Apush master vocab

Slave Resistance

Africans developed both overt and covert means to resist the dehumanizing aspects of slavery and maintain their families, cultures, and religious practices. For example, when South Carolinian planters tried to impose a gang system of labor (whereby slaves would be assigned to gangs who were forced to do continuous work throughout the day under the supervision of an overseer) the enslaved Africans resisted and forced the planters to compromise. The compromise was the task system, in which each slave had specific tasks that they must accomplish each day afterwhich they had the freedom to spend their time as they wished. This compromise resulted in slaves providing masters with the absolute minimum, but no more. Sometimes, slave initiated violent rebellions, the largest of which was the Stono Rebellion. This rebellion occurred in South Carolina in 1739 and resulted in twenty whites being killed and 7 plantations burned. Following the violence, the slaves marched south, hoping to reach Spanish Florida where they could take refuge. However, the Carolina militia captured and killed them before they could make their escape.

Religious Freedom in New England

Because the Puritans believed that the survival of their colony depended on the blessing and provision of God, they did not tolerate religious dissent. For them, the extent to which their venture was successful was directly dependent on how well they followed the Bible. They had no interest in religious toleration or pluralism - their goal in migrating had been to establish their own ideal and uniform society. Newspapers and printers were censored by Puritan authorities so that only orthodox ideas were circulated. Religious dissenters were prosecuted, tried, convicted, and exiled. One such dissenter was Roger Williams who argued that there should be greater separation between church and state and claimed in his tract A Plea for Religious Liberty that each person should have the freedom to determine what they believed based on their own conscience. For these beliefs, he was exiled to Rhode Island. Another dissenter was Anne Hutchinson. She claimed to have the gift of prophecy and led frequent prayer meetings in her home where she stressed that each person was responsible for cultivating a personal relationship with God rather than depending on doctrine handed down by ministers. She too was exiled to Rhode Island.

Reasons for exploration

1) God: Europeans possessed a missionary impulse to spread Christianity. In the wake of the Reformation, Catholics and Protestants competed for influence and control of colonies was one way to achieve this. In addition, numerous groups who experienced religious persecution in Europe fled to the Americas where they could have the freedom to practice their faith as they saw fit. Columbus initially hoped to reach the riches of Asia and then use the newfound wealth to fund an expedition to the Holy Land to oust the Muslims from Jerusalem and "retake" Palestine for Christians. 2) Gold: The desire to get rich drove monarchs to invest in colonial expansion and encouraged prospecting individuals to cross the Atlantic in search of wealth. The pursuit of riches sometimes took the form of extracting mineral wealth from American mines (gold, silver, etc.) but it also took the form of raising cash crops like sugar for export. Both of these enterprises required extensive labor and so both native Americans and Africans were enslaved by the Europeans 3) Glory: Fame and influence for European nations

The Dominion of New England

A formal reorganization of New England which occurred in 1678 by King James II who was sympathetic to Catholicism and despised Puritanism. Inspired by Spanish models of colonial control, the King disbanded the elected assemblies and placed power in the hands of a royal governor. All judges and officers were replaced with men selected by the crown and town meetings were restricted to once per year. The new levels of imperial oversight required higher levels of taxation than the New England colonists had ever experienced and resulted in a widespread outcry. The Dominion was disbanded in 1689 following the Glorious Revolution in England, the colonists rebelled and expelled Governor Andros.

The Enlightenment

A philosophical movement which began in Europe and celebrated rational inquiry, scientific research, and individual freedom. Rather than blindly accepting the beliefs of past generations or established authorities (such as the king, the church, or the Bible), Enlightenment philosophers questioned assumptions and attempted to understand the world through empirical analysis and logical inquiry. This emphasis placed on rational thought has led the Enlightenment to be called the "Age of Reason." One Enlightenment philosopher, John Locke, was of special interest to American leaders like Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. Locke argued that all humans are born with minds that are essentially equal (a "blank slate") and it is their experiences that shape them into unique beings. From this, comes the notion of natural rights to things like life, liberty, and property. In his "Two Treatises of Government," Locke applied his ideas to the operation of a state, and argued in favor of an idea known as a "social contract" - that the government is created by humans to protect their natural rights. If the government fails to protect these rights, then the people are justified in overthrowing it. These ideas will significantly influence the men who lead the American Revolution

