1. Beringia was a land bridge roughly 1,000 at its greatest, which joined present-day Alaska and eastern Siberia during the Pleistocene ice ages. It is believed that approximately 25,000 years ago, Beringia enabled the population of the Americas from an emigration from Asia (founder effect). 2. Clovis a prehistoric Paleo-Indian culture that appeared at the end of the last glacial period, and are characterized by their namesake “Clovis points” and bone/ivory tools.
They appeared roughly 13,500 to 13,000 years ago. Clovis sites have since been identified throughout much North America (excluding Canada) and even into Northern South America. The significance of the Clovis culture is that they were the first human inhabitants of the New World and can be considered to be the ancestors of all the indigenous cultures of North and South America 3. Eastern Woodlands culture (American Indians before Columbus) The Eastern Woodlands are a cultural area of the people of North America.
Their footprint extended roughly from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River, and from the Great Lakes region to the Gulf of Mexico, which is now the eastern United States and Canada. One of the prominent groups were the Iroquois and the culture were later involved in colonial affairs. In Chapter 1, Howard Zinn mentions how the early explorers remarked that the natives on the mainland (including the above) were generous beyond belief but with the onset of colonization and the horrible relationships between native and alien, that characteristic soon ceased. 4.
Mississippian Society (American Indians before Columbus) One of the most well-known groups is the Cahokia, a Mississippian community based in Illinois who were mound-building Native American culture that flourished in what is now the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States. Mississippian Society had a time span from 800 CE to 1500 CE and began to develop in the Mississippi River Valley. They are historically significant for their large-scale construction and intensive maize agriculture, which allowed support of larger populations and craft specialization.
They also created widespread trade networks, beginnings of a settlement hierarchy, Southeastern Ceremonial Complex also known as the Southern Cult. In Chapter 1, Howard Zinn mentions how the early explorers remarked that the natives on the mainland (including the above) were generous beyond belief but with the onset of colonization and the horrible relationships between native and alien, that characteristic soon ceased. 5. Iroquois, Algonquian tribes
The Iroquois were also known as the Haudenosaunee or the “People of the Longhouse. The Iroquois was a league of the Five Nations, as it was composed of the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca nations. However, after Tuscarora nation joined the League in 1722, the Iroquois became known as the Six Nations. Most archaeologists and anthropologists believe that the League was formed sometime between about 1450 and 1600 by the legendary figure Hiawatha, and the League is still in existence today.
Originally, it was based in what is now the northeastern United States, primarily in what is referred to today as upstate New York west of the Hudson River and through the Finger Lakes region. The Iroquois have made several subtle influences such as “The Iroquois Influence Thesis” as several experts believe in the plausibility of the development of the Articles of Confederation or United States Constitution can be traced back to the governing system of the Iroquois. During the French and Indian War, the Iroquois sided with the British against the French.
The Algonquian Tribes were a rival group to the Iroquois who lived in the New England area as well. They were the main obstacles to the spread of Euro-American settlers and sided with the French during the French and Indian War. 6. Renaissance was a cultural movement of the resurgence of Classical Learning, the development of linear perspective in painting, and a gradual educational reform beginning in Florence and spreading onward to the rest of Europe. The Renaissance started at around the end of the High Middle Ages in what is roughly the 15th to the 17th century.
As mentioned before, a general scholarly consensus is that the Renaissance began in Florence, Tuscany and spread from there to the rest of Europe. The Renaissance led to progress towards the “modern age” with its characteristic efflorescence of moral, social and political philosophy as well as the “rebirth” of human progress. Zinn mentions the Renaissance “as dominated by the religion of the popes, the government of kings, the frenzy for money that marked Western civilization, and its first messenger to the Americas, Christopher Columbus. 7. Technology: printing press, compass The standard printing press with interchangeable characters was created/invented by Johannes Gutenberg around 1440, but a previous printing “block” type had already been invented in ancient China sometime before the 2nd century. It was invented in the Holy Roman Empire by Johannes Gutenberg, and the first book to be printed was the bible. The significance of Gutenberg’s printing press was that it could produce 3,600 pages per workday compared to a pathetic forty by hand printing.
The invention of mechanical movable type printing created the era of mass information release, which drastically altered the society of that time. New (revolutionary) ideas were able to spread pandemically via the new medium that was relatively un-censored, allowing a circulation of information to reach all literate peoples. In the Reformation, the printing press allowed the massive publication of Luther’s unorthodox teachings/ideas, which in turn threatened the power of political and religious authorities. Also a trend of increase in literacy and learning bolstered the emerging middle class.
