Primary Source

A document or physical object which was written or created during the time of the event

Secondary Source

a document or written work created after an event

Age of Exploration

the period of time, beginning in the late 1400s, in which European explorers sought new routes to Asia and discovered the Americas to find goods.

Christopher Columbus

Italian navigator who discovered the New World in the service of Spain while looking for a route to China (1451-1506)

Columbian Exchange

The exchange of plants, animals, diseases, and technologies between the Americas and the rest of the world following Columbus's voyages.

The 3 Gs

God, Gold, Glory

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.

Jamestown

First permanent English settlement in North America

Powhatan

An Indian chieftain who dominated the peoples in the James River area. All the tribes loosely under his control came to be called Powhatan's confederacy. The colonists innacurately called all of the Indians powhatans.

John Smith

English explorer who helped found the colony at Jamestown, Virginia

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.