Everything you need to master Unit 2 — Jamestown to the eve of revolution: the three colonial regions, the Atlantic slave trade, mercantilism and salutary neglect, the Great Awakening, and the roots of colonial self-government.
8–10% of the AP exam
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Unit 2 covers Period 2: Colonial America, 1607–1754 — from the founding of Jamestown to the eve of the French and Indian War. This is the century and a half during which English settlement transformed the eastern seaboard, three distinctly different colonial regions emerged, and the institutions that would shape American history were established.
The College Board wants you to understand how the New England, Middle, and Southern colonies developed different economies, societies, and cultures based on geography, religion, and labor systems. You'll study the rise of the Atlantic slave trade, the transition from indentured servitude to racial slavery, the Navigation Acts and mercantilism, the salutary neglect that gave colonies de facto self-government, and the Great Awakening that reshaped colonial religious life.
Unit 2 makes up roughly 6–8% of the AP US History exam. The period sets up everything that follows — regional differences sown here became the divisions that led to the Revolution and the Civil War.
Key terms preview
A taste of what you'll find in The Essentials and Flashcards.
Jamestown
First permanent English settlement in North America (1607, Virginia); survived through tobacco cultivation and set the foundation for the Southern colonies.
House of Burgesses
First representative assembly in English America (1619, Virginia); set a precedent for colonial self-government.
Mayflower Compact
1620 agreement among Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower establishing self-government — an early example of consent-based government.
Bacon's Rebellion
1676 Virginia uprising that revealed class tensions and accelerated the shift from indentured servitude to African slavery.
Salutary Neglect
British policy before 1763 of loosely enforcing trade laws and allowing colonies significant self-government.
Great Awakening
1730s–40s religious revivals led by Edwards and Whitefield that unified colonies and challenged established church authority.
1. Three distinct colonial regions emerged with different economies and societies
New England (small farms, Puritan towns, trade), the Middle Colonies (diverse, tolerant, grain), and the Chesapeake/South (plantation cash crops, enslaved labor) became fundamentally different societies — differences that shaped America's future divisions.
2. Racial slavery replaced indentured servitude and became permanent and hereditary
After Bacon's Rebellion (1676), Virginia and other colonies shifted decisively to enslaved African labor — codifying it as racial, hereditary, and lifelong through slave codes that defined American slavery for the next two centuries.
3. Colonial self-government and religious revival reshaped colonial identity
Salutary neglect allowed colonial assemblies real autonomy, while the Great Awakening's emotional revival challenged established authority. Together they created colonists who saw themselves as more than just English subjects — laying the groundwork for revolution.