| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Paleo Indians | Our name for Prehistoric Indians |
| Hunter-Gathering | The earliest Americans found their food by doing this |
| Migration | Mass movement of a large group of people from one area to another |
| Adapt | Any group allowed people, no matter where they live who wish to survive must do this |
| Mound Builders | Paleo Indians who lived in Middle Tennessee were called |
| Nature/Envoronment | Most Indian Cultures based their religion on this |
| Asia | The first people in America came from this continent |
| land bridge Beringia | The first Americans crossed a ___ ___ which we call ___ |
| Catholic Church | The most powerful organization in medieval Europe |
| Feudalism | Early system of government in Europe, based on social class |
| Magna Carta | Document that first limited the power of the King |
| Protestants | European Movement when people broke away from the Catholic church and started other types of churches |
| Domestication | Process by which ancient people of Mesoamerica learned to breed plants and animals |
| Farming/Agriculture | The development that allowed ancient people to build permanent homes, towns and cities |
| Cortes (Cortez) | conquered the Aztecs |
| Ponce De Leon | Explored Florida looking for the Fountain of Youth |
| Henry Hudson | Explored the Hudson River and New York Harbor |
| Columbus | Landed in the Bahamas: named "Indians" |
| Amerigo Vespucci | A mapmaker named America after him |
| Balboa | First European to see the Pacific Ocean |
| DeSoto | Explored the Southeastern US, including Tennessee |
| Pizarro | Conquered the Incas |
| Magellan | Led the first expedition to circumnavigate the world |
| La Salle | Explored the Mississippi River |
| Coronado | Explored the Southwest, including the Grand Canyon |
| A water route to Asia | All early explorers started out looking for this |
| Northwest Passage | The earliest French and English explorers were looking for this |
| Columbian Exchange | When the Europeans came to America, they brought products with them that had never been in America before, and they took American products back to Europe. |
| Gold | The Spanish stopped looking for a water route to Asia when they began making money from... |
| Fur | The French stopped looking for a water route to Asia when they began making money from... |
| Natural Harbors | The geographical reason that led the Dutch to start a settlement at New Amsterdam |
| Scurvy | Eating foods rich in Vitamin C, like lemons and limes, prevent this |
| Circumnavigate | To go around the world |
| Magellan | He did not actually go around the world because he was killed in a battle in the Philippines, but still gets the credit |
| Encomienda System | A Spanish form of government based on class structure |
| Jamestown | First Permanent English settlement in America |
| John Smith | He became a military dictator; forced Jamestowners to work |
| Cash Crops | Growing a large amount of something to sell for profit |
| Tobacco | Cash crop that made a profit and saved Jamestown |
| House of Burgesses | First representative government in America; in Virginia |
| Indentured Servants | method used to get workers for tobacco plantations - workers sign a contract, work 7 years, then get freedom and maybe land |
| Slavery | method used to get workers for tobacco plantations - workers imported by force, must work for life, not free or paid |
| Plymouth | colony started on Cape Cod by the Pilgrims in 1620 |
| Pilgrims | Group of religious separatists who started Plymouth Colony |
| Mayflower Compact | Pilgrims wrote this to make a government for their colony |
| Puritans | Large group of religious dissenters who started Massachusetts Bay Colony |
| Salem Witch Trails | Event that made the Puritans realize that church and state should be separated |
| Thomas Hooker | Founder of Connecticut |
| Fundamental Orders of Connecticut | First Constitution written in America - limited the governor's power in Connecticut, allowed non church members to vote |
| Roger Williams | He founded Rhode Island to separate church and state |
| Anne Hutchinson | She was forced out of Massachusetts for holding Bible study and interpreting the Bible in her own way |
| Subsistence Farming | Growing food for your family, but not a huge crop to sell |
| Quakers | Religious group that believed that all people were equal |
| William Penn | He bought land from the Indians and founded Pennsylvania |
| Maryland | A colony that was founded for Catholics |
| Lord Baltimore | He founded the colony for Catholics |
| Toleration Act | Document granting Religious freedom in Maryland |
| James Oglethorpe | He started Georgia as a colony for poor people |
| New England | rocky soil and poor farming |
| Southern | high maintenance cash crops that DID require much labor |
| Southern | growing tobacco and other high maintenance cash crops to sell |
| New England | fishing, shipbuilding, whaling |
| Middle | growing bread grains to sell as cash crops |
| Middle | producing mechanical things (clocks, guns) |
| Southern | growing rice and indigo to sell as cash crops |
| New England | emphasis on education; universities and schools |
| Southern | very few towns or cities |
| Middle | international trade and shipping |
| Middle | very diverse; different kinds of people |
| Southern | economy depended on slave labor |
| New England | dominated by the Puritan church |
| Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island | List the New England colonies |
| New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware | List the Middle colonies |
| Virginia, Maryland, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina | List the Southern colonies |
| Proclamation of 1763 | Law that forbid colonists to move west of the Appalachian Mountains |
| Taxes | England used these to make money and assert their control |
| Stamp Act | Tax on all printed documents, dice, playing cards |
| petitions | Colonists sent these to the king asking for help and asking to repeal the taxes |
| Boycott | When colonists refused to buy British products as an economic form of protest against British policies |
| Townshend Acts | Tax on paper, lead, glass, paint, and tea |
| Writs of Assistance | Allowed England to search colonists' ships and other private property without an individual warrant |
| Natural Rights | Colonists felt that taxes and searches violated this |
| Sons of Liberty | Colonial political group organized to protest England's actions |
| Samuel Adams | The head "troublemaker" of the patriot group in Boston |
| John Adams | The lawyer who made sure protests were legal |
| John Hancock | The wealthy businessman who financed protest activities |
