Key Terms Period 2

Question 1

Corporate colonies

Answer 1

British colonies whose governments were trading-company charters. In these colonies all political power rested in the members of the company.

Question 2

Royal colonies

Answer 2

A colony administered by a royal governor and council appointed by the British crown.

Question 3

Proprietary colonies

Answer 3

A colony in which a person was appointed to lead by the king but had more autonomy. Most of these were run under a colonial charter agreement.

Question 4

Representative government

Answer 4

Government where people had a say in policy by electing representatives to advocate for their interests

Question 5

Jamestown

Answer 5

First British colony in North America, established in 1607 in Virginia. It was initially very poorly run with its residents unaccustomed to the rigors of colonial life.

Question 6

Massachusetts Bay Colony

Answer 6

The king gave Puritans a right to settle and govern a colony in the Massachusetts Bay area. The colony established political freedom and a representative government for those in the church (but persecuted those who weren’t).

Question 7

Plymouth Colony

Answer 7

Second colony founded in North America by the British by Puritans escaping religious persecution in England. Established by the travelers of the Mayflower in 1620 in what is now Massachusetts.

Question 8

Mayflower

Answer 8

Ship that carried a group of Puritans (often called the Pilgrims) who were escaping religious persecution in England.

Question 9

Mayflower Compact

Answer 9

The first agreement for self-government in America. It was signed by the 41 men on the Mayflower and set up a government for the Plymouth colony.

Question 10

Virginia House of Burgesses

Answer 10

the first elected legislative assembly in the New World established in the Colony of Virginia in 1619, representative colony set up by England to make laws and levy taxes, but England could veto its legislative acts.

Question 11

Act of Toleration

Answer 11

A legal document that allowed all Christian religions in Maryland; made specifically to allow Catholics to settle in Maryland away from Protestant pushback; however Protestants ‘invaded’ Maryland and repealed this. First example of religious freedom.

Question 12

Indentured Servants

Answer 12

People who agreed to a term of slavery (usually 6-9 years) in exchange for free passage to the North American colonies. After the term, they were free to make their own fortune

Question 13

Headright System

Answer 13

The headright system was established in 1617 by the Virginia Company in an attempt to recruit laborers and workers to the colony and more populate Virginia; it granted 50 acres of land to new settlers and 100 acres of land to those who already lived in the colony.

Question 14

Chesapeake Colonies

Answer 14

Settlements surrounding Chesapeake Bay, Virginia and Maryland. Colonies grew tobacco and other cash crops

Question 15

Bacon’s Rebellion

Answer 15

Rebellion of poor white and black Virginians against the colonial government’s toleration of Native Americans. The rebels marched on Jamestown and burned the city, driving the governor, Sir William Berkeley, out of town. The rebellion ended suddenly when Bacon died of an illness. Ended the use for indentured servants and started slavery.

Question 16

Quakers

Answer 16

Protestant religious sect that believed in nonviolence and service as religious expression.

Question 17

Halfway Covenant

Answer 17

Allowed some political rights for non-Puritans living in Puritan colonies

Question 18

New England Confederation

Answer 18

New England colonists formed the New England Confederation in 1643 as a defense against local Native American tribes and encroaching Dutch. The colonists formed the alliance without the English crown’s authorization.

Question 19

Charter of Liberties (1701)

Answer 19

A written constitution for Pennsylvania provided by William Penn. Guaranteed freedom of worship for all and unrestricted immigration.

Question 20

Mercantilism

Answer 20

An economic system where colonies provided goods to a mother country. It was in the interest of the mother country to expand its colonial possessions to gain more goods and in the interest of settlers who could seek their fortune in the colonies.

Question 21

Navigation Acts

Answer 21

Series of laws passed by England to regulate trade and enforce mercantilist taxes on the colonies in North America. These acts were rarely enforced and did not significantly impact the colonies.

Question 22

Triangle Trade

Answer 22

A series of triangular trade routes that carried British manufactured goods to Africa and the Colonies, Colonial products (like tobacco, indigo, sugar, and rice) to Europe, and Slaves from Africa to the New World. Northern Colonies participated in this trade too by shipping slaves south.

Question 23

Middle Passage

Answer 23

Voyages between West Africa and the Americas where millions of enslaved Africans were brought to the New World. A significant portion would die due to harsh conditions.

Question 24

Chattel slavery

Answer 24

Slaves would be bought, sold, and owned forever; basically treated as property

Question 25

Poor Richard’s Almanac

Answer 25

Benjamin Franklin’s yearly almanac, best selling

Question 26

Religious toleration

Answer 26

“the ability to appreciate spiritual values, beliefs, and practices which are different from your own.”

Question 27

The First Great Awakening

Answer 27

“was a series of Christian revivals that swept Britain and its thirteen North American colonies in the 1730s and 1740s”

Question 28

Jonathan Edwards

Answer 28

“Jonathan Edwards was an American revivalist preacher, philosopher, and Congregationalist theologian. A leading figure of the American Enlightenment,”

Question 29

George Whitfield

Answer 29

George Whitefield, arriving from England in 1739, spread the Great Awakening across the colonies with sermons emphasizing salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. He taught that ordinary people could understand the gospels without needing ministers.

Question 30

Cotton Mather

Answer 30

“Cotton Mather FRS was a Puritan clergyman and author in colonial New England, who wrote extensively on theological, historical, and scientific subjects”

Question 31

Hereditary aristocracy

Answer 31

a system where social status and privileges are inherited within certain families from generation to generation

Question 32

Enlightenment

Answer 32

Huge attraction/trend to literature and philosophy. Arguments spread influencing people to oppose governments if they disregard “human rights”.

Question 33

Limited democracy

Answer 33

“A limited democracy is a democratic system in which there are some things over which the people have no say.”

Question 34

Zenger Case

Answer 34

Peter Zenger, a New York publisher sued/tried for criticizing the royal governor. Speaking against anyone with political power was illegal but the judge still acquitted Zenger, encouraging freedom for newspapers to criticize the government.