An indirect effect Gutenberg’s printing press may have had were the peoples’ rise of nationalism. Another technology “invented” was the dry compass, which was invented in medieval Europe around 1300. The dry compass greatly improved the safety and efficiency of travel, especially ocean travel. A compass could be used to calculate heading, used with a sextant to calculate latitude, and with a marine chronometer to calculate longitude. As such, the compass helped to form a more stable and efficient form of travel, especially for sea trade networks. 8.
Prince Henry the Navigator was the third child of King John I of Portugal born the 4th of March 1394 and died 13th of November 1460. During his time, he repopulated a village that he called Tercanabal that was situated in a strategic position for his maritime enterprises and was later called Vila do Infante (Village of the Prince). During his lifetime, Prince Henry sponsored voyages down the coast of Mauretania that were primarily exploration expeditions, and later on, for trading with the nearby town of Lagos, from where they set out with numerous African slaves and goods. 9.
Reconquista was a period of nearly 800 years in the Middle Ages during which several Christian kingdoms fought to expel any non-Christians from the Iberian Peninsula. It spanned from 711 to 1492 when Isabel and Ferdinand, the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, completed the reconquista, sealing it with the Treaty of Granada. Howard Zinn describes the reconquista as how “Spain tied itself to the Catholic Church, expelled all the Jews, and driven out the Moors. ” Without the economic and population drain of the reconquista, the resources could be redirected to other ambitions such as the sponsorship of Christopher Columbus. 0. Christopher Columbus was a navigator, colonizer, and explorer from Genoa, Italy and is most remembered for his 1492 landing in the Americas funded by Isabella I of Castile in search of a western passage to India. His stubbornness led him to believe what he found was India while in reality; it was in the Bahamas archipelago. He explored and endeavored to create a settlement on the island of Hispaniola. With Columbus’s discovery of the New World, it was the start of the Columbian exchange of new world and old world goods, as well as the rush of immigrants for the opportunity of land.
Adverse effects include the decline of the native population (example as documented by Las Casas) and a new class system distinction method based on race. 11. Encomienda System was a plantation system compelling the labor of the native population that was utilized by the Spanish during the Spanish colonization of the Americas. It began in 1503 when the crown began to legally grant encomiendas to soldiers, conquistadors and officials. Initially the system “governing” the natives was to set quotas for gold. If the quotas were not fulfilled, the workers were punished.
With the actualization that there was no gold remaining to find, the Indians were taken onto plantations to work in what were called enconmiendas. The encomienda system also necessitated that the owners of encomiendas to take care of their workers. Zinn also says that the encomienda caused extreme levels of fatigue in women as the men were sent away to mines, so it was not spontaneous that procreation slowed/ceased and the population plummetted. Therefore the population of the natives dwindled because of the inhumane methods of the Old World immigrants. 2. Hernan Cortes is probably one of the most infamous (more well-known in common knowledge) of the Spanish conquistadores who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of mainland Mexico under the rule of the Spanish Crown. He is mentioned by Zinn in chapter 1 as an example of the brutality of the conquistadores as well as the motivation and mindset towards their work. In August 1521, the Aztec Empire subjugated to Spanish control, and Cortes was able to claim it for Spain, renaming it as Mexico City.
At the start of the expedition, Cortes explored and secured the interior of Mexico for colonization, using a woman Malinche (Dona Marina) as a translator. Cortes is significant in history for his part in the downfall of great civilization and start of Spanish colonization of mainland. 13. Aztecs were ethnic groups of central Mexico; particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica but the ruling Aztecs were the Mexica. Howard Zinn mentions the Aztecs, concisely describing their achievements as well as the negative aspect (ritual killings).
The Aztec Empire was prevalent in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology. The Valley of Mexico was the core of Aztec civilization: the capital of the Aztec Triple Alliance, the city of Tenochtitlan, was built upon man-made islands (large-scale chinampas) in Lake Texcoco. With the fall of the Aztec Empire, Cortes founded the new settlement of Mexico City on the site of the ruined Aztec capital and the language Nahuatl is still a prevalent language in central Mexico. 4. Pizarro Like Cortes, Pizarro was a Spanish conquistador, remembered as the conqueror of the Incan Empire and founder of Lima, the modern-day capital of Peru. On 13 February 1502, he sailed from Spain with the appointed Governor of Hispaniola, Nicolas de Ovando y Caceres. Pizarro managed to conquer the Incas even with hopeless odds (based on number of soldiers) and sealed the conquest of Peru by taking Cuzco in 1533. Pizarro ruled Peru for almost a decade and initiated the decline of Inca culture.
