Chapter 4 - American Life In The Seventeenth Century (1607-1692)

Front 1

Indentured Servants

Back 1

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 settlements.

Front 2

Headright System

Back 2

Employed in the tobacco colonies to encourage the importation of indentured servants, the system allowed an individual to acquire 50 acres of land if he paid for a labor's passage to the colony.

Front 3

Bacon's Rebellion

Back 3

(1676) Uprising of Virginia backcountry farmers and indentured servants led by planter Nathaniel Bacon; Initially a response to Governor William Berkley's refusal to protect backcountry settlers from Indian attacks, the rebellion eventually grew into a broader conflict between impoverished settlers andn the planter elite.

Front 4

Royal African Company

Back 4

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

Front 5

Middle Passage

Back 5

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

Front 6

Slave Codes

Back 6

Set of laws defining racial slavery beginning in 1662, including establishing the hereditary nature of slavery, legally limiting the rights and learning of slaves.

Front 7

New York Slave Revolt

Back 7

(1712) uprising of approximately two dozen slaves that resulted in the deaths of 9 whites and the brutal execution of 21 participating blacks.

Front 8

South Carolina Slave Revolt (Stono River)

Back 8

(1739) Uprising, also known as the Stono Rebellion, of more than 50 South Carolina blacks along the Stono River. The slaves attempted to reach Spanish Florida but were stopped by the South Carolina militia.

Front 9

Congregational Church

Back 9

Self-governing Puritan congregations without the hierarchical establishment of the Anglican church.

Front 10

Jeremiad

Back 10

Often fiery sermons lamenting the waning piety of parishioners, first developed in New England in the mid-17th century, named after the doomsaying Old Testament prophet Jeremiah.

Front 11

Halfway Covenant

Back 11

(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.

Front 12

Salem Witch Trials

Back 12

(1692-1693) Series of witchcraft trials launched after a group of adolescent girls in Salem, Massachusetts, claim to have been bewitched by certain older women of the town. 20 people were put to death before the trials were put to an end by the governor of Massachusetts.

Front 13

Leisler's Rebellion

Back 13

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