Vocabulary:
- Colony- a land ruled by a distant country
- Indentured servant- a person who agreed to work for another person without pay for a certain length of time in exchange for passage to North America\
- Slave- a person held in servitude as the property of another
- Industry- all the businesses that make one kind of product or provide one kind of service
- Farm produce- grains, fruits, and vegetables for sale
- Great Awakening- a religious movement started by a Dutch minister in the Middle Atlantic colonies that called for greater freedom of choice in religion
- Refuge- a safe place
- Apprentice- a person who works for another person
- Artisan- a person skilled in a particular art
- Cash crop- a crop that people grow to sell to others
- Charter- a document that gives a person or group of people official approval to take a certain action
- Debtor- a person who has been in prison for owing money
- Export- to ship goods to other countries for sale
- Immigrants- people who move to another country to live
- Import- to bring goods in from a foreign country to sell
- Indigo- a blue dye obtained from the indigo plant
- Mayflower Compact- a signed agreement to make laws for the good of the colony
- Meeting house- where the men of a village would meet to make the laws and settle the problems of the community
- Merchant- a person who buys and sells goods
- Persecute- to harass or treat with hostility
- Pilgrims- the original settlers of Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts
- Plantation- a large farm on which cash crops are grown, usually cultivated by slaves
- Puritans- a religious group that wished to change some of the religious practices of the Church of England
- Quakers- a religious group (also known as the Society of Friends) that believes all people are equal and basically good
- Textiles- any cloth or goods produced by weaving or knitting
- Tobacco- a plant whose leaves are used for cigarettes, cigars, or pipes
- Tolerance- respect for the beliefs of others that are different from your own
- New England colonies- Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, & New Hampshire
- Middle colonies- New York, Delaware, Pennsylvania, & New Jersey
- Southern colonies- Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia, South Carolina, & Georgia
Web Resources
America’s Story
University of Richmond webquest on colonial America
A compare/contrast website from National Endowment for the Humanities of colonial life to life in the present.
The Learning Page from the Library of Congress
A cyber library with links to resources and activities about colonial life
Resources from Scholastic
13 Colonies Articles
Mr. Nussbaum’s 13 Colonies
Colonial America Printables and Resources
Clickable Map of Thirteen Colonies
Songs and Videos
No Taxation Without Representation Song
School House Rock “The Shot Heard Round the World”