Chapter 2–3 Vocabulary Flashcards: Transformations of North American Colonies and the British Atlantic World ( ENGLISH )

Chapter 2–3 Study Notes: Transformation of North America 1450–1700 and the British Atlantic World 1660–1750

• Big ideas across chapters:
  • European migrants carried familiar patterns and institutions to the Americas but also had to adapt to new environments, creating a new American world. Native Americans adapted to growing European presence. Conflicts over power and law helped shape emergent colonial societies.
  • Slavery evolved from legal ambiguities into a guaranteed, hereditary chattel system in English North America, driven by plantation needs and racialized legal codes. Elizabeth Key’s case and the 1662 Virginia statute illustrate the transition from patriarchal descent to mother-based or race-based status rules that solidified slavery.
  • Three major colony types emerged by 1700: (1) tribute colonies (Spain, Mexico, Peru) based on indigenous tribute and labor; (2) plantation colonies (sugar, tobacco, rice) with bound labor; (3) neo
    ‑Europes (New France, New Netherland, New England) replicating European social and economic patterns in a North American setting.
  • The Columbian Exchange and ecological transformation linked the Old and New Worlds, spreading crops, animals, diseases, and ecological change that reshaped societies.

Key concepts and definitions

• Chattel slavery: ownership of humans as property; status tied to masters and inherited; codified by Virginia 1662 statute: ext{"all children borne in this country shalbe held bond or free only according to the condition of the mother"}.
• Smith-Key-Greensted case (1656): Elizabeth Key, daughter of a free Englishman and a slave mother, won freedom due to paternal status; Virginia legislature sought to close this avenue in 1662.
• Casta system: evolving racial categories in Spanish America (indians, mestizos, mulatos, zambos, etc.) buttressed by law.
• Headright system: land grants (e.g., 50 acres) to those who paid passage for an immigrant; used to accumulate land and labor.
• Indentured servitude: contracts for 4–5 years of labor in exchange for passage, later superseded by lifelong slavery in many regions.
• Mercantilism: state-supported production and trade designed to enrich the mother country; Navigation Acts (1651, 1660, 1663, 1673, 1696, 1700s) regulated colonial trade to England.
• Neo-Europes: colonies that replicated European settlement patterns in temperate zones (New England, New Netherland, New France).

Part I: Transformation of North America, 1450–1700 (Chapter 2)

Spain’s Tribute Colonies and the Columbian Exchange

• Encomiendas and repartitioning after conquest; control of vast labor and resource flows by Spanish elites.
• Discovery of massive gold and silver deposits (Mexico, Andes) and the mita labor system’s adaptation for mines (e.g., Potosí produced ~$200\text{ tons of silver per year})$.
• Global impact of silver: poured to China; inflamed inflation in Europe; gold flowed into Spanish counting houses and Catholic churches.
• Demographic changes: 1500–1650 migration to the Americas included $350{,}000$ Spaniards (mostly male) and $250{,}000–300{,}000$ Africans; racial mixing produced mestizos, mulattos, zambos; caste system evolved.
• Catholic conversion and syncretism: Indian communities remained majority in New Spain and Peru but subjected to Catholic reform; religious practices adapted to indigenous contexts.
• Columbian Exchange effects: Old World crops (maize, potatoes, manioc, tomatoes) increased yields and populations elsewhere; New World animals (cattle, horses, pigs, etc.) and crops (wheat, barley, rice) spread; devastating diseases (smallpox, influenza, malaria) devastated native populations; syphilis traveled to Europe.
• Ecological transformation and demographic collapse among Native populations (declines up to 90% in core regions in the first century after contact).

The Protestant Challenge to Spain and English–Dutch Rivalry

• Protestant Reformation and global wars shifted balance of power; Dutch and English challenges to Spanish wealth and authority intensified.
• Elizabethan mercantilism and promotion of overseas colonization: war with Spain culminated in the defeat of the Spanish Armada (1588).
• English expansion: growth of population from 3 million in 1500 to 5 million by 1630; mercantilist policies promoted outwork textile industry and overseas trade; shift toward overseas colonization.

Plantation Colonies: Brazil, the Caribbean, and English North America

• Brazil’s sugar plantations: Pernambuco and Bahia developed large-scale sugar mills; sugar labor shifted from Indigenous to African enslaved labor starting in the 1559 smallpox epidemics and continuing through the 17th century.
• English tobacco colonies: Jamestown (1607) and Maryland (1634) emerged as tobacco-based plantation economies; early missteps (Roanoke) contrasted with later success after reprising English models of land grants and representative government.
• The Caribbean islands became magnets for plantation agriculture: St. Kitts (1624), Barbados, Jamaica (1655 conquest), etc.; sugar as a global commodity transformed Atlantic economies.
• Slavery and labor systems: transition from indentured servitude (16th–mid 17th century) to slavery as the dominant labor system in plantation economies. 1661 Statute in Barbados and other colonies codified race-based slavery; 1662 Virginia law established status by mother and race-based segregation.
• Demographic shifts: in the Chesapeake, enslaved Africans grew from ~$2\text{%}$ of population in 1649 to ~$5\text{%}$ in 1670; by 1700, African population rising; in Barbados, enslaved Africans outnumbered whites by nearly 3:1 by 1690.
• West Indian slave codes codified coercive governance of slaves (e.g., 1661 Barbados act, “order and government of Negroes”).

