The document defines 12 vocabulary words that would be relevant to understanding a story about the Mayflower voyage and early colonial settlement: blasphemous, habeas corpus, inscrutable, magistrate, manifest, non-conformity, persecution, repression, seditious, theology, tolerant. Key terms include habeas corpus (legal requirement to bring imprisoned before a judge), persecution (harassment due to religious beliefs), and non-conformity (failure to conform to established church).

1. VocabularyDesperate Crossing:The Untold Story of the Mayflower

2. blasphemousimpiously irreverent :profane

3. habeas corpusThe legal requirement that imprisoned people be brought before a judge and given reasons for their imprisonment

4. inscrutable: not readily investigated, interpreted, or understood :mysterious <an inscrutable smile>

5. magistrate: an official entrusted with administration of the laws; a local official exercising administrative and often judicial functions

6. manifest: readily perceived by the senses and especially by the sight; obvious

7. non-conformity: absence of agreement or correspondence; failure or refusal to conform to an established church

8. persecution: the condition of being persecuted, harassed, or annoyed

9. repressionThe act of being restrained or held down politically or socially

10. seditious: rebellious; disposed to arouse or take part in or guilty of sedition (incitement of resistance to or insurrection against lawful authority)

11. theology: the study of religious faith, practice, and experience; especially: the study of God and of God's relation to the world

12. tolerant: inclined to tolerate; especially: marked by forbearance or endurance (putting up with)