APUSH American Pageant Chapter 4 AMSCO Unit 2

Chesapeake (1600s)

nasty, brutish, and short lifespans with malaria, dysentery, and typhoid; families were few and fragile, with many unwed pregnancies; it was incredibly hospitable to tobacco that quickly exhausted the soil, causing expansion that angered the Natives.

indentured servants

typically young men who worked for a Chesapeake master for 4-7 years in exchange for transatlantic passage and "freedom dues" (axe, barrels of corn, clothes, etc.)

headright system

it benefitted masters of the indentured servants who paid for their passage as each person/passage granted them 50 acres of land

most populous colony in 1700

Virginia with around 59,000 people

Chesapeake early laborer life

hard but hopeful lives as they looked forward to freedom and owning land; later, the servants lot grew harsher as many free servants had to return to their previous masters for pitiful wages

Nathanial Bacon

a 29-year-old planter who led backcountry farmers to Bacon's rebellion due to their broken hopes of getting land or a wife and their anger with the governor Berkley who didn't protect them from Native attacks; they killed numerous Natives, exiled Berkley, and burnt the capitol; when Bacon suddenly died, Berkley crushed the uprising and hanged 20+ rebels; this ignited fear and passion as the rebellion was suppressed but tensions remained, leading masters to want less troublesome servants

middle passage

the transatlantic route where 20% of slaves died; until the 1680s, most of the slaves went to South America or the sugar-rich West Indies; after the 1680s, (due to rising indentured servant wages, slave mortality rates improving, potentially mutinuous servants, and that the Royal African Company lost their slave monopoly and other companies rushed to cash into the slave trade

slave codes

Africans and their children belonged to their parent's masters; in some colonies, it was illegal for them to be literate; converting to Christianity didn't save them; it was molded by racial discrimination

FFVs

the first families of Virginia (those that arrived before the 1690s)

New England typical colonial family

with long lifespans came huge families as women birthed children every 2 years after marriage until menopause or death, causing obedient children

Southern women property titles

they were typically able to hang onto property titles due to the fragility of Southern families (women often had to solely raise young children)

Northern women property titles

Puritans had women give up their property rights when married due to their unity in marriage; however, as widows, they were stretched important land protections; additionally, no divorces were supported unless there was complete abandonment or adultery (red letter A on clothing)

New England towns

a tight-knit society with small, farm-oriented villages with Natives, the French, and the Dutch who grew orderly due to town fathers/proprietors who gave out charters; 50% were able to read and write as towns with 50+ families were required to have an elementary school (led to Harvard College in 1636)

Congregational Church

a democratic congregation that led to a democratic political government

New England meeting house

a place of worship and the town hall where all adult males met and voted on officials, schoolmasters, and mundane matters that led to political liberty

half-way covenant

parents who were baptized but not converted could have their children baptized, however, eventually, anyone could attend although women attended the most

Salem Witch Trials

where adolescent girls accused older women of bewitching them; it left 20 people and 2 dogs dead, widening social stratification

New England economy vs. Chesapeake economy

New England: geography (rocks + glaciers), climate (very hot to very cold), livestock (caused flooding and changes in climate), plentiful codfish, Calvinism, and rocky soil; Chesapeake: more ethnically mixed (slaves and non-English) and tobacco

Yankee ingenuity

based on the flinty fields and comfortless climate of New England that later became a proud American national trait

English colonist life vs. European counterparts

the colonists lived in affluent abundance as women wove, cooked, cleaned, and cared for children while men fenced, planted, cleared/cropped land, and butchered livestock as needed; the land was relatively cheap with carpenters wages 3xs as high; they tried to reproduce the Old World's classes, leading to Leisler's Rebellion