Colonial Ways of Life, Salem Witch Trials, and Early Slavery

Flashcards covering Puritan beliefs, the Salem Witch Trials, colonial economies, the Middle Colonies, early medical practices, colonial life, and the development of slavery in the American colonies.

Puritans

A religious group who believed in covenants or contracts to form a community bound to live in godly ways and do God's will; they did not believe in democracy, prioritizing God's will over majority rule.

Puritan Highest Authority

The Bible, as interpreted by leading ministers or the Pastor who supported the church.

Massachusetts Royal Charter of 1691

A document that undermined the Puritan vision by guaranteeing religious tolerance and basing suffrage on property ownership rather than church membership.

Salem Witch Trials

A series of prosecutions and executions for witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between 1692 and 1693.

Tituba

A West Indian slave who entranced young girls with voodoo and fortune telling, later accused of witchcraft and admitted to it during the Salem Witch Trials.

Salem Witch Trials Explanations

Possible reasons included gender dynamics (challenging women, potential inheritors of property), class tensions (lower status accusing higher status), domestic disputes, or even boredom among the accusers.

New England Economy

Primarily focused on maritime activities such as fishing (especially cod), whaling for oil, shipbuilding, and international trade, due to a lack of stable crops.

Middle Colonies

Comprised of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland, known for being ethnically diverse and culturally a blend between New England and the South.

Middle Colonies Agriculture

Main crops included wheat, barley, and oats, alongside livestock, benefiting from more fertile soil and longer growing seasons than New England.

Middle Colonies Rivers

The Hudson, Delaware, and Susquehanna rivers, which provided access to the backcountry for fur trading with Native Americans.

Middle Colonies Port Cities

Philadelphia, New York City, and Baltimore, which rivaled New England's trade centers.

Humoralism

A medical theory popularized by the Roman physician Galen, which held that the body was governed by four humors or bodily fluids: yellow bile, black bile, blood, and phlegm.

Humoralism (Health/Illness)

A healthy body meant the four humors were balanced; illness indicated an excess of one or more fluids.

Colonial Medical Treatments

Techniques to eliminate 'excess fluid' from the body, such as purging (vomiting), expulsion (laxatives), and bleeding, despite no evidence of their effectiveness.

Colonial Farm Technology

Lacked basic technology; many farmers did not own a plow, and the most common tool on farms was the axe.

Mid-17th Century Slavery (European View)

Generally viewed as a normal aspect of everyday life, with the belief that God had willed slaves into their position, prior to widespread moral objections in the late 18th century.

African Slave Trade

Historians argue it would have been minor without European demand for labor; Europeans supplied weapons to African slave raids, spurring inter-ethnic warfare and violence.

Early American Slaves (Demographics)

Mostly young males (15-30 years old), with twice as many male slaves as female slaves initially.

Slave Origins and Skills

Slaves from West Africa were sought for yam cultivation (adapted to tobacco in Virginia); those from Africa's rice coast (e.g., Gambia) for South Carolina's rice plantations; some became skilled workers like blacksmiths/carpenters or domestic servants/midwives.

Major Slave Populations (1750)

Largest numbers were in Virginia and Maryland, followed by South Carolina and Georgia, with fewer in the Northern colonies.

Charleston, South Carolina

The city with the largest slave population in the mid-18th century.

New York City Slave Population

The city with the second-largest slave population in the mid-18th century, with slaves brought from Caribbean Sugar Islands and directly from Africa.

New York City Slave Revolt (1712)

A rebellion where slaves started fires and attacked whites; suppressed by militia, leading to executions and suicides.

Slave Codes

Laws enacted in the late 17th and early 18th centuries in colonies like South Carolina (1691), New York, and Virginia (1680) to control slave behavior, restrict their agency, and allow masters broad power, including physical abuse.

Stono Rebellion (1739)

A slave revolt in South Carolina where 20 slaves ransacked a store, killed the owner, gathered firearms, and fled toward Spanish Florida, killing 25 whites before being subdued by a militia.

Slavery Justification (1775)

Largely maintained as a profitable institution, justified by the belief that black and Indigenous peoples were 'backwards, racially inferior.'

Colonial Urban Growth

By the mid-17th century, colonies experienced rapid growth with rising living standards and increased imports of luxury goods from Europe, leading to growing social distinctions.

Early Major Colonial Cities

Philadelphia (the largest at one point with 30,000 people), New York City, Boston, and Newport, Rhode Island.

Colonial City Social Order

Merchants at the top, craftsmen/artisans/innkeepers in the middle, and slaves/indentured servants/sailors at the bottom.

Colonial Taverns

Ubiquitous public places for drinking, relaxation, reading newspapers, playing cards, and gossiping, often with local ordinances prohibiting service to black people, Native Americans, and indentured servants.