Virginia Colony Vocabulary notes august 25th lecture

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms and concepts from the Virginia colony lecture notes, including Powhatan, massacres, tobacco, land, indentured servitude, Africans in Virginia, and Bacon's Rebellion.

Powhatan Confederacy

A powerful Native American alliance in the Virginia region led by Powhatan, whose people were attacked as English settlers expanded their land.

Massacre of 1622

Powhatan’s forces’ surprise attack on English settlers in Virginia in 1622, killing many and triggering intensified land seizure and conflict.

1644 treaty and reservation

An agreement that placed the remaining Powhatan people on a fixed piece of land as a reservation, marking native confinement.

Reservation (Virginia history)

A designated tract of land set aside for Native Americans under the 1644 treaty, restricting their freedom to move.

Muskets

Firearms traded to Native Americans in the early 1600s; sale and training in their use were later criminalized, with the death penalty in some cases.

Tobacco economy

Virginia’s cash crop-driven economy that spurred demand for land and labor, accelerating expansion and conflict with Native peoples.

Plantation

A large, labor-intensive tobacco farm owned by the planter class; shift from small farms to big estates.

Planter class

Wealthy landowners who owned the major tobacco plantations and led the colonial social and political structure.

Indentured servant

A poor English migrant who agreed to 4–7 (often five) years of labor in Virginia in exchange for passage and the chance of land, though many ended without land.

Africans arriving in 1619

The first Africans documented in Jamestown in 1619, likely bound to labor for tobacco; they were not yet part of a formal slave system.

African descent in Virginia by 1650

By 1650, about 300 people of African descent lived in Virginia, with Africans often treated as indentured servants rather than enslaved at this time.

Interracial relationships and church discipline

Instances of mixed-race relationships (e.g., African and English) addressed by the Anglican church rather than civil law, signaling evolving but limited regulatory norms.

Landless former indentured servants (1660s)

By the 1660s, roughly two-thirds of former indentured servants did not own land, producing class tension and resentment toward the planter elite.

Bacon's Rebellion (1675–1676)

A rebellion led by Nathaniel Bacon, a former indentured servant, against Native tribes and the colonial government; it was crushed after Bacon’s death and highlighted class conflict between the poor white population and planters.