The Thirteen Colonies and The British Empire (1607-1754) Terms & Definitions

John Cabot

(1450 - c. 1499) was an Italian-born English explorer and navigator sailed to Canada in 1497. Cabot landed near Labrador, Newfoundland, or Cape Breton Island (the exact spot is uncertain) on June 24, 1497. He was the first European since the Vikings to explore the mainland of North America and the first to search for the Northwest Passage.

Great Migration

(1630-1642) Migration of 70,000 refugees from England to the North American colonies, primarily New England and the Caribbean. The 20,000 migrants who came to massachusetts largely shared a common sense of purpose--to establish a model Christian settlement in the New World.

Act of Toleration

(1649) Law passed in Maryland to guaranteed the rights of the Catholics who founded the colony to worship as they pleased despite the rapid influx of Protestants. This law allowed all Christians to worship freely in Maryland but established the death penalty for non-Christians. It was a step toward the establishment of religious freedom in America.

Connecticut

(New England Colony) It was founded in 1635 by Thomas Hooker and his followers for political and religious freedom after a disagreement with Massachusetts Bay.

Chesapeake Colonies

(Southern Colonies) included Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia. Had a cash crop agriculture, slavery was important, mostly illiterate, Protestant, very isolated, high death rates and unstable families.

Jamestown

1607. Virginia company sponsored English colonization in Jamestown, VA. English men didn't want to work/build colony. IT was a swampy area-hard to grow crops. There was disease and disputes with Indians. Once women arrived, tobacco was planted, and the colonists established trade with the Indians the colony survived. This was the first permanent English settlement.

Virginia House of Burgesses

1619 - The Virginia House of Burgesses formed, the first legislative body in colonial America. Later other colonies would adopt houses of Burgesses.

Mayflower Compact

1620, A document signed by 41 of the male passengers on the Mayflower prior to their landing at Plymouth that agreed to form a body politic to submit to the majority's rule; This set the precedent for future constitutions to be written

New Hampshire Colony

1623. Founded by two groups (Captain John Mason, 1623, and John Wheelwritght, 1638). Started out as a fishing colony but eventually became a royal colony.

John Winthrop

1629 - He became the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay colony, and served in that capacity from 1630 through 1649. A Puritan with strong religious beliefs. He opposed total democracy, believing the colony was best governed by a small group of skillful leaders. He helped organize the New England Confederation in 1643 and served as its first president.

New England Confederation

1643, the New England colonies of Plymouth, Mass Bay, Connecticut and New Haven formed a military alliance directed by a board comprised of two reps from each colony; limited powers to act on boundary disputes, the return of runaway servants, and dealings with Native Americans; lasted till 1684, when colonial rivalries and the monarch's reasserted control brought it to an end, but is important because it set a precedent for the colonies taking unified action toward a common purpose

New Jersey

1664ish. Established by Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret after land was given to them by the Duke of York. They advertised for settlers and promised them things in return for coming. It was made up of East and West Jersey that was unified in 1702.

Pennsylvania

1681 William Penn received a land grant from King Charles II, and used it to form a colony that would provide a safe haven for Quakers. This colony allowed religious freedom. It was also a middle colony.

Dominion of New England

1686 - The British government combined the colonies of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Connecticut into a single province headed by a royal governor (Andros). The Dominion ended in 1692, when the colonists revolted and drove out Governor Andros.

Sir Edmund Andros

1686, James II appointed Sir Edmund Andros to lead the Dominion of NE to oversee all of New England and later New York and East and West Jersey. Colonists despised Andros for his autocracy and allegiance to Anglican Church. Town meetings forbidden; all land titles revoked. Heavy restrictions on the courts, press, and schools.Taxed the people without consent of their representatives. Enforced unpopular Navigation Laws and suppressed smuggling. Smuggling became common and even honorable

Glorious Revolution

1688; the parliament deposed King James II, a Roman Catholic who had asserted royal rights over the rights of Parliament. Parliament gave the crown to the Protestant King William III, a Dutch prince, and his British wife, Queen Mary II (daughter of James II), as joint rulers. When the crown was offered to William and Mary, they agreed to a Bill of Rights that severely limited the king or queen's power. The British Bill of Rights is often regarded as a forerunner to the United States Bill of Rights.

Georgia

1732, 13th colony chartered; last of the British colonies and the only one to receive direct financial support from London; created to act as a defensive buffer between South Carolina and Spanish Florida, and to relieve overcrowded jails and prison ships by bringing debtors to an American colony to start life anew

Rhode Island

A New England or Northern colony. It was the smallest of the original 13 colonies. Created by Roger Williams and believed in religious tolerance for all people. Founded in 1636.

Halfway Covenant

A Puritan church document; In 1662, the Halfway Covenant allowed partial membership rights to persons not yet converted into the Puritan church; It lessened the difference between the "elect" members of the church from the regular members; Women soon made up a larger portion of Puritan congregations.

