Puritan
A religious group who wanted to purify the Church of England. They came to America for religious freedom and settled the Massachusetts Bay colony.
Anne Hutchinson
A Puritan woman who was well learned; 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.
Quakers
English dissenters who broke from Church of England, preached a doctrine of pacifism, inner divinity, and social equity, under William Penn they founded Pennsylvania
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
indentured servants
Colonists who received free passage to North America in exchange for working without pay for a certain number of years
Middle Passage
A voyage that brought enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to North America and the West Indies
3Gs" God, Glory, Gold (Greed)
The real reason why explorers and conquistadors went to the New World
Christopher Columbus
An Italian navigator who was funded by the Spanish and is given credit for discovering the "New World," even though at his death he believed he had made it to India.
Vasco da Gama
A Portuguese sailor who was the first European to sail around southern Africa to the Indian Ocean
Treaty of Tordesillas
A 1494 agreement between Portugal and Spain, declaring that newly discovered lands to the west of an imaginary line in the Atlantic Ocean would belong to Spain and newly discovered lands to the east of the line would belong to Portugal.
Conquistadors
Spanish 'conqueror' or soldier in the New World. They were searching for the 3-G's: gold, God, and glory.
Francisco Pizarro
Spanish explorer who conquered the Incas in what is now Peru and founded the city of Lima in 1526.
Hernando Cortes
Spanish conquistador who defeated the Aztecs and conquered Mexico in 1519.
Northwest Passage
A water route from the Atlantic to the Pacific through northern Canada and along the northern coast of Alaska. Sought by navigators since the 16th century.
Columbian exchange
The exchange of plants, animals, diseases, and technologies between the Americas and the rest of the world following Columbus's voyages.
Joint-Stock Company
Established a way for many investors to pool their $ together and hope (for them) bring in millions from all the gold, etc. in the New World.
Jamestown
The first permanent English settlement in North America, found in East Virginia
John Smith
Helped found and govern Jamestown. His leadership and strict discipline helped the Virginia colony get through the difficult first winter.
John Rolfe
He discovered how to successfully grow tobacco in Virginia and cure it for export, which made Virginia an economically successful colony.
Cash crop
a readily salable crop that is grown and gathered for the market (as vegetables or cotton or tobacco)
Mayflower Compact
Pilgrims/Separatists agreement: agreement to obey laws created by the community and a profession of allegiance to the king
Massachusetts Bay Colony
Colony founded in 1630 by John Winthrop, part of the Great Puritan Migration, founded by Puritans. Had a theocratic republic; "City upon a hill
Pilgrims/Separatist
They were the first to arrive in Plymouth in 1620
town meetings
type of local government used in small towns in New England; direct democracy
City upon a Hill
now famous quote in which John Winthrop urged the colonists to be a model for others to look up to
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
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.
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
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.
Benjamin Franklin
American intellectual, inventor, and politician He helped to negotiate French support for the American Revolution.
Toleration Act
granted limited religious freedom to Puritans, Quakers, and other dissenters
Jonathan Edwards
Preacher during the First Great Awakening; His "Sinners in the hands of angry god" compelled many to strictly obey the clergy