Slavery in the Colonies

All the British colonies participated to varying degrees in the Atlantic slave trade due to the abundance of land and a growing European demand for colonial goods, as well as shortages of indentured servants. Slaves would be captured in African and would then be shipped across the Atlantic in what became known as the "middle passage" - the grueling journey from Africa to the Americas. Slavers would pack as many people as possible into the holds of the ship where they would be ill-fed, abused, and exposed to disease. Only 80% of the people who boarded the ships survived. Once in America, they would be sold. Small New England farms used relatively few enslaved laborers, all port cities held significant minorities of enslaved people, and the emerging plantation systems of the Chesapeake and the southern Atlantic coast had large numbers of enslaved workers, while the great majority of enslaved Africans were sent to the sugar colonies in the West Indies. As chattel slavery (the practice of owning human beings and their children as property) became the dominant labor system in many southern colonies, new laws created a strict racial system that prohibited interracial relationships and defined the descendants of African American mothers as black and enslaved in perpetuity.Instrumental in facilitating these legal changes were the cases of John Punch and Elizabeth Key. Punch was a Black indentured servant who sought to escape indenture along with 2 white runaways. When caught, the white runaways were sentenced to several more years of servitude whereas Punch was sentenced to a life of servitude, indicating disparate legal proceedings based on race. Several years later, Elizabeth Key sought freedom on the ground that her father was white and she was a Christian. Although the courts decided in her favor, lawmakers quickly moved to amend the laws - noting that enslavement passes through the mother's line and that baptism in to the Christian church does not alter a person's status as enslaved.

Metacom's War (King Phillip's War)

An uprising of Native Americans in New England against the Puritans which lasted from 1675-1676. It was led by a Wampanoag chief named Metacom (the Puritans called him King Philip) and resulted in the devastation of Puritan settlements. Because the natives had mastered the use of the flintlock rifle they had the same technological advantage as the colonists. The Puritans only managed to put defeat the natives with the help of their Iroquois allies and after adopting Indian military tactics of dispersion, stealth, and ambush. Eventually, Metacom's forces ran out of food and ammunition and their efforts collapsed.

Pueblo Revolt

An uprising of Pueblo Indians in New Mexico which occurred in 1680. It was led by a charismatic shaman named Popé and constituted the single greatest setback that natives ever inflicted on European expansion in North America. The rebels killed over 200 Spanish, reestablished native control over the entire province of New Mexico, and destroyed the missions and churches, destroyed the crosses and Christian images and restored their traditional holy places. They also stole thousands of horses from the Spanish and distributed them among their people which gave them a significant military boost. It took the Spanish 12 years to regain control and also encouraged imperial authorities to compromise with the Pueblo people. After this, encomiendas were abolished in New Spain and Pueblo religious ceremonies were allowed to coexist alongside Christian ritual

Bacon's Rebellion

An uprising that occurred in Virginia in 1676. Led by Nathaniel Bacon, the uprising was sparked when poor farmers on the frontier felt that the governor was doing little to protect them from Indian attack. They allied themselves with indentured servants and tenant farmers who were despairing of ever being able to possess their own land due to the dominance of the planter elite. Bacon and his rebels burned Jamestown to the ground. In retribution, Governor Berkeley hung 23 rebels. Though it collapsed, the rebellion initiated serious changed in Virginia. For example, the great planters in the House of Burgesses took steps to secure greater support among the lower classes by reducing taxes. This sparked a realignment in Virginian politics where the planters could now pose as the allies of the poor against a greedy monarchy. In addition, the planters shifted away from the use of white indentured servants and instead began to implement widespread chattal slavery where enslaved Africans were held as property for life.