Neo-European Colonies: New France, New Netherland, New England

• New France (St. Lawrence, Quebec): fur trade (Montagnais, Algonquians, Iroquois); Jesuit missions; beaver pelts; slow population growth; limited migration due to harsh climate and feudal structure; by 1698 only ~15,200 Europeans in New France; a vast interior network of forts and missionary lodges (Great Lakes through Mississippi, Louisiana considered by La Salle).
• New Netherland: fur trade with Iroquois, Algonquian, and other tribes; initial conflict with Algonquians; Dutch fort Orange (Albany) and New Amsterdam (Manhattan) as trading hubs; war with Indigenous groups (1643 attacks), alliance with Mohawks; English conquest in 1664 (New Netherland becomes New York).
• New England: Puritans (Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay) settled with family groups; strong emphasis on church and town governance; the concept of a “city upon a hill” (Winthrop); establishment of town meetings and representative government; family formation and land distribution; social discipline, education, and religious conformity; witchcraft persecutions (1647–1662, Salem 1692).
• Metacom’s War (King Philip’s War, 1675–1676): Wampanoags allied with Narragansetts and Nipmucks against English settlers; massive frontier war; significant Indian losses; eventual English victory but long-lasting implications for Native sovereignty and casualty figures.
• Bacon’s Rebellion (Virginia, 1676): frontier conflict against Native Americans; conflict between landless freemen and merceantry/planter elites; led to reformation of labor practices and the shift toward enslaved labor, reinforcing racialized slavery in Virginia.

Socioeconomic and Political Developments in Chapter 2

• Virginia Company and the House of Burgesses (1609 onwards): settlers gained land grants, self-government, and a legal system; 1622 Powhatan uprising led to charter suspension and royal colony status (1624).
• Maryland as a Catholic haven: Toleration Act of 1649 to mitigate religious tensions; tobacco as key crop; early religious conflicts but economic alignment with Virginia due to tobacco.
• Caribbean life: sugar as the key cash crop; labor systems led to high mortality and slavery; division between English, Dutch, French colonies; colonists experimented with crops and labor discipline.
• Settlement patterns in New England: nucleated villages in Connecticut River Valley and dispersed settlements in eastern Massachusetts due to terrain; town meetings as a political engine; strong emphasis on community governance and religious conformity.
• Indian relations and missionary activity: conversion efforts (Eliot’s Algonquian Bible; praying towns; Martha’s Vineyard) and limited inclusion of Native peoples into Puritan congregations.
• Witchcraft and rationalism: Salem witch trials (1692) as turning point away from persecution toward Enlightenment rationalism.
• Gender and family in Puritan society: patriarchal, but with women playing roles in religious life; diffusion of social expectations and the emergence of a yeoman society with strong family structures.

Chapter 2 Summary: Major Outcomes

• Three colony types shaped distinct colonial futures: tribute, plantation, and neo-European; each developed different labor systems, demographic patterns, and ecological impacts.
• The Columbian Exchange created lasting ecological and demographic shifts; diseases devastated Indigenous populations, while crops and livestock reshaped landscapes and economies.
• English North American colonies developed distinct political economies marked by landownership, representative government, and growing mercantile influence.
• The rise of slavery became the dominant form of labor in the plantation economy, with regional variations in intensity and outcomes.

Part II: The British North America and the Atlantic World, 1660–1763 (Chapter 3)

The Diversification of British North America and the South Atlantic System

• Population changes by 1700: English mainland colonies became more diverse with large-scale immigration from Ireland (particularly Scots-Irish Presbyterians) and Germans; about 115,000 Irish and 100,000 Germans by mid-18th century, concentrated in Pennsylvania and other Middle Colonies.
• Slavery and the South Atlantic System: slave trade expands dramatically across the Atlantic; by 1750, more than two million Africans transported to the Americas; sugar islands (Caribbean) and mainland colonies (Chesapeake and South Carolina) become labor powerhouses for sugar, tobacco, and rice.
• The South Atlantic System’s center in Brazil and the West Indies; high profitability of sugar; enslaved labor dominated production; planters relied on slave labor, coercive discipline, and brutal working conditions across the sugar economy.
• The Atlantic slave trade: roughly 11 million Africans shipped to the Americas; about 14% died on the Middle Passage; most survivors ended up in Brazil and the Caribbean; a significant minority (roughly 500,000) arrived directly in what would become the United States.
• Africa’s internal dynamics influenced the slave trade: kingdoms such as Dahomey and Asante engaged in capturing and selling captives; Benin sometimes prohibited slave export; slave origin varied across West and Central Africa, with a broad mix of ethnic groups forming the slave populations in the Americas.
• Slavery and daily life: slave families and kin networks, mixed-race communities, and cultural retention (language, religion, music) persisted; women and men faced brutal discipline, while some slaves built families and communities under harsh conditions.
• The Stono Rebellion (1739) in South Carolina demonstrated slave resistance and fear among white planters; the rebellion prompted tightened controls and reduced importation of slaves.

