Untitled Flashcard Set

Indentured Servants

Migrants who, in exchange for transatlantic passage, bound themselves to a colonial employer for a term of service, typically between four and seven years.

Headright System

A system employed in the tobacco colonies that allowed an individual to acquire fifty acres of land if he paid for a laborer's passage to the colony.

Bacon's Rebellion

1676 uprising of Virginia backcountry farmers and indentured servants led by Nathaniel Bacon, initially a response to Governor Berkeley's refusal to protect settlers from Indian attacks.

Royal African Company

English joint-stock company that had a monopoly on the colonial slave trade from 1672 until 1698, which ended leading to a sharp increase in slave supply to North American colonies.

Middle Passage

The transatlantic voyage endured by slaves between Africa and the colonies, notorious for its high mortality rates.

Slave Codes

Set of laws beginning in 1662 defining racial slavery, establishing its hereditary nature and limiting rights and education of slaves.

Congregational Church

Self-governing Puritan congregations without the hierarchical structure of the Anglican Church.

Jeremiad

Often-fiery sermons lamenting the waning piety of parishioners, first delivered in New England in the mid-seventeenth century, named after the prophet Jeremiah.

Half-Way Covenant

1662 agreement allowing unconverted offspring of church members to baptize their children, signifying a waning of religious zeal among Puritans.

Salem Witch Trials

1692-1693 series of witchcraft trials in Salem, Massachusetts, where twenty individuals were executed after claims of bewitchment by adolescent girls.

Leisler's Rebellion

1689-1691 armed conflict in New York led by Jacob Leisler between aspiring merchants and the ruling elite, amidst attempts to recreate European social structures.

William Berkeley

Virginia's governor during Bacon's Rebellion, who faced discontented and armed citizens, was friendly towards Indians, and was eventually chased away by Bacon.

Nathaniel Bacon

A planter who led rebels in attacking Indians, chased away Governor Berkeley, and burned the capital; he later died of disease.