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A broad mutual transfer of diseases, plants, and animals resulting directly from the European voyages of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and from Spanish colonization. |
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A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virgina |
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| Written by noted scientist Thomas Harriot and published in 1588, the report was meant to publicize the young Raleigh colony. It describes animals, plants, and people from the area in order to spread interest of the new found world to people back in England. |
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| Began the religious transformation of the 16th century by leaving the Roman Catholic Church and founding the Church of England so he could divorce his wife and re-marry to Anne Boleyn. The religious transformation is a large reason why many people left England and came to the new world. |
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Martin Luther and John Calvin |
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| Luther, a German monk, and Calvin, a French cleric and lawyer, led the Protestant Reformation after the religious transformation begun by Henry VIII. Luther and Calvin insisted that "people could interpret the Bible for themselves" and rejected Catholic rituals. Emphasized that God would save anyone who had faith. |
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A joint-stock venture created by a group of merchants and wealthy gentry. Obtained a charter from King James I and began the Jamestown settlement in a region near Chesapeake Bay. |
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Joint-stock companies were colonial ventures created by small investors who pooled together their money in order to finance the creation of a settlement which would, in the long run, create a profit. |
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| Jamestown was England's first permanent colony in the Western Hemisphere financed by the Virginia Company. 104 men and boys arrived in the region near the Chesapeake Bay in May of 1607. The new settlement was created mainly for profitability and not sustainability. Helped by a group of six Algonquian tribes known as the Powhatan Confederacy. |
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In Virginia the cultivation of tobacco began in 1611 and soon became their main export and the reason for the colony's prosperity. Tobacco required a lot of land and small settlements began to rapidly expand slowly encroaching on the Native's territory. |
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| The Powhatan Confederacy was a group of six Algonquian tribes who initially saw the colonists as potential allies and a new trading partner but multiple issues soon strained the relationship; cultural differences, land (colonies expansion), and power. |
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| The Headright System said that any immigrant who paid for their voyage to America would receive 50 acres of land. As more and more people began coming to the New Land, the availability of free land started to greatly decrease and the settlers began encroaching on the Native's land. |
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The House of Burgesses (created in 1619) was the first assembly of the New World colonies. The representatives for the assembly were elected by the landowning men of the major Virginia settlements. |
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| A type of English Calvinists who were called Separatists because they wanted to separate from the Church of England and wanted church hierarchy to be abolished, the church to be free from political interference, and to confine the churches membership only to the "saved"- those who god had selected for salvation before birth. |
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| In September of 1620 a group of Separatists gained permission from the Virginia Company to settle in the northern part of their territory. The Separtists wanted to move to the New Land because they were disappointed in the Church of England which was corrupt. They landed too far north of their intended destination but stayed, naming it Plymouth. |
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| When the Mayflower landed too far north, outside of the jurisdiction of the Virginia Company, some of the non-separatist settlers questioned the colony leaders authority. To prevent a conflict, the Mayflower Conflict was signed in November of 1620 and established a "Civil Body Politic" and legal authority for the colony. |
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| Massasoit was the leader of the Pokanokets (a branch of Wampanoags) who the spring of 1621 signed a treaty with the Plymouth settlers. Squanto was an Indian who had learned English and helped the settlers communicate with other Indians and learn more about the New Land. |
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The Massachusetts Bay Company |
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Definition
During the 1620s a group of Puritan Congregationalists launched a colonial enterprise hoping to escape the hostility of Charles I. After receiving a royal charter the merchants created the Massachusetts Bay Company. The company attracted many Puritans and moved their headquarters to New England to severe all ties to England. |
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| The Great Awakening was a conflict between the Old Lights, traditional clerics, and the New Lights, evangelicals, which began in New England when Orthodox Calvinists wanted to combat Enlightenment rationalism and convert new settlers who didn't have a religion. |
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In South Carolina twenty slaves seized guns and ammo from a store. They killed many slave owners and grew in numbers as they sought refuge in Florida. They were soon disbanded by militia. |
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In New York City the panic caused by the Stono Rebellion lead to the accusation of a mixed white and black gang supposedly try to lead a Spanish uprising. In response to the accusation thirty-five members of the gang were executed. |
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The Land Riots (of New Jersey, Vermont, and the Hudson River Valley) |
