1.       Apprentice

a person learning a skill or trade from a master worker.

2.       Assembly

an elected group of lawmakers.

3.       Backcountry

 the region between the fall line and the Appalachians.

4.       Balance of Power

an equal distribution of strength among nations.

5.       Barter

 to trade goods without exchanging money.

6.       Cash Crops

crops, such as tobacco, sugar, and cotton, raised in large quantities in order to be sold for profit.

7.       Casualty

 a person wounded or killed in battle.

8.      Charter

a written contract, issued by a government or other authority, giving the holder the right to establish a colony, corporation, or other organization.

9.       Class

 a part of society defined by such qualities as wealth, occupation, and inherited titles or honors.  A society may have an upper class, a middle class, and a lower class.

10.       Colony

a new settlement or territory established and governed by a country in another land.

11.       Common Law

a community in which people work together for the good of the whole.

13.       Conestoga wagon

 a horse-pulled covered wagon with wide wheels, a curved wagon bed, and an arched canvas top.

14.       Democratic

ruled by the people.  In democracy, citizens elect representatives to make and carry out laws.

15.       Dissenter

 a person who challenges the generally accepted views of an established church or society.

16.       Economy

 the way people use resources to make a living.

17.       English Bill of Rights

the document signed in 1689 that guaranteed English citizens certain rights.

19.       First Great Awakening

a revival of religious feeling and belief in the American colonies that began in the 1730’s.

20.       French and Indian War

the conflict between France and Britain in North America between 1754 and 1763.

21.       House of Burgesses

the Virginia legislature, founded in 1619, that served as an early step in the establishment of representative government in America.

22.       Indentured Servant

an individual who worked without wages for a specified number of years in exchange for transportation to the American colonies.

23.       Investor

a person who puts money into a product in order to earn profits.

24.       Magna Carta

 the charter of English liberties granted by King John in 1215.

25.       Middle Passage

 the journey of slave ships across the Atlantic.

26.       Mill

 a machine that processes materials such as grain.

27.       Missionaries

people who travel to a territory or community in order to make converts to their religion.

28.       Navigation Acts

laws begun in 1651 by England to tax and regulate trade in the colonies.

29.       Parliament

the assembly of representatives who make laws in England.

31.       Petition

a formal, written request (noun).  To make a formal demand or request (verb).

32.       Piedmont

 a plateau at the foot of a mountain or mountain range.

33.       Prime Minister

 the chief executive in a parliamentary system.

34.       Proprietor

an owner.

35.       Puritan

a member of an English religious group that believed the Anglican Christian should purify itself by abandoning much of its ritual ceremony.

37.       Rights

 powers or privileges that belong that belong to people as citizens and that cannot or should not be taken away by the government.

38.       Salem Witchcraft Trials

trials in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692, that led to the death of twenty people after young girls charged people with practicing witchcraft.

39.       Share of Stock

a piece of ownership in a company.

40.       Slave Codes

 the laws controlling the treatment of slaves.

41.       Slave Trade

the business of capturing, transporting, and selling people as slaves.

42.       Smuggling

 illegal trade.

43.       Trappers

 adventurers who capture and kill animals, such as beavers for their fur.

44.       Treaty of Paris (1763)

 the treaty in which France gave up its North American empire to Britain, ending the French and Indian war.

45.       Triangular Trade

 a trade route connecting three different places, such as the route connecting the English colonies, England, and Africa.