Chapter/Packet 4 Flashcards
indentured servants
were men and women who signed a contract (also known as an indenture or a covenant) by which they agreed to work for a certain number of years in exchange for transportation to Virginia and, once they arrived, food, clothing, and shelter.
headright system
refers to a legal grant of land given to settlers during the period of European colonization in the Americas. Headrights are most notable for their role in the expansion of the Thirteen Colonies; the Virginia Company gave headrights to settlers, and the Plymouth Company followed suit.
Bacon’s Rebellion
was an armed rebellion held by Virginia settlers that took place from 1676 to 1677. It was led by Nathaniel Bacon against Colonial Governor William Berkeley, after Berkeley refused Bacon’s request to drive Native Americans out of Virginia.
Royal African Company
was an English mercantile company set up in 1660 by the royal Stuart family and City of London merchants to trade along the west coast of Africa. It was led by the Duke of York, who was the brother of King Charles II and in 1685, York took the throne as James II.
middle passage
was the stage of the Atlantic slave trade in which millions of enslaved Africans were transported to the Americas as part of the triangular slave trade.
slave codes
laws relating to slavery and enslaved people
Congregational Church
are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its own affairs.
jeremiad
a long, mournful complaint or lamentation; a list of woes
Half-Way Covenant
was a form of partial church membership adopted by the Congregational churches of colonial New England in the 1660s
Salem witch trials
were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. More than 200 people were accused. Thirty people were found guilty, 19 of whom were executed by hanging.
Leisler’s Rebellion
was an uprising in late-17th century colonial New York in which German American merchant and militia captain Jacob Leisler seized control of the southern portion of the colony and ruled it from 1689 to 1691.
William Berkeley
(1605-1677) was governor of Virginia longer than any other man, from 1642 until 1652 and from 1660 until his death in 1677. He advocated economic diversification and promoted trade between the colonists and the Virginia Indians.
Nathaniel Bacon
was a member of the governor’s Council and, in 1676, a leader of Bacon’s Rebellion (1676–1677), a dramatic uprising against the governor that ended with Bacon’s sudden death. Bacon was born and educated in England and moved to Virginia with his wife in 1674.
