The belief that people cannot obtain salvation through good works -- "faith alone" is all that is required. Seventeenth-century authorities feared that antinomians would feel that it was not necessary to work for the betterment of the community and might even put themselves above the rules and regulations that governed society.
backcountry
Newly settled lands in the western "interior" portion of the early colonies. Backcountry colonists often found themselves at odds with the wealthier settlers of the coastal regions.
covenant
Essentially an agreement in which people are united for a specific purpose. Rooted in Protestant theology, such agreements were the basis for church governments (especially among Calvinist congregations) and, in time, influenced civil governments as well. In this way, the covenant concept helped establish the idea of government by the consent of the governed.
headrights
Grants of land donated to new settlers in the Chesapeake by the Virginia Company and the Lords Baltimore
orthodox
Conforming to the accepted doctrines or system of beliefs of a group, refusing to deviate or alter one's beliefs (for example, orthodox Puritans).
presidios
Spanish forts. Many presidios sprang up on the Pacific coast at the end of the eighteenth century.
proprietary colony
A colony whose charter was granted by the king to an individual or a group (proprietors). Although the charter might place certain restrictions on the proprietors, in general they were free to run the colony as they wished--appointing governors, establishing assemblies, dividing and granting land. Because most proprietors were essentially land speculators and concerned with profit (either from the sale of land or from quitrents), they usually relaxed political and religious restrictions so as to attract colonists. But even with these concessions, proprietary governments at times proved unpopular, and opposition to them was one source of turmoil in the late seventeenth century.
royal colony
A colony over which the king of England assumed control, granting it a royal charter in place of the charter it previously held. Not an act of tyranny, as often pictured, royalization guaranteed that England's laws (and English subjects' rights) would apply to colony and colonists. A royal governor was appointed by the king to see that such laws were carried out, and a council, composed of prominent men of the colony (appointed by the king, but with the advice of local leaders), was established to advise the executive. Most important, at least to the colonists in general, was the authorization of an elected legislature (variously known as the Commons House of Assembly, the House of Burgesses, and the like) to pass local laws and deal with problems particular to the colony. This legislative activity was naturally to conform to English law and was subject to royal approval or disallowance. In time, the council came to act as the upper house of the legislature, while the commons functioned as the lower, an arrangement that, to the colonists at least, strongly resembled the relationship that existed between the House of Commons and the House of Lords in England. This system varied from colony to colony and underwent many changes as it evolved; yet, by the end of the colonial era, most of the British-American colonies shared its basic institutional structure.
theocracy
A society run by religious leaders, in which the church is almost indistinguishable from the state.
