed Indian and Black converts to be kept as subordinates.
Yamassee War of 1715
Occurred in the Carolinas. Alienated Yamassee Prince George from his Anglican sponsors and catalyzed a colossal diaspora of Indians that English missionaries were trying to convert.
Hendrick Tejonihokarawa
One of the “Mohawk Kings” who visited London in 1710. Assisted Anglican Minister William Andrews in converting Mohawk in New York via Fort Hunter.
George Berkeley’s Bermuda Plan
Berkeley was an Anglican cleric who proposed capturing the children of enemy Indians as well as blacks and training them up to be missionaries in a college on the island of Bermuda, the “crossroads” of the British Atlantic. Failed for obvious reasons.
Creolization and Ethnogenesis
Creolization implies people taking a concept foreign to them, like Christianity, and incorporating it into their own culture over generations. Ethnogenesis occurs after the process of Creolization has completed, for instance, after said “Christian Indians” believe themselves to be a new and distinct ethnic group with a common history.
John Cotton’s Missionary Eschatology
Believed Jews had to be converted before Gentiles (Indians), but conceded that some Indians could be converted before that occurred. Colored Eliot’s beliefs and contributed to delay in the creation of the Massachusetts Bay Mission according to Cogley.
The Affective model (Massachusetts Conversion)
Ethnocentric. Assumed worthlessness of Algonkian culture. But it implied that the colony would not begin converting Indians until they themselves wanted it.
New Englands First Fruits
Discussed missionary activity in New England before John Eliot’s mission began in 1646.
Cambridge Platform 1648
Defined ecclesiological orthodoxy in Massachusetts Bay. Did not discuss missionary work.
The Pequot War 1636-37
English + Narragansett + Wampanoag kill or enslave approx half of Pequot population; Pequots effectively destroyed as a people → conflict served as an ominous foreshadowing to KPW.
Maintaining Competency
A type of subsistence economy in colonial NE that sought for a certain amount of economic security that would allow them to weather difficult times and perhaps (if they were lucky) pass along some amount of property to their children; a mindset that is risk averse rather than obsessed with profit .
The Great Awakening
- Accomplished intercolonial religious unity
- Brought “new lights” together across borders
- Pro revival preachers = “new lights” → developed lines of communication between colonies, which was really the first time that this happened; people were interested in religious revivals
Anglicization after the Great Awakening
- Process by which colonizers in mainland America became more like Great Britain, and in doing so became more like each other (contrast to before when individual colonies were more distinct)
- Colonies becoming more apart of the British Atlantic World
The Consumer Revolution (1750s)
1) colonists are buying more stuff 2) more colonizers are able to buy more stuff
1764 Sugar Act
- lowered taxes on imported sugar
- but provided customs officers with power to actually collect the tax
- if you are found in violation of the act, you’ll be tried by an Admiralty (Military) Court
Stamp Act 1765
- paper goods used in the colonies had to carry a tax stamp on them
- “stamp masters” would be appointed to distribute stamps throughout colonies
- stamp taxes had never been used previously
- stamp masters violently dealt with
1766 Declaratory Act
- Parliament declares its still the sovereign body in the colonies, not willing to cede sovereignty to the colonies
- in response to colonists questioning parliamentary sovereignty
1767 Townsend Acts
- levied import duties on goods that came into the colonies (e.g. tea, glass, lead)
- meant to alleviate British debt and increase imperial control over colonies by using collected duties to pay royally appointed governors
- previously, royal governors were paid by colonial assemblies
- tensions over Townshend acts lead to Boston massacre
- Acts were repealed, but a tax on tea was left in place
The Tea Act of 1773
- protected East India Company monopoly on tea
- colonists respond by dumping tea and encouraging non-importation
Coercive Acts of 1774
- in response to Tea Party, shuts down Boston port and the MA assembly, until rioters are arrested and the EIC is compensated, took away colonial rights like trial by jury for the resisters → convinced many colonists that parliament couldn’t be reasoned with
Dunmore Proclamation (1775)
- Dunmore declares that all slaves who ran away from masters to british lines would be given their freedom, with the goal of destabilizing Virginian society and weaken the planter class
Virginia Plan
Represented Madison’s belief that people should have more power rather than the states…it called for bicameral legislature with proportional representation, an executive branch, and a federal judiciary w/ power over all state judiciaries
NJ Plan
(ie stronger Articles) Called for unicameral legislature with equal representation, no executive branch, and no federal judiciary
3/5ths Compromise
state populations counted every decade, adding free people and 3/5ths of “all other persons,” thus maintaining political power of southern slave states (slaves were people as well as representations of state wealth), in fact they had disproportionate power compared to free states up until abolition (a free person’s vote in a slave state meant more than a free person’s vote in a free state)