Separatists

A Puritan group that was appalled at the corruption of the English church and decided to abandon it. They went to Holland, the New World, land in 1620 the set off for Virginia, but landed in Massachusetts. They called their settlement Plymouth and they people were called Pilgrims and made the Mayflower compact that created a legal authority and an assembly.

Thomas Hooker

A Puritan minister who led about 100 settlers out of Massachusetts Bay to Connecticut because he believed that the governor and other officials had too much power. He wanted to set up a colony in Connecticut with strict limits on government.

Plymouth Colony

A colony established by the English Pilgrims, or Seperatists, in 1620. The Seperatists were Puritans who abandoned hope that the Anglican Church could be reformed. Plymouth became part of Massachusetts in 1691.

joint-stock company

A company 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.

Roger Williams

A dissenter, Roger Williams clashed with Massachusetts Puritans over the issue of separation of church and state. After being banished from Massachusetts in 1636, he traveled south, where he founded the colony of Rhode Island, which granted full religious freedom to its inhabitants.

Puritans

A member of a group of English Protestants who in the 16th and 17th centuries advocated strict religious discipline along with simplification of the ceremonies and creeds of the Church of England. They migrated to New England to continue their practices undisturbed by prosecution.

Pocahontas

A native Indian of America, daughter of Chief Powahatan, who was one of the first to marry an Englishman, John Rolfe, and return to England with him; about 1595-1617; Pocahontas' brave actions in saving an Englishman paved the way for many positive English and Native relations.

Anne Hutchinson

A religious dissenter whose ideas provoked an intense religious and political crisis in the Massachusetts Bay Colony between 1636 and 1638. She challenged the principles of Massachusetts's religious and political system. Her ideas became known as the heresy of Antinomianism, a belief that Christians are not bound by moral law. She was latter expelled, with her family and followers, and went and settled at Pocasset ( now Portsmouth, R.I.)

Navigation acts

A series of British regulations which taxed goods imported by the colonies from places other than Britain, or otherwise sought to control and regulate colonial trade. Increased British-colonial trade and tax revenues. The Navigation Acts were reinstated after the French and Indian War because Britain needed to pay off debts incurred during the war, and to pay the costs of maintaining a standing army in the colonies.

triangular trade

A three way system of trade during 1600-1800s Africa sent slaves to America, America sent Raw Materials to Europe, and Europe sent Guns and Rum to Africa

Captain John Smith

Admiral of New England, an English soldier, sailor, and author. This person is remembered for his role in establishing the first permanent English settlement in North America at Jamestown, Virginia, and his brief association with the Native American girl Pocahontas during an altercation with the Powhatan Confederacy and her father, Chief Powhatan. He was a leader of the Virginia Colony (based at Jamestown) between September 1608 and August 1609, and led an exploration along the rivers of Virginia and the Chesapeake Bay.

William Penn

An English Quaker, founded Pennsylvania in 1682, after receiving a charter from King Charles II the year before. He launched the colony as a "holy experiment" based on religious tolerance.

mercantilism

An economic policy under which nations sought to increase their wealth and power by obtaining large amounts of gold and silver and by selling more goods than they bought

Antinomianism

An interpretation of Puritan beliefs that stressed God's gift of salvation and minimized what an individual could do to gain salvation; identified with Anne Hutchinson.

Bacon's Rebellion

An outburst of violent protests by Nathaniel bacon and other impoverished settlers against Berkeley and the Indians for not providing them with land, and monopolizing the fur trade. Uprising was crushed but landless servants still held angry. Made farmers look for easier laborers (African slaves).

Corporate Colonies

Charter Colonies; led by joint-stock companies and run as a business with the backing of wealthy investors

Metacom

Chief of the Wampanoag Indians who led an attack on villages throughout New England. This was the largest conflict in 1675, called King Phillip's War (he was nicknamed "King Phillip")

headright system

Colonial system of awarding a tract of land, usually fifty acres, to a person who paid for the passage of an indentured servant to the colonies. Some wealthy people in Virginia and other southern colonies accumulated huge tracts of land through this system.

royal colonies

Colonies controlled by the British king through governors appointed by him and through the king's veto power over colonial laws.

proprietary colonies

Colonies in which the proprietors (who had obtained their patents from the king) named the governors, subject to the king's approval. Proprietors called the shots.

Charter of Liberties (1701)

Created under "The Holy Experiment" by William Penn, this guaranteed freedom of worship for all and unrestricted immigration

Delaware

Delaware was established in 1682, but was a province of Pennsylvania until 1701, when it gained a separate Assembly. Sold to William Penn by Lord Baltimore.

