US History Exam 1
The Prosecution of Witches
Witchcraft was widely believed in and punishable by execution. Most accused were women.
Act Concerning Religion (or Maryland Toleration Act)
1649 law that granted free exercise of religion to all Christian denominations in colonial Maryland. (page 82)
The Settling of America
1. "Indians" settled the New World between 15,000 and 60,000 years ago, before the glaciers melted and submerged the land bridge between Asia and North America.
Half-Way Covenant
A 1662 religious compromise that allowed baptism and partial church membership to colonial New Englanders whose parents were not among the Puritan elect. (page 78)
English Toleration Act
A 1690 act of Parliament that allowed all English Protestants to worship freely. (page 104)
Bartolomé de Las Casas
A Catholic missionary who renounced the Spanish practice of coercively converting Indians and advocated their better treatment. In 1552, he wrote A Brief Relation of the Destruction of the Indies, which described the Spanish's cruel treatment of the Indians. (page 29)
Neolin
A Native American religious prophet who, by preaching pan-Indian unity and rejection of European technology and commerce, helped inspire Pontiac's Rebellion. (page 159)
Middle Ground
A borderland between European empires and Indian sovereignty where various native peoples and Europeans lived side by side in relative harmony. (page 156)
Borderlands and Empire in Early America
A borderland is a "meeting place of peoples where geographical and cultural borders are not clearly defined." Boundaries between empires, and between colonists and native peoples, constantly shifted. a. In some areas, the Indians were weakened. b. At the edges, European power was unstable and no set pattern of cultural interactions emerged. Indians often wielded power and pitted Europeans against each other.
Resistance to Slavery
A common thread among African-Americans was the experience of slavery and desire for freedom. a. Many plantation slaves in South Carolina and Georgia ran away to Florida or to cities. The first eighteenth-century slave uprising occurred in New York City in 1712. Uprisings also occurred in French Louisiana and on various Caribbean islands.
Glorious Revolution
A coup in 1688 engineered by a small group of aristocrats that led to William of Orange taking the British throne in place of James II. (page 102)
Salem witch trials
A crisis of trials and executions in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692 that resulted from anxiety over witchcraft. (page 106)
Albany Plan of Union
A failed 1754 proposal by the seven northern colonies in anticipation of the French and Indian War, urging the unification of the colonies under one crown-appointed president. (page 164)
Caravel
A fifteenth-century European ship capable of long-distance travel. (page 18)
Virginia Company
A joint-stock enterprise that King James I chartered in 1606. The company was to spread Christianity in the New World as well as find ways to make a profit in it. (page 49)
Headright System
A land-grant policy that promised fifty acres to any colonist who could afford passage to Virginia, as well as fifty more for any accompanying servants. The headright policy was eventually expanded to include any colonists—and was also adopted in other colonies. (page 59)
Enclosure Movement
A legal process that divided large farm fields in England that were previously collectively owned by groups of peasants into smaller, individually owned plots. The enclosure movement took place over several centuries, and resulted in eviction for many peasants. (page 52)
Spreading the Faith
A missionary element existed from the Church's long holy war against Islam and was renewed with the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century. National glory and religious mission went hand in hand, with the primary aim of the Spaniards being to transform the Indians into obedient Catholic subjects of the crown. Not only diseases contributed to massive deaths but also brutal conditions of forced labor. a. Many Spanish colonialists saw no contradiction between serving God and enriching themselves. b. The souls to be saved could also be a labor force in the gold and silver mines.
King Philip's War
A multiyear conflict that began in 1675 with an Indian uprising against white colonists. Its end result was broadened freedoms for white New Englanders and the dispossession of the region's Indians. (page 87)
Borderland
A place between or near recognized borders where no group of people has complete political control or cultural dominance. (page 44)
English Bill of Rights
A series of laws enacted in 1689 that inscribed the rights of Englishmen into law and enumerated parliamentary powers such as taxation. (page 103)
Atlantic Trade
A series of triangular trade routes crisscrossed the Atlantic. Colonial merchants profited from the slave trade, even in areas where slavery was a minor institution. Slavery became connected with the color black and liberty with the color white.
Stono Rebellion
A slave uprising in 1739 in South Carolina that led to a severe tightening of the slave code and the temporary imposition of a prohibitive tax on imported slaves. (page 139)
John Smith
A swashbuckling soldier of fortune with rare powers of leadership and self-promotion who was appointed to the resident council to manage Jamestown. (page 58)
Spanish North America
A vast territorial empire on paper, Spanish North America (in what would become the future United States) actually consisted of a few small and isolated urban clusters. In the second half of the nineteenth century, Spain tried to reinvigorate its empire north of the Rio Grande. a. Spain wanted stable relations with nomadic groups—Comanche and Apache. b. Spanish reformers influenced by the Enlightenment debated on whether Indians could be integrated into society. c. Spain's small amount of soldiers made it difficult to control this northern territory. d. Ranches in New Mexico had expanded, but still depended on trade with the Indians and Indian labor. Despite establishing religious missions and presidios, the Spanish population in Spain's North American empire remained relatively small and sparse.
The Social Crisis
A worsening economy and the enclosure movement led to an increase in the number of poor and to a social crisis. Unruly poor were encouraged to leave England for the New World.
Roger Williams
A young minister, Williams preached that any citizen ought to be free to practice whatever form of religion he chose. Williams believed that it was essential to separate church and state.
Intro to Ch. 3
A. In 1675, King Philip and his forces attacked nearly forty-five New England towns. B. The settlers counterattacked in 1676, breaking the Indians' power once and for all.
Captivity Narratives
Accounts written by colonists after their time in Indian captivity, often stressing the captive's religious convictions. (page 73)
Portugal and West Africa
Africa was a wealthy continent, and the search for African gold drove the early explorers. The Portuguese established trading posts, "factories," along the western coast of Africa. Portugal began colonizing Atlantic islands and established sugar plantations worked by slaves.
English Liberty
After the English Civil War, there emerged a more general definition of freedom grounded in the common rights of all individuals within the English realm: a. A belief in freedom as the common heritage of all Englishmen b. A belief that England was the world's guardian of liberty
Covenant Chain
Alliance formed in the 1670s between the English and the Iroquois nations. (page 90)
Poverty in the Colonies
Although poverty was not as widespread in the colonies as it was in England, many colonists had to work as tenants or wage laborers because access to land diminished. Taking the colonies as a whole, half of the wealth at mid-century was concentrated in the hands of the richest 10 percent of the population. The better-off in society tended to view the poor as lazy and responsible for their own plight. a. Communities had policies to ward off undesirables.
Slavery in History
Although slavery has a long history, slavery in North America was markedly different. Slavery developed slowly in the New World because slaves were expensive and their death rate was high in the seventeenth century. Slavery came to be associated with race, drawing a permanent line between whites and blacks.
The American Enlightenment
Americans sought to apply to political and social life the scientific method of careful investigation based on research and experiment. One inspiration for the Enlightenment was a reaction against the bloody religious wars that wracked Europe in the seventeenth century. Belief in Deism (the notion that because God set up natural laws to govern the universe, following the act of creation, God did not intervene in the world) embodied the spirit of the American Enlightenment. a. Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson were among a small influential group of Deists.