Christianity replaced the Incas’ polytheistic religion and Spanish became the official language of Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia and Chile. In Chapter 1, Pizarro is mentioned among others who caused bloodshed and deceit, “for the human race to progress from savagery to civilization”. 15. Incas were like the contemporary Aztec Empire in South America, more notably in the Cuzco area in what is present-day Peru. The Empire lasted from the 1100s to 1533 and became the largest empire in pre-Columbian America.
The Incans created a road system during their conquests; the roads were of such great quality that some are still in use today. The Inca’s descendants are the Quechua-speaking peasants of the Andes. In Peru nearly half the population is of Incan descent. 16. Las Casas was a 16th-century Spanish Dominican priest (November 1484 – 18 July 1566) who arrived with settlers as a priest to convert the faithless but later changed his position to support the natives.
As a settler in the New World he witnessed and was later driven to oppose the poor treatment of the Native Americans by the Spanish colonists and even advocated before King Carlos I of Spain on behalf of rights for the natives. He moved to the island of Hispaniola in 1502 and during his residence there, he wrote A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies (Historia de las Indias). Las Casas was largely responsible for the passage of the new Spanish colonial laws known as the New Laws of 1542, which abolished native slavery for the first time in European colonial.
As an educated priest, he provides a valuable history eyewitness to one of the most important eras in history. Howard Zinn mentions Las Casas several, especially as his position as a “historian” to the changes in the New World. 17. Francisco Vasquez de Coronado was also a Spanish conquistador, who visited New Mexico and other parts of what are now the southwestern United States in an effort to conquer the mythical Seven Cities of Gold which the natives called Cibola & Quivira. His searches dated from 1540 to 1542, nd during that time, he caused a large loss of life among the Pueblos: both from the battles he fought with them and even more from the demands for food that he levied on their fragile economies. 18. Treaty of Tordesillas was mediated by Pope Alexander VI as a solution to the dispute between Portugal and Spain for the newly discovered lands in the west as they both had legitimate claims. The treaty divided the newly discovered lands outside Europe between Spain and Portugal along a meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde islands. It was signed on the 7th of June 1494 and settled both countries’ claims “fairly”.
The Treaty of Tordesillas was originally intended to resolve the dispute that had been created following the return of Christopher Columbus but in the following decades, it became obvious that transatlantic trade was extremely profitable as the colonies provided raw materials for the rising Age of Industrialization as well as the plentiful natural resources (especially that of silver- leads to Spain’s enormous wealth). The treaty also allowed Spain to officially “own” the new lands and was able to colonize the lands without much interruption; at the same time, the damages to the local native population took place. 9. Jacques Cartier was a French explorer who claimed the lands that is now Canada for France. His voyages dated from 1534-1542 and he explored parts of Newfoundland, the areas now the Canadian Atlantic provinces and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. He is especially important for his exploration of the St. Lawrence River, as it was with his efforts that the Canada could be colonized. His aforementioned explorations of the St. Lawrence led to his discovery of the entrance to the St. Lawrence, which in turn opened up the greatest waterway for the European penetration of North America. 20.
Role of the Protestant Reformation on Settlement of Americas The Protestant Reformation was a European Christian reform movement that established Protestantism as a branch of contemporary Christianity in an attempt to change the corrupted nature of the Catholic Church. It began in 1517 when Martin Luther published The Ninety-Five Theses. In the case of the settlement of the Americas, different branches of Protestants migrated to the New World Colonies in an effort to freely profess their faith. One such movement: the Puritan movement was a Calvinist branch and strove for reform in the Church of England.
When the attempt failed, an emigration to America by Puritan separatists from the Anglican Church of England was taken; the separatists fled first to Holland, and then later to America, to establish the English colonies of New England. These separatists are known as the Pilgrims. After establishing a colony at Plymouth (which would become part of the colony of Massachusetts) in 1620, they would be a historically dominant Protestant influence in the area. 21. Sir Walter Raleigh was an English man largely responsible for popularizing tobacco in the colonies.
In 1594, he led an expedition to find the City of Gold, whose accounts have led to the tale of El Dorado. With the passing of Queen Elizabeth, he quickly lost favor and was imprisoned and later executed. In 1584 he planned to settle the “Colony and Dominion of Virginia”. He reached Roanoke Island and left settlers there under Governor John White. White returned in the future only to find the colonists gone. Roanoke Island is therefore referred as the Lost Colony. However, this settlement led the way to subsequent settlements including Jamestown in the 1600s. 22. New Mexico was an early Spanish colony.
