Student Study Guide for the American Pageant
CHAPTER 2 The Planting of English America, 1500–1733
Chapter Summary
The defeat of the Spanish Armada and the exuberant
spirit of Elizabethan nationalism finally drew
England into the colonial race. After some early
failures, the first permanent English colony was
established at Jamestown, Virginia. Initially it faced
harsh conditions and Indian hostility, but tobacco
cultivation finally brought prosperity and population
growth. It also guaranteed colonists the same rights
as Englishmen and developed an early form of
representative self-government.
The early encounters of English settlers with the
Powhatans in Virginia established many of the
patterns that characterized later Indian-white relations
in North America. Indian societies underwent their
own substantial changes as a result of warfare,
disease, trade, and the mingling and migration of
Indians from the Atlantic coast to inland areas.
Other colonies were established in Maryland and the
Carolinas. South Carolina flourished by establishing
close ties with the British sugar colonies in the West
Indies. It also borrowed the West Indian pattern of
harsh slave codes and large plantation agriculture.
North Carolina developed somewhat differently, with
fewer slaves and more white colonists who owned
small farms. Latecomer Georgia served initially as a
buffer against the Spanish and a haven for debtors.
Despite some differences, all the southern colonies
depended on staple plantation agriculture for their
survival and on the institutions of indentured
servitude and African slavery for their labor. With
widely scattered rural settlements, they had relatively
weak religious and social institutions and tended to
develop hierarchical economic and social orders.
GLOSSARY - To build your social science vocabulary, familiarize yourself with the following terms:
Nationalism - Fervent belief and loyalty given to the political unit of the nation-state.
Primogeniture - The legal principle that the oldest son inherits all family property or land.
Joint-stock companies - An economic arrangement by which a number of investors pool their capital for
investment.
Charter - A legal document granted by a government to some group or agency to implement a stated purpose, and
spelling out the attending rights and obligations.
Census - An official count of population, often also including other information about the population.
feudal - Concerning the decentralized medieval social system of personal obligations between rulers and ruled.
Indentured servant - A poor person obligated to a fixed term of unpaid labor, often in exchange for a benefit such
as transportation, protection, or training.
Toleration - Originally, religious freedom granted by an established church to a religious minority.
Squatter - A frontier farmer who illegally occupied land owned by others or not yet officially opened for
settlement.
Buffer - In politics, a small territory or state between two larger, antagonistic powers and intended to minimize the
possibility of conflict between them.
Melting pot - Popular American term for an ethnically diverse population that is presumed to be "melting" toward
some eventual commonality.
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Chapter 2 Study Guide (continued)
Locate the following places by reference number on the map:
____ Georgia
____ North Carolina
____ Roanoke Island
____ Pennsylvania
____ Virginia
____ Savannah
____ Jamestown
____ South Carolina
____ Maryland
____ Chesapeake Bay
The settlement founded in the early 1600s that was the most important for the future United States was (pg. 25)
___________________________________.
Describe how the Irish were treated under the reign of Elizabeth I: (pg. 26) ______________________________________
_____________________________________________.
Identify the following persons and their accomplishment:
Francis Drake - ______________________________________________________________________________________.
Walter Raleigh - ______________________________________________________________________________________.
Humphrey Gilbert - __________________________________________________________________________________.
Explain the consequences of England's defeat of the Spanish Armada (pg. 27) ____________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________.
Arrange the following events in chronological order: (A) Reformation, (B) founding of Jamestown colony, (C) Restoration,
(D) defeat of the Spanish Armada, (E) colony of Georgia founded. (pg. 25-35)
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Chapter 2 Study Guide (continued)
Explain how the defeat of the Spanish Armada contributed to England’s colonial ambitions in America: (pg. 27)
_________________________________________________________________________________________________.
Describe how England’s first permanent colonies in America were financed: (pg. 28) _____________________________
________________________________________________.
Explain the significance of the Charter of the Virginia Company? (pg. 28-29) ___________________________________
__________________________________________________________________.
Describe what life was like for the settlers in the early years at Jamestown: (pg. 29) ______________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________.
What role did Captain John Smith play at Jamestown? (pg. 29) _______________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________.
What led the Virginia Company to call for “a perpetual war without peace or truce”? ______________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________.
Explain why the native peoples of Virginia (Powhatans) fell victim to the Europeans? (pg. 31) ______________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________.
After the purchases of slaves in 1619 by Jamestown settlers, additional purchases of Africans were few because? (pg. 33)
_______________________________________________________________________
Explain the effects of the cultivation of tobacco in Jamestown? (pg. 32-33) _____________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________.
Explain the importance of the summoning of Virginia's House of Burgesses? (pg. 33) _____________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
What was a major reason for the founding of the Maryland colony in 1634? (pg. 33) _____________________________
_______________________________________________________________.
What did Maryland's Act of Toleration accomplish? (pg. 34) ________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________.
Why was Tobacco considered a poor man's crop? (pg. 34) ________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________.
Why was Sugar called a rich man's crop? (pg. 34-35) _____________________________________________________.
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Chapter 2 Study Guide (continued)
The statutes governing slavery in the North American colonies originated in? (pg. 35-36) ________________________.
What were the two major exports of the Carolinas in the early 1700’s? (pg. 37-38) ______________________________.
Why did African slaves become so valuable in the Carolinas? (pg. 38) ______________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________.
The busiest seaport in the southern colonies was? (pg. 38) ______________________________________.
In what ways were North Carolina and Rhode Island similar? (pg. 38) _______________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________.
For what specific purposes was the colony of Georgia founded? (pg. 39) _____________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________.
The Iroquois Confederacy was founded in the late _________ in what is now _____________________ State. (pg. 40-41)
Test Practice
All of the following European imports threatened the Iroquois' existence except (pg. 40-41)
A) religion. B) whiskey. C) diseases. D) muskets. E) all threatened their existence.
The purpose of the periodic “mourning wars” was (pg. 41)
A) to avenge the deaths of Huron warriors. B) to stop the spread of European settlements. C) the result of diplomatic
failures among the Indians. D) to break up the Iroquois Confederacy. E) the large-scale adoption of captives and refugees.
The Iroquois leader who helped his nation revive its old customs was (pg. 41)
A) Powhatan. B) Handsome Lake. C) Pocahontas. D) De La Warr. E) Pontiac.
Georgia grew very slowly for all of the following reasons except (pg. 39)
A) its unhealthy climate. B) early restrictions on black slavery. C) Spanish attacks. D) John Oglethorpe's leadership.
E) lack of a plantation economy.
Virginia, Maryland, the Carolinas, and Georgia were similar in that they were all (pg. 39)
A) economically dependent on the export of a staple crop.
B) proprietary colonies.
C) founded after the restoration of Charles II to the throne.
D) founded as refuges for persecuted religious sects in England.
E) able to live in peace with the Native Americans.
By 1750, all the southern plantation colonies (pg. 39)
A) based their economies on the production of staple crops for export.
B) practiced slavery.
C) provided tax support for the Church of England.
D) had few large cities.
E) all of the above.
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