American Life in the Seventeenth Century (1607-1692) – Key Terms

Page 1

• Timeframe: 1607-1692
• Topic: American Life in the Seventeenth Century within the British Atlantic world, focusing on slavery, plantation economics, Native relations, governance, and social order.

Page 2

• Essential Questions:
  • How did slavery unite the Atlantic World into a single, coherent spatial and geographic entity?
  • Why did slavery take hold in British North America?
  • How democratic was political life in British North America?
  • How did economic pressures and opportunities affect relations between Plantation societies and Native American peoples?

Page 3

• Colonial trade and exchange networks:
  • Colonial exports to the Atlantic world: Flour, fish, meat; Lumber, furs, dried fish, whale oil, iron, gunpowder, rice, tobacco, indigo.
  • Colonial imports from Europe and elsewhere: Manufactured goods, textiles, furniture, luxuries.
  • Intercolonial trade and global connections: Trade routes linking North America, the West Indies, South America, and Europe; goods moving across the Atlantic Ocean.
  • Slavery link: Enslaved persons, gold, pepper appear in transatlantic exchange; the Middle Passage connects Africa with the Americas.
  • Overall concept: Slavery and the Atlantic World shaped economic, political, and social life across the British colonies.

Page 4

• Slavery and the Atlantic World – The Supply Side and The Demand Side:
  • The Supply Side:
  • Middle Passage: route transporting enslaved Africans to the Americas.
  • African incentives: factors that motivated participation and survival within the slave system (economic, social, coercive factors).
  • The overwhelming majority of immigrants to the New World were enslaved.
  • The Demand Side:
  • Plantation agriculture required large, controlled labor forces for cash crops: Sugar, Rice, Indigo, Tobacco.
  • Sugar islands imposed especially harsh conditions on enslaved laborers.
  • Triangular Trade: Connected the Atlantic World in a loop among Europe, Africa, and the Americas, intertwining economies and reinforcing the slave trade.

Page 5

• Plantation Societies in British North America:
  • Virginia as the prime example of a plantation society.
  • Rationale for colonization:
  • Joint-Stock Companies: Provided economic profitability (comparable to Caribbean colonies).
  • Proprietary Colonies: Maryland and Georgia represented alternate governance models.
  • Religious structure:
  • Official Anglican establishment in the colonies; notable exception: Maryland’s Catholic population.
  • Economic structure:
  • Plantation societies tended to be “Slave Societies” rather than merely “Societies with Slaves.”
  • Main cash crops: ext{Sugar}, ext{Tobacco}, ext{Rice}.

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• Plantation Societies and Native Societies:
  • Demography, disease, and early stagnation in Virginia.
  • Population stabilization by the mid-seventeenth century.
  • Virginia and the Powhatan Confederacy:
  • From dependence to conflict driven by the tobacco economy.
  • Anglo-Powhatan Wars (1622, 1644) and territorial expansion of Virginia.
  • Carolina and Native politics:
  • Deerskin trade with the Southeastern interior.
  • Slave trade presence.
  • Yamasee War (1715) marked a shift from relying on Native labor towards African slaves in South Carolina.

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• Transition to Slavery in Virginia:
  • Early labor largely performed by White indentured servants.
  • Demographic stabilization and labor needs led to a growing reliance on slave labor by the mid-seventeenth century.
  • Creating a Slave Society:
  • Paternity laws changed to render slavery a legally permanent condition.
  • Land crunch and frontier conflict:
  • Western expansion increased clashes with Native peoples on the Virginia frontier.
  • Bacon’s Rebellion:
  • A pivotal event contributing to the shift toward racialized, codified slavery and the rise of white supremacy in North America.

Page 8

• Slavery and the Atlantic World – Lowcountry, Chesapeake, and Caribbean contexts:
  • Rice culture in the Lowcountry developed different labor systems from the Chesapeake or Caribbean.
  • Task system vs. gang labor trade-offs:
  • Task system offered slaves “down time” after completing tasks; allowed some autonomy.
  • Development of Gullah Geechee culture:
  • Cultural fusion expressed through family, food, language, music, and religion.
  • The Weapons of the Weak:
  • Subtle forms of resistance: maintaining culture, slowing work pace, breaking tools, running away.
  • Stono Rebellion (1739):
  • A major slave uprising in the colonial era.
  • Fears of Spanish invasion and alliances with Lowcountry slaves:
  • Led to race-based laws designed to control enslaved populations and suppress rebellion.
  • Legislative responses:
  • Passage of race-based laws paralleling Bacon’s Rebellion in Virginia, reinforcing a racialized legal order.

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• Social Structures in British North America:
  • Emphasis on order, stability, and one’s place in the Great Chain of Being.
  • A Small Planter Aristocracy:
  • Dominated political life in many colonies.
  • Voting and political office:
  • Property ownership and/or taxable income determined eligibility to vote and hold office.
  • Racial hierarchies:
  • Firmly entrenched by the early seventeenth century.
  • Creole Society:
  • There is no Creole Society in British North America.

Page 10

• Wrapping Up Essential Points:
  • Atlantic slave trade participation: All British colonies participated to varying degrees due to abundant land, growing European demand for colonial goods, and a shortage of indentured servants.
  • Labor system shift: Chattel slavery became the dominant labor system in many southern colonies.
  • Governance and democracy: Geographic distance and Britain’s lax oversight fostered self-governing institutions that were unusually democratic for the era.
  • Southern political power: Elite planters exercised local authority and dominated elected assemblies.
  • Native sovereignty and resistance: As European encroachment and labor extraction increased, Native peoples pursued sovereignty through diplomacy and military resistance.
  • Racialization of slavery: Emergence of a strict racial system that prohibited interracial relationships and defined descendants of African American mothers as black and enslaved in perpetuity.