Lords of Trade
An English regulatory board established to oversee colonial affairs in 1675. (page 103)
Pontiac's Rebellion
An Indian attack on British forts and settlements after France ceded to the British its territory east of the Mississippi River, as part of the Treaty of Paris in 1763, without consulting France's Indian allies. (page 159)
Great League of Peace
An alliance of the Iroquois tribes, originally formed sometime between 1450 and 1600, that used their combined strength to pressure Europeans to work with them in the fur trade and to wage war across what is today eastern North America. (page 12)
Pequot War
An armed conflict in 1637 that led to the destruction of one of New England's most powerful Indian groups. (page 76)
Plantation
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. (page 95)
Walking Purchase
An infamous 1737 purchase of Indian land in which Pennsylvanian colonists tricked the Lenni Lanape Indians. The Lanape agreed to cede land equivalent to the distance a man could walk in thirty-six hours, but the colonists marked out an area using a team of runners. (page 111)
Spreading Protestantism
Anti-Catholicism had become deeply ingrained in English popular culture. A Discourse concerning Western Planting argued that settlement would strike a blow at England's most powerful Catholic enemy: Spain. National glory, profit, and a missionary zeal motivated the English crown to settle America with the goal of rivaling Spain and France.
North America at Mid-Century
As compared to Europe, colonies were diverse, prosperous, and offered many liberties.
The Maryland Experiment
As in Virginia, tobacco came to dominate the economy and tobacco planters the society. Maryland was established in 1632 as a proprietary colony under Cecilius Calvert. Calvert imagined Maryland as a feudal domain.
Englishmen and Indians
As many more settlers went to the Chesapeake and New England than New Mexico, Florida, and New France combined, the English were chiefly interested in displacing the Indians and settling on their land. The English did emphasize converting Indians like the Spanish and French did. Most colonial authorities in practice recognized the Indians' title to land based on occupancy. The seventeenth century was marked by recurrent warfare between colonists and Indians. a. Wars gave the English a heightened sense of superiority.
Changes in the Land
As the English sought to reshape Indian society and culture, their practices only undermined traditional Indian society. Settlers fenced in more land and introduced more crops and livestock, transforming the natural environment.
The Pequot War
As the white population grew, conflict with the Indians became unavoidable, and the turning point came when a fur trader was killed by Pequots. Colonists warred against the Pequots in 1637, massacring 500 at the Indian village of Mystic and exterminating the tribe or selling it into slavery. Removal of the Pequot opened the Connecticut River Valley to rapid white settlement.
The End of the Rebellion, and Its Consequences
Bacon promised freedom (including access to Indian lands) to all who joined his ranks. The rebellion's aftermath left Virginia's planter elite to consolidate their power and improve their image.
Rhode Island and Connecticut
Banished from Massachusetts in 1636, Williams established Rhode Island. Rhode Island was a beacon of religious freedom and democratic government. Other spin-offs from Massachusetts included New Haven and Hartford, which joined to become the colony of Connecticut in 1662.
Las Casas's Complaint
Bartolomé de Las Casas wrote about the injustices of Spanish rule toward the Indians. Las Casas insisted that Indians were rational beings and Spain had no grounds to deprive them of their land or liberty. He believed that "the entire human race is one," but favored African slavery.
The Voyages of Columbus
Both commercial trade and religious conversions motivated Columbus. Christopher Columbus, an Italian, got financial support from King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. In the same year, 1492, the king and queen completed the reconquista, ordering all Muslims and Jews to convert to Catholicism or leave the country.
Mound Builders of the Mississippi Valley
Built approximately 3,500 years ago along the Mississippi River in modern-day Louisiana, a community known today as Poverty Point was a trading center for the Mississippi and Ohio River Valleys. Near present-day St. Louis, the city known as Cahokia, which flourished with a population of 10,000 to 30,000 around 1200 CE, featured large human-built mounds.
Slavery in the West Indies
By 1600, huge sugar plantations worked by slaves from Africa were well established in Brazil and the West Indies. Prior to 1600, Indians and white indentured servants had done the labor; by the first few decades of the sixteenth century, disease had killed off the Indians and white indentured servants were no longer willing to do the backbreaking work required on sugar plantations. Sugar was the first New World crop to be mass marketed to Europe. In contrast to Brazil and the West Indies, slavery developed slowly in North America. a. Cost b. High death rate
The Rights of Englishmen
By 1600, the idea that certain rights of Englishmen applied to all within the kingdom had developed alongside the traditional definition of liberties. This tradition rested on the Magna Carta, which was signed by King John in 1215. a. It identified a series of liberties that barons found to be the most beneficial. The Magna Carta over time came to embody the idea of English freedom: a. Habeas corpus b. The right to face one's accuser c. Trial by jury
The Half-Way Covenant
By 1650, many Massachusetts residents, children of the Great Migration generation, had been baptized as infants but could not prove they had undergone the conversion experience necessary for full church membership. The question arose: Could the children of this second generation be baptized? In 1662, the Half-Way Covenant answered with a compromise that allowed the grandchildren of the Great Migration generation to be baptized and to be granted a kind of halfway membership in the church. As church membership stagnated, ministers castigated the people for various sins.
A Slave Society
By the end of the seventeenth century, a number of factors had made slave labor very attractive to English settlers; slavery began to supplant indentured servitude between 1680 and 1700. By the early eighteenth century, Virginia had transformed from a society with slaves to a slave society. a. In 1705, the House of Burgesses enacted strict slave codes.
Religion in Maryland
Calvert envisioned Maryland as a refuge for persecuted Catholics. Most appointed officials were initially Catholic, but Protestants always outnumbered Catholics in the colony. Although it had a high death rate, Maryland offered servants greater opportunity for land ownership than Virginia.
The Founding of Carolina
Carolina was established as a barrier to Spanish expansion north of Florida. Carolina was an offshoot of Barbados and, as such, a slave colony from the start, yet agriculture was not initially central to the economy. Early settlers sought Carolina-area Indians as allies and encouraged them to attack and capture Florida Indians as slaves. From 1670 until 1720, Carolina engaged in a slave trade that sold captured Indians to other mainland colonies and to the West Indies. The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina envisioned a feudal society, but it was not established as such. The colonial government did allow for religious toleration, an elected assembly, and a generous headright system. The economy grew slowly until planters discovered rice, which would make them the wealthiest elite in English North America.
The British Constitution
Central to this sense of British identity was the concept of liberty. British liberty was simultaneously a collection of specific rights, a national characteristic, and a state of mind. Britons believed that no man was above the law, not even the king. Britons saw other European nations, especially Catholic ones, as being "enslaved."
Settling New Netherland
Cheap livestock and free land after six years of labor were promised in an attempt to attract settlers. A plan was adopted to offer large estates to patroons, shareholders who agreed to transport tenants for agricultural labor.
Métis
Children of marriages between Indian women and French traders and officials. (page 39)
Chinese and Portuguese Navigation
Chinese admiral Zheng He led seven naval expeditions into the Indian Ocean between 1405 and 1433, even exploring East Africa on the sixth voyage. Caravel, compass, and quadrant made travel along the African coast possible for the Portuguese in the early fifteenth century.
