3 Regions, 13 Colonies, Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, Etc.

13 colonies

The regions of the Americas controlled by the British from the 1600s until the 1770s (the American Revolution).

Southern Colonies

Colonies that developed large plantation economies due to differences in geography, climate, and available resources.

New England

Colonies that developed economies based more on fishing, trade, and small farms.

Silk Roads

Trade routes used by Europeans for more than 1000 years to trade with Asia before being cut off by the Ottoman Empire.

Drake

A British privateer who captured a Spanish treasure ship in 1579, taking 26 tons of raw silver and other treasures worth over 200 million $$ today.

1588

The year England defeated Spain’s navy using "fire ships" as weapons, causing Spain to lose almost 100 ships.

Jamestown, Virginia

The 1st permanent English colony in North America, established in 1607.

The Virginia Company

The business that established Jamestown with the goal to MAKE $$, eventually receiving a monopoly on tobacco imports from King James I.

Indentured Servants

Mostly white, very poor, and often illiterate individuals from England who "chose" to come to America for a better life and were granted freedom after 7 years.

Enslaved People

Black individuals from Africa who were kidnapped, trafficked to America, and forced into permanent labor with no choice.

The Starving Time

A period from 1609-1610 where Jamestown settlers suffered extreme hunger, eating horses, vermin, and in some cases, human corpses.

Tobacco

The colony's primary "Cash Crop"; by 1640, London was importing 1.5 millions pounds of it every year.

Powhatan

Native Americans who provided Jamestown with help, including food and farming knowledge.

John Smith

A leader of Jamestown who helped the colony endure by enforcing discipline and requiring colonists to work.

Virginia Company

An organization that established the Jamestown colony and gave away land in Virginia to individuals who paid for the passage of indentured servants to America.

Indentured servants

People whose passage to America was paid for by others in exchange for labor, helping the Virginia Company increase tobacco production and profit.

Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade

A trafficking system involving approximately $35,000$ ships that transported $12.5$ million Africans to the Americas between $1650$ and $1860$.

Vicissitudes

A work by Jason deCaires Taylor related to the history of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.

The Brookes

A British slave ship that, after the Regulation Act of $1788$, was authorized to carry $454$ slaves but had previously carried as many as $609$ people.

Regulation Act of 1788

A law that set specific space rules for slaves on ships, such as allowing $6$ feet $1$ inch by $1$ foot $4$ inches for each man, and reducing allowed capacity on ships like the Brookes.

Middle Passage

Also known as the Triangular Trade, the leg of the journey from Africa to the Americas where nearly $2$ million Africans died.

Southern Colonies Labor

Enslaved people worked on large farms (plantations) growing cash crops such as tobacco in Virginia, rice and indigo in the Carolinas, and cotton in Georgia.

Mid-Atlantic Colonies Labor

Enslaved people performed mining, farm work, butchering, tanning, leatherwork, carpentry, and blacksmithing.

New England Colonies Labor

Enslaved people were utilized for farm work, logging, and ship building.

Triangular Trade

A trade system where raw materials were sent to England, weapons and alcohol were sent to Africa, and people were trafficked from Africa to the Americas.

Mercantilism

An economic theory where colonies exist to enrich the mother country (England) by providing gold, silver, foodstuffs, and raw materials while purchasing manufactured goods.

Navigation Acts

A series of laws passed by England to control trade, requiring all trade to be on English ships and all raw materials to be sold only to England.