Development of Slavery in the British North American Colonies (Vocabulary flashcards)

Vocabulary flashcards covering concepts, terms, and events related to the origins and evolution of slavery in colonial America as discussed in the lecture.

Middle Passage

The transatlantic voyage that transported enslaved Africans from Africa to the Americas; infamous for crowded, brutal conditions and high mortality.

Indentured Servant

A European worker (often English) who signed a contract (typically 5–7 years) to work in America to pay for passage; could receive “freedom dues” at contract end.

Freedom Dues

Benefits given to an indentured servant after completing the contract (e.g., seed, farming tools, rifle) to help start a new life.

Tobacco (as a cash crop)

A highly profitable crop in Virginia that drove settlement and created a demand for labor, fueling indentured servitude and later slavery.

Bacon’s Rebellion

1676 uprising led by Nathaniel Bacon against Governor Berkeley in Virginia; exposed class tensions and accelerated shift from indentured servitude to racial slavery.

House of Burgesses

The first representative assembly in the English colonies (established in Virginia in 1619); early form of self-government.

Slavery by Race (racialized slavery)

A legal and social shift by the 1660s–1670s where enslaved status became defined by skin color, increasing white–Black segregation of labor.

Free Black Population

Free people of African descent who existed from early colonial times (e.g., 1619 in Virginia) alongside enslaved individuals.

Dutch Slave Trade (Dutch traders)

The Dutch cornered the African slave trade in the 16th–17th centuries before English dominance; traded slaves to British colonies.

Slavers

European ships that carried enslaved Africans across the Atlantic; forced to maximize enslaved cargo for profit.

Atlantic Slave Trade

The system of transporting Africans to the Americas for slavery, connecting Africa, Europe, and the Americas for labor on plantations.

Sugar Plantations (Caribbean/Brazil)

Labor-intensive estates where enslaved Africans worked; extreme mortality, especially in tropical climates (e.g., Brazil).

Brazil as Major Slave importer

Brazil imported the most African slaves due to its large, labor-intensive sugar industry.

Proportion going to what is now the US (3.6%)

Only about 3.6% of Africans taken from Africa were sent to the territory that would become the United States.

Mortality on the Middle Passage

High mortality rates on the voyage across the Atlantic, especially early on; improved over time but remained deadly.

Natural Increase of Slaves (Reproduction)

In the American colonies, the enslaved population grew partly through births, unlike many other slave systems.

Gullah

A distinct African American language that emerged among enslaved communities in coastal Carolina, blending African, Native American, and English elements.

Saint Domingue (Haiti) Slave Trade

Caribbean sugar colony that imported hundreds of thousands of slaves; a comparing example of plantation slavery elsewhere.

Outlawing the African Slave Trade (1808)

The U.S. law banning the importation of enslaved Africans after 1808; slave population grew through natural increase thereafter.

Barbadian Planters (SC/GA)

Planters from Barbados who brought Caribbean slaveholding practices to South Carolina and Georgia.

Resistance to Slavery

Everyday and organized forms of resistance by enslaved people (feigning illness, work slowdowns, sabotage, revolts) from colonial times onward.

Mercantilism

Economic theory that stressed strict trade balances and wealth for the mother country; slavery and colonies served this system.

Backcountry Tensions (Virginia)

Frontier farmers’ grievances (no roads/forts, taxes, protection) that contributed to unrest and the push toward slavery’s racialization.

Plantation Demographics (Colonial Varieties)

Slavery prevalence varied: ~2% in New England, ~10% in the Middle Colonies, and up to ~50% in South Carolina and certain Southern colonies.

Life Expectancy on Plantations

Harsh conditions, disease, and labor led to low life expectancy among enslaved people, especially on tropical sugar estates.

Race, Class, and Slavery

The intersection of race and class shaped labor systems; elite fear of rebellion led to racialized slavery and social control.