Anglicization
Colonial elites began to think of themselves as more and more English. Desperate to follow an aristocratic lifestyle, many planters fell into debt.
Puritans and Indians
Colonial leaders had differing opinions about the English right to claim Indian land. To New England's leaders, the Indians represented both savagery and temptation. a. The Connecticut General Court set a penalty for anyone who chose to live with the Indians. b. The Puritans made no real attempt to convert the Indians in the first two decades.
Columbus in the New World
Columbus landed on Hispaniola in 1492, and colonization began the next year. Nicolas de Ovando established a permanent base in Hispaniola in 1502. Amerigo Vespucci sailed along the coast of South America between 1498 and 1502, and the New World came to be called America.
Political Cultures
Considerable power was held by those with appointive, not elective, offices. Property qualifications for office holding were far higher than for voting. Deference—the notion among ordinary people that wealth, education, and social prominence carried a right to public office— limited choices in elections. In New England, most town leaders were the biggest property holders.
Dominion of New England
Consolidation into a single colony of the New England colonies—and later New York and New Jersey—by royal governor Edmund Andros in 1686; dominion reverted to individual colonial governments three years later. (page 103)
British Patriotism
Despite the centrality of slavery to its empire, eighteenth-century Great Britain prided itself on being the world's most advanced and freest nation. Most Britons shared a common law, a common language, a common devotion to Protestantism, and a common enemy in France. Britons believed that wealth, religion, and freedom went together.
Mayflower Compact
Document signed in 1620 aboard the Mayflower before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth; the document committed the group to majority-rule government. (page 66)
Colonial Government
During the first half of the eighteenth century the colonies were largely left to govern themselves, as British governments adopted a policy of "salutary neglect." The colonial elected assemblies used their control of finance to exercise great influence over governors and other appointed officials.
Religious Diversity
Eighteenth-century British America was not a "melting pot," as ethnic groups lived and worshipped in homogeneous communities. Eighteenth-century British America was very diverse, a host to many religions. Most colonies did not adhere to separation of church and state. a. Taxes were levied to pay for ministers. b. Catholics and Jews could not vote or hold office in most colonies. c. Jews, however, were able to escape the rigid religious restrictions of German-speaking parts of Europe. Other liberties also attracted settlers: a. Availability of land b. Lack of a military draft c. Absence of restraints on economic opportunity
The Rise of the Assemblies
Elected assemblies became more assertive in colonial politics during the eighteenth century. The most powerful assembly was in Pennsylvania, followed by those in Massachusetts, New York, Virginia, and South Carolina. Battles took place between assemblies and governors over land policy. Leaders of the assemblies found, in the writings of the English Country Party, a theory that made sense of their own experience.
The Mercantilist System
England attempted to regulate its economy to ensure wealth and national power. a. Commerce, not territorial plunder, was the foundation of the English empire. b. Mercantilism was the theory that the government should regulate economic activity to promote national power. The Navigation Acts required colonial products to be transported in English ships and sold at English ports. a. These acts stimulated New England's shipbuilding industry.
England and Ireland
England's methods to subdue Ireland in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries established patterns that would be repeated in America.
Unifying the English Nation
England's stability in the sixteenth century was undermined by religious conflicts.
Roanoke colony
English expedition of 117 settlers, including Virginia Dare, the first English child born in the New World; the colony disappeared from Roanoke Island in the Outer Banks sometime between 1587 and 1590. (page 51)
Puritans
English religious group that sought to purify the Church of England; founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony under John Winthrop in 1630. (page 64)
Deism
Enlightenment thought applied to religion; emphasized reason, morality, and natural law. (page 149)
Christian Liberty
Europeans believed that to embrace Christ was to provide freedom from sin. "Christian liberty" had no connection to later ideas of religious tolerance.
Freedom and Authority
Europeans claimed that obedience to law was another definition of freedom; law was liberty's salvation. Under English law, women held very few rights and were submissive to their husbands.
Indian Freedom
Europeans concluded that the notion of freedom was alien to Indian societies. Europeans concluded that Indians were barbaric because they were too free. European understanding of freedom was based on ideas of personal independence and the ownership of private property—ideas foreign to Indians.
European Views of the Indians
Europeans felt that Indians lacked genuine religion. Europeans claimed that Indians did not "use" the land and thus had no claim to it. Europeans viewed Indian men as weak and Indian women as mistreated.
The Colonial Elite
Expanding trade created the emergence of a powerful upper class of merchants. In the Chesapeake and Lower South, planters accumulated enormous wealth. America had no titled aristocracy or established social ranks. By 1770, nearly all upper-class Virginians had inherited their wealth.
Great Awakening
Fervent religious revival movement 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. (page 149)
Spanish Florida
Florida, the first present-day U.S. continental area colonized by Spain, had forts as early as the 1560s to protect Spanish treasure fleets from pirates. a. St. Augustine was colonized in 1565. b. In 1566, the Spanish traveled far north to establish Santa Elena in present-day South Carolina. Spanish missionaries sought to convert Indians, without much success. As late as 1763, Spanish Florida had only 4,000 inhabitants of European descent.
The French Empire
France was Britain's biggest rival in Europe and North America. The French empire in the early eighteenth century expanded. Much smaller in population, the French tended to view North America as a place of cruel exile for criminals and social outcasts.
Freedom of Expression and Its Limits
Freedom of speech was a relatively new idea. Freedom of the press was generally viewed as dangerous. After 1695, the government could not censor print material, and colonial newspapers defended freedom of the press as a central component of liberty. Elected assemblies, not governors, discouraged freedom of the press. a. Routinely, publishers were forced to apologize for negative comments about assembly members. b. Colonial newspapers defended freedom of the press as a central component of liberty.
Notions of Freedom
From the start of American slavery, blacks ran away and desired freedom. Settlers were well aware that the desire for freedom could ignite the slaves to rebel.
The Georgia Experiment
Georgia was established by a group of philanthropists led by James Oglethorpe in 1733. Oglethorpe had banned liquor and slaves, but the settlers demanded their right of self-government and repealed the bans by the early 1750s. In 1751, Georgia became a royal colony.
The German Migration
Germans, 110,000 in all, formed the largest group of newcomers from the European continent. Germans tended to travel in entire families. Their migration greatly enhanced the ethnic and religious diversity of Britain's colonies.
Colonists in Spanish America
Gold and silver mining was the primary economy in Spanish America. a. Mines were worked by Indians. b. Many Spaniards came to the New World for easier social mobility.
The Consumer Revolution
Great Britain eclipsed the Dutch in the eighteenth century as a leader in trade. a. Colonial products like coffee and tea b. Manufactured goods such as linen, metalware, pins, ribbons, glassware, ceramics, and clothing Eighteenth-century colonial society enjoyed a multitude of consumer goods from England and Asia.
