Ap Us History: Unit 2: Key People

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Caboto, Giovanni (John Cabot) (c.1450–c.1498)

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: Italian explorer sent by England’s King Henry VII to explore the northeastern coast of North America in 1497 and 1498.

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Columbus, Christopher (1451–1506)

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: Genoese explorer who stumbled upon the West Indies in 1492 while in search of a new water route to Asia. Columbus made three subsequent voyages across the Atlantic and briefly served as a colonial administrator on the island of Hispaniola, present day Haiti.

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Coronado, Francisco (1510–1554):

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Spanish explorer who ventured from Western Mexico through present-day Arizona and up to Kansas, in search of fabled golden cities.

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Cortés, Hernán (1485–1547):

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Spanish conquistador who defeated the Aztec Empire and claimed Mexico for Spain.

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Ferdinand of Aragon (1452–1516):

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Spanish monarch, along with his wife Isabella of Castile, funded Christopher Columbus’ voyage across the Atlantic in 1492, leading to his discovery of the West Indies.

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Isabella of Castile (1451–1504):

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Spanish monarch, along with her husband Ferdinand of Aragon, funded Christopher Columbus’ voyage across the Atlantic in 1492, leading to his discovery of the West Indies.

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La Salle, Robert de (1643–1687):

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French explorer who led an expedition down the Mississippi River in the 1680s.

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Las Casas, Bartolomé de (1474–1566): colonies.

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Reform-minded Spanish missionary who worked to abolish the encomienda system and documented the mistreatment of Indians in the Spanish

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Malinche (Doña Marina) (c1501–1550)

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: Indian slave who served as an interpreter for Hernán Cortés on his conquest of the Aztecs. Malinche later married one of Cortés’s soldiers, who took her with him back to Spain.

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Moctezuma (1466–1520):

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Last of the Aztec rulers, who saw his powerful empire crumble under the force of the Spanish invasion, led by Hernán Cortés.

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Pizarro, Francisco (c.1475–1541):

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Spanish conquistador who crushed the Incas in 1532 and founded the city of Lima, Peru

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Serra, Father Junipero (1713–1784):

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Franciscan priest who established a chain of missions along the California coast, beginning in San Diego in 1769, with the aim of Christianizing and civilizing native peoples.

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Baltimore, Lord (1605–1675):

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Established Maryland as a haven for Catholics. Baltimore unsuccessfully tried to reconstitute the English manorial system in the colonies and gave vast tracts of land to Catholic relatives, a policy that soon created tensions between the seaboard Catholic establishment and backcountry Protestant planters.

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Cromwell, Oliver (1599–1658):

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Puritan general who helped lead parliamentary forces during the English Civil War, and ruled England as Lord Protector from 1653 until his death in 1658.

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De La Warr, Lord (1577–1618):

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Colonial governor who imposed harsh military rule over Jamestown after taking over in 1610. A veteran of England’s brutal campaigns against the Irish, De La Warr applied harsh “Irish” tactics in his war against the Indians, sending troops to torch Indian villages and seize provisions. The colony of Delaware was named after him.

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Drake, Sir Francis (c.1542–1595):

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English sea captain who completed his circumnavigation of the globe in 1580, plundering Spanish ships and settlements along the way.

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Elizabeth I (1533–1603):

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Protestant Queen of England, whose forty-five year reign from 1558 to 1603 firmly secured the Anglican Church and inaugurated a period of maritime exploration and conquest. Never having married, she was dubbed the “Virgin Queen” by her contemporaries.

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Henry VIII (1491–1547):

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Tudor monarch who launched the Protestant Reformation in England when he broke away from the Catholic Church in order to divorce his first wife, Catherine of Aragon.

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Hiawatha (dates unknown):

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Along with Deganawidah, legendary founder of the Iroquois Confederacy, which united the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca tribes in the late sixteenth century.

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James I (1566–1625):

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Formerly James VI of Scotland, he became James I of England at the death of Elizabeth I. James I supported overseas colonization, granting a charter to the Virginia Company in 1606 for a settlement in the New World. He also cracked down on both Catholics and Puritan Separatists, prompting the latter to flee to Holland and, later, to North America.

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Oglethorpe, James (1696–1785):

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Soldier-statesman and leading founder of Georgia. A champion of prison reform, Oglethorpe established Georgia as a haven for debtors seeking to avoid imprisonment. During the War of Jenkins’s Ear, Oglethorpe successfully led his colonists in battle, repelling a Spanish attack on British territory.