Coronado, a conquistador, first explored the area that encompassed the colony. The first Spanish settlement in New Mexico was founded by Onate in 1598 and named San Juan de los Caballeros. He also oversaw the Royal Road that connected his colony to the rest of New Spain. Santa Fe was established in 1609 by Pedro de Peralta and has since functioned as the capital city and seat of government. The colonization of New Mexico led Spanish colonization in the Americas as well as further colonization in North America. 23. New France included France’s colonial holdings in North America from 1534 (Cartier’s charting of the St.
Lawrence) to 1763 (after it gave up land to Spain and Britain following the Seven Years War). New France encompassed land between Newfoundland to the Rockies and from the Hudson Bay to the Gulf of Mexico. Samuel de Champlain, along with others, founded Quebec in 1608 as the second establishment in New France. Champlain created an alliance with the Huron and Algonquin to help travel further south to what is now Lake Champlain and defeat the Iroquois. 24. Coureurs de bois were French fur trappers and traders who operated without permission from the French government. Their climax was in the late 1600s and early 1700s in New France.
It was a profitable business and the French needed to legitimize traders by issuing permits to some coureurs de bois, and they became known as voyageurs. Voyageurs allied with merchants who then monopolized the fur trade. Fur supplies dwindled in the New World just as other natural resources were lucratively used by other European colonial powers. 25. Engages were French-Canadian men paid to be as a “valet/bodyguard” for fur traders. They were utilized during the 18th and 19th centuries, engages were useful for navigating rivers, finding resources, and interacting with Native Americans.
They were valued by fur traders and were given a steady salary. This example of Native American-European interaction displays how Europeans often used frontiersmen to their own business advantage. 26. New Netherland was the Dutch settlement over the mid Atlantic states of modern America during the 1600s. The Dutch set up posts near the east coast in the interests of fur trapping and trading. The Republic of Seven United Netherlands eventually dissolved and became part of English holdings after Ft. Amsterdam was surrendered. 27.
Henry Hudson was an Englishman who explored the New World in the 1600s under the Dutch East India Company. He explored the Hudson River, Strait, and Bay while en route to finding the Northwest Passage. He faced a mutiny when no one agreed to press west with him. His exploration laid the foundation of the Dutch colonies and fur trade. 28. Beaver Wars were conflicts fought between the Iroquois (aided by the Dutch and English) and the Algonquin (aided by the French). These series of conflicts took place mostly in the eastern North America during the mid 1600s.
The Iroquois Confederacy eventually won and gained more land from the Algonquin, which disturbed the set boundaries of other tribes such as the Huron and Erie and pushed other tribes west of the Mississippi River and south. Soon the Iroquois were left with only their English allies who faced increasing French opposition. 29. Jamestown was the first English settlement in the modern United States. Founded in 1607 in modern day Virginia, Jamestown was established near Powhatan territory. John Smith is credited with trying to mend relations with the Powhatan as well as keep the settlers alive in the beginning.
The Virginia Company, chartered in 1606 was the pair of joint stock companies (Plymouth Company and London Company) that resulted in the English colonization and settlement of the eastern coast of modern America. Howard Zinn mentions Jamestown as it is a historically important site for the time period as well as the settlement’s relationship to Powhatan as well as others. 30. Powhatan Confederacy was a part of the Algonquin tribes that occupied land in the Virginia Territory during the settlement of Jamestown in the 1600s. Wahunsunacawh (aka Chief Powhatan) organized the confederacy which held land in eastern Virginia.
Their affiliation with the English settlers eventually led to their downfall as more English encroached on their land. The chief’s daughter Pocahontas married John Rolfe, a tobacco planter, and the small period of peace did nothing to stop later annihilation of the natives by the English. 31. Joint-stock company is a company or partnership that has two participants. Stocks or charters are given to each holder in exchange for financial contribution. These holders can also sell or transfer their stocks. The first joint-stock companies used in the Americas were the Virginia and Plymouth companies in the 1600s.
The joint-stock companies allowed for safer investments as well as business partnerships in the future, setting up a capitilistic economic system. 32. Proprietary colony is one in which land owners are given rights that are normally retained by the state. In the 1600s, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey were all examples. Proprietors were given total control over land and were given judicial authority as well by order of the King of England. Therefore, land and law were put in the hands of a few like William Penn of Pennsylvania rather than a chartered colony.
Eventually this form of ruling went against English favor and colonies were then converted to crown colonies subject to a royal governor appointed by the king. 33. A Royal colony was one where the government appointed officials to rule the colony in the interests of the mother colony. This differed from charter colonies, where the individuals or trading companies were given control by means of a charter issued by the crown. Rhode Island and Virginia were charter colonies whereas royal colonies like New York had appointed governors. 34. John Smith was an Englishman who helped found the colony of Virginia and also served as colonial governor.