Western Indians
Hopi and Zuni ancestors settled around present-day Arizona and New Mexico, built large planned towns with multiple-family dwellings, and traded with peoples as far away as Mississippi and central Mexico. Indians in the Pacific Northwest lived primarily by fishing and gathering, whereas on the Great Plains, the Indians hunted buffalo or lived in agricultural communities.
The Trials of Anne Hutchinson
Hutchinson was a well-educated, articulate woman who charged that nearly all the ministers in Massachusetts were guilty of faulty preaching. Puritans in Massachusetts found the idea of religious pluralism troubling, and Hutchinson was placed on trial in 1637 for sedition. a. Authorities charged her with Antinomianism (putting one's own judgment or faith above human law and church teachings). b. On trial, she spoke of divine revelations. c. She and her followers were banished; she died in what is now New York. As seen with Williams and Hutchinson, Puritan New England was a place of religious intolerance.
Black Legend
Idea that the Spanish New World empire was more oppressive toward the Indians than other European empires; was used as a justification for English imperial expansion. (page 30)
Staple crops
Important cash crops; for example, cotton or tobacco. (page 118)
Spain in the Southwest
In 1598, Juan de Oñate led settlers into present-day New Mexico. Oñate destroyed Acoma, a centuries-old Indian city, in response to an attack.
The Dutch Empire
In 1609, Henry Hudson sailed into New York Harbor and claimed the area for the Netherlands. Dutch traders established Fort Orange (near modern Albany) in 1614, and the Dutch West India Company settled colonists on Manhattan Island in 1626. The Netherlands dominated international commerce in the early seventeenth century.
The Glorious Revolution in America
In 1675, England established the Lords of Trade to oversee colonial affairs, but the colonies were not interested in obeying London. To create wealth, between 1686 and 1685 James II created a "super-colony," the Dominion of New England. a. The new colony threatened liberties.
The Pueblo Revolt
In 1680, Pueblo Indians, led by Popé, rebelled against the Spanish colonists in present-day New Mexico for forcing the Indians to convert to Christianity.
The Salem Witch Trials
In 1691, several girls suffered fits and nightmares, which were attributed to witchcraft. Three women, including a Caribbean slave named Tituba, were named as witches. Accusations snowballed; ultimately, fourteen women and six men were executed before the governor halted all prosecutions. Increase Mather published Cases of Conscience concerning Evil Spirits, which advised people not to take accusations of witchcraft seriously.
Changes in New England
In New England, Plymouth was absorbed into Massachusetts, and the political structure of Massachusetts was transformed. a. Land ownership, not church membership, was required to vote. b. A governor was appointed in London rather than elected. c. The colony had to abide by the Toleration Act, which increased the power of some non-Puritan merchants and landowners. d. These events, along with French and Indian raids, created tension in Massachusetts.
Backcountry
In colonial America, the area stretching from central Pennsylvania southward through the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and into upland North and South Carolina. (page 114)
Dower Rights
In colonial America, the right of a widowed woman to inherit one-third of her deceased husband's property. (page 62)
African-American Cultures
In the Chesapeake, slaves learned English, participated in the Great Awakening, and were exposed to white culture. In South Carolina and Georgia, two very different black societies emerged: a. Communities on rice plantations retained significant African cultural elements (e.g., housing styles, child naming practices, and language). b. Had little contact with whites c. Enjoyed much more autonomy when compared to slaves from other economies d. Slaves in the cities of Charleston and Savannah assimilated more quickly into Euro-American culture. In the northern colonies a distinctive African-American culture developed more slowly, and African-Americans enjoyed more access to the mainstream of life.
A Diverse Population
In the eighteenth century, African and non-English European arrivals skyrocketed. As England's economy improved, large-scale migration was draining labor from the mother country. a. Efforts began to stop emigration.
The Seven Years' War
In the first half of the eighteenth century, wars against Spain and France set the stage for England becoming the dominant power in Europe. The war began in 1754 as the British tried to dislodge the French from western Pennsylvania. The war went against the British until 1757, when William Pitt became British Secretary of State and turned the tide of battle. In 1759, the British gained control of pivotal Forts Duquesne, Ticonderoga, and Louisbourg and key St. Lawrence River settlement Quebec.
Exploring North America
In what would become the future United States, Spain established the first permanent colony on the island of Puerto Rico (1508). a. Juan Ponce de León, the leader of the colony, found gold. b. Most other later European settlements did not have gold. Large Spanish expeditions traveled through Florida, the Gulf of Mexico region, and the Southwest (1520s-1540s). These expeditions, particularly Hernando de Soto's, brutalized Indians and spread deadly diseases.
Redemptioners
Indentured families or persons who received passage to the New World in exchange for a promise to work off their debt in America. (page 109)
Indian Life in Transition
Indian communities were well integrated into the British imperial system. Traders, British officials, and farmers all viewed Indians differently. The Walking Purchase of 1737 used deceit to gain more land from the Pennsylvania Indians.
Colonists and Indians
Indian inhabitants always outnumbered European colonists and their descendants in Spanish America. a. Penisulares were people of European birth. Spanish America evolved into a hybrid culture—part Indian, part Spanish, and, in places, part African. a. Mestizos were persons of mixed Indian and Spanish origin.
Indians of Eastern North America
Indian tribes living in the eastern part of North America sustained themselves with a diet of corn, squash, and beans and supplemented it by fishing and hunting. Native Americans believed sacred spirits could be found in living and inanimate things such as animals, plants, trees, water, and wind. This idea is known as animism. Tribes frequently warred with one another; however, there were also many loose alliances. Indians saw themselves as one group among many; the sheer diversity seen by the Europeans upon their arrival was remarkable.
The Middle Ground
Indians were constantly being pushed from their homes into a "middle ground" between European empires and Indian sovereignty. The Indians of the Ohio River Valley saw the rivalry of Britain and France as a threat and an opportunity. The area was known more by rumor than observation, and con temporary maps bore little resemblance to the actual geography. a. The government of Virginia gave an immense land grant in 1749 to the Ohio Company. b. The French increased their presence in the Ohio Valley, eventually leading to the French and Indian War.
Salutary Neglect
Informal British policy during the first half of the eighteenth century that allowed the American colonies considerable freedom to pursue their economic and political interests in exchange for colonial obedience. (page 145)
The Rise of Chesapeake Slavery
It was not until the 1660s that the laws of Virginia and Maryland explicitly referred to slavery. A Virginia law of 1662 provided that in the case of a child born to one free parent and one slave parent, the status of the offspring followed that of the mother. In 1667, the Virginia House of Burgesses decreed that conversion to Christianity did not release a slave from bondage. By 1680, the black population was small, but notions of racial difference were well entrenched in law. No mixed-race class existed, as the law treated everyone with African ancestry as black.
Leisler's Rebellion
Jacob Leisler, a Calvinist, took control of New York. New York was divided along ethnic and economic lines. Leisler was hanged, and New York politics remained polarized for years afterward.
England's Debate over Freedom
John Milton called for freedom of speech and freedom of the press in the 1640s. The Levellers called for an even greater expansion of liberty, moving away from a definition based on social class. The Diggers was another political group attempting to give freedom an economic underpinning through the common ownership of land.
