APUSH Review
Colonial America
First European Contact with Native
Americans
Iroquois Confederacy:
Trade and Columbian Exchange:
Political & language differences
hindered Native Americans as they
attempted to respond to the threat
posed by the European colonists
Exchange of foods, plants, animals &
diseases between Europeans and
Natives
Iroquois were the most important &
powerful Native American political
alliance. Successfully ended
generations of tribal warfare.
Native Americans who interacted with
the English became dependent on the
fur trade
Smallpox, influenza and measles
decimated the Native population
Similarities & Differences between
Native Americans & English
settlers
• Similarities:
• Both live in village
communities
• Both sense strong
sense of spirituality
• Both divide labor by
gender
• Both depend on
agricultural
economies
• Differences:
• Natives don’t share
English concept of
private property
• Native children are
often part of mother’s
clan (matrilineal)
Plantation Colonies
• Virginia Colony
– Joint Stock Company
– Primary goal to make profit
– Religious motivation was much less important than in
founding of Maryland (Catholic), Pennsylvania
(Quakers), Rhode Island (freedom of religion) and
Massachusetts (Puritans)
– Tobacco: made Chesapeake colonies survive
– By mid 1700s tobacco is the most valuable cash crop
produced in Southern states
Plantation Colonies & Growth of
Slavery
• From Servitude to Slavery in the Chesapeake
Region 1607-1690:
– Indentured servants played key role in the growth of
tobacco system in VA & MD. Chief source of
agricultural labor
– Planters in VA & MD used the “headright” system to
encourage importation of indentured servants. Pay
passage-get 50 addtl acres
– Number of slaves increased dramatically in the last
quarter of the 17th century
– Slave labor in colonial VA spread rapidly in the late
17th century as Blacks displaced white indentured
servants
Bacon’s Rebellion
• Exposed tensions between the former
indentured servants, who were poor, and
the gentry (planter class) who were rich
• Planters became more suspicious of their
former indentured servants & turned to
slaves as more reliable sources of labor
Growth of Plantation Economies &
Slave Societies 1690-1754
• Slavery developed & spread because the
cultivation of tobacco required inexpensive labor
• Slavery legally established in all 13 colonies by
the early 1700s
• Although enslaved, Africans maintained cultural
practices brought from Africa
• Rice was the most important crop grown in SC
during the mid 18th century
• Stono Rebellion 1739- was one of the earliest
known acts of rebellion against slavery in
America-SC slaves tried to flee to Spanish FL
Puritans
• Key Facts:
– Came to New England in family groups to
escape religious restrictions, political
repression and an economic recession
– Leader was John Winthrop
– Lived in small villages surrounded by
farmland
– Close relationship between church & state
– Wanted trained ministry
Puritans and City on the Hill
• Model Christian society with a sense of mission
• Strict moral conduct
• Religious freedom?- did not tolerate religious
dissent- kicked out Roger Williams and Anne
Hutchinson
• HINT- APUSH writers admire dissidents & think
you should know them too.
• Half way covenant=Puritan zeal lessens. Eases
church membership requirements & allows
baptism of children of baptized but unconverted
Puritans
First Great Awakening
• KEY POINTS!
– Took form of wave of religious
revivals that began in New
England in the 1730s
– “New Light” ministers
advocated an emotional
approach to religious practice.
This weakens the authority of
traditional “Old Light” ministers
and established churches
HINT- Don’t forget about the First
Great Awakening- has appeared on 5
of the last 6 released exams. Close
attention to the consequences of the
First Great Awakening.
• New Light ministers:
– Promoted growth of New Light
institutions (Princeton)
– Sparked renewed missionary
spirit that led to the conversion
of many slaves
– Led to greater appreciation for
the emotional experiences of
faith
– Led to divisions within both the
Presbyterian and
Congregational churches,
resulting in religious diversity
– Led to growing popularity of
itinerant ministers
– Led to increase in number of
women in church
congregations
Penn & Quakers
• William Penn
• Liberal colony w/
representative
assembly elected by
landowners
• Freedom of religion
• Quakers:
• Pacifists- carried no
guns
• Advocated freedom of
worship & greater role
for women in services
• Opposed slavery &
first abolotionists