In 1608-1609 he also led expeditions to the Chesapeake Bay. He is most remembered for his efforts in 1607 to keep Jamestown alive by meeting with Chief Powhatan and the Powhatan Confederacy as well as his encounter with Pocahontas. Howard Zinn mentions Smith with his involvement with the Starving time in 1610 as well as the respectful relationship between him and Powhatan. 35. John Rolfe was successful with harvesting tobacco as an export crop in Virginia. He also married Pocahontas, daughter of Chief Powhatan. During his life in the 1600s, he helped lead Virginia as an exporting colony through the profitable business of tobacco.
His marriage to Pocahontas also stemmed English-Native relations, although it did not settle ultimate disputes between the two groups. 36. Pocahontas was the daughter of Chief Powhatan and helped dissolve some tense situations between her Powhatan tribe and the newly arrived English settlers. She helped John Smith talk to her father’s people about peace and even saved his life. She later married John Rolfe and was baptized. Her association with Rolfe and the English allowed for years of subdued peace until her death. 37. House of Burgesses was a legislative group elected to represent the colony of Virginia in 1619.
As the first representative assembly in the Americas, the House of Burgesses settled disputes, issued contracts, and even declared war. George Yeardley helped issue the election of burgesses to the assembly. The House of Burgess is mentioned several times by Howard Zinn in the chapters especially in correlation to Bacon and his rebellion. 38. Tobacco was first cultivated by Rolfe in Virginia during the early 1600s and proved to be a profitable export crop for the colonies. It helped Virginia finally begin a new business after rough years first settling Jamestown.
Tobacco became a product of high demand so slaves were now needed. African slaves proved to work better than Native Americans, so the slave trade began to flourish. The English crown had a monopoly on the tobacco because of their rights to the colonies, and therefore they controlled most of the world supply. Howard Zinn includes a section portraying how the colonists were “cheated” of tobacco and other products potential worth, as they had to accept merchant’s offers while said merchants could ask and receive their asking price in the Old World. 39.
Starving time in Virginia refers to the winter of 1609-1610 in Jamestown. The Powhatan felt that their neglect to the starvation of the English settlers was necessary in order to facilitate their departure from the settlement. Since the English did not cultivate enough food crops, they relied on trade with the Native Americans. The Powhatan were in a position to cut off ties with the English and to effectively starve them to death. Of the 200 original settlers, 140 died during the winter. With John Smith’s absence, the Powhatan isolated the English and even attempted to besiege Jamestown.
Rolfe’s eventual cultivation of tobacco allowed for the settlement’s improvement to self-sustainability, preventing any such neglect from the Powhatan in the future. 40. Maryland was a proprietary colony begun in 1632 under control of Calvert from the line of Lords Baltimore (charter issued by Charles I of England) and acted as a safe holding for English Catholics. The introduction of tobacco meant the need for African slaves. Servants and slaves contributed to a large percentage of the population; white servants alone were 10%.
Due to proprietary control, half the servants (even those who became free) were landless. Soon Maryland expanded crop production to include wheat. The colony also became one of the leading proponents for the Revolution in the 1700s. 41. The Calvert Family was a famous Maryland family that produced the first Lord Baltimore as well as the very first Governor of England. George and Cecil Calvert were the first and second Lords Baltimore, which refers to the Baron Baltimore, an extinct title in the Peerage of Ireland. This is namesake of Baltimore, Maryland.
The Calvert Family would produce six Lord Baltimores’. More importantly, Leonard Calvert was the first governor of Maryland. Leonard was of much importance for Maryland and the United States as a whole, as he was the one who received the correct patent for Maryland to be established, though he died before the patent could be executed. 42. Act of Toleration: When Leonard Calvert died in 1647, Thomas Greene took over temporarily as Maryland’s governor. England’s Lord Baltimore, hearing of issues troubling Maryland under Greene’s control, appointed William Stone, who was a puritan, as Governor.
Under his influence the Maryland Assembly passed an Act concerning religion in 1649. It revealed how merciless Christendom was toward the nonbeliever, and stated quite bluntly that denying the Holy Spirit, the trinity, God himself, or any Christian icon whatsoever was punishable by death. Lord Baltimore acquiesced to this immediately. 43. Indentured Servants and the Headright System: The headright system was initiated in the early colony of Jamestown because of a massive labor shortage seen through the advent of the tobacco economy. To solve this, in 1618, the headright system was introduced.
