Social Systems of Colonization APWH Unit 4 Vocab

sociedad de castas

American social system based on racial origins; Europeans or whites at top, black slaves or Native Americans at bottom, mixed races in middle.

Middle passage

A voyage that brought enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to North America and the West Indies

Atlantic slave trade

the buying, transporting, and selling of Africans for work in the Americas

Creoles

Descendents of Spanish-born but born in Latin America; resented inferior social, political, economic status.

Peninsulares

Spanish-born, came to Latin America; ruled, highest social class.

Castas

middle-level status between Europeans and pure minorities (made up of mezitos and mulattoes)

Mestizos

A person of mixed Native American and European ancestory

Mulattoes

People of African and European descent

Zambos

According to Spanish and Portuguese colonizedrs, these are people of mixed Native American and African descent. Lowest tier of social class in colonial America.

African Diaspora

The separation of Africans from their homeland through centuries of forced removal to serve as slaves in the Americas and elsewhere.