Colonial Vocabulary
What word means "spreading out or increasing in size"?
Expansion
What did most colonial homes use to cook and stay warm?
A fireplace
Between what years did most settlement of the 13 colonies happen?
(1607–1733)
What was the blue plant used to make dye, known as a “money crop”?
Indigo
Which colonial region had rocky soil and cold winters?
New England
What’s the fancy word for an educated guess based on facts?
Estimate
What kind of worker came to the colonies to work for someone under a contract?
Indentured servant
What group of people made up the majority of early settlers but later became a minority?
English
What kind of tool did early colonists use to cut grain?
Scythe
Which colonial region had plantations and broad, fertile lowlands?
Southern colonies
If you’re leaving your country to live somewhere else, what are you doing?
Emigrating
What kind of slavery legally owned people as property?
Chattel slavery
Name at least three non-English groups who came to America.
(Germans, Irish, Dutch, French, Swedes, Scotch-Irish)
How long would it take two farmers with a plow and oxen to harvest an acre?
One day
What nickname was given to the middle colonies for growing so much grain?
Bread colonies
What word means “protection or shelter,” often used when people flee their home country?
Refuge
What were houses mostly made of during colonial times?
Wood
What was the estimated population of the colonies by the late 1600s?
(200,000–300,000)
What kind of plow did Europeans bring over in the 1600s?
Big, clumsy wooden plow pulled by oxen
What crops were considered “money crops” in the southern colonies?
Rice, tobacco, indigo
What’s the word for a group of people that makes up a smaller part of a population?
Minority
What kind of event would spread disease due to poor medical knowledge?
An epidemic
Why did some Europeans emigrate to America?
Religious and political problems in their home countries
What part of farming was done by hand using tools like hoes and scythes before plows?
Preparing fields and seeding by hand
Name all three colonial regions.
New England, Middle, Southern