| Committees of Correspondence | Colonies organized these to keep each other informed |
| Quartering Act | Law that made colonists provide British troops with food, shelter, etc. |
| Crispus Attucks | Ex-slave killed by British troops during the Boston massacre |
| Propaganda | Exaggerating or distorting news to influence people's opinions |
| Tea Act | Tax that gave East India Company a monopoly on selling tea |
| Boston Tea Party | Protests when colonists threw tea into the harbor |
| Intolerable Acts (Coercive Acts) | Laws issued to punish Boston for having the tea party |
| Boston Harbor | This was closed as part of Boston's punishment for the tea party |
| Town Hall Meetings | Colonists could not have these as punishment for the tea party |
| Militia | Each colony set up one of these in case they needed to defend themselves |
| Minutemen | The younger, most fired up volunteers who were always ready to fight |
| Paul Revere | Patriot who made a famous ride to warn "The regulars are coming!" |
| Boston | 73 British soldiers were killed in a 20 mile running battle back to this city |
| Lexington and Concord | First Battle of the Revolutionary War |
| Ethan Allen & The Green Mountain Boys | Captured cannons from Ft. Ticonderoga |
| Olive Branch Petition | Colonists' Last try at peace with England |
| George Washington | Commander of the Colonists' Army |
| Continental Army | Name of the Colonists' Army |
| Common Sense | Thomas Paine's first pamphlet; encouraged independence |
| Battle of Bunker Hill | Battle in Boston where colonists had a moral victory because they fought well and damaged the superior British army |
| Declaration of Independence | Document that officially made the United States a separate country from Britain |
| Thomas Jefferson | Primary writer of the Declaration of Independence |
| Women and Slaves | 2 groups of people ignored by the Declaration of Independence |
| July 4, 1776 | Date the Declaration of Independence was adopted |
| Second Continental Congress | All signers of the Declaration of Independence were members of this |
| traitors | England considered the signers of the Declaration of Independence to be this |
| John Hancock | First signer of the Declaration of Independence |
| Articles of Confederation | Name of the government of the new country/First form of written government for the United States |
| Patriots | People who thought the United States should be INDEPENDENT |
| Loyalists | People who thought the United States should REMAIN PART OF ENGLAND |
| New Jersey & New York | 2 States where the Continentals lost many battles |
| Canada | Area the Continental Army tried to invade and failed |
| Hessians | British hired many of these to fight the colonists |
| Trenton | George Washington and Continental Army surprised and defeated the Hessians here |
| Crisis | Thomas Paine's 2nd pamphlet that Washington used to inspire his men |
| Battle of Saratoga | Battle that is the turning point of the war |
| Benedict Arnold | General who was the hero at the Battle of Saratoga |
| France | First country to become allies with the U.S. |
| Spain | Another country who helped America in the war |
| Benedict Arnold | American general who became our first traitor |
| Valley Forge | Place where continental Army spent a terrible winter |
| South | Area of the country where the last years of the war were fought |
| John Paul Jones | American commander in our only major naval victory |
| George Rogers Clark | Western Indian Fighter |
| Battle of Yorktown | Place where Washington and the French trapped Cornwallis and the British, forcing them to surrender |
| Treaty of Paris 1763 | Peace Treaty signed at the end of the war |
| Patrick Henry | Who said - "Give me Liberty or Give me Death!!!" |
| George Washington | Who said - "I cannot let my army surrender or the war will be over and all will be lost!" |
| John Paul Jones | Who said - "I have not yet begun to fight!" |
| Benedict Arnold | Who said - "I had to sell information to the British to pay off my debts. Besides, those ungrateful Americans didn't appreciate me enough." |
| Nathan Hale | Who said - "My only regret is that I have but one life to give for my country." |
| Thomas Paine | Who said - "Being ruled by England just isn't Common Sense" "Don't be a Sunshine Patriot" |
| William Prescott - Battle of Bunker Hill | Who said - "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes!!" |
| Cause of the French and Indian War | England and France both wanted to control the Ohio River Valley |
| Force George Washington and the Continental Army to surrender | Despite their superior army, England could never |
| Shays Rebellion | made people realize that the Articles of Confederation were too weak |
| Plan for creating new states | 60,000 free men to become and new state & the new state would have the same rights as old states |
| James Madison | Father of the Constitution |
| Great Compromise | The solution between big and small states over the amount of representation each state would get in Congress |
| 3/5 Compromise | The solution to the conflict between free states and slave states over whether slaves would be counted in the population |
| Federalists | supported the Constitution |
| Bill of Rights | Added to the Constitution so that it would be ratified bu all the states |
| Religion | practices, beliefs and customs by which a group expresses faith or belief in a higher being |
| Republic | state, country or nation in which people elect representatives to govern |
| mercantilism | economic system that increased money in a country's treasury by creating colonies and controlling their trade |
| "pull factor" | a reason or force that causes people to choose to move to a new place |
| "push factor" | a reason or force that causes people to leave their native land |
| Harvard | First college in America founded in 1636 |
| Sons of Liberty | secret society formed to oppose British policies |
| Boston Massacre | 5 colonists were unintentionally killed by British soldiers during this event |
| Northwest Ordinance | Law passed by Confederation Congress to set up government and prohibit slavery in the Northwest Territory |
| Anti Federalists | People who feared the Constitution, thinking it gave too much power to the Federal Government |
| Debt | Money that has been borrowed and must be repaid |
| Tariff | A tax on Imports |
| Subsistence Economy/Farming | Producing just enough for your family to use |
| Cash Crop Economy/Farming | Producing a large amount to sell for a profit |
| Reasons Articles of Confederation failed | States had too much power, federal had no power, federal couldn't tax, federal had no leader |
| Drying or Salting | Meat preservation before refrigeration was invented |
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