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Definition
| The system of property ownership in the mid-1700s confronted crisis because of immigration. Immigrants caused clashes between workers and owners over land because most of the fertile land east of the Appalachians was already taken. The Hudson River Valley riot of 1765-1766 was the more serious land riot. |
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The Regulator Movements (In South Carolina) |
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Definition
Back Country farmers (mainly of Scot-Irish origin) felt that they didn't have an adequate voice in colonial political affairs (tax and law enforcement) so they formed bands of allied regulators who policed the countryside. |
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| The Baptists began to become more influential after the Great Awakening. They rejected everything that the genteel society believed in and preached social equality, against political orthodoxy and hierarchies, and disagreed with upper class culture. |
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New Lights and Old Lights |
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| New Lights were younger preachers of Orthodox Calvinism who believed that religion was more about emotion than education. They were more egalitarian and caused a blur of the elitism line of religion. Old Lights were traditional clerics who believed in religious hierarchy and the education of religion instead of the "feeling" of it. |
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| John Winthrop was the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Company elected in October of 1629. He organized the initial segment of the great Puritan migration to America. he believed in a society characterized by social equality and no hierarchies living under the precepts of "Christian Love". |
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The Communal Land Grant System of Massachusetts |
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| The main idea of the Land Grant System was that groups of men would apply together to the General Court for grants on land which to establish towns. Each town would have lots for houses and a church then each family would be given parcels of land scattered around the town center. |
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Codes of Conduct in the Puritan New England |
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| The general covenant made by the Puritans was that they would work together toward their goals. They established a colonial legislature and had a functioning system of self-government composed of a governor and a two-house legislature as well as a judicial system modeled after England's. |
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| Roger Williams was a Separatist who immigrated to Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1631 who believed that the king had no right to grant them land already occupied by the Indians, that church and state should be kept entirely separate, and that Puritans should not impose their religious beliefs on others. He was banished and in 1636 headed to Narragansett Bay where he founded Providence which became a completely tolerating settlement. |
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| Anne Hutchinson was a skilled medical practitioner who was popular with the women of Boston. She admired John Cotton, a minister who stressed God's gift of salvation to all people, and began holding meetings at her house to discuss his sermons. Her ideas were very attractive to Puritans but also posed a threat to Puritan Orthodoxy. In November of 1637 she was charged with maligning the colonies ministers an in 1638 was banished to Rhode Island. She had threatened not only religious orthodoxy but also traditional gender roles. |
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| The English Civil War occurred between 1642 and 1646 between the supporters of King Charles I and the Puritan dominated Parliament. The Parliament won leading to the execution of the king in 1649 and Oliver Cromwell, the parliamentary army's leader, took control. |
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| After the Stuarts returned to the throne in 1660, Charles II repaid the loyal nobles who had supported his family during the Civil War with land in America. The Restoration Colonies were New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and North and South Carolina. |
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| James the Duke of York was the younger brother of Charles II and in 1664 was given the region between the Connecticut and Delaware Rivers. New Netherlands, which had previously occupied the land, surrendered, James established New York. |
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| The Duke's Laws were a set of laws created by James which applied only to the English settlers of New York. Since there were so many Dutch settlers the laws initially maintained Dutch forms of local government. Each town was also allowed to decide which church they would pay their taxes to. |
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| Also known as the Society of Friends, the Quakers purchased all of Carteret's share and portions of Berkeley's (West and East Jersey). They rejected earthly and religious hierarchies and believed that anyone could be saved by God's "inner light". Anyone (male or female) was allowed to speak at meetings and spread God's word. |
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| William Penn was a Quaker and a friend of Charles II. In 1681 he acquired the region between Maryland and New York and established it as a haven for persecuted coreligionists. Unfortunately this tolerance lead to Pennsylvania's downfall because it attracted non-tolerant settlers as well. |
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| The Carolinas were granted in 1663 by Charles II in the hopes of preventing the Spanish from pushing further north from Florida. John Locke drafted the "Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina" which set forth the plan for a colony governed by a hierarchy of landholding aristocrats. In 1729 Carolina split into North and South- North Carolina began an economy based on tobacco cultivation and exporting forest products like pitch, tar, and timber. It relied on Virginia's port harbors to export their good and had a strong relationship together. In the South Charles Town was established in 1670 and after trying to create a plantation agriculture (and failing) they began to raise corn and herd cattle. |