Quakers

English dissenters who broke from Church of England, preache a doctrine of pacificism, inner divinity, and social equity, under William Penn they founded Pennsylvania

Sir William Berkeley

First appointed (by Charles I) governor of Virgina. He arrived in 1642 and remained in power until the 1670's except for during Bacon's rebellion. Pushed for exploration of the western interior and quite popular to begin with, however, agreements between the Indians and Berkeley to prohibit white settlement in the west made him unpopular to settlers who were pushing west.

Providence

Founded by Roger Williams (1636), in Providence, Native Americans were dealt with fairly in buying land and religious freedom was extended to all.

James Oglethorpe

Founder and governor of the Georgia colony. He ran a tightly-disciplined, military-like colony. Slaves, alcohol, and Catholicism were forbidden in his colony. Many colonists felt that Oglethorpe was a dictator, and that (along with the colonist's dissatisfaction over not being allowed to own slaves) caused the colony to break down and Oglethorpe to lose his position as governor.

The Carolinas

Granted to eight nobles by Charles II as a reward for helping him gain the English throne. The North was settled mainly by poor tobacco farmers and the South became farmers of rice and indigo. They relied on African slave labor.

Pilgrims

Group of English Protestant dissenters who established Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts in 1620 to seek religious freedom after having lived briefly in the Netherlands.

John Davenport

He set up the New Haven colony in 1637. It allowed only church members a voice in government. New Haven joined with other nearby towns to form the colony of Connecticut in 1662.

John Rolfe

He was one of the English settlers at Jamestown (and he married Pocahontas). He discovered how to successfully grow tobacco in Virginia and cure it for export, which made Virginia an economically successful colony.

Virginia

Home to tobacco, John Smith, the House of Burgesses, William Berkeley, Bacon's Rebellion, Pocahontas, John Rolfe and the Headright System. Was a charter and home to the first settlement in the future United States.

Fundamental Orders of Connecticut (1639)

It has the features of a written constitution, and is considered by some as the first written Constitution. The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut is a short document, but contains some principles that were later applied in creating the United States government. Government is based in the rights of an individual, and the orders spell out some of those rights, as well as how they are ensured by the government. It provides that all free men share in electing their magistrates, and uses secret, paper ballots. It states the powers of the government, and some limits within which that power is exercised.

Virginia Company

Joint-Stock Company in London that received a charter for land in the new world. Charter guarantees new colonists same rights as people back in England.

Rice Plantations

Largely present in South Carolina, these were run by African slaves and saved most of South Carolina's economy. It was their staple crop.

middle passage

Middle segment of the forced journey that slaves made from Africa to America throughout the 1600's; it consisted of the dangerous trip across the Atlantic Ocean; many slaves perished on this segment of the journey.

Wampanoags

Native American tribe. It's chief Metacom, known to the colonists as King Philip, united many tribes in southern New England against the English settlers in what became known as King Philip's War. Were the first tribe to encounter the Pilgrims.

indentured servants

People who could not afford passage to the colonies could become indentured servants. Another person would pay their passage, and in exchange, the indentured servant would serve that person for a set length of time (usually seven years) and then would be free.

Mayflower

Ship that the Pilgrims took to Massachusetts

Cecil Cavert, Lord Baltimore

Son of the first Lord Baltimore, he was given a charter by King Charles and used it to make a safe haven of religious tolerance for Catholics and those of other religions. Founder of Maryland

slavery

The first Africans to be brought to English North America landed in Virginia in 1619. These individuals appear to have been treated as indentured servants, and a significant number of African slaves even won their freedom through fulfilling a work contract or for converting to Christianity.

Tobacco Farms

These were mainly small farms in North Carolina, but larger tobacco plantations were found in other parts of the colonies. They were established by Virginian And New England farmers who migrated south.

Holy Experiment

This project, established by William Penn, sought to explore the establishment of a liberal state while advertising to attract a wise array of potential settlers to the colony. Settlers from all walks of life and from many northern and western Europeans nations were lured to Pennsylvania, a haven for Quakers, by the promise of land, religious freedom, and democracy.

King Phillips war

War between the Native American tribes of New England and British colonists that took place from 1675-1676. The war was the result of tension caused by encroaching white settlers. The chief of the Wampanoags, King Philip (Metacom) lead the natives. The war ended Indian resistance in New England and left a hatred of whites.

New York

Was created when James, the duke of York, was given the land between the Connecticut and Delaware Rivers. In 1664, Nicolls went to New Amsterdam and received a surrender from its governor. The Articles of Capitulation allowed the British to have New Amsterdam as long as none of the Dutch settlers were removed. This colony had a natural harbor and became a substantial trading center.

Frame of Government (1682)

William Penn wanted to enact liberal ideas in gov. in Pennsylvania and provide a religious refuge for Quakers and other persecuted people. It guaranteed a representative assembly elected by landowners.