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Credit Sprint's Guide to U.S. History, Period 2: Colonial America, 1607 to 1754

AP® weight 6–8%CLEP® Exam I

English colonies grew along the Atlantic coast with different economies, religions and labor systems. New England stressed religion and town life, the Chesapeake grew tobacco with indentured and then enslaved labor, and the Middle and Southern colonies added diversity, plantations and a growing slave system.

The triangular tradeEurope Africa Americas manufactured goods enslaved people sugar, tobacco, cotton

What you need to know

  • Jamestown (1607) survived through tobacco. The Virginia House of Burgesses (1619) began representative government. Bacon's Rebellion (1676) pushed planters toward African slavery as a more controllable labor force.
  • The Puritans founded Massachusetts Bay (1630) as a religious community, with town meetings and a strong role for church membership. Dissenters such as Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson were expelled.
  • Pennsylvania, founded by William Penn, offered religious toleration and attracted diverse settlers. Maryland was founded as a refuge for Catholics, and Georgia as a buffer against Spain.
  • Regional economies: New England had small farms, shipping and fishing; the Middle Colonies grew grain; the Chesapeake and Lower South grew tobacco, rice and indigo on plantations.
  • The slave trade grew rapidly. Slave codes defined enslaved people as property, and by the 1700s slavery was central to the Southern economy. Enslaved people resisted through everyday acts, escape and rare revolts such as the Stono Rebellion (1739).
  • Mercantilism and the Navigation Acts treated colonies as sources of raw materials and markets for England. Britain mostly practiced salutary neglect until 1763.
  • The Great Awakening in the 1730s and 1740s used emotional preaching to spread evangelical religion. It weakened old church authority and encouraged ideas of equality. The Enlightenment spread ideas of reason and natural rights.
  • Wars with France and Native groups, such as King Philip's War (1675–76), shaped the frontier. Colonists developed a sense of local self-government through assemblies.

Exam traps

Watch forSalutary neglect means loose enforcement of imperial rules. It was not Britain ignoring the colonies completely.
Watch forTobacco, rice and indigo are plantation crops of the South. Do not confuse them with New England commerce.
Watch forThe Great Awakening and the Enlightenment are different movements. One is religious revival, the other is reason and natural rights.

Key terms

  • Jamestown: The first permanent English settlement in America, founded in Virginia in 1607.
  • House of Burgesses: The first elected legislature in English America, created in Virginia in 1619.
  • Headright system: A Virginia policy that gave land to people who paid for the passage of workers.
  • Indentured servitude: A labor system in which people worked for a set number of years to pay for passage to America.
  • Bacon's Rebellion (1676): A Virginia revolt of former servants and small farmers against the planter elite and Native peoples.
  • Mayflower Compact: A 1620 agreement by Pilgrims to govern themselves by majority rule.
  • Puritans: English Protestants who founded Massachusetts Bay to build a model Christian society.
  • Town meeting: A New England form of local government where citizens voted on community matters.
  • Roger Williams: A minister who founded Rhode Island on religious freedom after being expelled from Massachusetts.
  • Anne Hutchinson: A Puritan woman banished from Massachusetts for challenging church authority.
  • William Penn: The Quaker founder of Pennsylvania, which promised religious toleration.
  • Maryland Toleration Act (1649): A law granting religious freedom to Christians in the colony.
  • Navigation Acts: English laws requiring colonial trade to go through England and on English ships.
  • Salutary neglect: Britain's loose enforcement of colonial regulations until 1763.
  • Stono Rebellion (1739): A slave uprising in South Carolina that led to tighter slave codes.
  • Slave codes: Colonial laws that defined enslaved people as property and limited their rights.

Practice questions

Five of the 52 Period 2 questions in Credit Sprint. Every choice is explained in the app.

1. What gave the struggling Jamestown colony an economic base?
  1. Tobacco grown for sale in Europe
  2. A thriving fur trade with French partners in Canada
  3. Gold and silver found in nearby hills and streams
  4. Steady supplies from Spanish Catholic missionaries nearby
Show answer

Tobacco grown for sale in Europe. John Rolfe's tobacco found a strong market in England and set Virginia on a plantation path.

2. The Mayflower Compact (1620) established
  1. a simple form of self-government by agreement among settlers
  2. a military pact with the Wampanoag against New France
  3. the legal code of Massachusetts Bay under John Winthrop
  4. a royal charter granting Plymouth freedom of religion for all
Show answer

a simple form of self-government by agreement among settlers. The signers agreed to obey laws they would make together for the colony's good.

3. Which best explains the Salem witch trials of 1692?
  1. A royal order from London to punish all religious dissenters
  2. The spread of Enlightenment skepticism about spiritual evil
  3. Spanish agents stirring unrest along the Massachusetts frontier
  4. Fear, local rivalries and wartime anxiety in a stressed community
Show answer

Fear, local rivalries and wartime anxiety in a stressed community. Accusations spread amid frontier war, a disputed church, land feuds and belief in witchcraft, and ended when officials doubted spectral evidence.

4. After the Stono Rebellion (1739), South Carolina
  1. gave enslaved people legal protection for families
  2. freed the rebels as a reward for their courage
  3. passed harsher slave codes restricting the movement of enslaved people
  4. ended importation of enslaved Africans for a time and ended slavery
Show answer

passed harsher slave codes restricting the movement of enslaved people. Fear of revolt led to tighter controls on assembly, movement and weapons.

5. The Pueblo Revolt of 1680 was significant because it
  1. destroyed the Spanish settlement at St. Augustine, Florida
  2. was crushed within days by English soldiers
  3. ended Spanish rule throughout the entire Americas
  4. drove the Spanish out of New Mexico for over a decade
Show answer

drove the Spanish out of New Mexico for over a decade. Led by Pope, the Pueblo peoples united to resist forced labor and attacks on their religion.