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Pocahontas (c.1595–1617):

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Daughter of Chief Powhatan, Pocahontas “saved” Captain John Smith in a dramatic mock execution and served as a mediator between Indians and the colonists. In 1614, she married John Rolfe and sailed with him to England, where she was greeted as a princess, and where she passed away shortly before her planned return to the colonies.

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Powhatan (c.1540s–1618):

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Chief of the Powhatan Indians and father of Pocahontas. As a show of force, Powhatan staged the kidnapping and mock execution of Captain John Smith in 1607. He later led the Powhatan Indians in the first Anglo-Powhatan War, negotiating a tenuous peace in 1614.

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Raleigh, Sir Walter (c.1552–1618):

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English courtier and adventurer who sponsored the failed settlements of North Carolina’s Roanoke Island in 1585 and 1587. Once a favorite of Elizabeth I, Raleigh fell out of favor with the Virgin Queen after secretly marrying one of her maids of honour. He continued his colonial pursuits until 1618, when he was executed for treason.

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Rolfe, John (1585–1622):

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English colonist whose marriage to Pocahontas in 1614 sealed the peace of the First Anglo-Powhatan War.

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Smith, Captain John (1580–1631):

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English adventurer who took control of Jamestown in 1608 and ensured the survival of the colony by directing gold-hungry colonists toward more productive tasks. Smith also established ties with the Powhatan Indians through the Chief’s daughter, Pocahontas, who had “saved” Smith from a mock execution the previous year.

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Andros, Sir Edmund (1637–1714):

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Much loathed administrator of the Dominion of New England, which was created in 1686 to strengthen imperial control over the New England colonies. Andros established strict control, doing away with town meetings and popular assemblies and taxing colonists without their consent. When word of the Glorious Revolution in England reached the colonists, they promptly dispatched Andros back to England.

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Bradford, William (1590–1657):

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Erudite leader of the separatist Pilgrims who left England for Holland, and eventually sailed on the Mayflower to establish the first English colony in Massachusetts. His account of the colony’s founding, Of Plymouth Plantation, remains a classic of American literature and in indispensable historical source.

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Calvin, John (1509–1564):

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French Protestant reformer whose religious teachings formed the theological basis for New England Puritans, Scottish Presbyterians, French Huguenots and members of the Dutch Reformed Church. Calvin argued that humans were inherently weak and wicked, and believed in an all-knowing, all-powerful God, who predestined select individuals for salvation.

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Charles II (1630–1685):

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Assumed the throne with the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. Charles sought to establish firm control over the colonies, ending the period of relative independence on the American mainland.

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Hudson, Henry (c.1565–1611):

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English explorer who ventured into New York Bay and up the Hudson River for the Dutch in 1609 in search of a Northwest Passage across the continent.

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Hutchinson, Anne (c.1591–1643):

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Antinomian religious dissenter brought to trial for heresy in Massachusetts Bay after arguing that she need not follow God’s laws or man’s, and claiming direct revelation from God. Banished from the Puritan colony, Hutchinson moved to Rhode Island and later New York, where she and her family were killed by Indians.

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Luther, Martin (1483–1546):

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German friar who touched off the Protestant Reformation when he nailed a list of grievances against the Catholic Church to the door of Wittenberg’s cathedral in 1517.

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Massasoit (c. 1590–1661):

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Wampanoag chieftain who signed a peace treaty with Plymouth Bay settlers in 1621 and helped them celebrate the first Thanksgiving.

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Metacom (King Philip) (c.1638–1676):

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Wampanoag chief who led a brutal campaign against Puritan settlements in New En - gland between 1675 and 1676. Though he himself was eventually captured and killed, his wife and son sold into slavery, his assault halted New England’s westward expansion for several decades.

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Penn, William (1644–1718):

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Prominent Quaker activist who founded Pennsylvania as a haven for fellow Quakers in 1681. He established friendly relations with neighboring Indian tribes and attracted a wide array of settlers to his colony with promises of economic opportunity, and ethnic and religious toleration.

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Stuyvesant, Peter (c.1610–1672):

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Director general of Dutch New Netherland from 1645 until the colony fell to the British in 1664.

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William III (1650–1702) and Mary II (1662–1694):

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Dutch-born monarch and his English-born wife, daughter of King James II, installed to the British throne during the Glorious Revolution of 1689. William and Mary relaxed control over the American colonies, inaugurating a period of “salutary neglect” that lasted until the French and Indian War.