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The Salem Witchcraft Accusations and Trials |
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Definition
The witchcraft accusations and trials began in 1650 and generally were the result of conflicts between neighbors. Many colony leaders supported the idea of witchcraft because it supplied a scape goat for blame when things in the colony went badly. |
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Colonial Political Structures of the Late Seventeenth Century |
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| By the late 17th century a well-established political and judicial system was in place in most American colonies. In New England property holding men or the legislature were able to elect a governor, a council was also implemented to advise the governor. Also each colony had a judiciary and annual town meetings. |
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| The Iroquois Confederacy was a group of five powerful Indian nations- the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas which inhabited the Great Lakes and Mississippi River Valley regions. The presence of European settlers created an economic motive for war because the Iroquois wanted to dominate the fur trade and gain unimpeded access to European goods. |
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The Beaver Wars were a series of conflicts between the Iroquois and other Indian tribes initiated by a war with the Huron in the 1640s. The Iroquois' main reason for war was that they wanted complete control of the peltry trade. |
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The Pueblo Revolt of 1680 |
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| The main reason for the Pueblo Revolt was the brutal tactics used by the Franciscans to eradicate all traces of the Pueblo peoples native religion. They were also put under very much strain from heavy labor demands so in 1680, under the leadership of a respected shaman Pope, the Pueblos drove the Spaniards out of New Mexico. Spanish authority was restored by 1700. |
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| Nathaniel Bacon was a freed indentured servant who in 1676 led attacks on Indians after an English servant was killed by some Doeg Indians in July 1675. After Governor William Berkeley refused to retaliate and start a war, Bacon rallied up many land-hungry settlers and, after holding the House of Burgesses hostage, continued to wreak havoc throughout New England. He even marched on Jamestown and burned it to the ground. After his death, a new treaty was signed in 1677 opening much of the disputed territory to English settlement. |
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| King Philip was the local chief of the Narragansett tribe and, troubled by the loss of territory to the English settlers, led his warriors to attacks on then in June 1675. Other Algonquian tribes soon joined the war and in 1676 devastated many colonies including Plymouth and Providence. In the summer of 1676 the tide turned as the Indian tribes began to run out of food and ammo and King Philip was killed. After another two years of fighting both sides agreed to end the conflict and many surviving Indians were captured and sold into slavery. An estimated 1/10 of the able-bodied men in the settlements were killed. |
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| The Atlantic Slave Trade was an important economic necessity to the sustainability and profitability of the colonies in America. Importing slaves instead of taking Indians as slaves meant less internal conflict. Also there weren't enough Indians anymore for the workforce needed for plantations. Also less and less people from England were becoming indentured servants. Importing heathen slaves was necessary and it was also thought that the English were doing the slaves a favor by saving them as heathens. |
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| The Middle Passage was the voyage from Africa to the Americas. It was known as the middle passage because it was the middle leg of the "trade triangle" between the colonies, England, and Africa. The voyage was very dangerous and many slaves and crew members died. |
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Mercantilism was a series of assumptions about the world's economic system which viewed the world as a collection of national states whose governments competed for shares of a finite amount of wealth. |
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| The Navigation Acts were a series of laws for the American colonies from Parliament. The laws, passed between 1651 and 1673, said that only English or colonial merchants could engage in trade in the colonies, certain valuable American products could be sold only in England or English colonies, and all foreign goods destined for sale in the colonies had to be shipped by way of England and English import duties paid. |
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| The Indian slave trade was used by Indian tribes as a way of riding themselves of dangerous enemies and potential rivals. It was a shifty business though because the line between the enslavers and the slaves was often blurred meaning that even tribes that thought they were on trading terms with the colonies could still be captured as slaves. |
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The Royal African Company |
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The Royal African Company was the main slave company in Africa. The controlled multiple forts in Lower Guinea and exported African slaves to Europe and the Americas. |
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The Dominion of New England |
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| New England was seen as a good place to exert English authority because the Puritans refused to allow freedom of religion to non-congregationalists and insisted on maintaining laws incompatible with English practice. The Crown revoked the charters of all the colonies in New England and established the Dominion of England in 1686. The dominion gave almost complete power to the governor, Sir Edmund Andros, and parliament dissolved all assemblies making Andros need only the consent of an appointed council to make laws and levy taxes. |
