Unit 1 - Key Terms & People

Question 1

Headright System

Answer 1

A system by which individuals (usually landowners) would receive a certain amount of land for each person that they brought into the colony.

Question 2

House of Burgesses

Answer 2

The lower house of the colonial Virginia government. Established in 1619, it was the first legislature in the New World made up of representatives elected by eligible voters.

Question 3

John Smith

Answer 3

A swashbuckling soldier of fortune with rare powers of leadership and self-promotion who was appointed to the resident council to manage Jamestown.

Question 4

Puritans

Answer 4

An English religious group that sought to purify the Church of England; founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony under John Winthrop in 1630.

Question 5

Pilgrims

Answer 5

Puritan separatists who broke completely with the Church of England and sailed to the New World aboard the Mayflower, founding Plymouth Colony on Cape Cod in 1620.

Question 6

Mayflower Compact

Answer 6

Document signed in 1620 aboard the Mayflower before the pilgrims landed at Plymouth; the document committed the group to majority-rule government.

Question 7

John Winthrop

Answer 7

Puritan leader and governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony who resolved the use of the colony as a refuge for persecuted Puritans and as an instrument of building a “wilderness Zion” in America.

Question 8

Dissenters

Answer 8

Protestants who belonged to denominations outside of the Anglican Church.

Question 9

Pequot War

Answer 9

An armed conflict in 1637 that led to the destruction of one of New England’s most powerful Native American groups.

Question 10

Roger Williams

Answer 10

New England’s most prominent advocate for religious toleration.

Question 11

Anne Hutchinson

Answer 11

A midwife and the daughter of a clergyman, Anne Hutchinson began holding religious meetings in her home in Massachusetts in 1634. She attracted followers who believed that most ministers were not adhering strictly enough to Puritan theology. She was placed on trial in 1637 for sedition.

Question 12

Mercantilism

Answer 12

Policy of Great Britain and other imperial powers of regulating the economies of colonies to benefit the mother country.

Question 13

Navigation Act

Answer 13

Law passed by English Parliament to control colonial trade and support the mercantile system, 1650-1775; enforcement of the act led to resentment from the colonists.

Question 14

Quakers

Answer 14

Religious group in England and America whose members believed all persons possessed the “inner light” or spirit of God; they were early proponents of abolition of slavery and equal rights for women.

Question 15

William Penn

Answer 15

Envisioned Pennsylvania as a place where those facing religious persecution in Europe could enjoy spiritual freedom, and colonists and Native Americans could live in harmony.

Question 16

Plantation

Answer 16

An early word for a colony, a settlement “planted” from abroad among an alien population in Ireland or the New World. Later, a large agricultural enterprise that used unfree labor to produce a crop for the world market.

Question 17

Bacon’s Rebellion

Answer 17

Unsuccessful 1676 revolt led by a planter Nathanial Bacon against Virginia governor William Berkely’s administration because of governmental corruption and because Berkely had failed to protect settlers from Native American raids and did not allow for them to occupy Native American lands.

Question 18

Nathaniel Bacon

Answer 18

A wealthy and ambitious planter who had arrived in Virginia in 1637, opposed governor William Berkely. Bacon called for the removal of all Native Americans from the colony, a reduction of taxes at a time of economic recession, and an end to rule by “grandees.” His supporters included wealthy men. Others included small farmers, landless men, indentured servants, and even some African Americans. Most of his army consisted of unhappy men who had recently been servants.

Question 19

The Atlantic Slave Trade

Answer 19

They systematic importation of African slaves from their native continent across the Atlantic Ocean to the New World, largely fueled by by rising demand for sugar, rice, coffee, and tobacco.

Question 20

Middle Passage

Answer 20

The hellish and often deathly middle of the transatlantic “Triangular Trade” in which European ships carried manufactured goods to Africa, then transferred enslaved Africans to the Americas and the Caribbean, and finally conveyed American agricultural products back to Europe, from the last sixteenth to early nineteenth centuries, some 12 million Africans were transported via the Middle Passage, unknown millions more dying en route.

Question 21

The Great Awakening

Answer 21

Fervent religious revival movements in the 1720s through the 1740s that was spread throughout the colonies by ministers like New England Congregationalist Jonathan Edwards and English revivalist George Whitefield.

Question 22

Salutary Neglect

Answer 22

An English policy of relaxing the enforcement of regulations in its colonies in return for the colonies’ continued economic loyalty.

Question 23

Enlightenment

Answer 23

An intellectual movement in Europe during the 18th century. People who believed in the Enlightenment argued that life could be improved, and that using reason was the best way to promote progress.

Question 24

Jonathan Edwards

Answer 24

One of the most prominent preachers of the Great Awakening. His preaching style was extremely emotional. He claimed that the only way to be saved from your sins was to acknowledge them and plead for divine grace. He was also a congregationalist who beleived that each singular parish or church should be independent from a head authority.

Question 25

George Whitefield

Answer 25

Declared “the whole world his parish” sparked the Great Awakening. He also had an extremely emotional style of preaching, but he claimed everyone could be saved from their sins by repenting.

Question 26

Ben Franklin

Answer 26

Befriended George Whitefield. In the year 1743, Franklin encouraged inquiry by founding the American Philosophical Society. Represented Pennsylvania at the Albany Conference and called to unite the colonies during the French and Indian War. (Rejected by the colonies.)