Colonial Religion & Society
John Winthrop used this phrase to describe Massachusetts Bay as a model Christian community watched by the world.
What is a “City on a Hill”?
This system granted about 50 acres of land to anyone paying for a person’s passage to Virginia, encouraging migration and large estates.
What is the Headright System?
This principle divides power between the national government and the states, with some powers shared.
What is federalism?
This document, drafted in 1787, strengthened the national government with separation of powers and checks and balances.
What is the US Constitution?
This secretive group of patriots organized protests and sometimes violence against British taxes, especially the Stamp Act.
Who are the Sons of Liberty?
These radical English Protestants, including those at Plymouth, wanted to completely separate from the Church of England.
Who are the Pilgrims?
Tobacco, rice, and indigo are examples of these crops grown primarily to sell for profit rather than for subsistence.
What are cash crops?
his compromise at the Constitutional Convention created a bicameral legislature with proportional representation in one house and equal representation in the other.
What is the Great Compromise?
This series of 85 essays, written by Hamilton, Madison, and Jay, defended the new Constitution.
What are The Federalist Papers?
This 1765 meeting of delegates from nine colonies protested a tax on printed materials and helped promote intercolonial unity.
What is the Stamp Act Congress?
This 1692–1693 crisis in Massachusetts involved accusations of witchcraft that led to executions and showed deep social tensions.
What are the Salem Witch Trials?
Large agricultural estates in the South and Chesapeake that relied on enslaved labor to grow export crops were called this.
What are plantations?
This agreement counted enslaved people partially for representation and taxation purposes.
What is the 3/5 Compromise?
This group supported ratification of the Constitution and favored a stronger central government.
Who were the Federalists?
This 1774 gathering in Philadelphia met in response to the Intolerable Acts, organizing boycotts and asserting colonial rights.
What is the First Continental Congress?
This group, led by William Penn in Pennsylvania, believed in the “inner light,” pacifism, and religious toleration.
Who are the Quakers?
This term describes Britain’s decades‑long loose enforcement of trade laws, which let colonies develop their own political and economic habits.
What is salutary neglect?
This body, not the direct popular vote, officially chooses the president of the United States.
What is the Electoral College?
This group opposed ratification, feared centralized power, and pushed for a Bill of Rights.
Who were the Anti‑Federalists?
Meeting again in 1775, this body managed the Revolutionary War effort and eventually adopted the Declaration of Independence.
What is the Second Continental Congress?
This intellectual movement emphasized reason, natural rights, and social contracts and influenced colonial leaders like Jefferson and Paine.
What is the Enlightenment?
This 1764 law aimed to more strictly enforce duties on molasses and raise revenue from the colonies.
What is the Sugar Act?
These first ten amendments to the Constitution guarantee individual rights and helped secure ratification.
What is the Bill of Rights?
Under the first national framework, this 1781–1789 government was too weak to tax or effectively handle national issues.
What is the government under the Articles of Confederation?
Proposed in 1754 by Benjamin Franklin, this plan sought to create a unified colonial government for defense but was rejected.
What is the Albany Plan of Union?