| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Anne Bradstreet | Puritan poet; author of first book of poetry published in America (1612-1672) |
| Phillis Wheatley | American poet (born in Africa) who was the first recognized Black writer in America (1753-1784) |
| Benjamin Franklin | noted inventor, author, printer, and American patriot (1706-1790) |
| Artisans | skilled workers |
| Indentured servants | colonists who received free passage to North America in exchange for working without pay for a certain number of years |
| "White Indians" | colonists who embraced the entire Indian way of life |
| Enlightenment | (Age of Reason): eighteenth century intellectual movement suggesting that the univers was orderly and governed by rational laws that could be understand by humans |
| Mercantilism | an economic policy under which nations sought to increase their wealth and power by obtaining large amounts of gold and silver and by selling more goods than they bought |
| Glorious Revolution | A reference to the political events of 1688-1689, when James II abdicated his throne and was replaced by his daughter Mary and her husband, Prince William of Orange |
| Poor Richard's Almanac | A yearly almanack published by Benjamin Franklin, who adopted the pseudonym of "Poor Richard" or "Richard Saunders" for this purpose. The publication appeared continually from 1732 to 1758. It was a best seller for a pamphlet published in the American colonies; print runs reached 10,000 per year |
| Triangular Trade | A cycle of shipping and trade among America, Africa, & Europe where food and wood were exchanged for molasses, molasses-made rum was sold for slaves, and slaves were exchanged for molasses to make rum |
| Pennsylvania Dutch | German immigrants to Pennsylvannia; misnamed due to confusion of the name of the German language, Deutsche, with the word Dutch |
| Bacon's Rebellion | an uprising in 1676 in the Virginia Colony, led by Nathaniel Bacon. It was the first rebellion in the American colonies in which discontented frontiersmen took part; a similar uprising in Maryland occurred later that year. The uprising was a protest against the governor of Virginia, William Berkeley |
| Navigation Act of 1651 | Law passed by the British Parliament to assure that profits accruing from the colonies would be retained by England |
| Forms of slave resistance | destroy property, rebel with violence, refusal to cooperate |
| Squatter's rights | the privilege of buying the land from the legal owner without paying for the improvements the squatters had made upon it; led to violence |
| Stono Rebellion | A 1739 slave rebellion in Charleston, South Carolina |
| Revival meetings | Special religious services organized to bring sinners back into the church |
| Great Awakening | A burst of religious enthusiasm which featured special services and noted clergymen |
| Gullah | language developed by African workers so white masters could not understand them, hybrid of English and African, culturallly a connection to Africa |
| Benjamin Banneker | Published an astronomical almanac |
| Carl Linnaeus | developed an orderly classification of the species of living things |
| requirements of Navigation Act | forbid colonists to start fabric business as big as those of British, forbid Dutch to trade with colonists, allow colonists to manufacture specific goods |
| fall line | the point where coastal rivers became navigable for transporting goods to coastal ports |
| Puritan | Protestant group that wanted to purify and change the Church of England |
| "Breadbasket of Colonies" | The middle colonies, because of their success in the flour milling industry |
| Olaudah Equiano | One of the "lucky" slaves who wrote an autobiography about his life as a slave |
| praying towns | A town that the Puritans set up, trying to convert American Indians to Christianity |
| Metacomet | The leader of the Wampanoag tribe, also called King Philip |
| Yamasee Border War | 1712, a war between the Tuscarora and several other tribes against English and German slave traders, taking place in North Carolina |
| Hector St. John Crevecoeur | A French immigrant who reported of no white Indian having from choice to become European |
| Peter Zenger | A German immigrant who was hired as an editor and publisher for the New York Weekly. This paper was a publication that printed articles critical of William Cosby |
| Jonathan Edwards | A Congregational minister in Massachusetts who believed that sinners needed to be brought back to the church |
| George Whitefield | An Englishman minister who was invited to preach at churches along his route to Georgia |
| town meetings | A meeting for citizens to discuss issues and instructed assemblymen as to how they should vote |
| House of Burgesses | The Virginia assembly established in 1619 that did not make efforts to protect its frontier people |
| Salem Witch Hunt | An event where people were convicted of practicing witchcraft, leading to death penalties |
| reserves | early versions of Indian reservations |
| John Bartman | Quaker farmer in Pennsyvania who was a self taught naturalist |
| David Rittenhouse | clock-maker & university lecturer who studied astronomy & built a model of the solar system |
| Anne Hutchinson | American colonist (born in England) who was banished from Boston for her religious views (1591-1643) |
| Nathaniel Bacon | Colonist who led Bacon's rebellion and decided to punish the Indians |
| Governer Berkeley | The enemy of Bacon and was the governer of Virginia |
| slavery | Lacking liberty to determine one's won actions or way of life |
| libel | a tort consisting of false and malicious publication printed for the purpose of defaming a living person |
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