Seeds of Liberty Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering core concepts, colonial regional realities, European expansion, and slavery laws based on lecture notes.

Liberty

The freedom and ability to act, make choices, and live without unjust or tyrannical control.

Human Dignity

The inherent, inviolable worth possessed by every single human person.

Imago Dei

The Catholic teaching that every human being is created in the image and likeness of God, meaning human worth is intrinsic and not granted by governments.

The Common Good

A government's responsibility to protect and help everyone in a society, rather than just a few.

Abolitionist

Someone who works to end slavery.

Civil Disobedience

Breaking a rule or law because it is believed to be fundamentally unjust (e.g., Boston Tea Party).

Due Process

The right to be treated fairly by the legal system and know why you are being punished.

Equal Protection

The principle that every person is treated with the same respect regardless of their background.

Popular Sovereignty

The idea that a group of people should vote to make their own decisions.

Sovereignty

The power of a group of people to govern themselves and control their own land.

Treaty

A formal agreement or contract between two independent groups.

The Middle Passage

The horrific middle leg of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade where Africans were packed into ships like cargo/commodities, stripping away their personal identity.

Olaudah Equiano

An individual who described the Middle Passage as a 'scene of horror' involving suffocation, loathsome smells, and sickness.

Partus sequitur ventrem (1662)

A Virginia slave law establishing that children inherited the legal status of their mother, making slavery generational and hereditary.

Baptism Law (1667)

A Virginia slave law declaring that Christian baptism did not grant freedom, separating spiritual equality from legal liberty.

Casual Killing Act (1669)

A Virginia slave law removing penalties for killing an enslaved person during 'correction,' legally defining them as disposable property.

Saint Peter Claver

A Spanish Jesuit who called himself the 'slave of the Slaves forever' and restored dignity by meeting physical needs of arriving captives, washing their wounds, and treating them as brothers and sisters with immortal souls.

Three Gold Pillars

The primary motives driving the Spanish Empire in New Spain: Gold, Glory, and God.

Mission System

A strategy used by the Spanish Empire to establish legal and religious settlements.

Encomienda system

An abusive system used by the Spanish Empire in New Spain for forced labor.

Bartolomé de las Casas

A defender of Indigenous rights in New Spain who fiercely argued that Indigenous people possessed equal human dignity.

Mayflower Compact (1620)

A milestone in the British 13 Atlantic Colonies that established early self-governance.

Maryland Toleration Act (1649)

A milestone in the British colonies that granted freedom of worship for Christians.

French Empire (New France)

A European power focused on the fur trade (beaver pelts) and Catholic missionary outreach through cooperative trade networks and strategic alliances with Native nations.

Dutch West India Company

The commercial entity through which the Dutch Empire conducted commercial shipping and global trade.

New Amsterdam

A Dutch settlement in New Netherland known as a 'Hub of Tolerance' for welcoming diverse European faiths.

New England

A colonial region known for harsh winters, rocky soil, an economy based on shipbuilding, fishing, and trade, and a society centered around close-knit towns and Puritan religious motives.

Middle Colonies

A colonial region known as the 'Breadbasket' for wheat farming, featuring high levels of ethnic and religious diversity, with major trade hubs in New York City and Philadelphia.

Southern Colonies

A colonial region featuring a warm climate and fertile soil, with an economy built on cash crops (tobacco, rice, indigo) that was highly dependent on enslaved labor.

Coverture

The legal concept under which married colonial women could not own property, keep their own wages, or vote.