It provided colonists already residing in Virginia with two “headrights” or two 50-acre tracts of land, whereas new settlers who had paid on their own to get into Virginia received one 50-acre tract. Every settler received one, so it was encouraged for families to tie themselves together. Indentured servitude began because wealthy colonists could accumulate land tracts by paying for the passage of poor individuals trying to migrate. The poor settlers would then work off the debt they owed to their benefactor of sorts. It was generally a service of give to seven years.
Identured Servants were one of the earlier trials in recruiting workers for desperately short-handed settlements. In Howard Zinn’s writings, the topic of identured servants comes up several times: The identured servants were basically slaves in the colonial environment as they had little-to-no rights and on one account, wrote back advising any servants seeking employment to not come to the Americas. Both systems were devised to aid the settlers but both did not work out effectively. 44. Puritans were an important group of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Generally, it is known to have been founded by a group of exiles from the clergy shortly following Elizabeth I’s ascension to the throne. The puritans as a whole felt that the English Reformation had not gone far enough into reforming the Church of England, and believed that there should be secular governor’s answering to God in control of various areas. They also believed (as a cultural consequence) in the blasphemy of acting as a public entertainment (although ironically [also hypocritically] a famous puritan John Milton, was well known for his Verse Drama).
Puritans had great importance in the United States in that they founded several colonies including the famed Massachusetts Bay Colony. 45. Howard Zinn tells of the Pilgrims migration to remote land, and tells of the fact that the land they came to was not uninhabited, but rather full of native Indians. John Winthrop, the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, declared the land a “vacuum” and said that the Indians only had a natural right to it, rather than a real “civil” right. The pilgrims, or puritans, even appealed to the Bible, Zinn says, to justify their use of force in taking the land.
It is common knowledge the relations that would form eventually between these two groups. In a more general sense, the Pilgrims were simply a group of English Separatists, mostly uneducated and illiterate, who sought to live their lives strictly by the Bible without persecution from the English Church. When these Pilgrims searched for new land, they ended up sighting Cape Cod, the area of Provincetown. Since they had no legal right to the land, as Zinn says in his book, they had to draw up a document. 46 .
Separatists, alternatively known at the time as Independents, were a very extreme sect of the Puritans. They wished to either separate from the Church of England, or destroy it altogether. Their complaints lay mostly in that they believed the Church of England had retained too many elements of the Roman Catholic Church. The Separatists were also fed up with the lack of restriction on public behavior in the colonies. As their views drastically challenged that of the Church of England, they began to fall under persecution, which turned out to be a very important event in U.
S. History. In 1608, a large group of Separatists sought to avoid persecution by escaping to Holland, where toleration was abundant. This group of fleeing Separatists became known as Pilgrims. The Dutch society was so welcoming, however, that the Pilgrims began to feel that had little control over even their children, and set out for a more remote location in 1620. This resulted in a very important location, the Plymouth Colony. 47. The Mayflower Compact: When the Pilgrims landed farther north than intended, in modern day Massachusetts, they encountered natives.
They had no true right to the land, so they had to make up a legal document allowing their rule over it. Thus, 41 of the pilgrims on board signed the Mayflower compact, declaring the land they had reached to be theirs by divine right. This was, naturally, a monumental document in United States history, for it would help establish the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and would lead to good relations with the natives, and the spread of culture. 48. William Bradford was one leader of the settlers at the Plymouth colony. He was repeatedly elected as governor of the colony after John Carver died.
His journal Of Plymouth Colony has been of great import to the History of the United States as it described the events that took place in and around the colony involving the settlers’ relations amongst themselves and the natives. Howard Zinn relates a raid by John Mason and other Englishmen on a Pequot village through Bradford’s journal. The journal has been instrumental in giving adequate history on the Plymouth plantation and the history of Massachusetts. 49. Massachusetts Bay Company, alternatively known as the Bay Colony, was an English Settlement in New England located on the modern day cities of Salem and Boston.
The area was originally settled by a Puritans, although not all original migrants were Puritans. Aided by the Great Migration, the Company grew in size, and many important figures in history flocked to the area, including Roger Williams, who would later create the colony that is now Rhode Island. Also important to U. S. History was the fact that the Massachusetts Bay eventually joined together with Plymouth Colony, Connecticut Colony, and New Haven Colony in the New England Confederation. 50.
John Winthrop was one of the governors of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, as he was the one who obtained the Royal Charter from James II to bring a group of Puritans to the new world. He used the bible and other resources to drive off the natives from the settlement (declaring Indian land a legal “vacuum”), as Howard Zinn notes in his A People’s History of the United States of America. Though it is a lesser known part of Winthrop’s life, he did produce several historical accounts during his time as governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony that have been very important in cataloguing the history of the USA.
