Key Terms
The representative parliamentary assembly that was created to govern Virginia, establishing a precedent for government in the English colonies
House of Burgesses
In politics, a territory between two antagonistic powers, intended to minimize the possibility of conflict between them.
buffer
Small group of Puritans who sought to break away entirely from the Church of England; after initially settling in Holland, a number of English Separatists made their way Plymouth Bay, Massachusetts in 1620.
Separatists
Established Maryland as a haven for Catholics; unsuccessfully tried to reconstitute the English manorial system in the colonies and gave vast tracts of land to Catholic relatives, a policy that soon created tensions between the seaboard Catholic establishment and backcountry Protestant planters
Lord Baltimore (1605-1675)
First governor of MA Bay Colony; able administrator and devout Puritan; helped ensure the prosperity of the newly established colony and enforce Puritan orthodoxy, taking a hard line against religious dissenters like Anne Hutchinson
John Winthrop (1588-1649)
The armed conflict between royalists and parliamentarians, resulting in the victory of pro-Parliament forces and the execution of Charles I
English Civil War (1642-1649)
Dominant theological credo of the New England Puritans based on the teachings of John Calvin. Calvinists believed in predestination- that only "the elect" were destined for salvation.
Calvinism
Agreement to form a majoritarian government in Plymouth, signed aboard the Mayflower. Created a foundation for self-government in the colony.
Mayflower Compact (1620)
Puritan general who helped lead parliamentary forces during the English Civil War, and ruled England as Lord Protector from 1653 until his death in 1658.
Oliver Cromwell
Antinomian religious dissenter brought to trial for heresy in MA Bay after arguing that she need not follow wither God's laws or man's claiming direct revelation from God; banished from the Puritan colony, she moved to Rhode Island and later New York where she and her family were killed by Indians
Anne Hutchinson (ca. 1591-1643)
Frontier farmers who illegally occupied land owned by others or not yet officially opened for settlement. Many of North Carolina's early settlers were these people who contributed to the colony's reputation as being more independent-minded and "democratic" than its neighbors.
squatters
Calvinist doctrine that God has foreordained some people to be saved and some to be damned. Though their fate was irreversible, Calvinists, particularly those who believed they were destined for salvation, sought to lead sanctified lives in order to demonstrate to others that they were in fact members of the "elect."
predestination
Established by non-separating Puritans, it soon grew to be the largest and most influential of the New England colonies.
Massachusetts Bay Colony (founded in 1630)
Soldier-statesman and leading founder of Georgia. A champion of prison reform, he established Georgia as a haven for debtors seeking to avoid imprisonment. During the War of Jenkins's Ear, he successfully led his colonists in battle, repelling a Spanish attack on British territory.
James Oglethorpe (1696-1785)
Wampanoag chieftain who signed a peace treaty with Plymouth Bay settlers in 1621 and helped them celebrate the first Thanksgiving.
Massasoit (ca. 1590-1661)
Began with an Indian attack on Newbern, North Carolina. After the Tuscaroras were defeated, remaining Indian survivors migrated northward, eventually joining the Iroquois Confederacy as its sixth nation.
Tuscarora War (1711-1713)
Intense religious experience that confirmed an individual's place among the "elect," or the "visible saints." Calvinists who experienced conversion were then expected to lead sanctified lives to demonstrate their salvation.
conversion
Religious group known for their tolerance, emphasis on peace, and idealistic Indian policy, who settled heavily in Pennsylvania in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Quakers
German friar who touched off the Protestant Reformation when he nailed a list of grievances against the Catholic Church to the door of Wittenberg's cathedral in 1517.
Martin Luther (1483-1546)
Assumed the throne with the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. He sought to establish firm control over the colonies, ending the period of relative independence on the American mainland.
Charles II (1630-1685; r. 1660-1685)
Defeated by the south Carolinians in the war of 1715-1716. The Yamasee defeat devastated the last of the coastal Indian tribes in the Southern colonies.
Yamasee Indians
English Protestant reformers who sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic rituals and creeds. Some of the most devout believed that only "visible saints" should be admitted to church membership.
Puritans
blue laws
French Protestant reformer whose religious teachings formed the theological basis for New England Puritans, Scottish Presbyterians, French Huguenots, and members of the Dutch Reformed Church; he argued that humans were inherently weak and wicked, and he believed in an all-knowing, all-powerful God who predestined select individuals for salvation
John Calvin (1509-1564)
Prominent Quaker activist who founded Pennsylvania as a haven for fellow Quakers in 1681; established friendly relations with neighboring Indian tribes and attracted a wide array of settlers to his colony with promises of economic opportunity and ethnic and religious toleration
William Penn (1644-1718)