The Atlantic Slave Trade and Its Impact on Colonial North America

These flashcards cover key concepts related to the Atlantic Slave Trade and its profound impact on the development of colonial North America.

Atlantic Slave Trade

A significant and devastating system of forced labor from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries, involving the capture and transportation of millions of Africans to work in European colonies.

Triangular Trade

A commercial network connecting Europe, Africa, and the Americas, involving the exchange of manufactured goods for enslaved people and the shipment of plantation goods back to Europe.

Middle Passage

The horrific journey from Africa to the Americas that enslaved Africans were forced to endure, often resulting in high death rates due to disease, violence, and overcrowding.

Plantation Agriculture

An economic system that emerged in the southern colonies, requiring large numbers of laborers primarily from enslaved Africans to grow crops like tobacco, rice, and indigo.

Racial Hierarchy

A system established by colonial laws that categorized people based on race, denying basic human rights to enslaved Africans and solidifying their legal status as property.

Indentured Servants

Individuals who worked for a set number of years in exchange for passage to the Americas, but were eventually replaced by enslaved Africans as a labor source.

Enslaved Africans

Africans captured, sold, and transported into slavery, who were exploited for their labor in agriculture within the colonies, often through brutal conditions.

Economic Dependency

The reliance of colonial economies on enslaved labor, particularly in the Southern colonies, leading to wealth accumulation for elites and regional inequality.

Cultural Influence

The contributions of enslaved Africans to American culture, including traditions, languages, and knowledge that affected music, food, and religion.

Slave Codes

Laws that governed the treatment of enslaved people and enforced racial supremacy, shaping colonial governance to protect property and establish racial order.