Most notably was a sermon he gave on the voyage to the new world, known as A Modell of Christian Charity. 51. Great Migration: Though it can refer to the migrations of African American’s in the early 20th century, the term Great Migration generally refers to the massive migration of Puritans to the new world from 1620 to 1640. People usually came in family groups, looking to settle in America free from the religious persecution they felt under the Church of England.
Many came on the Winthrop Fleet, led of course by John Winthrop, and this took place in 1630. It delivered a total of 700 settlers to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. This Great Migration was a major cause in the growth of the New England colonies, which led to deep religious and historical impacts on the United States of America. 52. Pequot War (AKA Pequotyo War) took place from 1634-1638 and was a conflict between the Pequot tribe, native to the Massachusetts Bay area, and an alliance of the Massachusetts Bay Colony with the Plymouth Colony.
Also on the side of the English were two small Native American tribes (the Narragansett and the Mohegan tribes). The war was precipitated by many things, included the large control of fur trade that the English possessed, and political divisions that had formed between the Pequot and other native tribes. After many raids by both sides, The Mystic Massacre occurred. This saw the destruction by fire of hundreds of Pequot men and women, as well as soldiers. This even broke the spirit of the Pequot tribe, but they refused to surrender.
Eventually, all the Pequot warriors were wiped out. The war was a culmination of the relations between English settlers and native tribes, that is of great import to the history of the United States. The Mystic Massacre was even featured in a History Channel documentary: 10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America. 53. The Chesapeake colonies compared to New England colonies: Firstly, the New England colonies covered the states of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire, whereas the Chesapeake colonies mostly spanned Virginia and Maryland.
The New England colonies had large amounts of timber resources they could use to form ships, and the Chesapeake colonies experienced great cultivations opportunities of tobacco, a valuable cash-crop. Perhaps the most glaring difference between the two areas was that Virginia had established the Church of England as their state religion, where all of the New England colonies had strove to break away from the Church of England, forming the Puritans. 54. The Middle Colonies were one of the areas of the Thirteen British Colonies.
The colonies were known also as the Bread Colonies or the Breadbasket Colonies due to their large production of wheat, grain, and oats. After the American Revolution, the Middle Colonies became the present-day states of Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware, and New Jersey. The eighteenth century in the Middle Colonies proved important to U. S. History, when a large influx of immigrants arrived. Due to the growing population, more religions came into view, and they were protected under the “freedom of religion” laws, which were very unusual in comparison to the other British colonies. 5. William Penn and Pennsylvania: William Penn was a man of great importance to the history of the United States. He is widely renowned modernly for his founding of the state of Pennsylvania, and the development and construction of Philadelphia, a prosperous city today. On the societal side of things, Penn was an early proprietor of democracy and religious freedom, which was displayed in his ability to maintain good relations with the Lenape Indians, native to the land he was settling. The land on which Penn founded Pennsylvania was given to him by James II of England in 1682.
It was originally founded as a basis for Penn to achieve religious unity amongst otherwise feuding religious beliefs, such as between the Puritans and Quakers, the latter of whom Penn was a champion. 56. Connecticut and Thomas Hooker: Thomas Hooker was a distinguished Puritan colonial leader who founded the Colony of Connecticut after a series of strong disagreements with the Puritans of Massachusetts. The main issue at hand for Hooker was the suppression of Puritan suffrage displayed in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and thus he led 100 men in 1636 to found Hartford, Connecticut.
His importance for the history of religion in the United States is vast, as he became known as a universal leader of Christian Suffrage. More notably, he had a hand in creating the “Fundamental Orders of Connecticut” which was one of the first constitutions ever written. Though, as Zinn notes, the relations formed with native Pequot Indians in Connecticut was all but amiable, as Hooker and his people found various trivial events as excuses to declare war on them. 57. Roger Williams and Rhode Island: In the same year that Hooker founded Connecticut, Roger Williams founded the colony of Rhode Island.
Williams was an American Protestant Theologian who some consider to be the true pioneer of religious freedom and separation of church and state. He and Thomas Hooker generally had agreement on religious issues, though they differed greatly when it came to Native Americans. Where Hooker found himself declaring war, Williams was able to advocate fairness amongst the natives, which Howard Zinn also notes in Chapter 1. Though Williams was not the first person in history to advocate the separation of church and state, he may have been the first to create a place where it could be practiced.