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Williams, Roger (c.1603–1683):

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Salem minister who advocated a complete break from the Church of England and criticized the Massachusetts Bay colony for unlawfully taking land from the Indians. Banished for his heresies, he established a small community in present-day Rhode Island, later acquiring a charter for the colony from England.

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Winthrop, John (1588–1649):

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First governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony. An able administrator and devout Puritan, Winthrop helped ensure the prosperity of the newly-established colony and enforce Puritan orthodoxy, taking a hard line against religious dissenters like Anne Hutchinson.

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York, Duke of (1633–1701):

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Catholic English monarch who reigned as James II from 1685 until he was deposed during the Glorious Revolution in 1689. When the English seized New Amsterdam from the Dutch in 1664, they renamed it in the Duke’s honor to commemorate his support for the colonial venture.

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Bacon, Nathaniel (1647–1676):

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Young Virginia planter who led a rebellion against Governor William Berkeley in 1676 to protest Berkeley’s refusal to protect frontier settlers from Indian attacks.

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Berkeley, William (1606–1677):

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Royal governor of Virginia, with brief interruptions, from 1641 until his death. Berkeley, a member of Virginia’s seaboard elite, drew the ire of backwater settlers for refusing to protect them against Indian attacks, eventually leading to Bacon’s Rebellion.

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Johnson, Anthony (?–1670):

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African slave who purchased his freedom and himself became a slave holder in Virginia, serving a testament to the relative fluidity of early colonial society.

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Arminius, Jacobus (1560–1609):

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Dutch theologian who rejected predestination, preaching that salvation could be attained through the acceptance of God’s grace and was open to all, not just the elect.

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Copley, John Singleton (1738–1815):

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Massachusetts-born artist best known for his portraits of prominent colonial Americans, including Samuel Adams and Paul Revere. A loyalist during the Revolutionary war, Copley spent the rest of his life in London, painting portraits of British aristocrats and depicting scenes from English history.

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Crèvecoeur, Michel-Guillaume Jean de (1735–1813):

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French settler whose essays depicted life in the North American colonies and described what he saw as a new American identity—an amalgam of multiple ethnicities and cultures.

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Edwards, Jonathan (1703–1758):

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New England minister whose fiery sermons helped touch off the First Great Awakening. Edwards emphasized human helplessness and depravity and touted that salvation could be attained through God’s grace alone.

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Trumbull, John (1756–1843):

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Connecticut-born painter who, like many of his contemporaries, traveled to England to pursue his artistic ambitions. Trumbull was best known for his depictions of key events in the American Revolution, including the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

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Wheatley, Phillis (c.1753–1784):

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African-American poet who overcame the barriers of slavery to publish two collections of her poems. As a young girl, Wheatley lived in Boston, and was later taken to England where she found a publisher willing to distribute her work.

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Whitefield, George (1714–1770):

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Iterant English preacher whose rousing sermons throughout the American colonies drew vast audiences and sparked a wave of religious conversion, the First Great Awakening. Whitefield’s emotionalism distinguished him from traditional, “Old Light,” ministers who embraced a more reasoned, stoic approach to religious practice.

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Zenger, John Peter (1697–1746):

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New York printer tried for seditious libel against the state’s corrupt royal governor. His acquittal set an important precedent for freedom of the press.

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Braddock, Edward (1695–1755):

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Hardheaded and imperious British general, whose detachment of British and colonial soldiers was routed by French and Indian forces at Fort Duquesne.

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Champlain, Samuel de (c.1567–1635):

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French soldier and explorer, dubbed the “Father of New France” for establishing the city of Quebec and fighting alongside the Huron Indians to repel the Iroquois.

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Louis XIV (1638–1715):

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Long reigning French monarch who took a keen interest in colonization, sending French explorers throughout North America, establishing outposts in present day Canada and Louisiana, and launching France to global preeminence. Louis XIV oversaw the construction of the magnificent palace at Versailles, from where he ruled until his death.

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Pitt, William (1708–1778):

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British parliamentarian who rose to prominence during the French and Indian War as the brilliant tactician behind Britain’s victory over France.

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Pontiac (c.1720–1769):

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Ottawa chief who led an uprising against the British in the wake of the French and Indian war. Initially routing British forces at Detroit, Pontiac and his men succumbed after British troops distributed small-pox infected blankets among the Indians.

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Wolfe, James (1727–1759):

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Young British commander who skillfully outmaneuvered French forces in the Battle of Quebec during the French and Indian War.