Land and Liberty
Land was the basis of liberty, including voting rights in most colonies. Colonies were started as huge land grants to a company or proprietor. Land was also a source of wealth and power for colonial officials.
Hacienda
Large-scale farm in the Spanish New World empire worked by Indian laborers. (page 25)
Reforming the Empire
Las Casas's writings encouraged the 1542 New Laws, which forbade the enslavement of Indians. The Spanish established domination through education and medical care and religion. The Black Legend was an image, put forth in part by Las Casas, that Spain was a uniquely brutal and exploitive colonizer.
Navigation Act
Law passed by the English Parliament to control colonial trade and bolster the mercantile system, 1650-1775; enforcement of the act led to growing resentment by colonists. (page 88)
Liberal Freedom
Liberalism was strongly influenced by the philosopher John Locke. Lockean ideas included individual rights, the consent of the governed, and the right of rebellion against unjust or oppressive government. Locke's ideas excluded many from freedom's full benefits in the eighteenth century, but they opened the door for many to challenge the limitations on their own freedom later.
Liberty and Liberties
Liberty came from knowing one's place in a hierarchical society and fulfilling duties appropriate to one's rank. Numerous modern civil liberties (such as freedom of worship and of the press) did not exist.
Transformation of Indian Life
Like other colonial empires, the English used Indians as guides, trading partners, and allies in wars. English goods were eagerly integrated into Indian life. Over time, those European goods changed Indian farming, hunting, and cooking practices. a. Exchanges with Europeans stimulated warfare between Indian tribes.
Attracting Settlers
London believed colonial development bolstered the nation's power and wealth. a. Fifty thousand convicts were sent to the Chesapeake to work in the tobacco fields. One hundred forty-five thousand Scottish and Scotch-Irish immigrants came to North America.
Moral Liberty
Many Puritans immigrated to the New World in hopes of establishing a Bible Commonwealth that would eventually influence England. They came to America in search of liberty and the right to worship and govern themselves. Puritans were governed by a "moral liberty," "a liberty to that only which is good," which was compatible with severe restraints on speech, religion, and personal behavior.
The Middle Ranks
Many in the nonplantation South owned some land. By the eighteenth century, colonial farm families viewed land ownership almost as a right: the social precondition of freedom.
Government and Society in Massachusetts
Massachusetts was organized into self-governing towns. a. Each town had a Congregational Church and a school. b. To train an educated ministry, Harvard College was established in 1636. The freemen of Massachusetts elected their governor. Church government was decentralized. a. Full church membership was required to vote in colony-wide elections. b. Church and colonial government were intricately linked.
Aztec
Mesoamerican people who were conquered by the Spanish under Hernan Cortes, 1519-1528. (page 8)
Serra, Father Jun'pero
Missionary who began and directed the California mission system in the 1770s and 1780s. Serra presided over the conversion of many Indians to Christianity, but also engaged them in forced labor. (page 154)
The Civil War and English America
Most New Englanders sided with Parliament in the Civil War. Ironically, Puritan leaders were uncomfortable with the religious toleration for Protestants gaining favor in England, as it was Parliament that granted Williams his charter for Rhode Island. A number of Hutchinson's followers became Quakers; four were hanged in Massachusetts.
The New England Economy
Most migrants were textile craftsmen and farmers. Fishing and timber were exported, but the economy centered on family farms.
Freedom in New Netherland
New Netherland was a military post. It was not governed democratically, but the citizens possessed rights. Slaves had "half-freedom" in that they were given land to support their families. Women had more rights and independence in New Netherland than in other European colonies; they could go to court, borrow money, and own property.
The Dutch and Religious Toleration
New Netherland was a remarkably diverse colony; eighteen different languages were spoken in New Amsterdam. The Dutch were more tolerant in religious matters than other European countries, but they still had an official religion, the Dutch Reformed Church. Governor Petrus Stuyvesant denied open practice of other religious faiths. No one in New Netherland was forced to attend the Dutch Reformed Church or executed for different religious beliefs.
The Charter of Liberties
New York colonists demanded more liberties, especially the right to consent for taxation. The English of New York got an elected assembly, which drafted a Charter of Liberties and Privileges in 1683.
From Company to Society
New policies were adopted in 1618 so that the colony could survive. a. Headright system b. A charter of grants and liberties provided an elected assembly (House of Burgesses), which first met in 1619. The first blacks arrived in 1619, the first hint of slavery in the colony.
Exploration and Conquest
News could now travel quickly, especially with the invention of Johann Gutenberg's movable-type printing press in the early 1400s. John Cabot had traveled to Newfoundland in 1497, and soon many Europeans were exploring the New World. Vasco Núñez de Balboa trekked across Panama and was the first European to see the Pacific Ocean. Ferdinand Magellan led an expedition to sail around the world. Two Spanish conquistadores, Hernán Cortés and Francisco Pizarro, led devastating expeditions against the Aztec and Inca civilizations, respectively, in the early 1500s.
The Maryland Uprising
News in America of the Glorious Revolution in England resulted in a reestablishment of former colonial governments. Lord Baltimore was overthrown in Maryland.
The Trial of Zenger
Newspaper publisher John Peter Zenger went on trial in 1735 for seditious libel, due to criticism of New York's governor. a. He was found not guilty. b. The outcome promoted the idea that publishing the truth should always be permitted and demonstrated that free expression was becoming ingrained in the popular imagination.
Indian Societies of the Americas
North and South American societies built roads, trade networks, and irrigation systems. Societies from Mexico and areas south were grander in scale and organization than those north of Mexico. a. Indians north of Mexico lacked literacy, wheeled vehicles, metal tools, and scientific knowledge necessary for long-distance navigation.
Cromwell and the Empire
Oliver Cromwell, who ruled England from 1649 until his death in 1658, pursued an aggressive policy of colonial expansion, promotion of Protestantism, and commercial empowerment in the British Isles and the Western Hemisphere. The next century was a time of crisis and consolidation.
The Uprising of 1622
Once the English decided on a permanent colony instead of merely a trading post, conflict was inevitable. a. Opechancanough, brother of Powhatan, led an attack on Virginia's settlers in 1622. The English forced the Indians to recognize their subordination to the government at Jamestown and moved them onto reservations. The Virginia Company surrendered its charter to the crown in 1624.
Liberalism
Originally, political philosophy that emphasized the protection of liberty by limiting the power of government to interfere with the natural rights of citizens; in the twentieth century, belief in an activist government promoting greater social and economic equality. (page 142)
The Right to Vote
Owner ship of property was a common qualifier for voting in the colonies. Suffrage was much more common in the colonies than in Britain. Colonial politics was hardly democratic in a modern sense. a. Suffrage was almost universally limited to males. b. In some colonies Jews, Catholics, Baptists, and Quakers could not vote. c. During the eighteenth century, most blacks— even those with property— lost the franchise. d. Native Americans were generally prohibited from voting.
Great Migration (1630s)
The migration of approximately 21,000 English Puritans to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. (page 67)
Land in Pennsylvania
Penn established an assembly elected by male taxpayers and "freemen," which meant that a majority of the male population could vote. He owned all of the colony's land and sold it to settlers at low prices rather than granting it outright. Pennsylvania prospered under Penn's policies, as it attracted settlers from several European countries. As Pennsylvania grew, the benevolent Indian policy would start to change.
