Terms

Question 1

Bacon’s Rebellion

Answer 1

• 1676
• indentured servants began demanding their freedom
• led by Nathaniel Bacon
• against colonists to gain access to land and freedom
• outcome: shift from indentured servitude to slavery
• made more sense to import africans from a purely economic standpoint
• slaves couldn’t gain freedom after 7 years like indentured servants

Question 2

Cotton Gin

Answer 2

• 1793
• Eli Whitney
• separated seeds from the fiber
• facilitated the spread of cotton production
• made it possible for upland cotton to be produced in a more seamless fashion
• the task of separation was labor intensive before
• could get cotton to market faster
• corresponding spread of slavery westward

Question 3

Dual Revolution

Answer 3

• combined impact of the industrial revolution and french political revolution
• during 1780’s and done by 1840’s
• end of transatlantic slave trade contributed to a shift where slavery hardened and also assured slaves through law minimal treatment in terms of healthcare, food, clothing
• expansion of the american south as a place and slavery as an institution and cotton as an important part of the economy
• 1790’s marked the date when cotton took off in the south (made possible by the results of the revolution)
• led directly to napoleon’s decision to sell louisiana to US
• Territorial expansion by the americans because of French revolution
• Treaty of paris ending revolutionary war left borders of US in dispute

Question 4

1808

Answer 4

• closing of the importation of slaves into the US in the constitution
• start to keep slaves as healthy as possible and domesticate them
• slavery turns into a positive good because it takes people who are inferior and exposes them to civilization

Question 5

Gang System

Answer 5

• way of organizing labor of slaves in the field in which slaves worked as a group on a single task or varied tasks under the supervision of an overseer
• sun up to sun down
• most prevalent in cotton
• it was an aspect of slave production that grew with the expansion of cotton production

Question 6

Haitian Revolution

Answer 6

• won’t be asked as an identification
• Haitians defeated the french army and made it the second independent republic of the americas
• following french revolution

Question 7

Ideology of Race

Answer 7

• won’t be asked as an identification
• race is a social construct and so is racism
• didn’t exist at the start of slavery but used later to justify it

Question 8

Indentured Servants

Answer 8

• original source of labor in a lot of colonies
• production of tobacco was initially based on the labor of english servants
• could gain freedom after a few years
• indentured servitude wasn’t a problem initially for landowners because life expectancy was low so people couldn’t live long enough to claim freedom

Question 9

Indian Removal

Answer 9

• Jacksonian Indian removal act (1830)
• River of Dark Dreams
• subsequent displacement of the Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole, and Cherokee tribes of the Southeast fulfilled the vision of a white nation
• Jackson said Indians living independently within states presented a major problem for state sovereignty (referred directly to the situation in Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama)
• act called for the removal of the Five Civilized Tribes from their home in the southeastern United States to land in the West, in present-day Oklahoma

Question 10

Louisiana Purchase

Answer 10

• 1803
• sale of the entire louisiana territory to US
• French army had suffered a disaster at the hands of slaves of haiti
• French feared fighting with great britain would prevent them from occupying louisiana
• France needed money ($15 million sale)
• doubled size of US
• included mississippi river
• once louisiana was acquired, there was conflict over status of slavery in new territory

Question 11

Missouri Compromise

Answer 11

• 1820
• Missouri compromise debate was one of those moments where people say the south became the south
• compromise over differences of slavery
• admit missouri as a slave state and admitting maine at the same time as a free state
• balanced senate with 12 free and 12 slave states
• congress drew a line decreeing that slavery was forever prohibited north of a certain line except Missouri even though it was above the line

Question 12

Neighborhoods

Answer 12

• interpretation that slaves understood space as neighborhoods
• gave slaves their own space to do what they wished

Question 13

Necessary Evil

Answer 13

• early post revolutionary period through early 19th century
• defensive
• it isn’t the best but it’s necessary now and will eventually die out

