AP U.S. History
Kuhn, Steele
Unit One
Aug-September-Oct 2020
UNIT 1 OVERVIEW & STUDY GUIDE
EXPLORATION OF THE AMERICAS – COLONIAL HISTORY TO 1750
Time frame: 3 weeks
Required reading:
1. Brinkley: Chapters 1, 2, 3
2. Greene: “Two Models of English Colonization, 1600-1660”
3. Degler: “Were the Puritans Puritanical?” and “Rights of Englishmen”
4. Apologize for Columbus?
5. Class documents Consider getting AMSCO
Assessments: 1. Class discussions on readings, group work, writings
2. Unit one assessment (objective and writing)
Important terms, concepts, and names:
Common practices and spiritual values of the native tribes, location of the following Indian
nations: Iroquois, Wampanoag, Pequot, Powhatan, Cherokee, and Aztec; the Renaissance,
Reformation, end of the plague, maritime technology, the early Trans-Atlantic slave trade,
Columbus, conquistadores, St. Augustine, encomiendas, Pueblo revolt/Pope’s rebellion (pg.
84-85), Columbian exchange; early French and Dutch settlements, Roanoke, London Company;
proprietary, royal, and corporate colonies; Virginia Company, Jamestown, starving time, John
Smith, John Rolfe, tobacco, House of Burgesses, headright system, indentured servants;
Plymouth Plantation, Mayflower Compact, “Model of Christian Charity, Puritan Separatists
(Plymouth) and Non-Separatist (MA Bay), the Dominion of New England, Coode’s Rebellion
and Leisler’s Rebellion, beginning of salutary neglect under William and Mary, mercantilism,
Navigation Acts, the rise of self-rule, Zenger trial, the First Great Awakening, Jonathan Edwards
(“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”), the Enlightenment; immigration and population
trends from 1607-1750, compare and contrast the following: rural vs. “urban” life, northern vs.
southern life, rights of men vs. women
New England colonies, (MA, CT, RI, NH)
theocracy, Massachusetts Bay, John Winthrop, “City Upon a Hill,” Anne Hutchinson, Roger
Williams, Pequot War, covenant, town meetings, health characteristics, patriarchal family
structure, King Philip's War, cause and effect of witchcraft trials, Fundamental Orders of
Connecticut
Middle colonies (NY, PA, NJ, DE)
English conquest of New Netherlands, William Penn & beliefs of the Quakers, port cities
Chesapeake and Southern colonies (VA, MD, NC, SC, GA)
Virginia House of Burgesses, light influence of religion, George Calvert & Catholic haven in
MD, Maryland Toleration Act; short life expectancy, plantation system, class conflict, Bacon’s
Rebellion, slave culture, Stono Rebellion, cash crops (tobacco, rice, and indigo), indentured
servitude moving toward race-based slave labor
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Questions for self-assessment:
1. Compare and contrast England’s early efforts at colonization to Spain’s. Or, compare and
contrast England’s early efforts at colonization to France’s or the Netherland’s. Be sure to
take into account the incentives and sequence of the events.
2. Although New England and the Chesapeake region were both settled by people of English
origin, by 1700 the regions had evolved into two distinct societies. Why did this difference in
development occur? Or, to what extent did the Middle Colonies and the Deep South develop
two distinct societies?
3. The natural environment was the most important factor in developing the American colonial
culture. Assess.
4. Throughout the colonial period, economic motives had more to do with the founding of
British North America than did religious concerns. Assess.
Core Content Reiterated
Rebellions:
Bacon’s Rebellion (1676), Pueblo Revolt (1680-92), Coode’s Rebellion and Leisler’s Rebellion
(1688-9) and the Stono Rebellion (1739) all indicated something about instability in England’s
colonial empire, even in places largely populated by Englishmen.
Bacon’s Rebellion was first a fight between “backwoodsmen” and Native Americans, both the
Doeg and the Susquehannock—although the colonists did not distinguish between the two. The
Rebellion then turned into a domestic insurrection: a fight against the colonial government itself.
Bacon, a wealthy landowner but representing the grievances of the frontiersmen, led a group of
poor whites and blacks, mostly ex-indentured servants, to Jamestown, which they burned to the
ground. After Bacon’s Rebellion, Virginia quickly oriented toward a full-fledged race-based
system of slavery; nearly all colonies used indentured servitude less, too, though partly because
birth rates had declined and wages had increased in England, taking away some incentives for
the poor of England to travel to North America.
The Pueblo revolt was against the Spanish empire, at first successful but a failure in twelve
years. Like England, Spain faced resistance and rebellion, and in this instance, responded with a
military campaign to mostly crush the Pueblo, but the Natives’ culture was not extinguished, as
they adapted their strategy to one of careful accommodation with the Spanish.
Coode and Leisler led rebellions against Catholics in Maryland and New York, respectively. The
Catholics had been preferred during the brief reign of James II. Once he was overthrown during
the Glorious Revolution and Anglicanism was again ascendant, colonists took that transition as
license to attack the established Catholics.
The Stono Rebellion was a failed slave rebellion. The enslaved who rebelled tried to get to Fort
Moise in Florida, seeking freedom. Instead they were caught, executed, and their heads were put
on sticks as a message to others to never rebel. But the enslaved always rebelled, just not with
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weapons in a full-fledged rebellion (at least not again until 1831, Nat Turner’s Rebellion). Degler
will devote two articles to the topic of the enslaved populations’ desire to rebel, even if unarmed.
Distinctly American phenomena
Zenger Trial: the birth of a greater freedom of the press
Erosion of primogeniture (the first-born son gets all the land) and entails (properties cannot be
broken up). Both of these English laws, which kept land in the hands of the wealthy, eroded over
time.
Iron Act, 1750: Britain banned colonists from manufacturing alloys of iron. An instance of
mercantilism perhaps stifling “American” economic independence. More on that theme later.
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