Salutary Neglect

British colonial policy that relaxed supervision of internal colonial affairs which led to the rise of strong self-governing institutions in the Americas. This practice ended with the conclusion of the French-Indian War in 1763

Columbian Exchange

Colonization of the Americas initiated a vast exchange of food, plants, animals, parasites, diseases, and technology which impacted Europe, the Americas, and Africa. Diseases which travelled to the Americas onboard European ships decimated indigenous tribes. Meanwhile, American crops such as maize and potatoes travelled to Europe where they contributed to an explosive population boom (more calories = more people). While the Columbian Exchange was a disaster for the Native Americans, it provided Europeans with a double blessing: 1) An expanded food supply that permitted reproduction at an unprecedented rate and 2) Access to fertile and extensive new land that had been largely emptied of native peoples by the spread of disease. Taking advantage of this, the surplus population in Europe eventually flowed westward across the Atlantic to colonize the Americas.

Headright System

Desperate to attract colonists, the Virginia Company granted 50 acres of land to every man who was able to pay for passage across the Atlantic. These parcels of land were called headrights and allowed those wealthy enough to make the journey the opportunity to own property. Those with extensive wealth would often pay not just for their passage, but for the passage of numerous other individuals who became known as indentured servants who were expected to serve their master for 7 years in order to pay off the cost of their passage. For each servant whom a person was able to afford to bring to the New World, they obtained an addition 50 acres of land. Consequently, men of means were able to amass enormous estates worked by a large number of servants. This enabled them to cultivate large quantities of tobacco which was sold in England and enriched them further and laid the groundwork for a socio-economic system in Virginia where a small number of wealthy individuals controlled most of the land and held most of the political power

Jamestown

Established in 1607, Jamestown was the first permanent English settlement in North America. Financed by the Virginia Company, the venture was an attempt to make shareholders in the company rich through the extraction of precious metals (none of which actually exist in VA...they didn't do their research). Because the goal was to get rich, the company sent few men with agricultural knowledge or survival skills and instead dispatched prospectors and jewelers. Rather than cultivate corn, the first colonists preferred to search for treasure and this shortsightedness, combined with malaria epidemics caused by the mosquitos which inhabit the Virginia swamps resulted in the settlement becoming a death trap. The colonists died in droves in what became known as the "starving time" and in the first 15 years of existence, only 20% of the people transported to the colony survived. What saved the colony was the discovery by John Rolfe (who married Pocahontas) that the Virginia soil was ideal for raising tobacco, a product which was quickly in high demand in England. While this saved the Virginia Company, it sparked conflict with the natives because tobacco is a crop that depletes soil reserves quickly and so colonists began to push further and further west in an effort to expand their crops.

The Zenger Trial

In 1735, John Peter Zenger, a New York editor and publisher, was brought to trial on a charge of libelously criticizing New York's royal governor. Zenger's lawyer argued that Zenger had printed the truth and thus should not be convicted. According to English common law, injuring a governor's reputation was considered a criminal act, even if the accusations were true. However the jury was convinced by the lawyer's argument and voted to acquit Zenger (willfully choosing to ignore the law). While this case did not guarantee complete freedom of the press, it encouraged newspapers to take greater risks in criticizing the colonial government

Joint-Stock Company

Many of the initial English settlements in America including Jamestown and the Massachusetts Bay Colony were financed through joint-stock companies. These were companies made up of a group of shareholders. Each shareholder contributes some money to the company and receives some share of the company's profits and debts. As indicated by the title "company" the goal of these ventures was to make money through colonization and settlement. For example, shareholders in the Virginia Company which established Jamestown hoped that they would find deposits of gold

Massachusetts Bay Colony

Massachusetts Bay Colony was established in 1630 by English Puritans who believed that they had a divine mission to create a model society in America: a community built on Biblical principles and dedicated to proper worship of God. The Puritans believed that the English church was corrupt and they hoped to purify religious practice. For them, Massachusetts Bay Colony would serve as an example to those in England and would demonstrate how God would bless a community which adhered to his commandments. This notion was most famously articulated in John Winthrop's sermon A Modell of Christian Charity where he expressed the idea that New England would become a "City on a Hill" to which all the peoples of the world would look for an example of holy living and good governance. Massachusetts Bay quickly absorbed Plymouth, a colony which had been established in 1620 by Pilgrims. The Pilgrims are better known as separatists because they believed that the English church was in incurably corrupt and that they must separate entirely from it.

Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania was established by William Penn a wealthy Quaker who hoped that the colony would exist as a haven for those experiencing religious persecution. He insisted that Pennsylvania have no privileged church and no tax-supported clergy. His ideals reflected his Quaker background. Embracing highly egalitarian beliefs, the Quakers referred to themselves as the Friends of God and renounced all formal prayers, sermons, and religious ceremony in favor of community meetings where they joined together as equals. They believed that every person possessed an "Inner Light" which enabled them to understand the Bible and to experience sacred connection with God. They considered women spiritually equal to men and allowed women to serve as leaders in their churches and communities. Reflecting the Quaker commitment to viewing all human beings as equal, William Penn welcomed non-Quakers and non-English to Pennsylvania, promising them all equal rights and opportunities. Consequently, Pennsylvania became a diverse colony with settlements consisting of English, Germans, and Scots-Irish (Irish protestants)

Atlantic Seaboard Settlements

Prior to the arrival of the English coast of Virginia and the Carolinas was home to 30 distinct tribes who were united by their shared Algonquin language and the leadership of a powerful chief called Powhatan. He exercised political power through placing family members as heads of the various villages under his control. It was the responsibility of these chiefs to pay an annual tribute to Powhatan in the form of food, weapons, valuables, and other goods. Powhatan then used the tribute to sustain his religious leaders, support his wives, reward his warriors, and trade with outsiders. In exchange, he provided protection and unity to the villages within his domain. This is the group that the English will encounter when they establish Jamestown and it is fairly well documented that Pocahontas was Powhatan's daughter. North of the Algonquins lived the Wampanoags in what is present day New England. The Wampanoags were skilled hunters and fishers but they also practiced agriculture and cultivated corn, beans, and squash. These are the people who the Pilgrims will encounter when they arrive in Massachusetts Bay.

Spanish Exploration and Conquest

Spain focused its efforts predominantly on Mesoamerica and the Caribbean Sea. The Caribbean islands were ideal for the cultivation of the cash crop sugar and Mexico was home to extensive deposits of mineral wealth. The men who conquered Latin America were known as conquistadores, the most famous of which was Hernando Cortés who conquered the Aztec Empire. The conquistadores had the support of the Spanish Crown which laid claim over any lands that were conquered as well as 1/5th of any plunder. Conquered lands were divided into encomiendas: enormous estates held by a Spaniard where he was granted the right to extract tribute from all of the Indians living on the land in the form of produce or labor. Because most Spanish migrants were men, they often took wives from among the natives and rape was also a frequent occurrence. The children who were part Indian and part Spanish were known as mestizos and occupied a middling space in the Spanish social hierarchy. The increasing racial and cultural complexity challenged simple categories of "Spaniard" and "Indian" or "Christian" and "pagan." Instead, colonial authorities developed a complex ranking system known as the casta system where people were ranked from pure African and Indian at the bottom through multiple gradations of mixture to the pure Spaniard at the top. The higher castes enjoyed greater legal privileges at the expense of the lower. Despite extensive racial mixing, the indigenous peoples who survived disease and conquest were treated with brutality and often enslaved. Few people questioned this and many Spaniards justified such ferocity by claiming that the natives were sub-human. However, one priest, Bartolome de Las Casas became an outspoken advocate for the natives and in his writings exposed the horrendous treatment to which they were subjected. The writings of Las Casas were especially popular in Protestant England where the Black Legend was circulated which claimed that Spanish were especially diabolical and evil in their colonization of the Americas because they were Catholic. According to the Black Legend, the English had a responsibility to intervene and establish their own settlements in the Americas to defend the natives from Spanish brutality.

