Era 2 Vocabulary

Jamestown

• Founded in 1607
• The first to become successful British colony in the New World
• Sole purpose was to make money for the London Company

King James l

• Grants a charter to the Virginia Colony in 1606 to settle and civilize America
• Wants to prevent Spanish advancements in the New World
• Finds a Northern passage to Asia

Virginia Colony

• A joint-stock company
• Group of wealthy investors
• Planned to establish settlements in America for a profit

John Smith

• Helped Jamestown become successful
• Saved by Pocahontas
• Takes leadership of Jamestown

Tobacco

• Founded in 1612
• John Rolfe creates smoother breed of tobacco
• Becomes very popular in England
• Becomes a cash crop that the colonists can sell

Cash Crop

• A crop produced for it commercial value rather than for use by the grower
• Sugarcane, oilseeds, tea, coffee, cotton, jute, tobacco, and rubber

Indentured Servant

• Poor english people
• Agreed to work for a number of years in return for their passage

Slavery

• Started in 1619
• First Africans brought to Jamestown
• More labor was needed to keep up with demand

House of Burgess

• The first legislative assembly of elected representatives in North America
• Established in 1619 so colonist could make their own laws
• Becomes the first representative government in America

Middle Colonies

• New York, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennslyvania
• The first Dutch merchants arrive in 1609
• 1626 the Dutch purchase Manhattan from the Native Americans

New England Colonies

• Created a "covenant" community
• Practiced Athenian style direct democracy in town meetings
• Lays the foundation of majority rule America

Pilgrims

• Came to the New World in 1620
• Set sail on the Mayflower
• Landed north of Virginia at Cape Cod

Plymouth Colony

• Founded in 1620
• A group of 100 English men and women
• Merchant ships landed on the shores of Cape Cod

John Winthrop

• 1628 became Governor of the large Massachusetts Bay Colony
• Wished to create a "City Upon a Hill"
• This was his Puritan vision of a Christian society

King Phillip

• Conflict with the Native American groups grow over land ownership
• Wampanoag Chief Metacom unites tribes against colonies in 1675
• War kills 7 out of 8 natives and 6/13 whites

Joint-stock

• A business owned collectively by shareholders.
• Sold to high net-worth investors
• Provided capital and had limited risk

Middle Passage

• A sea journey undertaken by slave ships from West Africa to the West Indies.
• Voyage took 3 to 4 months
• The enslaved people mostly lay chained in rows on the floor

French and Indian War

• A war between Britain and France over New World territory
• War lasted 7 years
• Britain won Canada from France and Florida from Spain

Southern Colonies

• Outbreaks of malaria and yellow fever keep life expectancies low
• Difficult to start to families and create solid settlements
• Climate and soil create a Tobacco Economy

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