Colonial America Flashcards

Grade 4 · Social Studies · Flashcards

Key vocabulary for studying colonial America and the thirteen colonies.

Flashcards

Colony: A territory controlled by a distant country; the thirteen colonies were controlled by Britain
Colonist: A person who settles in a colony
Pilgrims: English settlers who founded Plymouth Colony in 1620 seeking religious freedom
New England Colonies: Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire; fishing and shipbuilding economy
Middle Colonies: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware; 'breadbasket' of the colonies
Southern Colonies: Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia; plantation economy
Plantation: Large farm in the South using enslaved labor to grow cash crops
Cash crop: Crop grown specifically to sell for profit (tobacco, rice, indigo)
Indentured servant: Person who worked for a set number of years to pay off their passage to the colonies
Jamestown: First permanent English colony in America, founded in Virginia in 1607
Mayflower: Ship that carried the Pilgrims from England to Plymouth in 1620
Town meeting: New England tradition where community members gathered to vote on local issues
William Penn: Founded Pennsylvania as a colony of religious tolerance; Quaker leader
Thirteen Colonies: The original British colonies (1607-1733) that became the United States