The Holy Experiment
Pennsylvania was the last seventeenth-century colony to be established and was given to proprietor William Penn. A Quaker, Penn envisioned a colony of peaceful harmony between colonists and Indians and a haven for spiritual freedom.
The Merchant Elite
Per capita wealth was more equally distributed in New England than in the Chesapeake. A powerful merchant class rose up, assuming a growing role based on trade within the British empire. Some clashed with the church and left to establish a new town, Portsmouth, in New Hampshire.
Creoles
Persons born in the New World of European ancestry. (page 25)
The Pilgrims at Plymouth
Pilgrims sailed in 1620 to Cape Cod aboard the Mayflower. a. Before going ashore, the adult men signed the Mayflower Compact, the first written frame of government in what is now the United States. b. Pilgrims settled first in an abandoned Indian village, as many tribes had been decimated by European diseases introduced by traders. Squanto provided much valuable help to the Pilgrims, and the first Thanksgiving in America was celebrated in 1621.
Mercantilism
Policy of Great Britain and other imperial powers of regulating the economies of colonies to benefit the mother country. (page 88)
Republicanism
Political theory in eighteenth-century England and America that celebrated active participation in public life by economically independent citizens as central to freedom. (page 141)
Powhatan and Pocahontas
Powhatan, the leader of thirty tribes near Jamestown, eagerly traded with the English. English-Indian relations were mostly peaceful early on. a. Smith tried to maintain the peace, but his return to England in 1610 brought tension and sporadic conflict between the two groups. b. After Pocahontas was captured by the English, she married John Rolfe in 1614, symbolizing Anglo-Indian harmony.
Dissenters
Protestants who belonged to denominations outside of the established Anglican Church. (page 71)
John Winthrop
Puritan leader and governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony who resolved to use the colony as a refuge for persecuted Puritans and as an instrument of building a "wilderness Zion" in America. (page 65)
Pilgrims
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. (page 66)
The Rise of Puritanism
Puritanism emerged from the Protestant Reformation in England. a. Puritans believed that the Church of England retained too many elements of Catholicism. Puritans considered religious belief a complex and demanding matter, urging believers to seek the truth by reading the Bible and listening to sermons. a. Puritans followed the teachings of John Calvin. b. God predetermined who was saved and damned.
Church and State in Puritan Massachusetts
Puritans defined liberties by social rank, producing a rigid hierarchal society justified by God's will. The Body of Liberties affirmed the rights of free speech and assembly and equal protection for all. Although ministers were forbidden to hold office in Massachusetts, church and state were closely interconnected. Puritans, like other faiths, believed that religious uniformity was essential to social order. a. Puritans were not tolerant of other religions. b. Puritans wanted to complete the Reformation and spread these ideas back to England.
The Puritan Family
Puritans reproduced the family structure of England with men as the head of the household. Women were allowed full church membership and divorce was legal, but a woman was expected to obey her husband fully. Puritans believed that a woman achieved genuine freedom by fulfilling her prescribed social role and embracing subjection to her husband's authority. New England had a higher birth rate than the Chesapeake region, so much time was spent bearing and rearing children.
Quaker Liberty
Quakers believed that liberty was a universal entitlement. a. Liberty extended to women, blacks, and Indians. Religious freedom was a fundamental principle. a. Quakers upheld a strict moral code.
Native American Religion
Religious ceremonies were often directly related to farming and hunting. Those who were believed to hold special spiritual powers held positions of respect and authority. Indian religion did not pose a sharp distinction between the natural and the supernatural.
Society of Friends (Quakers)
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. (page 93)
Republican Liberty
Republicanism celebrated active participation in public life by economically independent citizens. Republicanism held virtue—meaning a willingness to subordinate self- interest to the public good—to be crucial in public life. Republicanism in Britain was associated with the Country Party, which criticized the established political order. a. Cato's Letters, imbued with republican ideas, were widely read by the American colonists.
Yamasee uprising
Revolt of Yamasee and Creek Indians, aggravated by rising debts and slave traders' raids, against Carolina settlers. Resulted in the expulsion of many Indians to Florida. (page 92)
Proclamation of (1763)
Royal directive issued after the French and Indian War prohibiting settlement, surveys, and land grants west of the Appalachian Mountains; caused considerable resentment among colonists hoping to move west. (page 161)
The Spanish in California
Russia, who established forts in Alaska, also moved southward into California, creating a clash of empires. a. Spain responded with the "Sacred Experiment" to prevent occupation of California by foreigners. b. Native American resistance along the overland routes led to Spain focusing on missions instead of forts. Junípero Serra founded the first mission in San Diego in 1769. a. Heavy death toll of Native Americans existed due to forced labor and disease.
The Jamestown Colony
Settlement and survival were questionable in the colony's early history because of high death rates, frequent changes in leadership, inadequate supplies from England, and placing gold before farming. By 1616, about 80 percent of the immigrants who had arrived in the first decade were dead. John Smith's tough leadership held the early colony together.
Indentured Servants
Settlers who signed on for a temporary period of servitude to a master in exchange for passage to the New World; Virginia and Pennsylvania were largely peopled in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by English and German indentured servants. (page 35)
Slavery in The North
Since the economies of New England and the Middle Colonies were based on small farms, slavery was far less important. Given that slaves were few and posed little threat to the white majority, laws were less harsh than in the South. Slaves did represent a sizable percentage of urban laborers, particularly in New York and Philadelphia.
Freedom and Slavery in Africa
Slavery was already one form of labor in Africa before the Europeans came. Europeans traded textiles and guns for African slaves; this greatly disrupted African society. By the time Vasco da Gama sailed to India in 1498, Portugal had established a vast trading empire.
Yeoman Farmers
Small landowners (the majority of white families in the Old South) who farmed their own land and usually did not own slaves. (page 138)
The Rice Kingdom
South Carolinian and Georgian slavery rested on rice. Rice and indigo required large-scale cultivation (which was done by slaves). Under the task system, individual slaves did daily jobs, the completion of which allowed time for leisure or cultivation of their own crops. By 1770, the number of South Carolina slaves had reached 75,000— well over half the colony's population.
Governing Spanish America
Spain established a stable government modeled after Spanish home rule and absolutism. a. Power flowed from the king to the Council of the Indies to viceroys to local officials. The Catholic Church played a significant role in the administration of Spanish colonies.
Colonial Cities
Spanish colonial cities such as Mexico City were much more populated than British North American cities. Although relatively small and few in number, port cities like Philadelphia were important. Cities served mainly as gathering places for agricultural goods and for imported items to be distributed to the countryside.
Repartimiento System
Spanish labor system under which Indians were legally free and able to earn wages but were also required to perform a fixed amount of labor yearly. Replaced the encomienda system. (page 29)
Conquistadores
Spanish term for "conquerors," applied to Spanish and Portuguese soldiers who conquered lands held by indigenous peoples in central and southern America as well as the current states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. (page 23)
Mestizos
Spanish word for persons of mixed Native American and European ancestry. (page 26)
English Emigrants
Sustained immigration was vital for the settlement's survival. Between 1607 and 1700, a little over half a million people left England. a. They settled in Ireland, the West Indies, and North America. b. The majority of settlers in North America were young, single men from the bottom rungs of English society.
