Key words and 13 colonies

• The revolution was sparked by a series of events, including the imposition of taxes by the British government and the colonists' desire for representation in the British Parliament.
• Colony: an area settled by a group of people from another country that remains connected to the newly settled area and its people
• Southern Colonies: warm climate and primarily agricultural. They had many small farms and large plantations. Their main crops were tobacco, rice, and indigo. People settled here for economic reasons. The important cities in the South included Jamestown, Savannah, and Charleston. They had big plantations, so they did rely heavily on slavery.
• Middle Colonies: mild climate and primarily agricultural growing wheat. They were known as the breadbasket because of the large amount of flour they were able to produce mills. Because of high immigration to the Middle Colonies, Quaker opposition, and smaller farms, slavery did not develop there to the same extent as in the South.
• New England Colonies: colder climate and had a shorter growing season than the other colonies. Soil was rockier and therefore not as good for farming. They had a lot of trees and so they exported timber. They also did shipbuilding and fishing were big industries as was fur trading. The colonists who first settled in the New England colonies did so primarily for religious reasons. They did not depend on slavery, but they did have some slaves in some towns.
• 1607: the year colonists arrived in Jamestown
• 1620: the year the Pilgrims arrive in Plymouth
• Cash crops: a large amount of produce grown to be sold to others to make money rather than to be used or eaten by the people growing it (tobacco, indigo, rice)
• Indentured Servant: people who agreed to work for a time— typically seven years —in exchange for travel to the New World in addition to lodging, clothing, and food
• Slavery: the practice of forcing people to work without pay as enslaved people and denying them the freedom to decide how to live their lives
• Mayflower Compact: an agreement signed in 1620 on the Mayflower among the Pilgrims to form a government 
• Pilgrims: also known as separatists because they wanted to separate from the Church and have freedom to worship as they pleased. Had the first Thanksgiving.
• Puritans: wanted the church to be stricter and more pure 
• Stamp Act: all printed materials produced in the colonies would be taxed, for example, newspapers, magazines, legal documents, and cards. 
• Quartering Act: colonists had to help provide quarters or temporary places to live for the British soldiers stationed in the colonies. 
• Sugar Act: placed a tax on sugar and molasses making foreign sugar more expensive than British
• July 4 1776: when the Declaration of Independence was signed
• The 13 colonies are = Virginia (1607), new york (1626), massachusetts (1630), maryland (1633), rhode island (1636), connecticut (1636), new hampshire (1638), delaware (1638), north carolina (1653), south carolina (1663), new jersey (1664), pennsylvania (1682), and georgia (1732)
• 1619: the year the first known slaves were brought to the colonies
• Taxation without Representation: colonists said this when they felt they were being treated unfairly by being taxed without having representation in English Parliament
• Climate: the usual weather conditions of an area over a period of time
• Plantations: large farms or estates in warm climates, usually growing a large, single crop, such as cotton, tobacco, sugar cane, rice, or indigo