primary source

A document or physical object which was written or created during the time under study.

secondary source

Information gathered by someone who did not take part in or witness an event

Age of Exploration

Time period during the 15th and 16th centuries when Europeans searched for new sources of wealth and for easier trade routes to China and India. Resulted in the discovery of North and South America by the Europeans.

Christopher Columbus

He mistakenly discovered the Americas in 1492 while searching for a faster route to India.

Columbian Exchange

An exchange of goods, ideas and skills from the Old World (Europe, Asia and Africa) to the New World (North and South America) and vice versa.

The 3 G's

Glory, Gold, God

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

Indian chief and founder of the Powhatan confederacy of tribes in eastern Virginia

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.