Reconquista
The "reconquest" of Spain from the Moors completed by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella in 1492. (page 21)
Politics in Public
The American gentry were very active in the discussion of politics, particularly through clubs. a. The Junto was a club for mutual improvement, founded in 1727 by Benjamin Franklin.
New Netherland and the Indians
The Dutch came to trade, not to conquer, and were determined to treat the Indians more humanely, although conflict was not completely avoided. Dutch authorities recognized Indian sovereignty over the land and forbade settlement until it had been purchased.
The Demographic Disaster
The Columbian Exchange transferred not only plants and animals but also diseases, such as smallpox and influenza. The native populations were significantly depleted through wars, enslavement, and disease.
Indian Slavery in Early Carolina
The Creek Indians initially sold the early settlers their slaves, generally war captives and the captives' families. As the Carolina plantations grew, the Creeks became more concerned.
Dutch Freedom
The Dutch prided themselves on their devotion to liberty; freedoms of the press and of private religious practice were unique to the Dutch. Amsterdam was a refuge for many persecuted Protestants and Jews.
New York and the Indians
The English briefly held an alliance with the Five Nations known as the Covenant Chain, but by the end of the century, the Five Nations had adopted a policy of neutrality.
England and North America
The English crown issued charters for individuals such as Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Sir Walter Raleigh to colonize America at their own expense, but both failed.
The Preaching of Whitefield
The English minister George Whitefield is often credited with sparking the Great Awakening. The Great Awakening enlarged the boundaries of liberty as Old Lights (traditionalists) and New Lights (revivalists) defended their right to worship. a. New Light churches criticized colonial taxes used to support an established church. b. They also defended religious freedom as a natural right.
French Colonization
The French were hoping to find gold and the Northwest Passage to the Pacific but found only what they considered a barrier: a large North American continent. Samuel de Champlain founded Quebec in 1608, and others explored and claimed the entire Mississippi Valley for France. Relatively few French colonists arrived in New France; most were engages (indentured servants) who returned home when their contracts expired. The white population in 1700 was only 19,000.
The Glorious Revolution
The Glorious Revolution in 1688 established parliamentary supremacy and secured the Protestant succession to the throne. Rather than risk a Catholic succession through James II, a group of English aristocrats invited the Dutch Protestant William of Orange to assume the throne. The overthrow of James II entrenched the notion that liberty was the birthright of all Englishmen. a. Parliament issued a Bill of Rights (1689) guaranteeing individual rights such as trial by jury. b. Parliament adopted the Toleration Act (1690), which allowed Protestant Dissenters to worship freely, although only Anglicans could hold public office.
The Awakening's Impact
The Great Awakening inspired criticism of many aspects of colonial society. A few preachers explicitly condemned slavery, but most slave masters managed to reconcile Christianity and slaveholding. Especially in the Chesapeake area, slaves became Christian. The Great Awakening expanded the circulation of printed material in the colonies.
Religious Revivals
The Great Awakening was a series of local events united by a commitment to a more emotional and personal Christianity than that offered by existing churches. Islam and Judaism in Asia and Europe, respectively, saw a rise in fundamentalism. The Great Awakening was led by flamboyant preachers like Jonathan Edwards, whose Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God stressed the need for humans to seek divine grace.
The Great Migration
The Massachusetts Bay Company was charted in 1629 by London merchants wanting to further the Puritan cause and to turn a profit from trade with the Indians. New England settlement was very different from settlement in the Chesapeake colonies. a. New England had a more equal balance of men and women. b. New England enjoyed a healthier climate. c. New England had more families.
The Middle Passage
The Middle Passage was the voyage slaves took across the Atlantic from Africa. Slaves were crammed aboard ships for maximum profit. Slave traders took the vast majority of slaves to Brazil and to the West Indies, where death rates were high. Less than 5 percent of African slaves went to what became the United States, but the slave population there increased steadily through natural reproduction.
A World Transformed
The Peace of Paris in 1763 resulted in the expulsion of France from North America. Pitt declared that peace would be as hard to make as war, and the war indeed put future financial strains on all the participants.
The Crisis of 1739-1741
The Stono Rebellion of 1739 in South Carolina led to the tightening of the slave code. A panic in 1741 swept New York City after a series of fires broke out that were rumored to have been part of a slave conspiracy to attack whites.
Becoming African- American
The common link among Africans in America was not kinship, language, or even "race" but slavery itself. For most of the eighteenth century, the majority of American slaves were African by birth.
Regional Diversity
The backcountry was the most rapidly growing region in North America. Farmers in the older portions of the Middle Colonies enjoyed a standard of living unimaginable in Europe. a. Pennsylvania was known as "the best poor man's country."
Tenochtitlán
The capital city of the Aztec Empire. The city was built on marshy islands on the western side of Lake Tetzcoco, which is the site of present-day Mexico City. (page 8)
Metacom
The chief of the Wampanoags, whom the colonists called King Philip. He resented English efforts to convert Indians to Christianity and waged a war against the English colonists, one in which he was killed. (page 87)
Colonial Artisans
The city was home to a large population of artisans. a. Myer Myers was a Jewish silversmith from New York whose career reflected the opportunities open to men of diverse backgrounds in colonial cities. 2. Despite the influx of British goods, American craftsmen benefited from the expanding consumer market.
Colonial Identities
The colonists emerged from the Seven Years' War with a heightened sense of collective identity. The war also strengthened the colonists' pride in being members of the British Empire. Britain's empire expanded with tens of thousands of French Catholics and millions of people from India as subjects. a. Edmund Burke wondered if British liberty could be reconciled with rule over a vast empire.
Anglican Church
The established state church of England, formed by Henry VII after the pope refused to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. (page 50)
African Religion in Colonial America
The experience of transitioning from traditional African religions to Christianity was difficult for the slaves. West African religions were of a great variety, but shared a belief in spiritual forces in nature. When slaves adopted Christian religious practices, many melded this new religion with their traditional beliefs.
Women and the Household Economy
The family was the center of economic life, and all members contributed to the family's livelihood. The work of farmers' wives and daughters often spelled the difference between a family's self-sufficiency and poverty. As the population grew and the death rate declined, family life stabilized and marriages became lifetime commitments. With growing colonial structure, opportunities for women decreased. a. The division of labor along gender lines solidified. b. Despite there being more consumer products, women's work increased. c. As infant mortality decreased, women spent more time engaged in child care.
House of Burgesses
The first elected assembly in colonial America, established in 1619 in Virginia. Only wealthy landowners could vote in its elections. (page 59)
Land and Property
The idea of owning private property was foreign to Indians. Indians believed land was a common resource, not an economic commodity. Wealth mattered little in Indian societies and generosity was far more important.
