U2 1607 - 1754: Contact and Settlement

Flashcard deck · A.P. U.S. History · 1607 - 1754 - Contact and Settlement · History

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Flashcards on Jamestown, Bacon's Rebellion, the Columbian Exchange, encomienda, indentured servitude, Puritans, and British, French, and Dutch colonial settlements.

Terms in this deck

American Indians: Indigenous peoples of North America whose lands, societies, and resources were profoundly disrupted by European colonization, contact, trade, and conflict.
Atlantic Slave Trade: The forced transportation of millions of Africans across the Atlantic to work as enslaved laborers in European colonies in the Americas.
Atlantic World: The interconnected region of Europe, Africa, and the Americas linked by trade, migration, slavery, and cultural exchange from the 15th through 18th centuries.
Bacon's Rebellion: A 1676 armed uprising in Virginia led by Nathaniel Bacon against Governor Berkeley, reflecting tensions between elite planters and poor white colonists and former servants.
British colonization: English colonial efforts attracted large numbers of male and female migrants seeking economic prosperity, religious freedom, and social mobility, settling on Native land.
cash crops: Agricultural products like tobacco, rice, and indigo grown primarily for export and sale rather than local consumption, driving colonial economies.
cereal crops: Grain crops such as wheat and corn grown for export in the middle colonies, forming the basis of their thriving agricultural economy.
Chesapeake colonies: The tobacco-producing colonies of Virginia and Maryland, relying first on indentured servants then enslaved Africans, with elite planters dominating local government.
city upon a hill: John Winthrop's vision of Massachusetts Bay Colony as a model Christian society watched by the world, expressing Puritan covenant theology and mission.
colonial assemblies: Elected legislative bodies in British colonies that made local laws and controlled colonial finances, developing habits of representative government.
Columbian Exchange: The transfer of plants, animals, diseases, and ideas between the Americas, Europe, and Africa following 1492, reshaping global societies.
competition for resources: Rivalry among European powers and between Europeans and Native Americans over land, furs, and trade, leading to conflict across colonial North America.
covenant theology: Puritan belief that God made a special agreement with His chosen people; shaped New England's religious, political, and social institutions.
cultural autonomy: The ability of enslaved Africans to maintain and develop their own cultural, religious, and social practices despite enslavement.
cultural exchange: The sharing and blending of cultural practices, languages, and beliefs between Europeans, Native Americans, and Africans in colonial settings.
Dutch colonization: Dutch colonial efforts, like French ones, relied on trade alliances and intermarriage with Native peoples, focusing on fur trade rather than large settler populations.
encomienda: A Spanish colonial labor system granting colonists authority over Native peoples, requiring their labor and obligating colonists to provide protection and Christian conversion.
French colonization: French colonial efforts relied on relatively few settlers, using trade alliances and intermarriage with American Indians to acquire furs for export to Europe.
fur trade: The commercial exchange of animal pelts between European colonists and Native Americans, central to French and Dutch colonial economies and diplomatic relationships.
Genízaros: Detribalized Native people in Spanish colonial New Mexico, often enslaved, who were absorbed into Spanish colonial society and served as domestic servants or soldiers.
Great Peace of Montreal: A 1701 treaty between New France and about 1,300 Indigenous participants that ended decades of warfare and established peace among Native and French parties.
headright system: A land-grant policy in Virginia giving 50 acres to colonists for each person whose passage to the colony they paid, encouraging migration and expanding the indentured servant system.
Huguenots: French Protestant Calvinist refugees who fled France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 and settled in English colonies, adding to middle-colony diversity.
imperial rivalry: Competition among European empires—Spain, France, England, and the Dutch—over territory, trade, and power in North America.
indentured servitude: A labor system where poor workers received passage to the colonies in exchange for several years of unpaid labor, especially common in early Chesapeake tobacco agriculture.
Jamestown: The first permanent English settlement in North America, founded in 1607 in Virginia, struggling with disease and conflict before becoming profitable through tobacco.