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| In 1688 tensions in England arose over taxation and James's conversion to Catholicism. In April 1689 Andros and his associates were jailed and James II disposed of the throne. Mary, his daughter, and William of Orange, both Protestant, then took the throne affirming the supremacy of Parliament and Protestantism. |
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| Known in Europe as the War of the League of Augsburg, King William's War began when King Louis XIV allied himself with the disposed James II and England declared war on France in 1689. In America the French allied with the Algonquian tribes and launched attacks on settlement in New York, Maine, and New Hampshire. The war was formally ended by the Peace of Ryswick in 1697 but conflicts continued for decades after. |
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"Court" Parties versus the "Country Interest" |
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Eighteenth-Century Colonial Population Growth |
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| Although migration accounted for a considerable share, most of the growth in America resulted from natural increase. The evening out of the sex ratio in the south caused the American population to double approximately every twenty-five years. Also colonies were healthful places to live so more children survived infancy and grew up to have families. |
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During the 18th century the economy slowly grew increasing the standard of living for the colonies. The increase of economy allowed the colonists to improve their diets and afford house hold amenities like chairs and dishes. |
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In 1739 British vessels clashed with Spanish ships in the Caribbean, known as the War of Austrian Succession in Europe. The war initially helped Boston's economy but had long term negative effects. |
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| In the American colonies wealthy colonists spent their money ostentatiously on big house and expensive clothes. They enjoyed leisure activities and prided themselves on their level of education and their intellectual connection to Europe. Some even attended college to study for ministry. |
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Advanced Education in Eighteenth-Century Colonial America |
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| Many of the elite, wealthy colonial families had been tutored privately and some even went on to college. The genteel society prided itself on the extent of their education and the introduction of the Enlightenment posed an interesting educational experience for students and teachers a like. |
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| Enlightenment philosophers emphasized acquiring knowledge through reason and the ideas which were born from this were miraculous. The Enlightenment supplied educated people in Europe and America with a common vocabulary and a unified view of the world. It gave way to huge medical and scientific breakthroughs such as the understanding of electricity and the idea of immunization by inoculation. |
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Boston's Smallpox Epidemic (1720-1721) |
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| From 1720-1721 Boston suffered a serious smallpox epidemic. Reverend Cotton Mather, a prominent Puritan cleric, suggested the use of inoculation to protect people against the disease but was met with opposition from the city's leading physician. In the end, of those inoculated only 3% died compared to the 15% of those not inoculated. |
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Two Treatises of Government |
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| Written by John Locke in 1691 during the Enlightenment, Two Treatises of Government stated that men created government and so could alter them. Locke's ideas challenged previous concepts of a divinely sanctioned political order. |
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| The rituals of consumption determined and enhanced colonists social standards. When colonists had extra money they would buy desirable items such as mirrors or ceramic bowls. Also the drinking or tea became a very important ritual because tea was expensive so it showed status. |
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Rituals on the "Middle Ground" (Intercultural Rituals) |
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| The "middle ground" referred to the psychological and geographical space where Indians and Europeans encountered each other. Europeans were required to respect the Indians indigenous system of exchange which stressed the importance of gift giving before formalized buying and selling. |
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The "Indoor" Affairs of Farm Households |
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Definition
The "indoor" affairs were chores done by the mistress of the house. She and her female helpers prepared food, cleaned the house, did laundry, and often made clothing. |
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The "Outdoor" Affairs of Farm Households |
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Definition
| The men of the house handled the "outdoor" affairs which included planting and cultivating fields, building fences, chopping wood for the fireplace, harvesting and marketing crops, caring for livestock, and butchering cattle and hogs to provide meat. |
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Eighteenth-Century Colonial Assemblies |
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Definition
Political leaders sought to increase the powers of their elected assemblies and they began to claim privileges associated with the British House of Commons such as the right to control the militia and initiate all tax legislation. |
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Definition
| John Peter Zenger was a newspaper editor in New York who had too vigorously criticized the New York government and was therefore imprisoned. His lawyers argument that the truth could not be defamatory gave way to the free-press principle which exists today. |
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