The Economy: Southern Colonies

The Chesapeake and North Carolina colonies grew prosperous exporting tobacco - a labor intensive product initially cultivated by white indentured servants, and later by enslaved Africans. The colonies of the southern Atlantic coast such as South Carolina and Georgia used long growing seasons to develop plantation economies based on exporting staple crops. The primary crops cultivated in the American south were rice and indigo. The cultivation of these cash crops depended on the labor of enslaved Africans, who often constituted the majority of the population in these areas (in South Carolina, by 1760, slaves constituted more than 60% of the population). The men who owned these plantations became the wealthiest and most prominent members of their communities. Most whites, however, were poor farmers who owned undesirable land in the backcountry or tenant farmers who rented a piece of land from a wealthier landlord

The First Great Awakening

The First Great Awakening was a religious revival that swept the American colonies in the mid-eighteenth century. The movement began in Europe, however it spread to the colonies with the arrival of itinerant [travelling] preachers such as George Whitefield. These travelling preachers led revivals throughout the colonies, emphasizing the emotional and highly personal process of conversion. To stimulate a strong emotional reaction in their audience, these ministers preached "soul-searching" sermons which were intended to shock their listeners into recognizing their impending and eternal sentence in hell while also depicting the eternal joy of salvation in heaven. These sermons primarily appealed to the emotions, especially fear and hope, rather than to reason. One master of the style, Jonathan Edwards, was especially famous for delivering a sermon titled "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" where he stressed the urgency of conversion to the true faith and the cultivation of a personal relationship with God. These preachers challenged traditional church models and thus became highly controversial. Puritan authorities refused to welcome the preachers of the Great Awakening into their churches and so many church members, drawn by the more emotional style, abandoned the Puritan establishment and joined the new Baptist and Methodist churches that were springing up which ultimately created greater religious diversity throughout the colonies. Eventually, hoping to demonstrate that their message was based on legitimate theological study, these new congregations established schools to prepare future preachers for the ministry. These schools included The College of New Jersey (Princeton), King's College (Columbia), and the College of Rhode Island (Brown). The fact that these preachers travelled throughout the colonies (in the North and the South) helped to nurture a sense among ALL colonists that they shared a special unique identity as Americans. Because a central message of the First Great Awakening was that all humans were equally sinful and thus equal participants in God's Kingdom, this movement encouraged people to view the poor and marginalized as sharing equal dignity - at least in spiritual matters. Finally, these revivals brought Protestant conversion, for the first time, to thousands of Indians and enslaved Africans.

The Economy: New England

The New England colonies developed around small towns with family farms and achieved a thriving mixed economy of agriculture and commerce. The industry that first made New England profitable was fishing and eventually whaling. The cod caught off the coast of New England was packed and shipped all over the world - primarily to the Caribbean and to Europe. The extensive trade networks developed by the fishing industry ultimately drew New England into the global market and the region ultimately became the most commercialized in the entire British empire. Seaport merchants packed and exported agricultural products, along with lumber and fish to the British West Indies. In exchange, the merchants acquired molasses, rum, and sugar, some of which was consumed in New England but much of which was exported to other markets in the colonies and in Europe. Due to this thriving trade, New England merchants became incredibly wealthy and occupied prominent positions in the community. New England shipbuilders exploited the abundant and cheap supplies of high-quality timber harvested from the dense forests of New Hampshire and Maine to produce ships at half the cost of London shipyards. By 1700, Boston ranked second only to London as a shipbuilding center in the empire.

