august 22nd lecture atlantic world middle passage slave trade overview

A set of vocabulary flashcards covering key people, places, crops, and concepts from the notes on Africa, the Atlantic slave trade, and early Virginia history.

African consciousness

The idea that Africa is made up of many distinct polities rather than a single unified nation, with different peoples who may share certain issues but do not see themselves as one people.

Power of POW (prisoner of war)

A captured combatant who is not killed in battle but taken prisoner; may be held or traded rather than executed.

Middle Passage

The transatlantic voyage that brought Africans to the Americas under brutal, crowded, and disease-ridden conditions; about 20% died over centuries of the slave trade.

Atlantic slave trade

The system of transporting and selling enslaved Africans to the Americas, initially dominated by Portuguese traders and later by Dutch and English traders.

African involvement in slave trade (enemies sold)

Some Africans sold defeated enemies captured in battle to Europeans; this was not universal and colonial dynamics varied.

Cash crop

A crop grown primarily for sale to generate wealth, rather than for personal or family consumption; tobacco in Virginia became the major cash crop.

Tobacco (Virginia cash crop)

A cash crop that transformed Virginia’s economy after 1617; required large tracts of land and extensive labor; first shipments to London around 1618.

Corn (staple crop)

Staple food crop in Virginia, essential for survival; unlike tobacco, not grown primarily for profit.

Jamestown

The first English settlement in Virginia, founded in 1607; later used as a generic reference for Virginia in the early period.

Virginia colony

English colony established in the early 1600s near Jamestown; interactions with Powhatan; later sustained by tobacco and reinforcements.

Powhatan

Leader of a powerful Native American confederation around Jamestown, with about 14,000 people under his rule; the colony paid him tax starting in 1608 to exist.

John Smith

Early Jamestown leader who imposed discipline and helped reinvigorate the colony around 1610; credited with stabilizing the settlement.

1610 reinforcements to Jamestown

Arrival of a shipload of new settlers in 1610 that revitalized the colony during a period of crisis.

Corn policy in Virginia

Policy emphasizing corn cultivation as essential for survival; colonial leaders prioritized bread supply alongside other economic pursuits.

Roanoke

Earlier failed English colony in North America, often remembered as the “Lost Colony.”

Puritans (Massachusetts)

English settlers in Massachusetts who produced stable communities; relied on wheat as a staple rather than tobacco as a cash crop.

Wheat (Puritans’ staple)

Staple crop for Puritans, used to produce bread; not a cash crop like tobacco.

1617 tobacco strain and London market

New Virginia tobacco strain that thrived in Virginia soil; by 1618 Virginia tobacco shipments were reaching London, fueling the colony’s economy.