Early Slavery and Southern Society (17th–18th centuries)

Vocabulary-style flashcards covering key terms and concepts about early slavery, race, and Southern society from the notes.

Mennonites of Germantown (Pennsylvania)

The group that recorded the earliest known protest against slavery in America, in 1688, opposing slaveholding and the slave trade.

Slave codes

1662 Virginia statutes that defined Blacks and their children as lifelong property (chattels) of white masters and restricted enslaved people (e.g., prohibiting literacy).

Chattels

A legal term meaning enslaved people treated as property for the life of their owners.

Color line

The racial boundary that, by the end of the 17th century, defined freedom and unfreedom in America.

First Families of Virginia (FFVs)

Elite colonial families (e.g., Fitzhugh, Lees, Washingtons) whose descendants dominated Virginia politics; about 70% of leaders in the House of Burgesses traced to them before 1690.

House of Burgesses

Virginia’s colonial legislature that was dominated by the FFVs and shaped early political power.

Planters

Wealthy southern landowners who owned gangs of slaves and vast tracts of land, wielding economic and political influence.

Iron conditions of slavery

Harsh, legally defined status of enslaved people as property for life due to slave codes.

Education prohibition for enslaved people

Slave codes made it a crime to teach slaves to read or write.

Christian conversion and freedom

Conversion to Christianity did not qualify a slave for freedom under the slave codes.

Economic versus racial basis of slavery

Slavery may have begun for economic reasons, but racial discrimination increasingly shaped its expansion and legal framework.

Southern social hierarchy (early 18th century)

A defined ladder of wealth and status that emerged as slavery spread, with planters at the top and a widening gap between classes.