Untitled Flashcard Set

indentured servants

migrants who, in exchange for transatlantic passage, bound themselves to a colonial employer for a term of service, typically between four and seven years. Their migration addressed the chronic labor shortage in the colonies and facilitated settlement

headright system

employed in the tobacco colonies to encourage the importation of indentured servants, the system allowed an individual to acquire fifty acres of land if he paid for a laborer's passage to the colony

Bacon's Rebellion

1676; uprising of Virginia backcountry farmers and indentured servants led by planter Nathaniel Bacon; initially a response to Governor William Berkeley's refusal to protect backcountry settlers from Indian attacks, the rebellion eventually grew into a broader conflict between impoverished settlers and the planter elite

Royal African Company

English joint-stock company that enjoyed a state-granted monopoly on the colonial salve trade from 1672 until 1698. The supply of slaves to the north American colonies rose sharply once the company lost its monopoly privileges

middle passage

transatlantic voyage slaves endured between Africa and the colonies. Mortality rates were notoriously high

slave codes

set of laws beginning in 1662 defining racial slavery. They established the hereditary nature of slavery and limited the rights and education of slaves

Congregational Church

self-governing Puritan congregations without the hierarchical establishment of the Anglican Church

jeremiad

often-fiery sermons lamenting the waning piety of parishioners first delivered in new England in the mid-seventeenth century; named after the doom-saying Old Testament prophet Jeremiah

Half-Way Covenant

1662; agreement allowing unconverted offspring of church members to baptize their children. It signified a waning of religious zeal among second- and third-generation Puritans

Salem witch trials

1692-1693; series of witchcraft trials launched after a group of adolescent girls in Salem, Massachusetts, claimed to have been bewitched by certain older women of the town. Twenty individuals were put to death before the trials were put to an end by the governor of Massachusetts

Leisler's Rebellion

1689-1691; armed conflict between aspiring merchants led by Jacob Leisler and the ruling elite of New York. One of many uprisings that erupted across the colonies when wealthy colonists attempted to re-create European social structures in the New World

William Berkeley

Virginia's governor who had a tough time dealing with a population of mostly poor, indebted, discontented, and armed people. He was friendly towards the Indians and chased away from Jamestown by Bacon during Bacon's Rebellion. When Bacon died from disease, Berkeley fiercely shut down the rebellion

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Nathaniel Bacon

a planter who led rebels to attack Indians, chase away Governor Berkeley, and torched the capital. He later died of disease