Northwest Settlements

The Pacific Northwest coast was home to a wide array of elaborate native cultures who thrived in the mild and rainy climate. These people had the luck to live in a place with extensive natural resources such as timber, fish, sea otters, seals, and whales. Amply supported by fishing and marine hunting, they never had to develop formal agriculture and while they lived in permanent settlements characterized by their enormous lodge-like longhouses, they subsisted on a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. The abundant natural resources of the Pacific coast empowered these people to develop complex social hierarchies ranging from the chief and his family at the top to slaves at the bottom, elaborate religious ceremonies, and elaborate works of art which often took the form of enormous woodcarvings such as totem poles. Though densely populated, the peoples of the Northwest coast adopted distinct and specific tribal identities and languages such as the Tillamook, Salish, or Tlingit and often waged war against one another to capture slaves and luxury goods. These goods (and the fruits of a harvest) would be distributed by the village chief at periodic gatherings called potlatches where the chief bestowed lavish gifts on honored guests and warriors. Those who could distribute the best gifts achieved the highest prestige and influence in the community.

Mercantilism

The belief that the government had every right to shape the economy to serve its needs in the competition for dominance in Europe. European monarchs assumed that they were constantly engaged in an economic war with other nations and insisted that colonies existed to enrich the mother country. Adhering to this belief, England began passing Navigation Acts in the 1650s which were intended to control colonial trade and ensure that colonial merchants were primarily serving the interests of England and not aiding Spain or France in the quest for wealth and economic dominance. The Navigation Acts required that only English ships were permitted into colonial ports. They also identified certain enumerated goods which could only be shipped to England and nowhere else - these products included tobacco and sugar which were the products most likely to enrich colonial merchants. Finally, all European goods travelling to the colonies had to pass through an English port where they paid customs duties. These acts stimulated the explosive growth of English shipping, expansion of the British navy, and turned colonial ports into bastions of shipbuilding.

Midwestern/Mississippi Valley Tribes

The indigenous groups who settled in the Midwest benefitted from the humid, temperate climate and abundant water available from the Mississippi, Ohio, Cumberland, Missouri, Tennessee, and Arkansas rivers. The broad floodplains of the Mississippi valley in particular were ideal for agriculture and the natives found that they could cultivate extensive crops of maize, beans, squash, and even sunflowers without needing to construct irrigation works. As the peoples of the Mississippi Valley adopted an agricultural way of life they developed permanent settlements. The largest, wealthiest, and most complex of these settlements was the city of Cahokia located in present day Illinois. Some historians estimate that the city held up to 40,000 people and it was without a doubt the greatest Indian community north of Mexico. The city boasted ball courts, religious centers, and an enormous pyramid in the center which supposedly housed the chief and his family and servants. We also assume that the chief served as the head priest in the community. Around the 12th century, Cahokia began to decline in population and power and was eventually abandoned. Overpopulation, and the destruction of local forests caused wild animals to flee and an over-reliance on the cultivation of maize reduced the fertility of the soil. The environmental strains produced a severe crisis including hunger, disease, and rebellion against political leaders.

Southwest Tribes

The indigenous peoples who settled in the American Southwest (west Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, eastern California, Nevada, parts of Utah) responded to the arid climate by building complex irrigation systems which were used to water their fields. They primarily subsisted off of maize (corn) as well as squash and beans. They supplemented their diet with meat from animals which they hunted and consequently are best defined as having a "mixed" lifestyle which incorporated elements of hunter-gatherer cultures with those of more settled communities. One of the primary reasons these groups were sedentary was because their livelihood depended so heavily on their massive irrigation projects - projects which would be impossible if they embraced a more nomadic way of life. In times of crisis (disease, famine, natural disaster, war) the people would abandon their settled communities and break into nomadic, travelling bands. Such was true of the Anasazi people who eventually fled to the east in the late 13th century following a period of tremendous violence. When they fled to the east, they brought maize with them into the Mississippi River Valley. When the Spanish arrived, they began to collectively refer to the Southwest tribes as the "Pueblo People" (Pueblo roughly translates to "town") due to the town-like communities these groups settled in and since then, the name has been used to describe the people of the SW.

