Roots of American History

Question 1

Protestant Reformation

Answer 1

Martin Luther and his followers protested the Catholic teachings and split from the Catholic church

Question 2

Columbian Exchange

Answer 2

The trade or exchange of food, medicine, government, technology, arts and language between the Americas and Europe. Native Americans were introduced to domestic animals (chickens, horses, cattle) and food (bananas, oranges), but also were killed by diseases brought by Europeans (small pox, flu). Settlers soon joined the Native Americans in their lands.

Question 3

Northwest Passage - Purpose of

Answer 3

The purpose of The Northwest Passage was to find a shorter route through or around North America to Asia

Question 4

Lost Colony of Roanoke

Answer 4

English colony founded on an island off the coast of Virginia. The inhabitants disappeared and no one knows what happened to them.

Question 5

Jamestown colony

Answer 5

The first permanent English colony located in Virginia

Question 6

John Smith & Pocahontas

Answer 6

Captain John Smith was the leader of Jamestown whose stern rules helped save the colony. No work = no food.

Pocahontas was a daughter of a powerful Indian Chief, Powhatan. She married an English colonist, John Rolfe.

Question 7

Joint Stock Company

Answer 7

a company whose stock is jointly owned by the shareholders.

Question 8

John Rolfe & Significance of Tobacco to Jamestown

Answer 8

John Rolfe was a tobacco farmer and the husband of Pocahontas.

Jamestown was struggling economically until they were able to start selling tobacco in Europe. Tobacco helped save Jamestown.

Question 9

1619 - Slaves first come to Virginia

Answer 9

15 black men and 17 black women were living there

Question 10

House of Burgesses

Answer 10

A burgess is a Virginia representative elected by Virginia colonist

House of Burgess was the assembly where laws were made along with the governor and his council.

Question 11

Reasons Pilgrims Migrated to America

Answer 11

Wanted to practice their religion freely (religious freedom)

Escape religious persecution in Europe

Question 12

The Pilgrims at Plymouth

Answer 12

In November 1620, Pilgrims landed on the bleak shore of Cape Cod. When they landed, it was very cold and they were not prepared. They built homes out of sod and nearly starved to death. Almost 50% of the settlers died because of disease or starvation. In the Spring, the local Indians helped them.

Question 13

The Mayflower Compact

Answer 13

The Pilgrims were supposed to settle in Virginia which had a government. In Plymouth, there was no government or laws, so they had to create them. This was called the Mayflower Compact. It was a framework for governing their colony.

Question 14

Squanto and Samoset

Answer 14

Pilgrims met Samoset, a Pemaquid Indian, who along with Squanto, a Wampanoag Indian, taught them to grow crops and catch eel.

Question 15

Puritans & Massachusetts Bay Colony

Answer 15

In 1629, Puritans landed in Massachusetts Bay Colony. They left England because they thought the Church of England had many practices similar to the Catholic Church. They wanted to start a new society in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Question 16

The Paradox of Religious Freedom in Massachusetts

Answer 16

Massachusetts was settled because people wanted religious freedom. However, the Puritans did not want people to practice any religion but their own and they kicked people out. The Puritans did not want to give religious freedom to others.

Question 17

Opposition to Puritans (Hooker, Williams, Hutchinson)

Answer 17

Thomas Hooker left Massachusetts Bay Colony (MBC) and founded Connecticut

Roger Williams founded Rhode Island. Both wanted colonies that practiced religious tolerance.

Anne Hutchinson fled to Rhode Island after being tried for breaking Puritan laws. She did not agree with some of the sermons in church. She was ultimately forced to move to Rhode Island.

Question 18

Indian Resistance to New England Settlers

Answer 18

As more settlers came to New England, they started taking over more and more Indian lands. The Chief of the Wampanoag got mad and started torching villages. Other tribes joined in. The Chief was finally killed and his and his family along with a 1,000 other indians were sold into slavery.

Question 19

Emergence of the Middle Colonies (NY, NJ, PA, DE)

Answer 19

The Dutch settled New Netherland where New Amsterdam into a thriving port. The English attacked it and took it over. The colony was renamed New York as the King of England gave it to his brother, the Duke of York.

New York was too big to govern, so they split it into two pieces. The other piece was New Jersey.

William Penn, a friend of English King, founded Pennsylvania in 1681. Penn was a Quaker.

A portion of Pennsylvania did not want to send delegates to Philadelphia, so Penn allowed them to start their own colony, Delaware.

Question 20

Proprietary colonies

Answer 20

A colony the king gave to one or more people in return for a yearly payment (like rent). The owner of the colony could rent the land to other people and make laws for the people there. the owner still had to respect the rights of colonists under English law.

Question 21

Royal colony

Answer 21

A colony under the direct control of the English crown.

Question 22

The Pennsylvania Experiment

Answer 22

Penn = William Penn who shocked his friends and turned into a Quaker. He founded Pennsylvania.

Quakers were Protestant reformers who believed everyone (noble, poor, men, women) was equal in God’s eyes.

Tolerance = Penn was very tolerant of all people and thought they were all equal in God’s eyes. Protestants, Catholics, and Jews were all allowed to live in Pennsylvania.

Pacifism = Quakers spoke out against war and refused to serve in the army

Question 23

Cash Crops

Answer 23

Crops that are sold at a market for cash. Examples: wheat, barley, rye

Question 24

Emergence of the Southern Colonies (MD, VA, NC, SC, GA)

Answer 24

Colonies south of the Mason-Dixon line were considered southern colonies.

MD was set up initially for a place for Catholics

NC was settled by mostly poor tobacco farmers moving south from VA

SC was settled by 8 English nobles

GA was set up by James Oglethorpe so people who could not pay back their debts could start over.

By 1700, plantations in the Southern colonies had come to rely on slave labor.

The economy of the Southern colonies was based largely on agriculture

Slave codes treated enslaved Africans as property and not as humans

The belief that one race is superior to another is called racism

Question 25

The Middle Passage

Answer 25

In the 1700s, English sailors called the passage of slave ships from Africa to the colonies as the Middle Passage

Question 26

Significance of Triangular Trade

Answer 26

The Triangular Trade helped fund the slave trade.

New England would ship/sell livestock, lumber, etc. to the West Indies. In the West Indies, the colonists would buy sugar and molasses, which they turned into rum. They then shipped/sold the rum, guns, clothes, etc. to West Africa where they would use that money to buy slaves. They would ship the slaves from Africa to the West Indies and sell them to buy more sugar and molasses.

Question 27

Exports & Imports

Answer 27

Exports are goods sent to markets outside a country.

Imports are goods brought into a country (e.g., Toyota car)

Question 28

The Great Awakening

Answer 28

The Great Awakening was a religious movement that swept through the colonies in the 1730s and 1740s.

Preachers told people they should examine their lives and repent for their sins. People who supported the movement separated from their churches and started new ones. Many churches were created and forced colonists to be tolerant of many different religious.

This made people feel more independent and free to challenge authority. Ultimately, this feeling would help fuel the colonists willingness to challenge British authority.

Question 29

The Enlightenment

Answer 29

in the late 1600s and 1700s, European thinkers believed that reason and scientific methods could be applied to the study of society.

Benjamin Franklin is an example of the Enlightenment spirit. He wanted to improve the world around him. He created devices like a lightning rod, bifocal eyeglasses. He had Philadelphia create fire departments and pave streets.