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.

Charter

A document that gives the holder the right to organize settlements in an area

James town

First permanent English settlement in North America-p

John Smith

English explorer who helped found the colony at Jamestown, Virginia

Indentured Servants

Colonists who received free passage to North America in exchange for working without pay for a certain number of years

House of Burgesses

the first elected legislative assembly in the New World established in the Colony of Virginia in 1619, representative colony set up by England to make laws and levy taxes but England could veto its legistlative acts.

Bacon's Rebellion

A rebellion lead by Nathaniel Bacon with backcountry farmers to attack Native Americans in an attemp to gain more land

Pilgrims

English Puritans who founded Plymouth colony in 1620

Mayflower Compact

A legal contract in which they agreed to have fair laws to protect the general good

Puritains

a group of people who sought freedomfrom religious persecution in England by founding a colony at Massachusetts Bay in the early 1600s.

Great Migration

movement of over 300,000 African American from the rural south into Northern cities between 1914 and 1920

Fundemental Orders of Connecticut

was the first written constitution in America

Roger Williams

A dissenter who clashed with the Massachusetts Puritans over separation of church and state and was banished in 1636, after which he founded the colony of Rhode Island to the south

Anne Hutchinson

A Puritan woman who was well learned that disagreed with the Puritan Church in Massachusetts Bay Colony. Her actions resulted in her banishment from the colony, and later took part in the formation of Rhode Island. She displayed the importance of questioning authority.

King Phillip's 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 lead the natives. The war ended Indian resistance in New England and left a hatred of whites.

Peter Stuyvesant

The governor of the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, hated by the colonists. They surrendered the colony to the English on Sept. 8, 1664.

Patroon

landowner in the Dutch colonies who ruled over large areas of land

Duke of York

brother to King Charles II and founder of New York

Proprietary Colony

English colony in which the king gave land to proprietors in exchange for a yearly payment

William Penn

A Quaker that founded Pennsylvania to establish a place where his people and others could live in peace and be free from persecution.

Quaker

A person who believed all people should live in peace and harmony; accepted different religions and ethnic groups.

Royal Colony

A colony under the direct control of a monarch

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.