Massachusetts Bay Colony: A Puritan settlement founded in 1630 in New England, governed by John Winthrop, intended as a model Christian community and "city on a hill."
mercantilism: An economic theory in which colonies exist to provide raw materials and markets for the mother country, shaping British colonial trade policy.
middle colonies: Colonies including Pennsylvania and New York with diverse European immigrant populations, cereal-crop export economies, and greater religious and ethnic tolerance.
Navigation Acts: British laws requiring colonial trade to be conducted on English ships and routed through England, enforcing mercantilist economic control over the colonies.
New England colonies: Colonies initially settled by Puritans, organized around small towns and family farms, with a mixed economy and participatory town meetings granting unusual democratic self-governance.
New France: The French colonial territory in North America, stretching from Canada through the Mississippi Valley, centered on the fur trade and alliances with Native peoples.
New Netherland: The Dutch colonial territory centered on the Hudson River, including present-day New York, focused on the fur trade and managed by patroons.
Patroons: Dutch landholders with manorial rights who were empowered by the Dutch West India Company to transport and manage settlers in New Netherland.
Penn, William: Quaker founder of Pennsylvania who promoted religious tolerance and liberty of conscience, making the colony a haven for diverse European migrants.
plantation economy: An agricultural system based on large-scale cash crop production using enslaved labor, dominant in the southern colonies and British West Indies.
Pocahontas: Powhatan's daughter whose encounter with John Smith became legendary; she later married colonist John Rolfe and traveled to England.
Powhatan: Leader of the powerful Powhatan Confederacy in Virginia whose people had complex and often conflicted relationships with English settlers at Jamestown.
Puritans: English Protestants who sought to purify the Church of England; many migrated to New England seeking religious freedom and to establish a godly community.
Quakers: Members of the Religious Society of Friends who settled in Pennsylvania, promoting liberty of conscience and peaceful relations with Native Americans.
religious diversity: The presence of multiple religious groups—Puritans, Quakers, Huguenots, Catholics—in the colonies, especially prominent in the middle colonies.
repartimiento: A Spanish colonial labor system requiring Native communities to provide rotational workers for Spanish projects such as mining and agriculture.
rice cultivation: The growing of rice as a plantation crop in the low-country South Carolina region, relying heavily on the specialized knowledge and labor of enslaved Africans.
ring shout: A devotional dance combining West African and European Christian elements, practiced by enslaved people in the Caribbean and North America as a form of cultural autonomy.
salutary neglect: Britain's unofficial policy of loosely enforcing trade laws and allowing colonies to manage their own affairs, enabling the growth of self-governing institutions and economic independence.
self-governance: The colonies' development of their own governing institutions, such as colonial assemblies and town meetings, due to distance from Britain and lax oversight.
slavery: A system of forced, unpaid labor in which enslaved people were treated as property, forming the economic foundation of southern and Caribbean colonies.
Smith, John: English explorer and leader of Jamestown who wrote about early Virginia settlement, including his account of Powhatan and the founding of the colony.
southern colonies: Atlantic coastal colonies using long growing seasons to develop plantation economies dependent on enslaved African labor, who formed the majority of the population.
Spanish colonization: Spain's colonial system focused on extracting wealth, subjugating Native peoples, converting them to Christianity, and incorporating Africans into colonial society.
task system: A labor system used in low-country rice cultivation allowing enslaved people to complete assigned work at their own pace, giving them more control over their time.
tobacco: A cash crop central to the Chesapeake economy, initially cultivated by indentured servants and later by enslaved Africans, driving the region's labor demands.
town meetings: A form of direct participatory democracy used in New England colonies where colonists gathered to vote on local laws and governance.
transatlantic trade: Commercial exchange of goods, people, and ideas across the Atlantic Ocean connecting Europe, Africa, and the Americas, strengthening ties between colonies and Britain.
Winthrop, John: Puritan leader and first governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony who described New England as a "city upon a hill" and a covenant community with God.

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