3: Persons of Mean and Vile Condition Flashcards
Nathaniel Bacon’s rebellion of Jamestown Virginia in 1676 was fuelled by these two factors
Resentment against the rich and hatred of the Indians
England was ripping off the Virginia colony by buying this crop at a price they dictated
Tobacco
Richard Lee, a member of the Governor’s council in Virginia, said that the reason for the support of Bacon, past that of Indian policy, was the hope of doing this (hint: between the rich and the poor)
Levelling
What was a big reason for the migration of poor whites from Europe to America during the 17th and 18th centuries?
Harsh laws created to punish “rogues and vagabonds” - i.e. beggars
In Abbot Smith’s book “Colonists in Bondage”, he suggests that the most powerful force causing the movement of servants from Europe to American colonies was this
The profit to be made from indentured servitude (servants repaid the cost of passage by agreeing to work for a master for 5-7 years)
A ship carrying white servants to America in 1741, called the “Sea-Flower”, lost how many of its 106 passengers over its sixteen-week trip? (4-8 weeks longer than usual)
46
True or False: In 1671, Governor Berkeley of Virginia reported that in previous years, 2 of 5 servants died of disease after their arrival from Europe
False, it was 4 of 5
Why were laws to protect servants in America poorly enforced?
Masters were on juries but servants were not.
What was an easier and more common alternative to rebellion for white servants?
Desertion
Fill in the blank: More than _____ the colonists who came to the North American shores in the colonial period came as servants
Half
True or False: Abbot Smith concluded in his study that colonial society was “relatively equalitarian and democratic”
False, he concluded that it was not democratic or equalitarian, being dominated by the few rich men who could pay others to work for them
Fill in the blank: While the first batches of servants became landowners and politically active, by the second half of the century, more than half the servants, even after ten years of freedom, remained ______.
Landless
In which state were the settlers ruled by a proprietor whose total right of control over the colony had been granted by the English King?
Maryland
In the Carolinas, the Fundamental Constitutions were written in the 1660s by this “father” of the Founding Fathers and the American System
John Locke
The Carolinian system of land ownership and government gave this many barons ownership of this percentage of the land.
8; 40
Poor people in the Carolinas fought through the pre-Revolutionary period against landlord’s attempts to do what?
Collect rent
What was the name of the governor of early Massachusetts Bay Colony who said that “. . . in all times some must be rich, some poor, some high and eminent in power and dignity; others meane and in subjection”?
John Winthrop
In colonial New York, the Dutch had set up a patronage system along this river
The Hudson River
A farmers’ revolt in 1689 New York was led by this man
Jacob Leisler
Under this New York governor, 3/4 of the land was granted to approximately 30 people
Benjamin Fletcher
Fill in the blanks: The two story structure built to contain New York’s poor in the 1730s was called “Poor House, Work House, and _____ __ ______”
House of Correction
Boston tax lists in 1687 show that the top 5% of property owners (1% of the population) possessed 25% of the wealth, while in 1771 the top 1% of property owners owned this percentage of the wealth
44%
Between 1687 and 1770, the percentage of adult males in Boston who were poor/owned no property, did this
Doubled (from 14% of adult males to 29%)
The fact that the colonies were societies of contending classes is often obscured by the historical focus on this unity
Revolutionary
Andrew Belcher (a wealthy merchant)’s ships were the target of the 1713 Boston bread riot because he had been
Exporting grain to the Caribbean for greater profit
Whites who were captured or raised by Indians often did this when offered a chance to leave and return to the whites
Refused
The threat of black and Indian collaborative uprisings were low due to lack of contact save for in this region
The Carolinas
To prevent black and Indian collaboration, laws were passed in the Carolinas that prohibited blacks from doing this
Traveling in Indian country
The continual birth of bi-racial offspring despite the prohibition of interracial marriage in Virginia, Massachusetts, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, The Carolinas, and Georgia, suggests that this phenomenon may not be prevalent
Natural racial repugnance
Why was Bacon’s rebellion particularly fearsome for the rulers of Virginia?
Blacks and whites joined forces
What fear may help explain why Parliament, in 1717, made transportation to the New World a legal punishment for crime?
That there were too few whites to quell slave rebellions
Measures enacted in growing colonial cities did this, which helped governments gain support of the growing white middle-class
Protected white craftsmen and traders from the competition of free blacks and slaves in the labour force
Fill in the blanks: “Those upper classes, to rule, needed to ____ _______ to the middle class . . . at the expense of slaves, Indians, and poor whites. This bought _____”
Make concessions; loyalty
