American History Before 1877 Identifiers

Identifications, Exam 1

Moundbuilders: 3,500 years ago; large communities centered around giant, semi-circular mounds on the Mississippi River and in Ohio Valley; Poverty Point in Louisiana; Cahokia near St. Louis.

Dutch West India Company – New Amsterdam – Manhattan Island: Settled colonists on Manhattan in 1624; promised colonists religious tolerance, cheap livestock and free land after six years of labor; New Amsterdam – main population center of New Netherland; residents included Dutch, Africans, Belgians, English, French, German, Irish and Scandinavians. 18 languages; religious tolerance, even for Jews.

General Peter Minuit – Director General: Director of Dutch colony of New Netherlands from 1626 to 1633 and founded New Sweden in 1638. Purchased Manhattan from Indians in 1626 for 60 Dutch Guilders ($24.00 at the time).

Virginia Company of London – Jamestown: 1607 established Jamestown as capital of Virginia. Sponsored by the Virginia Company, a private organization; 104 settlers were men who did not do labor “they would rather starve than work” said John Smith; half were dead in the first year; population grew to 400 by 1609, but down to 65 by 1610. Eventually started to grow crops; Virginia Company offered 50 acres free to any colonist who would pay their own way.

Powhatan Confederacy – Algonquin-speaking: Powhatan is the name of a Virginia Indian confederation of tribes. It also refers to the leader of those tribes, commonly referred to as Chief Powhatan. It is estimated that there were about 14,000–21,000 Powhatan people in eastern Virginia when the English settled Jamestown in 1607. They were also known as Virginia Algonquians, as they spoke an eastern-Algonquian language known as Powhatan or Virginia Algonquin. Chief Powhatan saw advantage of trade with settlers and was mostly peaceful. Father of Pocahontas, he died in 1618.

Captain John Smith – Jamestown: When Jamestown was England’s first permanent settlement in the New...