chattel slavery
A system of bondage in which a slave has the legal status of property and so can be bought and sold like property.
neo-Europes
Term for colonies in which colonist sought to replicate, or at least approximate, economies and social structures they knew at home.
encomienda
A grant of Indian labor in Spanish America given in the sixteenth century by the Spanish kings to prominent men. Encomenderos extracted tribute from there Indians in exchange for granting them protection and Christian instruction.
Columbian Exchange
The massive global exchange of living things, including people, animals, plants, and diseases, between the Eastern and Western Hemisphere that began after the voyages of Columbus.
outwork
A system of manufacturing, also known as putting out, used extensively in the English woolen industry in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Merchants bought wool and then hired landless peasants who lived in small cottages to spin and weave it into cloth, which the merchants would sell in English and foreign markets.
mercantilism
A system of political economy based on government regulation. Beginning in 1650, Britain enacted Navigation Acts that controlled colonial commerce and manufacturing for the enrichment of Britain.
House of Burgesses
Organ of government in colonial Virginia made up of an assembly of representatives elected by the colony's inhabitants.
royal colony
In the English system, a royal colony was chartered by the crown. The colony's governor was appointed by the crown and served according to the instructions of the Board of Trade.
freehold
Land owned in its entirety, without feudal dues or land lord obligations. Freeholders had the legal right to improve, transfer, or sell their landed property.
headright system
A system of land distribution, pioneered in Virginia and used in several other colonies, that granted land-usually 50 acres-to anyone who paid the passage of a new arrival. By this means, large planters amassed huge landholdings as they imported large numbers of servants and slaves.
indentured servitude
Workers contracted for service for a specified period. In exchange for agreeing to work for four or five years (or more) without wages in the colonies, indentured workers received passage across the Atlantic, room and board, and status as a free person at the end of the contract period.
Pilgrims
One of the first Protestant groups to come to America, seeking separation from the Church of England. They founded Plymouth, the first permanent community in New England, in 1620.
Puritans
Dissenters from the Church of England, who wanted a genuine Reformation rather than the partial Reformation sought by Henry VIII. The Puritans' religious principles emphasized the importance of an individual's relationship with God developed through Bible study, prayer, and introspection.
joint-stock corporation
A financial organization devised by English merchants around 1550 that facilitated the colonization of North America. In these companies, a number of investors pooled their capital and received shares of stock in the enterprise in proportion to their share of the total investment.
predestination
The Protestant Christian belief that God chooses certain people for salvation before they are born. Sixteenth century theologian John Calvin was the main proponent of this doctrine, which became a fundamental tenet of Puritan theology.
toleration
The allowance of different religious practices. Lord Baltimore persuaded the Maryland assembly to enact the Toleration Act (1649), which granted all Christians the right to follow their beliefs and hold church services. The crown imposed toleration on Massachusetts Bay in its new royal charter in 1691.
covenant of works
The Christian idea that God's elect must do good works in their earthly lives to earn their salvation.
covenant of grace
The Christian idea that God's elect are granted salvation as a pure gift of grace. This doctrine holds that nothing people do can erase their sins or earn them a place in heaven.
town meeting
A system of local government in New England in which all male heads of households met regularly to elect selectmen, levy local taxes, and regulate markets, roads, and schools.
Philip II
(1556-1598) King of Spain from 1556 to 1598. Absolute monarch who helped lead the Counter Reformation by persecuting Protestants in his holdings. Also sent the Spanish Armada against England.
Francis Drake
1500s; English sea dog; paid by Elizabeth to raid the Spanish ships; completed first English circumnavigation
Opechancanough
Powhatan's brother who became the head of the native confederacy after Powhatan's death. He resumed the effort to defend tribal lands from European encroachments. Important because his attacks on the white settlers of Jamestown helped to end the Virginia Company and to begin the colony coming under the control of the English crown.
Lord Baltimore
(Cecillius Calvert) He was the founder of Maryland, a colony which offered religious freedom, and a refuge for the persecuted Roman Catholics.
John Winthrop
As governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, Winthrop (1588-1649) was instrumental in forming the colony's government and shaping its legislative policy. He envisioned the colony, centered in present-day Boston, as a "city upon a hill" from which Puritans would spread religious righteousness throughout the world.
Roger Williams
A dissenter who clashed with the Massachusetts Puritans over separation of church and state and was banished in 1636, after which he founded the colony of Rhode Island to the south
Anne Hutchinson
A Puritan woman who was well learned that disagreed with the Puritan Church in Massachusetts Bay Colony. Her actions resulted in her banishment from the colony, and later took part in the formation of Rhode Island. She displayed the importance of questioning authority. (She preached the idea that God communicated directly to individuals instead of through the church elders.) She was forced to leave Massachusetts in 1637. Her followers (the Antinomianists) founded the colony of New Hampshire in 1639.
Metacom
Aka King Philip, Native American ruler, who in 1675 led attack on colonial villages throughout Massachusetts