Colonial Regions
This region’s economy was based on small farms, fishing, and shipbuilding, with a society centered around tight-knit Puritan towns.
New England
The economic system where the "mother country" regulates trade to increase its own wealth and power.
Mercantilism
This 1676 uprising in Virginia pitted back-country farmers against Governor Berkeley and led to a shift from indentured servitude to slavery.
Bacon's Rebellion
He founded Rhode Island after being banished from Massachusetts Bay for advocating for the separation of church and state.
Roger Williams
This was the first permanent English settlement in North America (1607).
Jamestown
Known as the "Breadbasket" colonies, this region was the most ethnically and religiously diverse.
Middle Colonies
This system granted 50 acres of land to anyone who paid for the passage of a new settler to Virginia.
the Headright System
This 1680 uprising saw this indigenous tribe temporarily drive the Spanish out of modern-day New Mexico.
the Pueblo people
This religious revival in the 1730s and 40s emphasized emotional sermons and individual repentance.
the (First) Great Awakening
This was the first representative assembly in the American colonies.
the House of Burgesses
This colony was founded as a haven for Catholics.
Maryland
The terrifying journey that enslaved Africans took across the Atlantic to the Americas.
the Middle Passage
This 1675-1676 conflict between New England settlers and a Wampanoag leader effectively ended Native American resistance in that region.
King Philip’s War (or Metacom’s War)
This 1735 court case established an early precedent for freedom of the press in the colonies.
the John Peter Zenger Trial
This 1649 act was the first law in the colonies to provide a degree of religious liberty, though only for Christians.
the Maryland Toleration Act
This region’s long growing seasons and reliance on slave labor led to a plantation-based economy focused on export crops like rice and indigo.
Southernmost Atlantic Coast/British West Indies
These laws were passed by England to restrict colonial trade to English ships and ports, though they were often ignored.
Navigation Acts
This policy characterized the British relationship with the colonies before 1763, where rules were rarely enforced.
Salutary Neglect
She was banished from Massachusetts for preaching "Antinomianism"—the idea that God spoke directly to individuals rather than through the clergy.
Anne Hutchinson
This term describes the process of the colonies becoming more "British" in their culture, politics, and consumer habits.
Anglicization
These were the two primary "Chesapeake" colonies.
Virginia and Maryland
This 1739 South Carolina uprising was the largest slave rebellion in the British mainland colonies.
Stono Rebellion
This 1637 conflict in the Connecticut River Valley resulted in a brutal massacre at a fortified village near the Mystic River. The total defeat of the tribe involved led to the Treaty of Hartford, which legally "dissolved" the nation and forbid the survivors from using their tribal name.
The Pequot War
During the First Great Awakening, these two terms were used to describe the internal rift within Protestant denominations: one group favored traditional, rationalist church authority, while the other embraced the emotional, "born-again" style of itinerant preachers like George Whitefield.
Old Lights and New Lights
This intellectual movement emphasized reason and science, influencing colonial thinkers like Benjamin Franklin.
the Enlightenment