AP US History Unit 2 Study Guide: Contact and Settlement (1607–1754)

What This Unit Covers

AP US History Unit 2 spans 1607 to 1754 — from the first permanent English settlement at Jamestown to the eve of the French and Indian War. The College Board wants you to understand how and why European powers colonized North America, how those colonies developed differently, and how Native peoples, enslaved Africans, and European settlers shaped and were shaped by those encounters.

The Big Themes to Know Cold

1. Why Colonies Were Founded (and Who Funded Them)

• Joint-stock companies like the Virginia Company drove early settlement — profit, not religious freedom, was the engine for Virginia.
• New England was driven by Puritan religious goals, but economics quickly became just as important.
• Proprietary colonies (Maryland, Pennsylvania, Carolina) reflect the Crown rewarding political allies.
• Know the difference between charter, proprietary, and royal colonies — exam writers love this distinction.

2. The Three Colonial Regions

• New England: subsistence farming, fishing, shipbuilding, tight Puritan communities, town meetings.
• Middle Colonies: diverse religions and ethnicities, grain exports, early pluralism.
• Southern Colonies: cash crops (tobacco, rice, indigo), plantation economy, growing reliance on enslaved labor.

The AP exam frequently asks you to compare regions. Practice writing a sentence that explains why the South developed plantation slavery while New England did not — geography, crop type, and labor demand are your three pillars.

3. Labor Systems and the Slave Trade

• Early Virginia used indentured servants. After Bacon's Rebellion (1676), planters shifted to enslaved African labor — less risky to the social order.
• The Middle Passage and the growth of the transatlantic slave trade are a consistent SAQ and DBQ topic.
• Know the Slave Codes — Virginia's 1705 code is a key example of how law hardened racial categories.

4. Native American Relations

• Relations ranged from trade and alliance (fur trade in New France and New Netherland) to violent conflict (Powhatan Wars, Pequot War, King Philip's War).
• The Columbian Exchange continued reshaping Native societies — disease, horses, and new trade goods all matter here.
• The AP exam wants you to show Native peoples as active agents, not passive victims. Use specific nations by name.

5. Colonial Self-Governance

• The House of Burgesses (Virginia, 1619) is the first representative assembly in English America.
• The Mayflower Compact established the idea of self-governance by consent.
• Salutary neglect — Britain's loose enforcement of trade laws — allowed colonial assemblies to grow powerful. This matters enormously for Unit 3.

Key Events You Must Be Able to Explain

• Jamestown founding (1607) and the Starving Time
• Introduction of tobacco as a cash crop (1612)
• Arrival of enslaved Africans in Virginia (1619)
• Mayflower Compact (1620)
• Pequot War (1637) and King Philip's War (1675–1676)
• Bacon's Rebellion (1676)
• Salem Witch Trials (1692) — social tension, not just superstition
• Stono Rebellion (1739) — enslaved people as active resisters

Flashcard Decks to Study Right Now

These decks are built specifically for this unit and period:

• U2 1607–1754: Contact and Settlement (55 cards) — the core vocabulary and concepts for this unit
• The 13 Colonies (13 cards) — essential for regional comparison questions
• U1 1491–1607: Contact and Settlement (56 cards) — review this first if you're shaky on pre-colonial context and the Columbian Exchange

Spread them across the week. Do one deck in the morning using study mode, then quiz yourself again at night using flashcard flip — spacing your reviews is proven to move information into long-term memory.

Exam Technique: SAQ, LEQ, and DBQ Tips for Unit 2

Short Answer Questions (SAQ)

SAQs are worth about 20% of your score and require no thesis. Each part (a, b, c) needs a direct claim plus specific evidence. For Unit 2, common prompts ask you to:

• Explain a cause of colonial labor changes
• Describe how one development challenged or supported colonial stability
• Compare Native responses to European expansion in two regions

Tip: Write the word because after your claim to force yourself to explain. "Bacon's Rebellion accelerated the shift to enslaved labor because planters feared arming poor white servants again."

Long Essay Question (LEQ)

If you see a Unit 2 LEQ, it will likely ask about continuity and change over time, causation, or comparison. Common angles:

• How did economic motivations shape colonial development across regions?
• To what extent did European colonization transform Native American societies?

Tip: Your thesis must make a historically defensible claim that responds to the prompt and establishes a line of reasoning — not just "there were many factors." Argue a degree or a hierarchy: "Economic motivations shaped colonial development more decisively than religious ones, particularly in the Chesapeake and Southern colonies."

Document-Based Question (DBQ)

Unit 2 docs often include firsthand accounts of Native-settler conflict, sermons, legal codes, or colonial records. Your job is to go beyond the document's surface content and explain why the author wrote it (sourcing) and how the historical context shapes its meaning (contextualization).

• Contextualization paragraph should come early and cover at least the paragraph before your thesis.
• Use at least three documents for each body claim, and bring in outside evidence the documents don't cover.
• Complexity point: connect Unit 2 to Unit 1 (pre-contact) or Unit 3 (Revolution) to show change over a longer arc.

A Simple Study Plan for the Week Before Your Test

• Day 1: Read your notes on colonial regions and labor systems. Study the U2 Contact and Settlement deck.
• Day 2: Focus on Native relations and key events. Do the 13 Colonies deck.
• Day 3: Practice one SAQ from a released AP exam (College Board's website has free ones).
• Day 4: Outline — don't write, just outline — an LEQ response. Check your thesis against the rubric.
• Day 5: Review any weak spots using Knovli Explore to find additional decks. Flip through both U2 decks one more time.