English Liberty
The idea that English people were entitled to certain liberties, including trial by jury, habeas corpus, and the right to face one's accuser in court. These rights meant that even the English king was subject to the rule of law. (page 79)
The Language of Liberty
The ideas of liberty went beyond the voters, office holders, and political debaters. Most white men in Britain and colonies lacked the right to vote but served on juries and protested in the streets against any oppressive authority.
French and Indian War
The last—and most important—of four colonial wars fought between England and France for control of North America east of the Mississippi River. (page 157)
Seven Years' War
The last—and most important—of four colonial wars fought between England and France for control of North America east of the Mississippi River. (page 157)
Ninety-Five Theses
The list of moral grievances against the Catholic Church by Martin Luther, a German priest, in 1517. (page 28)
The Conquest of New Netherland
The restoration of the English monarchy came in 1660, and the government chartered new trading ventures such as the Royal African Company. In 1664, during an Anglo-Dutch war, New Netherland was surrendered by the Dutch without a fight in order to retain their holdings in Africa, Asia, and South America.
The South Carolina Aristocracy
The richest group of mainland colonists was South Carolina planters. The tie that held the elite together was the belief that freedom from labor was the mark of the gentleman.
Englishmen and Africans
The spread of tobacco led settlers to turn to slavery, which offered many advantages over indentured servants. In the seventeenth century, the concepts of race and racism had not fully developed. Africans were seen as alien in their color, religion, and social practices.
New York and the Rights of Englishmen and Englishwomen
The terms of Dutch surrender guaranteed some freedoms and liberties but reversed others, especially for blacks. The Duke of York governed New York, and by 1700, nearly 2 million acres of land were owned by only five New York families.
Columbian Exchange
The transatlantic flow of goods and people that began with Columbus's voyages in 1492. (page 24)
Pennsylvania and the Indians
The war deepened the hostility of western Pennsylvanian farmers toward Indians and witnessed numerous indiscriminate assaults on Indian communities. The Paxton Boys demanded that Indians be removed from Pennsylvania.
Masterless Men
Thomas Moore's Utopia (1516) describes a place where settlers could go to escape the economic inequalities of Europe—a place such as many could imagine America to be. The English increasingly viewed America as a land where a man could control his own labor and thus gain independence, particularly through the ownership of land.
Chesapeake Slavery
Three distinct slave systems were well entrenched in Britain's mainland colonies: a. Chesapeake b. South Carolina and Georgia c. Non-plantation societies of New England and the Middle Colonies After 1680, labor switched from indentured servitude to slavery. a. As Virginians moved westward, so did slavery. b. The center of slavery moved from the Tidewater region to the Piedmont. Slavery transformed Chesapeake society into an elaborate hierarchy of degrees of freedom: a. Large planters b. Yeomen farmers c. Indentured servants and tenant farmers d. Slaves
The Proclamation Line
To avoid further Indian conflicts, London issued the Proclamation of 1763, which banned white settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains. The Proclamation enraged settlers and land speculators hoping to take advantage of the expulsion of the French.
Justifications for Conquest
To justify their claims to land that belonged to someone else, the Spanish relied on cultural superiority, missionary zeal, and violence.
A Tobacco Colony
Tobacco was Virginia's "gold," and its production reached 30 million pounds by the 1680s. The expansion of tobacco production led to an increased demand for field labor.
An Atlantic World
Trade unified the British empire and connected it to other parts of the world. Membership in the empire had many advantages for the colonists. a. Colonists did not complain about British regulations of trade. b. British lax enforcement led to smuggling. c. The Royal Navy protected American shipping.
Indentured Servants
Two-thirds of English settlers came to North America as indentured servants. Indentured servants did not enjoy any liberties while under contract.
The English Civil War
Unrest existed between Parliament and the Stuart monarchy, leading to the beheading of Charles I. The commonwealth established under Oliver Cromwell ruled England until 1660, when the monarchy was restored under Charles II. The English Civil War of the 1640s illuminated debates about liberty and what it meant to be a freeborn Englishman.
Bacon's Rebellion
Unsuccessful 1676 revolt led by planter Nathaniel Bacon against Virginia governor William Berkeley's administration because of governmental corruption and because Berkeley had failed to protect settlers from Indian raids and did not allow them to occupy Indian lands. (page 99)
Uprising of (1622)
Unsuccessful uprising of Virginia Native Americans that wiped out one-quarter of the settler population, but ultimately led to the settlers gaining supremacy. (page 60)
Pueblo Revolt
Uprising in 1680 in which Pueblo Indians temporarily drove Spanish colonists out of modern-day New Mexico. (page 34)
The Crisis in Maryland
Virginia sided with Charles I, but in Maryland, crisis erupted into civil war. In 1649, Maryland adopted an Act concerning Religion, which institutionalized the principles of toleration that had prevailed from the colony's beginning.
Women and the Family
Virginia society lacked a stable family life. Social conditions opened the door to roles women rarely assumed in England.
Bacon's Rebellion: Land and Labor in Virginia
Virginia's shift from white indentured servants to African slaves as the main plantation labor force was accelerated by Bacon's Rebellion. Virginia's government ran a corrupt regime under Governor Berkeley, who maintained peaceful relations with the Indians. Good, free land was scarce for freed indentured servants, and taxes on tobacco were rising as the prices were falling. Nathaniel Bacon, an elite planter, called for the removal of all Indians, lower taxes, and an end to rule by "grandees." His campaign gained support from small farmers, indentured servants, landless men, and even some Africans. In some ways, Bacon's Rebellion was a clash between two different elite groups.
The Colonial Press
Widespread literacy and the proliferation of newspapers encouraged political discourse. Bookstores, circulating libraries, and weekly newspapers all contributed to the dissemination of information. a. In Philadelphia Ben Franklin founded the first library in colonial America. Political commentary was widespread in colonial newspapers.
New France and the Indians
With few settlers, France needed friendly relations with the Indians. The Jesuits converted Indians but did not try to change much of the Indian culture and allowed them to retain some of their traditional religious practices. The French prided themselves on adopting a more humane policy toward the Indians than Spain, yet their contact still brought disease and their fur trading depleted the native animal population. On the upper Great Lakes, relative equality existed between the French and Indians. a. The métis were children of Indian women and French men. b. It was more common for the French to adopt Indian ways than for Indians to become like the French.
Freedom and Slavery in Chesapeake Bay
With the consolidation of a slave society, planters enacted laws to protect their power over the slaves. Race became more important as a line of social division, and free blacks lost rights as "free" and "white" became virtually identical.
Africa and the Slave Trade
With the exception of the king of Benin, most African rulers took part in the slave trade, gaining guns and textiles in exchange for their slaves. The slave trade was concentrated in western Africa, greatly disrupting its society and economy.
Pontiac's Rebellion
With the removal of the French, the balance of power diplomacy that had enabled groups like the Iroquois to maintain a significant degree of autonomy was eliminated. Indians hoped to preserve the middle ground, a borderland where various powers competed so that their own liberty could be maintained. In 1763, Indians launched a revolt against British rule. Neolin championed a pan- Indian identity.
Gender Relations
Women could engage in premarital sex and choose to divorce their husbands, and most Indian societies were matrilineal. Since men were often away on hunts, women attended to the agricultural duties as well as the household duties.