Colonial Government

The large distance between the Americas and Britain enabled the colonies to develop self-governing institutions which were unusually democratic for the era. Before arriving landing in Plymouth, the Pilgrims committed themselves to establishing a representative government in a document called the Mayflower Compact. Subsequently, New England colonies based power in participatory town meetings, which in turn elected members to their colonial legislatures. In New England, almost all farmers enjoyed complete ownership of their land and thus almost all men had the right to vote. Voting rights were limited however by gender and church membership. New England had an established church (supported by taxes) and men who were not part of the Puritan church were not permitted to vote. In the southern colonies, elite planters exercised local authority and also dominated the elected assemblies. For example, the elected assembly in Virginia was the House of Burgesses whose members were elected by the free landholding men of the colony. Members of the House of Burgesses tended to come from the planter elite and they had the primary lawmaking power in Virginia. They could also advise the royal governor who was appointed by the king.

The Economy: The Middle Colonies

The middle colonies supported a flourishing export economy based on cereal crops and attracted a broad range of European migrants, leading to societies with greater cultural, ethnic, and religious diversity and tolerance. Cities on waterways and harbors such as Philadelphia and New York emerged as leading financial centers and Philadelphia's merchant community became the wealthiest in the colonies. Some historians speculate that the Quakers' reputation for honesty and trustworthiness drew investment and offered them an advantage when searching for business partners, allowing markets in Pennsylvania to grow and thrive. Pennsylvania possessed incredibly fertile soil and a longer growing season than New England lend to the cultivation of abundant crops, primarily wheat, which ultimately became the colony's most valuable export. These crops were mostly grown by family farms worked by free laborers, which resulted in a relatively egalitarian distribution of wealth

Northeastern Settlements

The native peoples of the Northeast consisted of two dominant language groups: Iroquois-speaking peoples and Algonquin-speaking peoples. Each of these groups was then divided into numerous individual clans, villages, and tribes. Both groups embraced a settled way of live and developed large, permanent villages. Both also practiced a mixed economy in which hunting and gathering supplemented highly productive agriculture. Iroquois culture in particular was known to be especially violent. Warfare was central to their way of life and chiefs would often dispatch their warriors against a rival village. The Iroquois were known to participate in "mourning wars" where in order to replace members of their family or village who had been lost in battle, they would attack a rival community and kidnap men, women, and children. The Iroquois were matriarchal and so following capture the captives would be distributed to the female heads of household. These women would then determine whether to adopt the captive into her family or have them executed. The women were also responsible for selecting chieftains, advising political leaders, controlling the distribution of goods and property, and determining when and if their settlement would go to war. This feuding and warfare escalated throughout the 15th century. However, in response to the arrival of the French and their fur-trading alliance with the Algonquins and the Hurons, the Iroquois decided to form the Great League of Peace. It consisted of five Iroquois-speaking groups (the Mohawk, Oneida, Cayuga, Onondaga, and Seneca) thus they are also often referred to as the Five Nations. No longer in conflict with one another, they identified the French and their native allies as their primary enemies...consequently when the English arrive they seek an alliance with them.

European Migrants to British North America

The presence of different European religious and ethnic groups contributed to a significant degree of pluralism and intellectual exchange. For example, Pennsylvania attracted a significant number of Lutherans from Germany who settled in close-knit farming communities. These migrants became known as the "Pennsylvania Dutch" - not because they were actually Dutch, but because "Deutsch" the word for German, sounds like "Dutch." While few Catholics from Ireland migrated to the colonies, significant numbers of Protestants from Ireland moved to the Americas and settled in the Appalachian Mountains and the White Mountains. These migrants were called the Scots-Irish. The dominant migrant group, however, were the English who came in increasingly high numbers. Consequently, the British colonies experienced a gradual Anglicization (becoming more English in culture) over time, developing autonomous political communities like the House of Burgesses and colonial assemblies which were based on English models. Wealthy colonists attempted to model themselves after the English gentry by purchasing luxury goods made in Europe and the emergence of a trans-Atlantic print culture + the spread of Protestant evangelism such as the First Great Awakening served to provide shared cultural practices throughout the colonies and in England. Very few migrants arrived from France because the French government had outlawed emigration.

