Unit 1: Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and Colonial Economics

Flashcards covering the economic motivations, regional differences in slavery, and the logistics of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade based on lecture notes.

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.