APUSH Period 2 (1607–1754) covers the establishment of British colonies through the eve of the French and Indian War. It's roughly 10% of the exam and contains some of the most essay-tested themes: colonial development, labor systems, religious change, and the roots of colonial self-governance.
Colonial Labor Systems
Indentured servitude — contract labor; servants worked 4–7 years for passage to Virginia; made up most early Chesapeake labor force. Declined after Bacon's Rebellion. Headright system — Virginia offered 50 acres per person transported; incentivized bringing laborers; concentrated land in hands of wealthy planters. Bacon's Rebellion (1676) — armed uprising of former indentured servants and small farmers led by Nathaniel Bacon against Governor Berkeley; attacked Native Americans and challenged planter elite; demonstrated danger of class of landless, discontented men → planters shifted to African enslaved labor as more controllable. Chattel slavery — property status of enslaved people passed to their children; permanent, inheritable; codified in Virginia slave codes (1705).
Colonial Governance and Economics
Salutary neglect — British policy of loose enforcement of colonial trade laws and parliamentary authority; allowed colonial assemblies (like Virginia House of Burgesses, 1619) to develop genuine self-governance; created expectation of autonomy that made post-1763 enforcement feel like tyranny. Navigation Acts — required colonial goods to be shipped on English ships through English ports; mercantilist goal of benefiting British economy; rarely enforced during salutary neglect era. Mercantilism — economic theory: colonies exist to provide raw materials and markets for the mother country; wealth is zero-sum (one country's gain = another's loss).
Religious Developments
Puritanism — dominant religion in New England; covenant theology (God's agreement with His people); "city upon a hill" (Winthrop, 1630); Half-Way Covenant (1662) allowed partial church membership for those who hadn't experienced conversion — sign of declining religious intensity. Great Awakening (1730s–40s) — colonial religious revival led by George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards ("Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"); challenged established clergy authority; democratic and emotional; increased literacy (Bible reading); contributed to cross-colony communication and unity; New Light vs. Old Light split. Roger Williams — expelled from Massachusetts; founded Rhode Island with religious tolerance and separation of church and state; paid Native Americans for land. Anne Hutchinson — antinomianism controversy; challenged Puritan clergy authority; banished to Rhode Island.
Conflicts and Trade
King Philip's War (1675–76) — Wampanoag leader Metacom (King Philip) led multi-tribe coalition against English colonists in New England; most destructive per-capita war in American history; ended with Metacom's death and destruction of Native power in New England. Triangular trade — New England rum → West Africa for enslaved people → Caribbean and South for sugar/molasses → back to New England; British manufactured goods flowed throughout. Middle Passage — the Atlantic crossing of enslaved Africans; brutal conditions; high mortality.
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