Animism

The primary belief system held by the native peoples of North America. Animism purports that supernatural power was woven into every part of the natural world. All living things belonged to this web of spiritual power including plants, animals, rocks, wind, clouds, bodies of water, and humans. While native peoples used natural resources their guiding principle was reciprocity and restraint. In other words, people had the right to kill an animal, but they must pay ritual honor to that creature and minimize waste. Their commitment to restraint and responsibility derived largely from their sense of the natural world as volatile and full of tension. For them, the world was rife with danger and uncertainty and doing something wrong or upsetting the inherent balance of the natural world could cause disaster in the form of earthquakes, storms, floods, famine, drought, or disease. Specific religious ceremonies and practices varied from tribe to tribe, but often groups would have a class of priests who led religious ceremonies or a shaman (holy man) who served to provide spiritual guidance, conduct important rituals to protect the tribe, provide healing, and interpret visions and dreams.

Great Plains Tribes

The vast, arid, and windy grasslands of the American Great Plains are most hospitable to large herds of grazing animals such as pronghorn antelope and most importantly buffalo (or bison). The tribes of the Great Plains came to depend heavily on bison for their livelihood and were known for using every part of the animal so that none would go to waste. When they learned how to cultivate maize they developed semi-settled communities in which they lived in earth lodges (trees and timber were rare commodities) and cultivated fields of squash, corn, and beans. As the caretakers of the homes and fields, women were considered the owners of the lodges and crops and family identity was pass from mother to child. Thus, we can consider these tribes matriarchal. The men were more mobile, and they would venture on long hunts twice a year to track the buffalo and bring meat home. While on these hunts, they would dwell in tipis. The arrival of European colonizers, and the consequent adoption of the horse was the development that turned the tribes of the Great Plains into migratory hunter-gatherer societies. The most dominant cultural-linguistic group among these peoples were the Lakota Sioux who cultivated a fearsome reputation for their warlike habits, especially after obtaining guns from French trappers.

Protestant Reformation

Until 1517, the Catholic Church had been the primary religious body in Europe and provided unity to all who considered themselves Christians. However, in 1517, Martin Luther initiated a reform movement which became known as the Protestant Reformation. He challenged what he saw as the decadence and corruption of the Catholic church, especially the practice that people could purchase forgiveness from priests. His ideas were highly democratic for the period because he emphasized the importance that each person cultivate an individual relationship with God and study the Bible for themselves. He rejected the idea that spiritual wisdom had to be passed from pope to priests to people and instead argued that all people had the capacity to know God as father and friend. John Calvin was inspired by Luther's criticism. His teachings stressed the notion that all humans are inherently sinful and that nothing they could ever do would earn God's salvation. Salvation was not a reward for good behavior, rather it was something that God chose to give to certain selected individuals. The notion that salvation is given to a certain, predetermined group of people rather than earned through good behavior is known as predestination as was a belief held by the Puritans and Pilgrims who settled New England. Despite the idea that good behavior can't get you a ticket into heaven, Calvin still heavily stressed the importance of holy living and a strict moral code

Social Structure of the Colonies

While far more equitable than Europe, the American colonies still had a specific socio-economic hierarchy. Those at the top of the pyramid were wealthy landowners who possessed most political and economic power. Because the colonies thrived on trade, merchants managed to rise to prominent positions as well. This was particularly true in the port cities of New England. Small independent farmers and artisans/craftsmen were known as the "middling sorts." These were individuals who possessed their own property and were fairly successful but never achieved fabulous wealth or occupied prestigious political positions. Tenant farmers and landless laborers occupied the lowest rung among freemen because they possessed no property. At the very bottom were slaves. It is important to note that the specifics of this system varied from region to region. For example, in New England, most men owned property whereas the south was dominated by large landowners who rented their land out to tenant farmers. While this structure can appear like a rigid class system, the borders were far more permeable than in Europe and people found that birth did not determine the rank that you would eventually occupy. In America, people had the opportunity to move up the ranks, which set it apart from Europe and resulted in a culture that was uniquely democratic for the era.