The English Civil War & Commonwealth
1642–1649 conflict between King Charles I and Parliament that led to the king's execution and paused English colonization.
What is the English Civil War?
The 1660 return of the Stuart monarchy under Charles II, resuming active English colonization.
What is the Stuart Restoration (or Restoration)?
The staple cash crop cultivated in the swampy lowlands of South Carolina that drove the mass importation of enslaved Africans.
What is Rice?
Brother of Charles II who was granted the Dutch colony of New Netherland and renamed it New York.
Who is the Duke of York (future King James II)?
Radical, pacifist Christian group founded by George Fox that believed in spiritual equality.
Who are the Quakers?
Royalist supporters of King Charles I during the English Civil War, many of whom fled to Virginia.
Who are the Cavaliers?
The English king restored to the throne in 1660 who granted charters for the Restoration Colonies.
Who is King Charles II?
The 1669 governing blueprint created by John Locke and Ashley Cooper creating an elaborate feudal and aristocratic order.
What is the Fundamental Constitution for Carolina?
Strict Dutch director-general who surrendered New Amsterdam to the English without firing a shot in 1664.
Who is Peter Stuyvesant?
Wealthy English Quaker convert who founded Pennsylvania in 1681 as a "Holy Experiment."
Who is William Penn?
Parliamentary and Puritan soldiers who fought against King Charles I.
Who are the Roundheads?
Colonies granted by the Crown to aristocratic individuals or syndicates with full governing rights.
What are Proprietary colonies (or Proprietors)?
System giving 50 acres of land to settlers who migrated or paid the transportation costs of another laborer.
What is the Headright system?
English naval officer whose warships forced the Dutch surrender of New Amsterdam in 1664.
Who is Richard Nicolls?
The fundamental Quaker theological belief that God places a spark of divinity into every human soul.
What is the "Inner Light"?
Puritan military commander who defeated the king and ruled England during the Commonwealth era.
Who is Oliver Cromwell?
Head of the Carolina proprietors who financed the settlement of Charles Town in 1670.
Who is Anthony Ashley Cooper (Earl of Shaftesbury)?
Annual property taxes or quit fees paid by landowners to the colonial proprietor or Crown.
What are "Quitrents"?
The 1664 surrender agreement guaranteeing that Dutch settlers could keep their property rights and customs under English rule.
What are the Articles of Capitulation?
1701 Pennsylvania constitutional reform that established an elected unicameral legislature and limited executive power
What is the Charter of Liberties?
The title assumed by Oliver Cromwell when ruling England as military dictator (1653–1658).
What is "Lord Protector" (or the "Protectorate")?
English Enlightenment thinker and secretary to Ashley Cooper who helped write the Fundamental Constitution for Carolina.
Who is John Locke?
Investors who bought up vast tracts of frontier land speculating that prices would rise before reselling.
Who are Land speculators?
Wealthy Dutch landowners granted huge estates along the Hudson River for transporting fifty settlers.
Who are "Patroons"?
The three southern counties of Pennsylvania along the Delaware River that were granted their own assembly in 1704, becoming Delaware.
What are "The lower counties"?