Inspired by The General Baptists in England, two of whose pastors died in prison for their beliefs in 1611, he founded Rhode Island as a beacon for religious freedom and suffrage. 58. Anne Hutchinson was a champion of religious tolerance and freedom as well as women’s suffrage in the colony of Rhode Island in Massachusetts. She formed, essentially, a bible study group for women, though it eventually appealed to men, where she offered her own interpretations of scripture. She fought for the role of women in society to increase, which, under her, it did.
Unfortunately for her, her outspokenness on very controversial issues at the time led her to have several trials before her death. Her first, in 1638, was presided over by John Winthrop, and she was charged with “traducing the ministers. ” Called a heretic many a time during these years, many people had great disdain for her. Finally, in March of that same year, the First Church of Boston conducted a religious trial in which Hutchinson was charged with Blasphemy. In this case, she was found guilty. Her importance lived on then as well as now, as even in prison her followers continued their beliefs even if it meant migration. 9. King Philip’s War: Also known by the names of the Metacom’s War or Metacom’s rebellion, King Philip’s War was an armed conflict between the Native American of New England and the English colonists with their Native American allies. Beginning is 1675, the war was named after the leader of the Native American forces Metacomet, whom the English named King Philip. In the south alone, 600 Colonists and 3000 Native Americans were killed, including Metacomet himself. Being defeated, the remaining Bands of Indians in the north were able to sign a treaty in 1678.
Howard Zinn notes in Chapter 1 that the colonists were clearly the aggressors, though they claimed they attacked the Indians for preventive purposes. The damage of the war was not as large as it was thought, as the New England Colonies quickly built back all things broken. The war did however shake religious foundations, as many upper class colonists broke from the Puritan church to the Anglican Church. 60. New York and the Duke of York: In 1673, the Duke of York, more famously known as James II of England, bought the grants of Long Island and other islands on the New England coast.
The following year, in an armed expedition, the Duke of York took possession of New Amsterdam, which he named Province of New York after himself. The Treaty of Breda validated the conquest in 1667, though Colonial Charter had already established the province three years earlier. Issues with natives were scarce, for the most part, and the Province of New York followed its historical evolution into the area that it is today. 61. Bacon’s Rebellion: Bacon’s Rebellion was a 1676 uprising in the colony of Virginia as a protest against Native American raids on the frontier.
It was led by Nathaniel Bacon, and was the first rebellion in the American Colonies in which colonists took part. William Berkeley, the Royal Governor of Virginia, refused to go against the Indians, so Bacon set up his own party to intercept the next Native American raid. He distributed Brandy to all the men, and he was thus elected leader. Bacon and his company went south and were able to convince the Occaneechi tribe to attack another native tribe, the Susquehanock. After the two tribes fought, Bacon and his men killed nearly all the men, women, and children remaining.
When they returned to Virginia, Berkeley had called for new elections to better the situations with Indians. In July of 1676, Bacon made a document calling for the removal or extermination of all Indians on the land. The document also greatly criticized the power of William Berkeley. Tensions built, but the last straw broke when Bacon attacked a friendly tribe, the Pamunkey. Bacon did not stop there; he took nearly 500 men to burn Jamestown, the capital, to the ground. Berkeley fled across the nearest river, as he was outnumbered, to wait for an English Naval Squadron.
Before that squadron came, Bacon died of Dysentery. As a result, much support was lost. In the end, the rebellion was quelled, and Berkeley hanged 23 men. Later, though, Charles II did an investigation of the event, and removed Berkeley from power and had him taken back to England. 62. Culpepper’s Rebellion: Culpepper’s Rebellion was an early uprising in North Carolina against proprietary rule. It was originally caused by the government attempting to enforce the British Navigation Acts, which were trade laws that denied the colonists a free market outside England and placed heavy duties on commodities.
The colonists chose to take out their resentment on a customs collector named Thomas Miller. Led by John Culpepper and George Durant, the colonists imprisoned Miller and other officials, convened their own government, and elected Culpepper governor. This succeeded for nearly two years in which Culpepper had complete governance over North Carolina. He was, eventually, removed, but he was never punished. 63. Leisler’s Rebellion: An uprising late in the 17th century, it occurred when militia captain Jacob Leisler took control of lower New York in 1689.
It occurred in the middle of the Glorious Revolution, and was a protest against the policies of James II. Leisler’s rule in New York was a complete opposite of the rule of James II, as he created his policies around just that. It was said Leisler enacted a government of direct representation, and even moved to redistribute wealth to the poor. Eventually, English troops entered the city and an armed conflict ensued. Leisler’s troops eventually surrendered, and he and 11 other people were arrested for treason. He was tried and found guilty, and was hanged with his son-in-law.
