joint-stock company

a business in which investors pool their wealth in order to turn a profit

charter

a written contract issued by a government giving the holder the right to establish a colony

Jamestown

the first permanent English settlement in North America

John Smith

a soldier and adventurer who took control of Jamestown and said, "He that will not work shall not eat."

indentured servant

a person who sold his or her labor in exchange for passage to America

House of Burgesses

created in 1619, the first representative assembly in the American colonies

Bacon's Rebellion

a revolt against powerful colonial authority in Jamestown by Nathaniel Bacon and a group of landless frontier settlers that resulted in the burning of Jamestown

Pilgrims

A member of the group that rejected the Church of England, sailed to North America, and founded the Plymouth Colony

Mayflower Compact

An agreement established by the men who sailed to America on the Mayflower, which called for laws for the good of the colony and set forth the idea of self-government 

Puritans

A member of a group from England that settled the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630 and sought to reform the practices of the Church of England

Great Migration

The movement of Puritans from England to establish settlements around the world, including 20,000 who sailed for America

Fundamental Orders of Connecticut

A set of laws that were established in 1639 by a Puritan congregation who had settled in the Connecticut Valley and that expanded the idea of representative government

Roger Williams

A minister in Massachusetts, who founded he first Baptist church in America.  In 1836 he founded the colony of Rhode Island which  guaranteed religious freedom and separation of church and state

Anne Hutchinson

Believed that a person could worship God without the help of a church, minister, or Bible.  She fled to Rhode Island in 1638

King Philip's War

A war between the Puritan colonies and Native Americans in 1675-1676

Peter Stuyvesant

The Dutch governor of the colony of New Netherland in 1647

Patroons

A person who brought 50 settlers to New Netherland and in return received a large land grant and other special privileges

Duke of York

The brother of England's King Charles II who drove the Dutch out of New Netherland