The Northern Maritime Economy and the Rise of Colonial Assemblies

• The North American mainland economies linked to the Caribbean sugar economy and West Indian markets; New England exported bread, meat, fish, and timber; New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania supplied wheat and grain to the Caribbean.
• Growth of port cities and urban economies: Boston, Newport, Philadelphia, New York; emergence of seaports as commercial and industrial hubs; growth of shipbuilding and related trades; provision of credit and bills of exchange between islands and mainland.
• The political evolution: after the Glorious Revolution (1688–1689) and the rise of colonial assemblies, colonial governments gained greater tax and appointment powers; the assemblies became central to political life and challenged royal authority.
• The Dominion of New England (1686–1689) under James II centralized control but was overthrown in 1689; William and Mary restored self-government, while expanding imperial governance to balance crown authority and local assemblies.
• Salutary neglect (early 18th century): a period in which Britain relaxed strict enforcement of trade laws, allowing colonial self-government to flourish; this would later contribute to colonial resistance and independence movements.

The Imperial Wars and Native Peoples

• Imperial wars (1689–1763) reshaped Native alliances and colonial borders; tribes reorganized into more powerful political entities (tribalization) to negotiate with European powers.
• Covenant Chain: alliance with the Iroquois; British and Iroquois diplomacy shaped the political landscape of the Northeast.
• Iroquois diplomacy and the Covenant Chain became a model of intercolonial relations, with diplomacy and gifts (guns, powder, lead, rum/brandies) shaping alliances.
• Native American polities adapted through war, infection, and political restructuring, with some tribes allying with European powers to secure survival.

The Imperial Slave Economy: The South Atlantic System in Practice

• The South Atlantic System created a global plantation economy centered on sugar, tobacco, and rice; it linked Africa, the Americas, and Europe in a triangular trade that enriched European merchants and American planters while enslaving millions.
• Slavery’s social and economic logic: slave labor underpinned wealth in the southern colonies and Caribbean islands; the system fostered a caste-like racial order in many colonies and reinforced unequal social hierarchies.
• The Atlantic world and the British empire: the system contributed to Britain’s economic leadership but also created tensions, including currency disputes, smuggling, and legislative battles like the Molasses Act (1733) and the Hat Act (1732).

The Rise of Colonial Self-Government and the Atlantic World

• The political economy: mercantilist policies sought to canalize colonial trade through Britain; colonies developed autonomous assemblies and robust economies; the wealth from slave economies funded urban growth and mainland expansion.
• The Northern maritime economy and urban society grew richer, with port cities expanding and becoming centers of trade, craft production, and finance.
• The South Atlantic System reshaped attitudes toward labor, property, and governance, contributing to a political culture of colonial autonomy and a rising sense of colonial identity.

Chronology and Key Events (selected from the text)

• 1500–1650: Spanish conquest, encomiendas, and mita; Columbian Exchange; massive indigenous population decline; beaver trade and early French settlement in North America.
• 1607: Jamestown established as English colony; tobacco becomes cash crop; first Africans in Chesapeake (1619).
• 1624: Virginia becomes royal colony; Maryland established (1634).
• 1640s–1670s: Tobacco boom; rise of indentured servitude; transition toward African slavery as labor; 1671: Virginia law restricting enslaved Africans from owning English servants; 1676 Bacon’s Rebellion.
• 1685–1689: Dominion of New England; Glorious Revolution in England influences colonial uprisings; 1692 Salem Witch Trials.
• 1713: Treaty of Utrecht; Britain gains Newfoundland, Acadia, Hudson Bay; rise of the South Atlantic System.
• 1739: Stono Rebellion in South Carolina; onset of increasing slave control measures.
• 1740s–1750s: War of Jenkins’s Ear; Sugar islands expand; mercantilist regulation intensifies; Rise of colonial assemblies and salutary neglect.
• 1754–1763: French and Indian War signals shift toward imperial focus on North American empire and Atlantic world integration.

Key people, places, and terms (selected)

• Key people:
  • Elizabeth Key: Daughter of a free Englishman and a slave mother who won freedom in 1656 due to paternal status, prompting Virginia to modify its laws regarding slave status.
  • John Rolfe: An early English colonist in Jamestown, significant for his role in cultivating tobacco as a cash crop.
  • Powhatan: Leader of the Powhatan Confederacy, whose uprising in 1622 against English settlers in Virginia led to the Virginia Company's charter suspension.
  • Pocahontas: Daughter of Chief Powhatan, known for her association with the Jamestown colony.
  • Francis Drake: An English privateer and explorer associated with Elizabethan mercantilism and the war with Spain, leading to the defeat of the Spanish Armada.
  • James I: King of England during the early establishment of colonies like Jamestown.
  • Charles I: King of England during the early to mid-17th century; his reign saw significant Puritan migration to New England.
  • Lord Baltimore (George Calvert and his successors): The proprietor who established Maryland as a Catholic haven with a key crop of tobacco.
  • William