Question 14

Positive Good

Answer 14

• affirmative rational
• to justify slavery during the existence of “all men are created equal”
• they are helping the blacks by civilizing them
• good christians

Question 15

Sea Island (long-staple) Cotton

Answer 15

• grown during the colonial period mostly along sea isles of georgia and south Carolina
• very silky
• very easy to separate from seed
• people couldn’t figure out how to grow it outside the swampy land of the sea isles

Question 16

Second Middle Passage

Answer 16

• time when slaves, because of expansion of cotton and ending of slave trade in 1808, were carried from this part of the south to the Mississippi and Alabama areas
• at its height during 1830’s and 40’s

Question 17

Stono Rebellion

Answer 17

• 1739
• disagreement and rivalries among slaveholders was part of what gave the slaves an opportunity to rebel
• one of the biggest slave revolts in US
• epidemics of smallpox and yellow fever caused slaves insist upon better working conditions
• resulted in deaths of more than 60 people
• outcome: institution of new controls on slaves and reduction of saltwater slaves

Question 18

Task System

Answer 18

• slaves worked on a set task
• more prevalent in rice
• worked until the task was finished

Question 19

Three-Fifths Clause

Answer 19

• declared that for purposes of representation in Congress, enslaved blacks in a state would be counted as 3/5 of the number of white inhabitants of that state
• Article I, Section 2, of the U.S. Constitution of 1787

Question 20

Life of the southern white majority

Answer 20

• poor non-slaveholding whites
• not well educated
• inferior to slaveholders
• farmed for themselves and their families to survive
• violence (Gouge and Bite)
• didn’t leave behind as much first hand info as the slaveholders
• ¾ of the southern white families owned no slaves on the eve of the civil war
• white majority felt like slavery provided them with an insulation from capitalism and participating in the market society
• there were yeoman farmers who owned slaves (usually less than ten and worked along side them)

Question 21

Why and when were southern colonies founded?

Answer 21

-the establishment of southern colonies grew out of europeans’ desire to step away from other empires in terms of trade
-south was the part most closely linked to the rest of the world in terms of commerce, agriculture, and slavery
-Chesapeake: production of tobacco was initially based on the labor of english servants
-Low-country: rice and indigo production was basis
-most landowners in low country had ties to Barbados
and brought their slaves with them
-early 17th century

Question 22

What were major crops of southern colonies and states?

Answer 22

• Chesapeake: tobacco
• low-country: rice and indigo
• English industrial revolution encouraged spread of cotton production

Question 23

Why did African slaves replace European indentured servants in Chesapeake?

Answer 23

• as settlement became established, more and more indentured servants gained freedom
• price of tobacco began to fall to disastrous levels because freed people could grow their own so landowners tried to keep plantation labor under their control longer
• Bacon’s Rebellion encouraged a shift
• made more sense to import africans from a purely economic standpoint because they couldn’t gain freedom after 7 years like indentured servants
• greatly reduced the need for one group of english people to exploit another

Question 24

When, how, why did cotton become king in the old south?

Answer 24

• English Industrial Revolution encouraged the spread of cotton production and slavery
• 1790’s
• new inventions helped support production
• it could be put on the market quickly and booted the nation’s economy
• Southern states became chief suppliers of cotton for English revolution
• expansion of slavery and cotton production was a national project promoted by the gov

Question 25

Characteristics of slavery in the southern states

Answer 25

• there was a distinction between english and African descent but not yet of black and white in 17th century
• very poor working conditions that led to shift in treatment later
• continuous desire for expansion of slavery
• idea initially was to make as much money as possible with efficient production
• shifted from a system of convenience to creating a double standard and using the system because a group of people are innately inferior
• violence from overseers
• slaves sometimes separated from families when sold
• paternalism
• vast majority of slave owners owned 1-9 slaves
• had their own culture (neighborhoods, music, worship, etc.)
• slavery wasn’t central in shaping the rest of society like in the south