Colonial Foundations & Slavery
This labor system bound workers for a set number of years in exchange for passage to the colonies.
What is indentured servitude?
Religious group that migrated in large numbers to New England seeking to build a “godly” society.
Who are the Puritans?
The idea that colonies exist to benefit the mother country through controlled trade.
What is mercantilism?
War whose costs helped lead Britain to raise revenue from the colonies.
What is the French and Indian War?
Early battles in April 1775 sometimes called the “first shots” of the war.
What are Lexington & Concord?
England’s first permanent colony, founded in 1607, that struggled early on with survival and labor.
What is Jamestown?
Puritan leader known for describing Massachusetts as a “city upon a hill.”
Who is John Winthrop?
A period when Britain loosely enforced trade laws, allowing colonies more autonomy—until after 1763.
What is salutary neglect?
1763 treaty that ended that war and reshaped Britain’s North American empire.
What is the Treaty of Paris (1763)?
This pamphlet by Thomas Paine argued independence was necessary and common sense.
What is Common Sense?
Tobacco is an example of this type of crop that shaped Chesapeake labor and land use.
What is a cash crop?
The 1630s movement of Puritans to Massachusetts in large numbers.
What is the Great Migration?
Movement emphasizing reason, natural rights, and questioning traditional authority.
What is the Enlightenment?
British line meant to limit colonial settlement west of the Appalachians, angering many colonists.
What is the Proclamation of 1763?
Turning point battle that helped convince France to ally with the Americans.
What is Saratoga?
This colony passed a major slave code in 1705, defining enslaved people as property and restricting their rights.
What is Virginia?
A government where religious leaders or religious law strongly shapes political power.
What is a theocracy?
Philosopher associated with natural rights and the idea that government should protect life, liberty, and property.
Who is John Locke?
Groups (often led locally) that shared news and coordinated resistance across colonies.
What are committees of correspondence?
Final major defeat that effectively ended the war and forced Britain toward negotiations.
What is Yorktown?
A 1676 uprising that exposed tensions between poor farmers and elites and helped accelerate the shift toward racial slavery.
What is Bacon’s Rebellion?
Religious revival movement that encouraged emotional preaching and challenged traditional authority in the colonies.
What is the Great Awakening?
This describes the growth of colonial buying habits and trade networks across the Atlantic in the 1700s.
What is the consumer revolution (Atlantic World)?
“External vs internal” taxes: customs duties like these were justified by Parliament as regulation, but colonists argued they were revenue grabs.
What are excise taxes (Sugar, Stamp, Townshend)?
The 1775 document that offered freedom to enslaved people who fled Patriot owners and supported Britain.
What is Dunmore's Proclamation?